Page 13 of All Hallows Mate
The first car passes around mile seventy. It’s a rusted pickup. The elderly man in the driver’s seat is leaning on the wheel like he might stop—he doesn’t.
By now, the pull in my chest is constant, a tether yanking me forward toward a place I’ve never been. I can feel it under my skin, aching to break free. My stride matches Liam’s perfectly, like my body knew something my brain was still pretending not to.
The closer we get to civilization, the more cars we see, but I don’t care. I don’t want anyone else near us. Near him. The thought makes my chest ache in a way that feels… wrong. Or maybe it feels exactlyright. The thought of anyone touching him. My mate… Carnage would ensue, bodies would drop, and I wouldn’t feel a shred of remorse.
By late afternoon, the signs are blatantly clear. My reflection in an abandoned gas station window looks off—my eyes are a shade darker, my skin is glowing, and my smile is a little too sharp to be me, to be completely human. My voice has a growl under it. I don’t remember putting it there, but I don’t hate it. It's a sense of confidence I’ve been missing my entire life. The bond is humming through me, hot and restless, urging me forward. Urging me to go to him. We keep our fingers interlaced as we walk down the road, hand in hand. We move faster as the sun bleeds low, shadows stretching across the road. More cars start passing without slowing.Smart people.The few who looked our way quickly looked back at the road. Maybe they saw what I was becoming?
The ridge overlooking the small college town comes into view just as the light turns gold, and I turn to my mate with a smile. “We made it,” I say sweetly.
“We sure did,” he says. “One mile left, my sweet mate. Are you ready?”
“Let’s do it!” I say excitedly.
We walk down the ridge and into town, still holding hands. We pass familiar faces, but no one seems to notice the difference. The shift in my soul.
We get to a massive iron gate, and it opens as we get closer. When we pass through, it slams shut behind us. I glance back in fascination, but Liam doesn’t break his stride. When we get to the massive house, he pulls me inside. Everything is clean white marble with silver accents—minimalistic but cozy. We passthrough a massive kitchen and down a staircase that feels never-ending until we get to a basement. This is unlike the rest of the house; it feels old. Ancient, almost. He lays his hand on the wall, and the stones shift and twist into something that looks like soft static. It looks like the wall, but as though you are looking at it through the reflection of rippling waves in a lake coming out of a pinpoint center.
Liam smiles at me. No words need to be spoken before we squeeze each other’s hands and step through the portal together. I have no hesitations or second-guessing thoughts. I know what I want and how to obtain it.
Everything is suddenly like a breath of fresh air flooding my soul. Liam leans down to grab the back of my thighs. I grab his face and kiss him hard, and he puts my back against a nearby wall just on the other side of the portal. Liam takes on his demon form with me in his arms, and I gasp against his lips when he sinks into both my pussy and ass. This time isn’t a feverish need to mate; it is a celebration—connecting without fear. I have my legs wrapped around his waist and my arms around his neck as he fucks me against the wall. The stone scrapes against my skin, but I don’t mind—I hardly notice. Our tongues explore and soak up every bit of this moment. Orgasms pour out of me, but I never break away from his addictive kiss. It’s like a drug.
When his cocks swell and he comes, my head falls back, and a blinding light fills my soul when his teeth sink into the side of my neck. It shreds all the pain I’ve experienced throughout my life—none of it matters suddenly. The pain is dulled. The abandonment is merely a joke. Nothing else in the universe matters but the man holding me in his arms, fucking me like it’sthe last thing we will ever be able to do. His teeth stay deep in my skin as his cocks continue to stab deep as he drains himself.
“Holy hell,” I pant when he sets me on my feet. He chuckles and lifts my chin to gently kiss me.
“We did it?” I ask.
“We did it,” he says softly, kissing me again.
“Azliam. Tori,” Zareth says with happiness in his voice. When I look at him, he chuckles.
“I believe her father might have been a hybrid incubus,” Liam chuckles.
“Makes for a stronger heir,” Zareth says as he hugs me.
“You aren’t going to fuck me again, are you?” I ask, making Zareth and Liam laugh.
“Back away slowly, and he might spare you,” a woman chuckles as she pulls me away and squeezes me in a hug.
“Tori, this is Laura, my mother,” Liam says. She pulls back and cups my face. Laura is a beautiful brunette, seeming to be in her mid-forties.
“It is so nice to meet you, Tori,” Laura says sweetly. “Azliam has told us so much about you.”
“That’s wild, because I didn’t even know we spoke until yesterday,” I laugh. “Speaking of…”
“Right,” Liam says. “Those three little bastards that were always bullying her… We were under the assumption that they had been coercing her into sex. No. They were raping her while she was unconscious. I finally found her last night when Jason and Jacob raped her when she was sober. Everything escalated, and I couldn’t exactly rip their fucking heads off, so that’s how we ended up in the middle of Black Hollow.”
“They just drove you out there and left you?” Laura asks.
“Mhmm,” Liam says with a deadpan expression. “I’m going to kill them.”
“What happens if humans get dropped off in the middle of Black Hollow on All Hallows’ Eve?” I ask.
“They will never be seen again,” Liam says with a grin. “My sweet mate, would you like to go to a party with me?”
“I’d love to,” I laugh.
“Let’s go back and get showered and changed,” Liam says. “Mom. Dad. We will be back in a few days, but I want her to be able to graduate. She’s worked too hard to stop now.”
