Chapter Seventeen
Lulu
The blur of incubi and succubi were soft shades of red and black, my chin ducked down low to make sure that they didn’t see the tears that threatened to spill out every step of the way as I pushed out of the core and out into the village’s main area.
Gentle voices spoke out, a succubus reached out, her face worried as I stopped, gasping and staring around myself.
Crumbs.
That’s what I had been offering Zaldi. This male who had centered himself around me with such a natural and loving purpose that I had barely even recognized it for what it was.
But not now. Now I knew. And I could never unhear that kind, elder succubus stating for me what my mind had been so resistant to learning.
I was Zaldi’s mate. Not his mate, that shit was apparently dictated by something outside my control. But I was his, just like he was mine. My other half.
He had been since the first time we’d met.
And, while I had the long road to recognizing it, Zaldi had been choosing to exist in a lesser state of happiness so he could be loyal to only me.
And that was how he was planning on existing for the rest of his very, very long life. Just so I could do things my way.
Emotions choked me as I jerked away from the approaching people, turning instead towards the smooth sloping hills of the area just beyond the core and Zaldi’s home.
My feet were carrying me forward before I even understood the action.
The grasses were thigh high and soft, brushing against my body as I forced myself to keep going.
I ignored the louder tones behind me, knowing that Zaldi must’ve spotted me.
Which was good.
Or, was it? I wasn’t sure what to do. The feelings that I’d felt in that room had been so raw, so tight and dangerously strung, that this was the only thing I could do.
Move. Run. Until this overwhelming pressure lessened. Because it had to. Because I couldn’t breathe otherwise.
Move.
Move.
Move.
The dirt and loose stones under my feet shifted and rolled as I finally reached the peak of the hill.
I bent over, hands on my knees as I dragged breath into my lungs.
When my vision cleared, my breathing slowed as I carefully raised my head and looked out at the horizon.
This is where my…mate was from. This place, these family members, this community, they all loved and supported him.
And while Salus Glen had been a new home to him, I knew he was there for me.
And any idea that he wouldn’t be there any more left me even more light-headed than I was before. Because I couldn't imagine my life without him. Whether that meant I looked out at these hills for the rest of my life or whether it was spent sipping coffee at Joes--I wanted to be with him.
My eyes clamped shut. And, then, I could picture it.
The piles of papers and laptops, work and chaos between the two of us.
My Gigi making us dinner while Grandfather and Zaldi argued over cards.
And maybe, just maybe, a future where we are standing together, looking out at our own horizon, mischievous rose-colored children at my sides.
And in every one, my constant shadow, my supportive weight, Zaldi stood behind me, his body a block from the world, while remaining an anchor for my dreams.
He was mine.
I was his.
And, in this moment, finally, after weeks of second-guessing myself, of confusing my own mind, I knew I loved him. I loved the way he smelled, the way he moved, the way he was so curious about everything, and the way he held me like I was the only thing in the entire world to him.
A smile curled my lips, even as a single tear burned its way from my eyes.
I had kept him waiting too long. I had known moments after meeting him that he was going to change my life. And I was tired of fearing keeping it tame.
“Thank you, Grandmother,” I whispered to the succubus elder who I’d just run from. I would apologize to her later. After I–I jerked around, realizing someone was shouting my name.
No, not just someone.
My someone.
Zaldi was running towards me. His low-slung pants, the only clothes he’d bothered with today, gave me a tantalizing look at my mate. Every smooth muscle, the cording of his chest and arms as he hurried up the hill to join me at the top.
“Fuck, Lulu. I’m so sorry. I had no idea she was going to do that. I would never push you to do something – especially not that–” Zaldi stopped the moment I pressed my fingers to his lips.
“Z,” I whispered softly, “I think I finally know what I want.”
His chest was rising and falling more quickly now and the heartbeat that pounded under my fingertips told me just how badly we both wanted this.
“Lu…” His eyes were wholly black as he stared down at me, but his hands moved carefully, coming to rest on my hips.
And, then, he waited. Because that’s who he was.
He would’ve waited my whole life, loving the bits of me I was leaving for him like scraps.
Because I'd been so scared to love him completely.
But, no more.
I pushed, shoving him back slightly until his hands hovered in the air. His face changed, lines appearing at the corners of his eyes as he watched me. I took another step back, my heart rate a hummingbird in my chest.
“I want to be yours. Mate. Partner. All of it.”
Zaldi’s head cocked in a way that sent a thrill through my body. The muscles in his body tensed and bulged as he took a step forward. I matched it, moving back again.
“How badly do you want to be mine?” I asked him, loving the way his gaze leisurely roamed my body. I felt it like a physical caress, my core clenching as I watched my mate take all of me in.
“How bad?” He echoed me, voice dark and night. “How bad?”
I nodded.
Zaldi turned and began to pace a circle around me. I stayed completely still, my entire being focused on the male in front of me. When he spoke again, his breath was warm against my temple.
“I would tear the boundaries of this world apart, throw my entire soul into the fire that burns at the base of Trypa, just to have a chance to be yours.”
Scalding hot lips trailed down my throat, the lust that was a heady combination of Zaldi’s power and the wild urge that I always felt around him sizzled in my veins.
I whimpered as he reached to the base of my throat, biting into the muscle there, as his other hand stole around to the front of my body, yanking me back against a firm, hard male.
“You won’t need to,” I choked out, my body sagging in his hold, “I’m here.”
His tongue teased my earlobe for just a moment before a chuckle warmed the wet skin. “You want to be mine?”
I nodded, “Yes. I do.”
“When I claim you, my cock deep inside your body, I will bite you, sealing your mate to a demon of hell,” he said casually, as if my pussy wasn’t already throbbing at the idea of him doing any of those things.
“Oh my God, please, Zaldi. This is torture.”
I knew the moment those words were out, it wasn’t the right thing to say. Another warm chuckle brushed over my nape. “We haven’t even begun.”
Focusing was becoming hard, his fingers trailed down my sides. “What?”
“Run,” he said, his voice rough, “Run, and let your mate claim you.”
He stepped away, the sudden drop in warmth making me shiver as I pivoted to stare up into his eyes. “Run?”
Zaldi tilted his head back, his nostrils fluttering as he breathed me in. “Hurry, mate, your time is running out.”
My mouth opened and closed, my mind drawing a blank as I stared at my male. “I-uh…”
His fangs slipped free, his tongue dragging over the sharp white point. “Tick, tock, Lu….”
And, then, I was running, instinct telling me to get as far away from him as possible. Not to really avoid him, but to make sure that when he did find me, because he would, that we were far from the listening ears of his friends and family.
Because I wasn’t ending this night unclaimed.
“Faster, mate,” he called out, “I’m coming for you.”
***
Zaldi
I used to make fun of my brothers and friends when their more demon sides took over.
I liked the order. I liked the rules. I sure as fuck didn’t like pulling fantasy’s from people’s minds while they slept.
In short, I was nothing like them. Or, I thought I’d never been like them.
When they’d walked through dreams, circulating the fantasies that made them stumble back to our world with their egos and magic inflated, I’d rolled my eyes and ignored it.
I had been solely focused on my work. And then on her.
And now…now, I was about to prove my younger self had been so, so deeply wrong.
Because I felt it now. The hum of magic and power in my blood as I watched my mate’s pupils go wide and dark as she stared up at me.
“Z…”
I didn’t answer her nickname. Not unless she was screaming it on her back, with my cock pulsing inside of her.
Then, maybe, I would answer it. Lulu’s jaw dropped and I realized with very little concern that I must’ve voiced at least part of that statement out loud.
A few weeks ago, I might have been embarrassed or apologized.
But now? I merely growled, content that she knew the entire situation. Clear as day.
She wanted me.
I wanted her.
I was only waiting here, keeping myself from grabbing her now, with the final shreds of my self-control. But, all of that was wearing thin. So thin.
And Lulu must’ve known that, because a moment after her little unorthodox confession, she turned, her short curls bobbing as she looked first one way, into the rolling hills of our home, then to the small grove of trees further toward the River.
I saw that she would choose that way, maybe, somehow, knowing that on a smooth flat area, there was no way that I wouldn’t capture her in a few moments.
Before I could remind her that I was just as happy dashing through the dark, leafy trees, she was moving.
At first, a little choppy, as if she half-expected me to immediately catch her and take her to the ground.
But, I waited.