Page 17 of Releasing Darkness

I shook my head and closed my eyes. That was how he saw me and it hurt. It hurt so badly because that was how my father was, and I never wanted to be like him. To have my mate think of me in that way tore my heart to shreds.

“So why don’t you take care of yourself?” I opened my eyes wide, a question undoubtedly in my shocked expression. He waved a clawed hand in my direction. “Stick your hands down your pants and fuck your cunt with your fingers.”

Chapter

Ten

VAROS

Her beautiful lips parted in shock at my words. I was taunting her, but a part of me desperately wanted to see her do that very thing. I had no desire to touch her, but I couldn’t lie to myself about wanting to witness it.

“That’s not how it works,” she gasped as she shifted on the cold stone floor. I had visions of her lying on the softest bed, covered in the most luxurious silks. She shouldn’t be on the filthy ground. I gritted my teeth.

“How does it work then,princess?”The endearment was another curse, a taunt toward her being the daughter of such a high ranking member of Lucifer’s army. She might as well be a princess. I was once a prince of the Underworld, me and my brothers. Until everything was taken from us in a single moment.

“I-” she swallowed, the sound loud in the quiet cave. “I have to take it from someone else.”

“Right. You have to steal the energy from your partner as you fuck them blind.”

She shook her head again. “That’s not what I do.”

I leaned forward as I studied her, noting her flushed face and the way she fidgeted beneath the strange clothing. “No? Do you ask nicely? Would you like to ask me…nicely?” I couldn’t help but tease her, ignoring the way my own heart rate increased at my question. Would she ask me to fuck her? I wouldn’t. Fucking her would mean mating her, and that was something I would never do. But… “Would you ask me to pull my cock out and stroke it for you? Right here? Right now? Would that feed your little succubus, princess?”

“I…” She closed her eyes and moaned. “Oh, gods. I don’t want…”

“What? Is my cock not good enough for you?” I growled.

“Fuck!” She cried out, practically writhing now. “It is! It would be! But I don’t want to do that to you. God Varos, you’re my mate?—”

“Not mates!” I snarled. I reached for the ties on my thin trousers, breaking them in my haste and anger. I yanked the trousers open, allowing my straining cock to burst free. I had felt our connection the moment she stepped into the cell, but it wasn’t until she returned to the cave after I’d had time to heal most of my injuries that I’d been able to become aroused. The strength of her pheromones would have brought me to my knees if I hadn’t already been sitting, leaning against the wall. My cock had become so hard as she bathed and moved around the cave that it was nearly as painful as any injury I’d sustained over the years. She may have said she didn’t want to hurt me, but she was torturing me just as surely as her father ever did.

I wrapped my fist around my pulsing cock and groaned at the sheer pleasure. I hadn’t touched myself or been touched that way in thousands of years and didn’t know if I could survive the pleasure. I stroked once, twice, then open my eyes to see her staring at me with hunger shining from her glowing yellow eyes. She was already taking in my energy. A part of me hated her forit. Another part of me wanted her to take more. My mate was starving, and I needed to sate her hunger.

“Is this what you need?” I rasped. “You need me to stroke my cock until I spill my seed all over the ground?”

“Gods,yes!” She threw her head back and wailed to the ceiling of the cave. Her hands were working frantically under her garment, and I almost demanded she remove them to show me her pretty cunt.

“No, princess,” I snarled. “Eyes on me. You take your eyes away from me, or you close them, I stop. Are we clear?” Her eyes popped back open, and she nodded frantically, the movement of her hands never stopping. “Good girl,” I growled.

With her eyes glowing, watching every movement of my hand, I roughly fisted my girth. I ran my thumb over the head of my cock, using the copious amounts of precome there to lubricate my movements, wishing that it was her own juices coating my length. Over and over, I jerked my cock, my eyes flitting between her own and the quick, frantic movements of her hands. When her movements became jerky and her hips thrust under her garments as if searching for my cock, I knew she was close to erupting. Perfect timing.

“Here it is, princess. My offering to you.” With a long, drawn out groan, I felt the sensation of electricity ignite inside me, traveling from my spine down to my sack. The force of my come making its way through my cock was a painful pleasure I thought I could surely die from. The whole time my seed erupted from me in great arcs across the floor, I watched as my mate opened her mouth to scream before biting hard on her bottom lip to hold it back. I growled as I watched her whole body jerk and her hand become still as a trickle of blood slowly dribbled down her chin. Never again would she hold back from me. Iwouldhear her screams of pleasure.

Once her body seemed to collapse into itself, she blinked at me dazedly through the low, burning flames. Her eyes were no longer glowing, and her succubus pheromones were no longer flowing from her like a river. But it was easy to see she was far from sated. My mate would need much more than a simple session with my hand to be fully fed.

Her gaze cleared as I watched. The moment that clarity hit her at what we’d both done, her expression changed, becoming guarded and—though it was difficult to imagine coming from the High General’s daughter—ashamed. I watched as she squeezed her eyes closed then carefully turned over on her spot, readjusting the garment that covered her.

Goodnight, princess.

I sat watchingas my mate grunted and shifted on the floor. She’d been doing that most of the night as I watched over her. I didn’t need much rest. Being chained to one spot for most of my existence, there was little to do other than sleep while waiting in dread for the next torture session. Counting cracks in the stone, memorizing them and every other individual imperfection grew old after the first dozen or so years. So, instead of sleeping, I watched, thought, and fed the fire to help ward off the chill of the cave floor.

I was coming to terms with the woman who was meant to be my mate. My initial reaction was to reject her. It was a bitter pill to swallow knowing my life would be forever entwined with the daughter of my enemy. But the longer I was around her, the more I realized that other than her coloring, she was nothing like the High General.

She was compassionate and caring. She befriended a wild beast when most would have simply slaughtered him for the meat. She also hunted to feed me, knowing it would heal me after the poor way I treated her. She’d never said a negative word to me in return. Instead, she seemed resigned to the fact, almost expected, that the mate she’d just discovered hated and wanted nothing to do with her. I didn’t like it.

Finding one’s mate should be a time of celebration, but I’d ruined it with my bitterness. As the haze of starvation cleared from my mind and I could better rationalize, I was coming to understand that this female wasn't my enemy. She was a worthy mate to anyone, including myself.

Another grunt echoed in the cave as Sasha sat up groggily. Though her sleep had been fitful, and there was a strain around her eyes, she was still utterly beautiful. I abhorred the way she resembled her father, and I wondered if I would ever get past that. I realized how unfair it was to pile the sins of the father onto the daughter, but thousands of years couldn’t be erased in a day. I feared that I would hurt her more in the future, however unintentional it may be.

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