Page 51 of Grabbed By the Guard

“Billie!”

Just like I’ve suspected all along, Billie’s kin must be Dagon’s mate. The big hunter’s eyes glow a fiery red as he hunches his shoulders. His possessive instincts are on display as he bares his fangs, but he stays where he is while the two human females collide while laughing, then embrace. He controls himself before his mate releases mine, but I know what I saw and am even more on edge than before.

At first, I think it’s because he recognizes that Billie is a female like his mate and, therefore, no threat to his mating.

Then I see that he has something he’s holding carefully with his claws. Is that… an ungez in a glass case? No… no. That is a ‘cat’.

Ah. That must be Three.

I don’t know what they are doing here. That Erebus is standing beside them as a portal winks out, it’s clear that the mage brought them to Nuit. Brought them to my mate.

When a Sombra demon is summoned by the Verus Amor spell, a pathway exists between our realm and the human world for that demon. It’s why I still cannot create a portal myself, despite knowing that Billie is my mate. But Dagon… he should’ve been able to bring

I get my answer in the next moment when Dagon’s mate pulls back from Billie and says in a raspy voice full of emotion, “We’ve been looking for you everywhere! I went to the duke, he couldn’t help at first, but then he said you might be here and he gave us a mage to zip us over and… holy fucking shit, B, you’re here! I can’t wait to talk to you. To tell you everything that happened! And, oh, you better spill the beans about what you’ve been up to, I swear to God.”

“Sierra, Sierra, I can’t believe it’s you.” Billie’s head shoots over to Dagon. “And, damn it, he was right. Do you know how much I hate it when he’s right. He gets so damn cocky… but you have your own demon mate, don’t you?”

“Dagon,” beams Sierra. “What about you?”

I think that, at last, my mate cannot deny me. I know that I am the ‘he’ she mentioned, but instead of introducing me to her kin, she shakes her head. “We’ve got to talk.”

“Okay. Where?”

Billie looks back at me at last. No. Not at me. She glances at the house, nibbles on her bottom lip with her blunt teeth, then shakes her head.

I don’t know how to feel that she’s rejected our home. That she’s rejected me.

So I say nothing as Billie tells her Sierra, “Come with me. I know a spot by the fire pit that’s gorgeous and we can talk.”

I know of it. There are some nights when Billie makes a nest in the ash, watching the flames in the fire pit as if entranced by them. I go with her to make sure my mortal doesn’t actually get burned, and she laughs as she tells me that watching the flames is the closest thing to that ‘television’ she misses.

I go with her because she is Billie, and I will follow her anywhere. But my mate also knows that—like most Sombra demons—don’t share her fascination with the fire. I tell myself not to be hurt that she does not invite me, and that there is no reason to worry since Dagon is joining the two females.

I tell myself that—and now that I am a liar.

I take a step.

Erebus lays his palm on my shoulder, a silent warning to stay behind while another demon and his mate leave with my Billie, and though she is still in my sight for the moment, I know then that I have truly lost my mate… again.

But, unlike what happened with Lilith all those years ago, I’m not sure I have the strength left in me to release Billie from our growing bond.

I love her. From the moment I caught her scent in her quarters, I knew she was born to be mine. The centuries I waited… every second brought me closer to the moment when the gods would reward me with my forever mate, and though I did not deserve one such as my wee mortal, I was prepared to do whatever it took to prove myself to her.

I tried. I attempted to be an honorable male, even when a Sombra demon’s idea of what made him honorable differed from that of a human’s. But while I made missteps along the way, everything I did, I did because I loved her.

I love her smile because, when she favors me with it, I know that I’ve done something to earn it—even if it’s in jest. I love how fierce she is despite being so tiny, and how I vowed to protect her only to watch in amazement as she protected me. I love how soft her cunt is, how easily she opens up to me as though part of her recognizes me as her mate while that most stubborn heart of hers holds out on me.

I love the way she curls up next to me while she slumbers, showing her trust in her actions though she won’t say it with words. The same with how she cares for me. I don’t need Billie to say it. I have her essence, and if I did not, I know my mortal.

She cares for me… just not enough to stay.

I wish I had more time. Because while the gold moon might not have marked the end of my wooing Billie, now that her kin has arrived with her mate to whisk my Billie away, I admit that I love her enough to let her go.

And as soon as she is gone and I no longer see her, I turn to Erebus.

“I assume the duke is expecting me?” I ask, holding out my hands as I do.

Erebus gives me a single jerking nod, visibly relieved that I will not fight my newest fate. He is a mage, a fact I know all too well when he begins weaving the enchanted chain at the same time as he builds a shadow portal behind him, and I am a guard.

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