Chapter 1
*THIS IS A SHORT AND SWEET DEMON MATES STORY. JUST A FEEL-GOOD BURST OF ENERGY. THERE IS NO FULL-LENGTH VERSION BUT THERE IS ABSOLUTELY AN HEA.*
NOTE: FAST-PACED MATING + ACCIDENTAL DEMON PREGNANCY.
SIENNA
I nursed my blueberry daiquiri as I leaned farther into the booth, watching my friends and older sister cackle away about married life and children. It’s all they talked about these days and I understood why but we had gone out tonight to get away from all that. I easily set aside my job and came to dinner so I didn’t know why they couldn’t put away their conversations about changing diapers, tired spouses, and their relationship woes.
If I had known – I definitely did – I wouldn’t have come out. A new Netflix documentary just came out yesterday and it was calling my name along with the bottle of wine I had abandoned for what was supposed to be fun. This wasn’t fun.
Someone jabbed me in the side, tearing my attention away from the grinning couple who had just gotten married a month ago. Scowling one last time at them, I looked at the man beside me, Scott Murphy, with his perfect hair and gorgeous smile and his whole life ahead of him. Within our friend group, we were the only unattached ones left. As it stood, the running joke was that if we both hit 35 without any prospects, we’d get hitched.
I should have never touched that man, my carnal desires working harder than my head as we jumped into bed more times than I could count. We had never made anything official because, despite all of his wonderful qualities, he was a pushover when it came down to it. I’d own up to it and say that I was a bit of a brat, needed someone to tame my brazenness rather than succumb to it.
Excusing myself from the table under the disguise that I needed the bathroom, I escaped to momentary freedom, frowning when I caught Scott trailing behind me. “Do you need something?”
He sighed, running his hand through his hair, messing it up just enough for his hotness factor to skyrocket another 10%. Still didn’t make me want him. “Can we talk?”
I resisted the urge to groan because I knew exactly where this conversation was going. Scott had turned 35 last month and I thought I had another glorious year of freedom before we had to bring up the pact we made nearly a decade ago. “Sure, what’s up?” He let another big sigh, taking a few steps toward me before wrapping his hands around my waist and pulling me in for a kiss. Maybe I was desperate or stupid or a little bit of both but I leaned into his touch instead of denying it.
“Shit, babe. I just think… maybe we can take this a step further.” And there it is. Scott brushed a fallen lock from my hairstyle behind my ear, smiling at me sweetly. “We’ve been hanging out for what, almost a year? I just-”
I didn’t want the poor man to stumble through a confession – not because he was a terrible person – but because there was no world in which I would say yes. “Hey, let me stop you there. Scott, you’re really nice.” Oh, that had been the wrong way to go about it but I was already in this deep. I removed his hands from my waist, clasping them together like we were about to pray or some shit. I could already see the disappointment welling up in his eyes and knew that I was about to be cast out of our little friend group for breaking perfect Scott’s heart. “I just don’t see an us. I know it’s not what you want to hear but I’m not going to lie to you.”
I hoped that’d be the end of it but in my experience, the guys who said they were nice were usually the worst of the pack. His brows creased as he stared at me, mulling through what he wanted to say. I could see the disappointment turn to anger and knew this was the absolute worst place to have this conversation. Everyone in the goddamn restaurant would hear us and while I wasn’t ashamed of turning Scott down, he would most definitely make it look like I was the bad guy here.
Maybe I shouldn’t have kissed him.
Well, shit.
Instead of handling it like an adult, I stepped past him and headed for the entrance, hating that I paid $11 for the daiquiri and didn’t even get to finish it. Sweet freedom wasn’t to be had as Scott grabbed my wrist and turned me around inches from my car door.
“Just like that? We were what, just fucking? Is that all it was to you?”
I let out a bitter laugh. “I mean, yeah? We never discussed relationships or feelings or anything else. Wait, is that what you thought this was? A relationship?” I wanted to burst out laughing at how stupid perfect Scott was. He couldn’t possibly think that fucking equaled marriage, could he?
“Sienna, you’re kind of a bitch, you know that? I thought we had something, thought we were working toward something. I should have known you’d be just like the others-”
I held up my hand because I wasn’t about to get ridiculed by a man like him. While he was the perfect specimen of a man that every girl wanted to marry, I was perfect all on my own. For every trait that Scott had, I had it better. I was self-sufficient, dominant, and determined in a career that would have nearly $200k in my pocket starting next year. I didn’t need this man and I sure as hell wasn’t going to step down for him.
“Scott, I don’t need to hear your rant about how I’m a bitch. I already know that and I own it but if you thought that this was the start of a relationship, maybe you should have used your words rather than your dick to do it. You make me feel good, Scott but that’s not enough to love you.” Holy shit, shouldn’t have said that either but it was out in the universe, in front of my sister no less who had run out to see what was wrong. I gave her a feeble smile and slipped into my car, growling at the incessant vibration in my pocket.
Of course, my day job beckoned. I just wished that stupid phone call had come like fifteen minutes earlier. I gifted Scott a patronizing wave, Piper trying to comfort him as I sped off. I was back to the drawing board for men to warm my bed. Scott had been the safest option but now he was just a walking red flag. All of my other friends were married and the one guy at the bar that I caught every now and then was kinda shady. Regardless, I had a time-sensitive project on my desk calling my name and then a documentary to take my mind off of everything I didn’t have.
I should have known that my boss would just leave the goddamn folder on my desk without even bothering to stay long enough to greet me. I flopped into my chair, relishing the corner office I had been gifted when I made supervisor at my tech firm. Taking a moment to swivel in the expensive leather before firing up my computer, I ran through some of the numbers and sighed. This was going to be an all-night project, wasn’t it?
I fished in the bottom drawer for my secret flask, grinning when it was still half full. My eyes drifted to the family picture on my desk, reminding me of how many moments I had missed out on. I was always the fifth wheel. Mom and dad had been married for nearly 45 years, Paige and her husband, Brice married for 12 and then there was me who’d never had a boyfriend longer than six months. I wasn’t picky or anything.
It’s just that no one wanted to put up with me for that long and I couldn’t blame them. I was a little shit who worked too much and refused to answer to anyone other than my boss.
Dear god or whoever the fuck grants wishes, send me a tolerable entity that will make this life a little less insufferable. Amen.
I held my mother’s pearls while I did it – well my version of pearls which was just my grandmother’s Satanic necklace. It was probably sacrilegious to do that but it was a form of comfort so I merely shrugged and began working.
The air shifted around me, the temperature dropping several degrees. I looked up, horrified to see two very large creatures, complete with gnarly horns and tails. They were the color of midnight, leather skin wrapped around large muscles, the dark cloth covering them waist down leaving little to the imagination. Their eyes, strangely enough, was like looking at a starry sky – midnight blues full of sparkling lights that held both mystery and death.
For a moment, my horny ass brain thought back to all those monster erotica books and how pleasured the main character felt when she gave herself over to them.
This wasn’t that.
I had no idea what to do with them either because I didn’t know what they wanted.
Their tails whipped and slashed through their air as they stepped forward in unison. “You called?” The one on the right asked. His voice was a rich baritone, the sound sending vibrations straight to my core until my thighs were rubbing against each other for relief. There was no fucking way this was happening to me. I could also just be on some really weird trip but I hadn’t touched drugs since I was 21.
“Maybe?”
They sported identical animalistic grins, my blood heating from the pure ecstasy that swept through the air. I bit back a whine, eyes widening as I tried to hold back whatever I was feeling. Unbelievable. I had definitely fallen asleep or something.
“Good.” A contract the size of a dictionary was dropped on my desk in front of me, a pen produced by one of the monsters. “Read and sign please.”
Oh, I was definitely dreaming because in no world had I somehow accidentally summoned two beasts to my work office to sign a contract. I ignored the ‘reading’ part of his words, signing immediately. I probably should have read it.
