37. Its a Trap!
37
IT'S A TRAP!
JADE
G aliana slowly steps into the glow of the demon trap and looks like the villain she is as she glares down her nose at us.
Maxum clasps me to his chest while I sit in his lap. He angles away from the witch, hoping to protect me.
“Relax, demon,” Galiana says with a dismissive tone. “I’m not going to kill her… yet.”
Good to know that it’s still on the table.
“Maybe I don’t have to kill you at all.” She shrugs like it’s no big whoop either way.
“Explain,” I snarl, wishing I could rip her head from her shoulders and dance as her still-pumping arteries rain blood on me like a fountain. Oh my. That was a bit dark. My demon blood might be kicking in.
“If you give me your power willingly. All of it. Then I won’t kill you. And I won’t kill your little harem.”
I roll my eyes because I wasn’t born yesterday.
Maxum captures my chin and speaks directly to me. “There is a slim chance your body might survive without magic. But she won’t spare mercy on our pack.”
“I figured.”
Galiana slowly paces around our demon circle. “Minerva is going to have so much fun during her reunion with the phoenix.”
Maxum and I launch at her in unison, snarling, and we’re blasted backward for our efforts by the trap.
She tsks us as though we are poorly behaved children. “I’ll let you sit with your options for a bit, and if you deny me, I’ll allow Minerva her entertainment. I might join her and rip apart the other males. It’ll be a party.”
My heart pounds so frantically, I expect it to leap out of my chest and die. The thought of these two witches hurting my mates is too much for me. My breaths come in fast and shallow. The room spins.
Maxum gathers me up in his arms and rubs his warm hand up and down my back. “Slow, deep breaths,” he guides me gently. He cups my hands over my mouth to curtail my hyperventilation.
“I’ll be back in a few hours for your answer.” Galiana smirks evilly. “Be smart. Make this easier on yourself and hand over your power to me.” She saunters off and a loud, metal clang signals she has shut the door on us in here.
After several minutes, my breathing slows to a regular pace and my mind whirls with questions that tumble out of me. “I don’t understand. Why does she need me to hand over my power?”
Maxum jerks his head in confusion. “That is odd. I was so pissed about us being trapped, I didn’t question that.”
“Do you think she captured the others?” I ask, fearing he will confirm it.
“As much as I don’t want them hurt and killed. You can’t decide based on saving them. If she’s captured them, then she isn’t letting them go, no matter how you negotiate.”
I check in with my mate bonds, and I sense they are alive, but not okay. “I feel them, but they’re emotionally distraught.”
“Of course, they’re distraught. Their mate has been taken from them.” Maxum kisses my temple in a bid to relax me. “But their distress isn’t an indicator of their captivity.”
Bile rises in my throat, and I hold back the urge to retch. I don’t know how to get out of here or how to help them. I just hope they’re safe now.
Time for answers…
“How do we break out of a demon trap?” I ask.
“ We don’t.” Maxum grumbles. “It has to be broken from the outside.”
“Like anyone? Or does it have to be the person who cast it?”
“Anyone who has a touch of magic,” Maxum sighs. “But we are warded inside. And I don’t expect Galiana to drop it until you agree to comply.”
“She must need my cooperation to take my power. That’s probably why they didn’t just take it before when Rob was dating me.”
“Makes sense. From what the magical community understands, it’s that stolen power fades. But perhaps Galiana found a workaround to keep hold of a willing donation.”
“Coerced, not willing,” I growl. “She’s threatening you.”
Maxum allows a smirk to fill his face. “It’s sexy when you get protective of us.”
I nuzzle into his shoulder. “It might kill me to watch any of you get hurt, especially because of me.”
“I don’t think she’s a witch of her word. I expect she’ll kill us as soon as she has what she wants from you.”
I bite my lip and curse my luck. We’re screwed. This might be our death.
“Why aren’t you popular in the hell realm?” I ask, an idea forming in my head… likely a very stupid one.
Maxum blinks at that non sequitur. “Uh, well, I’m a disappointment in their eyes. I don’t fit in there. I ran off to help weaker or underprivileged supes and demons. Let’s just say that philanthropy and community assistance aren’t a priority among demons. Most believe that I’m a traitor.”
“Oh.” I frown, not because of what he said, but that I hoped he’d have more supporters in hell.
“What are you thinking, my sweet monster?” he asks.
“You mentioned demons might sense if we bond. So what if we did, and they showed up and broke us out of the trap? If we stay here, we’re both dead. But maybe we have a shot to survive with your people.”
“ Survive , yeah. But you might not want to survive a life with them as your masters.” Maxum caresses my cheek and shakes his head, likely thinking of the worst possible scenario.
“We could escape the demons,” I say with hope in my heart, and give him a kiss.
He returns my kiss, deepening it until we’re panting with need. We’ve both been holding back our desire for each other, and feels like something snaps.
“Fuck it. I don’t want to go to my death without claiming you as mine,” Maxum growls.
“Yeah, fuck it.” I laugh wildly. “Why should we stop living our lives just because we are trapped in a demon circle in an underground witch stronghold who is hell bent on my demise?”
Maxum chuckles against my throat as he kisses down my body. “My teeth ache to claim you, but this is not the romantic setting I was hoping for.”
“Hey?” I grasp his horns and make him look me in the eye just as his mouth gets to the swell of my breast. “It will be perfect because it’s with you.”
Maxum bites down on my tit and growls. “No. You are.”
He snaps his gaze up to my eyes, and his are wild with need.
Oh, my spicy ovaries.
I’ve unleashed his true inner demon.
Maxum’s claws scrape down my flesh, leaving thin lines behind, but never deep enough to bleed. Not yet, anyway. It’s a good thing that I don’t have any clothes, because they would have been torn to shreds.
His mouth is everywhere. In a frenzy of passion, he bites me with his sharp teeth and licks the sting away with his forked tongue. Like he’s searching for the best place to mark me. He only avoids where Arran’s mate bite silver scar glows against my skin and where Calder’s talons mark my shoulder blades.
“Jade. I need you,” he murmurs over my flesh.
“I’m yours.”
It’s all the encouragement he needs.
He stands, lifting me as he does. His arms hook under my knees, spreading me wide. Placing his hands around my waist, he lifts me so my pussy is level with his face. He swipes his tongue over my center and then plunges inside.
I grab hold of his horns out of pure instinct, but his bruising grip on me ensures I won’t fall.
His tail fondles and prods my entrance. Then it slides alongside his tongue, filling me, stretching me. Something begins to vibrate inside me, and I cry out as my pussy clamps down on him.
I’m seeing stars and swaying as he moves me back down his body, then his cock slides into me.
Maxum powers up into my wet heat in one hard thrust.
I grip onto his neck and cry out as he fills me, hitting all my places to drive me wild. His thrusts are frenzied, and I sense he’s on the verge of the rut he warned me about before.
His hand fists in my hair and he pulls my head backward, making me arch my body. He descends on my breasts, biting and sucking.
He’s barely holding together his sanity.
“Take all of me,” he growls.
His tail wraps around my waist, then slips down to stimulate my clit, then slides inside my channel alongside his cock, making me whimper with the stretch.
He bounces me on his cock and tail with his powerful body, grunting and swearing promises. His massive wings expand, crashing against the demon circle boundary. He’s so consumed with claiming me that the electric zap of the magic doesn’t seem to faze him. Or perhaps it’s only adding to his experience.
My skin buzzes and sparks wherever we make contact. My own magical electricity is dancing with the current flowing through him.
“Fuck yes. Mine! All mine!” he chants as he pistons up into me with a fierce expression, like this is exquisite torture.
I’m thankful for my reinforced bones, because I’m sure he could easily shatter my hipbone with his intensity. My enhanced healing is going to help with the bruising and scrapes, too.
I love every possessive snarl and harsh grasp of my flesh.
“Jade,” he breathes out, and I know he’s close.
This desperate sound, his need for me, catapults me toward my own release.
“Come with me,” he shouts.
And I do. My pussy squeezes, milking his thick cock of his cum.
He sinks his sharp fangs into my neck, opposite to Arran’s mark.
I cry out with the enhanced pleasure the link brings.
His forked tongue swirls over the flesh, still pinched between his teeth.
I whimper and moan as his energy ties us together and my soul sings.
Tangled up in each other, we listen as our breathing evens out and our heartbeats return to normal. Such a strange quiet after all the frantic bonding, but I luxuriate in the sensation of his skin on mine.
Maxum releases his bite with a gasp.
We both glance down at his muscular chest. Over his heart, his dark crimson markings shift, creating an intricate knot with six threads.
“My mate,” Maxum says in awe. “Look.”
Over my heart, my chest now glows with the same symbol, just the size of a quarter, then sets into the same color as Maxum’s mark.
The meaning of six is not lost on me.
We are truly a pack, through their bonds with me.