Chapter Twenty-Three
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Theo
W inning back my shot at the throne has taken a distant backseat to taking care of Val and her powerful friends these past few days. This time away from her while she stayed in the suite with Ava only proves to me how much I can’t stand to be without her.
After showing my mate how to summon me with the band she’s now wearing as a bracelet instead of anklet, I reminded her of the matching contract between us with an unbreakable nondisclosure clause.
“So I swore not to talk about us, and you’re holding me to that even with my best friend?” she’d asked.
“You did. But now I’m asking you as your mate.”
“Fine,” she’d said.
I’d posted a battalion of guards outside our suite in Shadowvale before leaving Val with Montejanus and her best friend, Ava. The last thing I needed was a family member using my mate as bait to lure me into a trap. To keep her safe, I’ve turned out all the resort guests and brought my sisters and even the scum Dupree to live in Shadowvale after he and Gilly had their homes raided and ransacked.
Nic and Ora have reported assaults on the castle which is no surprise given my family’s incentive to kill me. Shadowvale’s outer walls smolder with new scars from blasts that couldn’t penetrate its exterior battlements. Two assassins even made it so far as the hall outside of the suite but committed suicide before my guards could interrogate them to see which family member is behind the attacks.
Turns out no one can breach the newest wards. Thank the gods for Ora and her connections. My mate is in the safest place in all the realms.
Ava’s mother, the sea witch, confirmed that Val was well when she’d taken her daughter from the suite to rejoin her mate on his pirate ship. She didn’t even threaten to use my human mate against me in retaliation for matching her only child to a kraken.
Val couldn’t be better guarded. She has a soul guardian which is more protection than anyone could summon or magic into existence.
Yet I can’t calm my racing thoughts until I see her again, to know for myself that she’s safe. I teleport outside her lab, sliding into my human glamour rather than risk ruining whatever she’s working on. Seeing Val at one of the cluttered counters holding a beaker to the light settles my heart.
Above her, Montejanus runs through a maze she and Shadowvale have built along the ceiling. She and the castle designed a winding burrow, full of holes and pockets for the mongoose to hide in or pop out of. He dashes over my head with a series of squeaks and chirps, Val’s toy unicorn prancing behind him.
“You’re back.” My mate pulls safety goggles off her face, tugging them over her ponytail. Gods, she’s gorgeous in her white lab coat. She snaps off a pair of gloves, and I think I’ve developed a new kink for hot scientist— this hot scientist. “Is Ava okay? I had to invite her parents inside the suite. I mean, at first, I was shocked they’d made it to the hell dimensions, and then I remembered her mom’s the sea witch. I get you’ve warded the place again, but it seemed cruel to?—”
I yank her close and go in for a kiss, stopping only a heartbeat to see if she’ll protest, to push me away and return to one of her many unfinished experiments. Instead, she curls one corner of her lips—those beguiling lips that can tease, test, or torture a man—into a smirk that’s a blatant dare.
Challenge accepted.
Her taste drags over my tongue like the finest wine, and the way she parts her mouth to let me lick inside? It’s intoxicating. “If you don’t kill me, Vicious, helping out your friends might.”
“But Ava’s all right?”
“She’s back with her kraken mate and adjusting to what she has learned about her mom. For all his stupidity when it comes to human women, the kraken?—”
“Please. As if you’re the expert?” She chases her taunt with a nip of my bottom lip.
“Brat.”
“You like it.”
“True.” More than I should. “Ava has returned to whatever secret fortress the kraken keeps.”
“Good. He makes her happy. As much as he infuriates her. I couldn’t stand seeing her sad. I hope they can work things out between them.”
“They have. Fated mates,” I remind her. “Destiny is on their side.”
She twists those talented fingers through my hair. “You talking about them or us?”
“Can’t it be both?” I tighten my hold on her hips, and I don’t know if it’s out of need or fear of what she’ll do next. “Your friend Meg saved her minotaur’s entire labyrinth realm.”
“What? Is she okay? Have you seen her?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s go. Blink me to her.”
“I’m not welcome in the labyrinth for a while, given the minotaur thinks me a threat to his mate, which I’m not, but I can see his side of it now. I would destroy anyone who dared compromise your safety. You’ll see Meg soon.”
She eyes me suspiciously. “Promise?”
“Didn’t I keep my end of our bargain when you demanded to see Ava?”
“You did.” If I hadn’t been holding her, I would’ve missed the slight sway of her body into mine and her soft sigh as her tension fades. “So Meg’s good?”
“She loves him. She was ready to battle a realm for him.”
Val goes quiet a moment. “Her mom will miss her. They’re tight. Unlike my family.”
“Funny enough, I know her mother. After seeing Meg safely to the labyrinth, she threatened me at the scary end of a god’s candle so I would take her to be with Meg’s dad in the Valley of the Gods.”
“Wait, Ava’s and Meg’s moms are witches?”
“And Meg’s dad’s a demigod.”
Val stares up at me. “Are my parents…?”
“Human.” I stroke a hand along her spine because I can’t stop touching her. “You’re completely human.”
She wrinkles her nose as if I’ve said something distasteful. “Why would a demon prince want a human for a mate when you could have someone so much cooler? Like an elf or a siren or a fae?—”
“Don’t get me started on the fae. To be honest, I thought I wanted a bland, boring bride. Instead, the Fates sent me a wonderfully complicated.” I press a quick kiss to her hair. “Brilliant.” Another kiss to her forehead. “Vicious with stabby tendencies.” To her nose this time. “Perfect mate who will always keep me guessing.” A long, lingering kiss to her lips has us both seeking more contact. My pulse triple-times when she wiggles closer.
“But if you’d ever wanted a mate other than human?—”
“I want you. Only you.”
She studies me like I’m a specimen under one of her microscopes, and I swear emotions the depth of galaxies spiral in her blue eyes. “What specifically would complete the mating bond between us?”
My heart pounds as if it’ll grow wings of its own and beat out of my body, straight into hers. My obsession with this woman threatens to take over my control, my common sense, my everything. “You shouldn’t ask such dangerous questions.”
“Because you’re scared of what would happen if we did?”
“Because I’ll never let you go.” The truth slips out so easily, as deadly as the blades she came at me with.
She sucks her bottom lip between her teeth, and I want another taste. I lower my head, stopping when she pulls back. “What would the levelling up of your magic do? Would it help you win back the throne? Or could it be what your mom meant about us destroying worlds? What would it mean on a magical level if we hook up?”
I fumble to engage my brain instead of leading with my cocks. “Are you suggesting a pity mating because my father put his throne up for grabs?”
Her scowl would make a she-demon proud. “I’m looking for answers. Either you give them to me, or I can speed dial your sisters. Want me to discuss our sex life with them?”
“We have a sex life?”
She tightens her fingers in my shirt collar, and I swear she’d like to strangle me. “We won’t if you keep playing like this.”
I smile, not bothering to hide my fangs even in my human glamour. “All right. I give in. For now. To complete the mating bond, I would need to be in demon form, and we would both have to…finish.”
“Who came up with coming as the way to win magical power boosts for a fated mate? Sounds like one of Meg’s romance novels or video games.”
“I didn’t make the rules. The Fates did. Mating magic has always been sex magic with consent and mutual gratification required.”
“Now I know it’s magic since human guys typically wait for the first but don’t bother with the last.”
“What?” Anger spikes quick and ugly inside me. Who has she allowed to touch her? Who do I need to kill?
She waves a hand. “Nothing. Let me get this straight. We have sex, and you can keep your awful family off the throne?”
“Like I said, I don’t want your pity.”
“You don’t have it, Prince of Darkness.”
“I never should’ve introduced you to Nic.”
“I like your sister,” she says. “Besides, we both know the chemistry between you and me has never been our issue.”
I try not to fixate on how she basically admitted she desires me. “Then what is our issue?”
She frowns. “I’m having trouble remembering right now with you dropping everything to take care of me and my friends.”
“That should earn me another kiss. Maybe anywhere I want?” Fantasies of tasting her skin, her breasts, her sweet pussy have me reaching to hike her against my cocks.
But she doesn’t seem interested in my attempt at seduction. Instead, she asks, “You promise both Ava and Meg are happy with their matches?”
And we’re back to discussing her friends. So much for sexy thoughts. “Fated mates are the easiest part of my job as a matchmaker. Those matches are literally destined to work out. Other monster relationships require extremely complicated and tedious negotiations. Without the promise of powers, monsters can demand creative compensation for even attempting a match.”
Gods, now I’m talking about my job.
Will we ever get back to making out?
She narrows her eyes and purses her lips in a cute but stubborn way that does nothing to reassure me. I should’ve simply kissed her.
“You sure us banging wouldn’t lead to some catastrophic realm collapse?” she asks.
I struggle to hold back a sigh. I’ve learned the past few days that when Val is hyperfocused on anything, I might as well give up on tearing her away from the one-track focal point and concentrate more on us not ending her line of questioning in the equivalent of a conversational train wreck.
“Demon magic doesn’t work like that,” I assure her. “We’re born with our powers so we learn to manage them early. Sort of how you learn to walk or talk. If we don’t control them, we won’t survive. I don’t know how people like your friend Ava?—”
“What about her?” She tenses again, and I regret bringing it up.
“Ava’s the sea witch’s daughter. She was born with magic, but it has been locked away so I was worried that unlocking it might be the equivalent of setting off a natural disaster.”
“And?”
“And I was wrong. Ava’s okay.” I’m ready to rush ahead with the explanation when Val grins. I remind myself this is a serious conversation, and I shouldn’t dip my head to taste that smile.
“Back up. Say that part about you being wrong again.”
I give her my most intimidating crown prince and chief enforcer glare. “Here I thought we were discussing important matters.”
“You admitting you’re wrong is important to me. But Ava has actual magic? We’re talking about my roommate, bestie, the queen of planners and washi tape? My Ava?”
I crave more of that joy in her voice. “She’ll be figuring it out for a while, and she has a kraken mate to help her learn to manage her powers. But I’m thinking if my worries about her coming into powers were unfounded, my mother has to be wrong with her predictions about us being together making my magic unstable or creating some massive ripple in the universe.”
“I can’t wait to see Ava again.”
“She expects to hear from you as soon as I sort out the portals. Her mate won’t let her out of his sight until then. Understandably.”
“You big bad alphas.” Val snaps her teeth at me, and damn, that’s hot. “Always believing you have to watch over us.”
“What else are we good for if not protecting you?” I ask.
“I might be able to think of something.” She runs fingers down my chest, leaving a trail of heat in her wake. “Let’s get mated.”
Desire hotter than brimstone fire floods my veins as shock wars with lust. “Have you thought through all the consequences?”
She snorts a choked giggle. “Do I ever?”
That’s not answer enough for such a life-altering decision. I tighten my grip on those lovely, rounded hips under that absolute tease of a lab coat which has become my new favorite fashion statement. “I’m serious, Vicious.”
“No, but I’m betting you have. You overthink everything.”
Ignoring the possible slight since it’s true, I try to slow things down, a strategy my body decidedly does not agree with. “Yeah.”
“Then we’re good. Show me what you can do with those twin peens of yours. Unless you’re not up to the task.”
I groan, my restraint quickly fading. “You’ll be the death of me, Vicious.”