Chapter 3 Ayden
The human was the horniest little thing he’d ever met, and he’d met more horny people than most. Ayden leaned back in his chair as he took in the image Liam made standing in his office and fought to hide the way his demon soul was sucking down the energy of the human’s arousal like he’d been parched for years instead of months.
It was so tempting to slide his glasses down his nose and peer over them so he could see the human’s fantasies that the lenses screened from intruding on his mind, but he resisted the urge.
Ayden didn’t really have a physical preference, but he could admit Liam’s slender lines and short stature had a certain appeal.
He was strong enough to man-handle even the largest orcs and gargoyles, but it was always easier to play that way with someone he could tuck under his chin.
The human’s skin was pale in a way that contrasted beautifully with his neatly trimmed black hair and would flush delightfully red when he blushed or under any impact play.
His grey eyes were lined with just a hint of eyeliner, and his enticingly lush lips shone with an apple-red gloss.
The previous night, Liam had been a vision in a short, pleated skirt, a crisp black shirt, and heels.
Ayden wasn’t sure if that was fancy dress for the party or his usual clubbing attire.
His outfit for work was more subtle, a masterpiece of what Mish, their receptionist, would call ‘corporate goth’—wide black slacks and a sleeveless collared shirt with lines of silver snap-button details that begged to be ripped open without revealing nearly enough.
As stunning as Liam was to admire, Ayden was more about energy than looks, and Liam’s was intoxicatingly, mouth-wateringly satisfying.
Fuck knew what was going through the human’s head, but he was generating more desire just standing there than some orgies Ayden had started.
It was enough to have the tip of his tail slipping inside his pants to wrap around his dick before he thought to control himself.
How irritating. He hated it when Lucian got one over on him like this.
His demon boss had not been impressed when Ayden had to call in back-up to their last large-scale portalling because he hadn’t been feeding enough to handle it himself.
Foisting the human rescue on him had been pitched as punishment for that failure, but now he suspected his interfering boss was being more nefarious, a favourite pastime of demons.
Liam’s horny presence next to him was basically like providing him a packed lunch every day—nutrition on tap.
He wasn’t a child who needed to be fed, dammit!
It was bad enough that Lucian had seen him at his lowest and offered him the helping hand of this job managing the entire portalling division of his company.
Even desperate, Ayden would have turned him down if he’d thought it was just out of pity, but he was one of only two demons known to have portalling magic—the other being his boss—and Ayden’s unique health challenges made him even more well-qualified for the job.
His insatiable hunger had left him able to contain much more energy than most demons of his level, perfect for excelling at energy-intensive portals.
It had also lost him literal decades to a haze of gluttony.
Ayden didn’t trust himself not to fall back into old habits despite the treatment he was now receiving.
It would take more than a few months to undo a lifetime of never feeling full, no matter how much he devoured.
In the meantime, he might have taken the blessed relief from hunger too far and developed a slight avoidance of feeding that, ironically, meant he was still often hungry and had led to his failure at work.
Ayden wasn’t hungry anymore. Between letting this little human climax to unconsciousness in his arms and Liam’s arousal today, he was feeling better than he had in a long time.
Imagine how sated he could feel if he gave the human everything he was too afraid to ask for?
He quickly dismissed the thought from his head.
The last thing he needed was to become dependent on a human instead of the magicked drugs he was taking for his condition.
Especially if it would upset his hard-fought equilibrium.
“Uh, hi. I’m Liam. I guess you know that already.”
Ayden blinked back to himself, wondering how long he’d been lost in his thoughts. “Yes. I’m aware.”
His errant tail was still wrapped around his dick, stroking it beneath his desk where the human couldn’t see.
Unable to make himself stop, he leaned forward on his elbows to better hide his movements, resisting the urge to smirk as Liam’s eyes focussed on his now-flexed biceps.
The human’s pupils dilated as another delicious surge of energy washed over him.
“The Council told me I had to work here. What do you need me to do for you?”
Ayden could think of a thousand things Liam could be doing for him, but none of them were likely to make it into an employee handbook, and all of them would be a distraction he couldn’t afford after messing up.
“I don’t have time to give you a job. Just sit there and stay out of my way,” Ayden said, gesturing to the desk that had magically appeared outside his door overnight.
It’s not like Liam was a real employee, anyway. They were just babysitting him for the Council. And snacking on him while he was there. Just a little, though. He couldn’t afford to become addicted.
“I don’t want to sit around doing nothing. Surely I can help with something.”
“There’s a computer and login details on your desk.
I’m sure there are things you want to research about your new life.
Figure out how things work. Familiarise yourself with the city.
Watch some porn.” Please let him watch some porn.
It would be delicious. “Anything you like, so long as you stay out of my way. Speaking of which, I have a meeting to get to.”
“Right,” Liam said, slowly turning and heading to his desk.
Fuck. Why did the human sound so sad? He wasn’t supposed to be sad.
Words slipped out before he could stop himself.
“You can check the portalling staff rosters against upcoming job tickets if you like.” The rest of his department couldn’t form portals, but they had complementary powers that he could channel for their creation and maintenance so that Ayden didn’t burn himself out under the Council’s demands.
They also served as security guards for open portals to prevent unsanctioned travel.
Liam turned to him with a bright smile. “Awesome! I promise you won’t regret it!”
Doubtful. But if Liam could figure out how to cross-check the rosters against the ridiculous council job ticket system, he’d be one up on every other person in the office, including the seven owners of the company he was about to meet with.
“Ayden, you’re looking well. How’s our newest recruit settling in?”
Ayden raised an eyebrow at his boss, Lucian, from his position at the foot of the board table. “Fine.”
“Better than fine if the way the dark circles under our Ayden’s eyes have disappeared is any indication. Got a filling breakfast this morning, did you?” Alexei teased.
Fucking hellhounds. They were almost as horny as his human. The moon wasn’t full enough to trap Alexei in his werewolf form yet, but he’d taken it anyway for the meeting, his wolf ears twitching from his messy hair as his long tongue lolled with laughter at Ayden’s expense.
Letting his iron control go for a moment, Ayden allowed just a touch of his natural power to drift over the table, knowing it would make everyone there uncomfortably aroused.
He was a demon, after all. There were only so many norms and rules he could follow.
It wasn’t in his nature to behave. Nor was it in his nature to let himself be coddled or ridiculed.
“Enough, Ayden! Report!” Gabriel snapped, blue eyes flashing as his bright white wings flared briefly behind him.
Trust the angel at the table to lay down the law—dominants, all of them. Usually with a punishment kink to match. Gabriel was also technically the CEO, though, so Ayden reeled in his power and let his tail drape down to the floor.
Forcing himself to focus, Ayden ran through an update on the issues that had arisen in the last fortnight and major jobs they had coming up from the Council.
Each of the folks around the table managed a different division of the company tailored to the unique skill sets of their species, but Ayden’s work touched on all of them because, under Lucian’s demon division, he was responsible for all staff transportation.
The only other group that worked with so many different areas was the tiny fae division headed by Wren.
Not many fae spent extended periods in the human world, so it was quite a coup to have them on the management team.
Wren’s work mostly focussed on glamours to keep their people hidden when they ventured out into the world.
“Any update on the New Trinity City situation? What’s the likelihood we’ll be called in?” Lucian asked once he’d finished.
Ayden had recently portalled a council operative into the city and had been instructed to get as much intel as he could on the risks in the area while he was with them.
“Tensions remain high as the D-2S terrorist group operating in the city attempts to destabilise the three supernatural families ruling there,” Ayden said.
“You mean crime families,” Gabriel corrected.
Ayden snorted, making Gabriel’s frown deepen. Sometimes, angels bought into the humans’ hype about their morals a little too much. Gabriel had a classic saviour complex. Never mind that their company made its money from being paid soldiers for hire.
“Crime’s all a matter of perspective.”
“Your demon nature is showing, Ayden,” Gabriel chided.
Ayden opened his mouth to tell Gabriel his asshole was showing, but a glare from Lucian had him snapping his mouth shut. No reason to get himself into trouble again when they’d only just moved past the portalling debacle.
“Stop winding Ayden up so you can punish him, Gabe,” Tal said, his words slow and rumbling across the space as his hulking grey form shifted in his seat. Gargoyles were ever the peacekeepers and diplomats.
“Why ruin the fun, Tee? I wanted to watch the show,” Viper said, the long, waving tendrils of the snakes that made up his hair hissing along with his snickering laughter.
“Perhaps we could let Ayden finish his sitrep on what could well become the biggest threat to our kind this century?” Oshen growled.
Ayden waved a lazy thanks to the orc. “Not much more to say. The Council rep mentioned that the wolves and the witches appear to be better able to set their differences aside than the vampire coven. No unmitigated human exposure of our kind has occurred yet beyond our new recruit, but it seems only a matter of time, given the tactics in play from the terrorists. I’d suggest we review the contingencies for larger-scale human relocation if there is an exposure event.
I’ve got a team working on how to support cross-division tactics if we need to subdue one of the families, too.
We’d all better hope it doesn’t come to that, though, because I wouldn’t want to take any of them on. ”
“Thank you, Ayden. I trust we won’t have any further missteps from you as we manage this emerging risk.
An abstinent incubus is about as much use as a vegan vampire,” Gabriel said, clearly still suffering from the stick up his ass.
Apparently, they hadn’t moved past the portalling debacle quite yet.
Ayden’s retort was interrupted by his phone vibrating. He hadn’t turned it off because you never knew when someone might need an urgent transport assist. Glancing down at the screen, he scowled when he saw it was the human’s number.
“I need to take this,” he said, not waiting for Lucian’s wave of assent before stepping out of the boardroom to answer the phone.
“What?” he snapped as the door clicked closed behind him.
“Uh, Ayden?” Liam was panting, and he could hear the wind like he was running down the street. Why wasn’t he at his desk?
“Yes, human.”
“I went out to get us a coffee, and I got to talking to a guy on the way back. What does it mean when a werewolf, like, rips off all their clothes and tells you to run?”