Chapter 6 #2
I couldn’t stop my smile as she inched across the mattress. She was only a short distance away when she stopped.
“Will you be warm enough there?” I asked.
“Yes.” Her reply was short and sharp, which made my grin widen. I liked the feistiness of this human female. She fought me every step of the way as any worthy daemoness would. And like any healthy daemon male, I enjoyed every moment of it.
I lay still and listened to her deep, shuddering breaths. It took longer than I expected for her shivering to stop. Eventually, the bed stopped vibrating from her shuddering, and those deep breaths became soft and light.
It was only then, when I knew she finally slept, that I closed my eyes and relaxed.
I desperately wanted to turn over and pull her closer, ensuring that she wouldn’t get cold again once the fire died completely, but I suppressed the urge.
I had no idea where she was keeping the knife she’d threatened me with earlier, but I also had no doubt she would use it to slice pieces of my hide away if I so much as laid a single claw on her.
Though I mastered the ability to force myself to sleep long ago, I found I didn’t want to. I wanted to savor the slight weight of her behind me, the scent of her skin and hair seeping into the bedding. To relish the knowledge that my female slept beside me.
Godsdammit, I had to stop thinking of her that way. She was not my female and likely never would be. Allowing my thoughts to drift in that direction would cause nothing but trouble. I couldn’t risk triggering my mating instincts further.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
Tomorrow, I would find a way to distance myself from the human female.
For her sake, and my own.
As usual, I woke an hour before dawn.
What wasn’t usual was the tiny human female draped over me. Leda had rolled into me in the night and thrown an arm and leg over my body. Her braid laid over the base of my throat, falling onto the pillow behind me.
What truly confused me was that I was not only facing her, but I hadn’t woken up when she splayed her limbs on me. My years as a warrior taught me to wake at the slightest sound, yet somehow I’d slumbered through Leda cuddling her body closer to mine.
Even more strangely, my arm was wrapped around her, covering her side, and my hand cupped her generous backside, keeping her as close to me as I could.
Even in my sleep. And my tail had wound around her ankle, up her calf, anchoring her to me.
It seemed that I was trying to surround her completely, despite the fact that I wasn’t awake.
My cock pulsed when she shifted against me, bringing my attention from the armful of soft human in my hold to the rigid shaft between my thighs. Blood throbbed in my veins, and my fangs ached with the need to sink them into her flesh. To mark her.
Damn the gods, it was too late. The little human had triggered my mating instincts completely. A growl rumbled in my chest at the thought. The urge to chase, to hunt, filled me.
But I couldn’t give in to it. Not if I wanted any sort of chance to truly gain Leda’s confidence.
She did not trust me. She did not trust anyone here.
I couldn’t blame her for that, having been torn from her home without her consent.
Even without investigating her claim, I believed her.
I had never seen a human female behave the way she did.
At least none of the ones who truly made deals.
They seemed more resigned than anything.
Though the mating hunt was instinctive, an honorable daemon male would never pursue an unwilling mate.
Even when the urges were at their strongest, the scent of a female’s fear or unwillingness would deaden a male’s desire to chase.
The mating urges were to bring suitable males and females closer together, not to force female daemons into a pairing they didn’t truly want.
Any suitable female could trigger the mating hunt in a male. It seemed that was true even if she was human.
I breathed deeply, desperately trying to ignore Leda’s warm, tart scent. She smelled like the lemon cake Masu often made in the summer—rich, sweet, and with just enough sour to give the dessert a bite of brightness.
In her slumber, she didn’t smell unwilling. She smelled delicious. But I had no doubt her scent would change when she woke. Especially if she did that in my arms.
Instead, I focused on remaining in control of my body. As I fought the primal urges that gripped me, Leda sighed and snuggled deeper into my body. At the soft caress of her breath on my chest, my cock throbbed.
I had to get out of this bed before I did something I would regret. Something that would make this fierce, stubborn, beautiful female despise me and distrust me even more than she already did.
Slowly, ever so carefully, I removed my hand from her ass as her head rested on the bicep of my other arm.
It took several long minutes to slide a pillow beneath her head, shift her body away from mine, and slip silently out of the bed.
Though she never woke, her hands grasped at me when I pulled away, and the leg she’d thrown over me hooked around my hip, trying to keep me in place.
I finally managed to free myself and placed the pillow I’d used last night in the now vacated space.
Leda grunted and wrapped herself around it, burying her face in the soft surface. She didn’t move or make another sound as I tucked the furs around her to keep the heat in.
Though the room only felt mildly cool to me, I knew it would be too cold for my human when she awoke, so I moved to the fireplace to stoke the fire.
I didn’t let myself look at her again, knowing I couldn’t trust the persistent mating instincts. Whether it was fucking my fist or running out to the pond behind the barracks and diving into the frigid waters, I would do whatever it took to gain control of my body.
I didn’t know much about human females, but from what I’d observed of Leda, they were not much like daemon females. If I wanted to win her over, I would need a clear mind and total control over my instincts. Anything else would result in her stabbing me with her dagger.