Page 5 of King's Obsession

In contrast, George had been a relative newcomer, but Dougal valued his friendship and the way George had done his bit in keeping the forest safe, and the people who lived there happy.

In theory, there was nothing positive about his bond with his own demon.Sex. That’s all that ties us together. It’s just sex.And it hurt him thinking that, even when it was obvious that it was true. Dougal wasn’t under any illusions that there was any love or caring in the way his demon treated him. The moment his cum hit the floor, the demon was gone, leaving Dougal’s arms empty and his heart aching. Time and time again, Dougal told himself he wouldn’t do it. That he’d hide the next time the rampaging demon came hunting him. “But the ties that bind us go both ways,” he admitted in the silence glumly.

Leaning back, Dougal stretched out his legs, thinking back to when Silas had first mentioned his own demon—Dakata. How he’d gotten swept away and couldn’t stop thinking about him. Dougal had known Dakata would be sticking around even then. He shook his head as he remembered what he’d told the young dryad.

“A demon can put down roots… It’s very rare, but there are stories of a demon who loses his heart to another, and if that ever happens, they never break that commitment. It’s just not easy for them. A demon and his human side are two distinct personalities, and for a bond to take, both sides have to have an equal attraction to the focus of their obsession—an equal desire to commit beyond a fuck.”

Dougal had seen it happen—seen his own demon face the fact one of his own kind had found his blissful one. Dougal carried the hope for a week afterward that the clueless lump would put two and two together, but he hadn’t. The same demon doubts that had persisted since their first encounter were just as alive and well when Merihem met his blissful one, Peni, then Wanda and Christa, followed by Scott finding George.

“Maybe it’s me that’s doing the overthinking.” Dougal pointed his finger at the alluring stone. “I believed the first ‘mine’ you uttered was the one that counted, but maybe it’s me that’s wrong and I should listen to my own advice. When you come here, all you’re looking for is a fuck. You’ve never once asked my opinion, you’ve never once thought to hold me or even clean us up before you’re gone. We’ve never shared a meal together or simply walked through this wondrous place hand in hand. You claim you want answers, but maybe it’s me that’s been ignoring the answer that’s been staring me in the face from the very first fuck.”

Annoyed with the way his thoughts were dragging him down, Dougal put down his mug and stormed out of his cabin. Moving faster than could be seen by the human eye, he sped through the trees and the undergrowth to the very far corner of his forest. Miles away from his friends, he stood on a spot high on a hill that looked out to the sea beyond. Letting loose his true form, Dougal screamed out the fury and despair that threatened to swallow him whole.

“I can’t do this anymore. I can’t!”

Chapter Three

Asmodeus

At the beginning.

The inner ache would not abate. Nothing worked, his human side was irate and giving his demon half a headache.

You left him in the woods alone.

Yes.

Don’t “yes” me in that tone. You assured me we would go to the historians and gain knowledge of what this is between us and the troll. Yet you have not done it.

He threw up his arms in frustration.What do I ask of them? What? I can no more explain what I was doing in the human realm, when no one knows I can go there. It is a dangerous time for us. More so for a troll who would have no defense against those who would seek to destroy him to get to me.He stomped about his chamber, his gut and mind churning. Because he knew deep inside that he needed his troll. Every fiber of his being had become attuned to the troll. It scared him, not solely for himself, but for a troll who knew nothing of the life that was cast out in front of him.

Excuses,his human snapped like a whip.Ask them to read through the scrolls. Give them a reason to search. You’ll figure it out.

He wasn’t so sure. It had been barely seven sunrises since his crowning, and thirty more since he had touched the troll, it was like an eternity.Easy for you to damn say. You aren’t asking.

I can—

Hell, no.

Then do it now.

His robes swished over the stone floor as he swept about and stomped out of his chamber, ignoring those he passed. His mind was in turmoil.

Arriving at the sacred scrolls' room where the historians resided documenting their history, Asmodeus took a breath and released it in a hiss. His hand trembled as he opened the door and barged in, using the mask of his role to disguise his discomfort.

“Your Highness,” Rote murmured, bowing at the waist, his black robe shifting over his thin frame. “This is unexpected. What do you require?”

The two other demons remained silent and watchful from the chairs they sat on behind tables scattered with ink and parchments. They all wore the same black robes, Asmodeus assumed to prevent the ink from staining their other robes. These demons had been the historians—the teachers—to demons for the last two centuries.

Asmodeus cast a hand wide over the thousands of shelves stacked with scrolls that went back thousands of years. “The history of the demon realm, it is within these scrolls?”

Rote’s head bobbed, and inky black strands of hair that had been tucked into the collar of his robe fell around his face. “It is believed that, yes, the full history of the realm is within these shelves.”

“Within that, it includes family bloodlines and merging bloodlines, yes?” Another head bob. “Are they separated out?”

His dark brows drew together, and Rote frowned. “Separated out how, Your Highness?”

Asmodeus’ pulse gave a nasty leap. “If one was looking for information about bloodlines and true connections… how easy would that be?”

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