Jealousy.
She was jealous of the idea of me fucking other women.
That beast inside of me rumbled at the very idea of her being possessive of me, like I felt of her.
For fuck’s sake, I’d gotten way too much pleasure at hearing that she’d basically only ever been with me. Sure, she’d attempted it with a few, but it sounded like the act was barely started, and definitely not finished. So I was the only one she’d ever had to bring her to orgasm.
It was no wonder she was so hungry for me when she finally did cave, let the wall down, and call me.
“I haven’t been attending the parties for a long time,” I told her, voice softer. “My brothers don’t like my music,” I added for a little levity.
“Why? What kind of music is it?”
“I believe Drex called it ‘put a gun to your head’ music,” I admitted.
“Cheery,” Dale said, shaking her head. “So, what? You don’t care what Devil Daddy has to say when he sees you again?”
“I can’t go back to hell,” I admitted, shrugging. “Several of us now can’t go back. The parties are more habit than anything at this point.”
“You can’t go back to hell,” she repeated. “That makes no sense. It’s where you belong.”
“Not anymore.”
“Why not?”
I wanted to tell her.
But some last-minute self-preservation reminded me that telling this woman whose job was to hunt down and murder creatures like me that I’d Claimed her and could never leave the human realm because of that, yeah, wasn’t the best idea.
Things were rocky enough between us.
“Just the way things are. Besides, we found out that Ace’s quest to get back was what was opening up hellmouths to begin with. Now that he’s not having that done anymore, there’s really no going back.”
“Wait. Ace was opening hellmouths? How? Oh, wait,” she said, exhaling hard. “The witches. That’s why you guys had that sacrifice thing going on.”
“What did you think we were doing with them?” I could tell by the look on her face that she’d thought the absolute worst. “Seriously?” I asked. “You thought we were, what? Raping and torturing them?”
“Well, that is what you get off on down in hell, isn’t it?”
“We tortured people in appropriate response to their crimes. And there was pleasure in making them pay, yes. But we have never deliberately gone out to torment innocent humans. That’s not what we were created for.”
“But you have no souls.”
“But we weren’t wired that way,” I repeated. “Have I ever hurt you? Have I ever forced or coerced you into something you didn’t enthusiastically want?”
“It’s different.”
“Why?”
“Because you know I could fight you off. I might not be able to kill you, but I could hurt you really badly.”
“You think that your strength is the only thing keeping me from raping you? That’s what you think of me?”
I’d never been angry with her before.
Frustrated, sure, but never angry.
I honestly didn’t think it was possible with how strong the feelings of affection and need were with the Claiming.
But it was damn sure anger that was burning through my system as I watched the truth spread across her face.
That, yes, that was exactly what she thought of me.
“Fuck it. Find him yourself,” I said, opening my door, slamming it behind me, and making my way back toward my bike.
“Get back here,” Dale grumbled, slamming her car door, then following behind me.
“I’m not helping someone who thinks that lowly of me, Dale. Fuck that. And fuck you too,” I added.
“Fuck me?” she hissed, hand grabbing my arm, and yanking me around to face her.
“Yeah, fuck you.”
“I don’t know who the fuck you think you’re tal—“
Yeah, I guess it turned out that the only reason I could feel anger toward her was because it was so damn close to something else I was very comfortable feeling about her.
See, she lost the end of that sentence.
Because my hand shot out, grabbing her by the throat, and drawing her in, before my lips crashed down on hers, shutting her up.
CHAPTER NINE
Dale
I actually felt bad.
If you’d told me a week ago that I’d feel bad about offending a demon, I’d have laughed in your face.
But the look of horror and offense that had taken over Minos’s stupidly attractive face had managed the impossible.
I felt bad.
For hurting his feelings.
For thinking so lowly of him.
I mean, to be honest, I didn’t exactly think he was capable of rape. Like, as a whole, did I think demons were? Absolutely. But not him, per se.
Honestly, not even the rest of his little biker club.
Their immortality wasn’t the only reason The Academy generally left them to their own devices.
Nothing in our records indicated they’d ever hurt a human who didn’t have it coming.
Red had once murdered a human pretty brutally when she caught him in the middle of a sexual assault behind a bar.