Chapter Two

Wren

She's here.

My fated mate.

My love.

My obsession.

After ten long years of only being able to haunt her dreams.

To be with her, I would tear apart this dimension.

I offered a dealing demon my services as a Render if he could arrange a meeting in this realm and magic me the ability to become corporeal around Hayden. Theodopolis is the best matchmaker in history—and also the owner of this horrific house.

But why would he bring her here ? The revenants who torment this manor are by far the worst I've ever encountered. They could drive thousands of humans mad, yet this demon dares to expose my mate to them.

I leave for one day to handle a special op in another realm, and he Brings. Her. Here.

Fuck that.

She's signing something, her head bent low over a table inside her van. Her dark hair is swept over her shoulder, leaving her slender neck vulnerable and exposed.

I charge outside, prepared to rip him to pieces. He meets my gaze, and his human glamour wavers, his true form flickering into monstrous existence behind her. Within reach of her neck. A snap of his claws or a bite of his fangs, and he could kill her.

I won't let that happen. I unfurl my shadows, letting them writhe like tentacles ready to strangle the demon prince.

Except Hayden looks up and lifts a hand to rub at her forehead, the sunlight catching on her dark glasses and her brown skin. She's even more beautiful today than she was ten years ago when I poured her soul back into her body, unwilling to let my fated mate slip beyond my reach.

I freeze, not wanting to scare her in my full shadow glory, but it's too late.

She slips off her glasses and reveals those haunted hazel eyes that stalk my fantasies.

"Wren?" Her whisper of my name and the joy in her voice when she says it? It undoes me.

But then she gasps and crumples forward, holding her head.

Theodopolis reaches for her, and I push him away with a shadow, preparing to wrap it around his neck, but he teleports out of the path to reappear with a scowl.

Hayden goes limp, each muscle in her glorious body going lax. I sweep toward her, aiming my shadows her way while keeping the demon at a distance. Wrapping my true self around her in corporeal form, feeling her lush curves against me in more than a fantasy, seeing her in sunlight where I can spot the freckles her makeup or the darkness usually hides—it's primal.

I'll never let her go.

"Humans," Theodopolis says. "They're so fragile." He drops his glamour, the scarlet skin and blazing eyes of his true form revealed. "Her fainting at first sight doesn't bode well for your match."

"She wasn't afraid," I argue. "It's her headaches. You shouldn't have brought her here."

"You wanted your fated mate. I have delivered her, complete with a signed matching contract." He flicks his claws toward the table where he and Hayden stood so close. Too close.

"Stay away from my mate."

"Gods save us from possessive monsters. You spend years as the most ruthless Render among reapers and now you think you get to walk into the land of the living and simply claim your happily ever after with the human whose life you spared?"

I growl because I can't kill him without setting Hayden down, and I won't risk that. Not until he understands the danger he has put her in. "I thought you guaranteed the safety of your matches. Isn't that part of the contract you dealing demons force upon them?"

His wings flare. I've hit a demonic nerve. Good. "The terms of the bargain," he says, "guarantee she will come to no harm by your hand…er, shadow tentacle things."

"I'll never hurt her. She's my fated mate."

"I know. I confirmed it before bringing her here."

"Then you should've known I'd be outraged at you for putting her life in jeopardy."

"I have plans for this house, so I did what was necessary to ensure you get rid of the revenants." He sweeps his claws toward Hayden. "She arrived damaged."

"She's not damaged."

"Whatever you call her current condition, it's obviously excluded from our contract. Like I said, humans." He lifts his shoulders in a shrug and his wings follow. "Weak."

"May you be so lucky that the Fates match you with a human who is half as strong as my Hayden."

"I would put up with a frail match for the exponential level up in magic the mating would give me."

"It's not always about power, my prince. Sometimes, it's about love." Obsession. Addiction.

He scoffs, his royal persona firmly in place from the tilt of his pointed chin to the spread of his wings. "If we're done here?—"

"Your machinations gave her this migraine so the least you could do is magic us a healing potion from your realm. One crafted by your alchemist dwarf. Just make sure it's from her first aid stack and not the explosive one."

"Fine. Want a sedative added?"

I glance at Hayden, wrapped in my darkness with only the purple of my magic skimming over her brown skin and dark hair as if it reaches for her as much as I have this last decade. Now, she's mine. Mine to hold. Mine to possess. Mine to care for. "A sedative would be good. Rest will help her headache."

The demon teleports away, and I'm left with my love.

With one shadow, I ease open the side door of her van. At least she hasn't changed this setup since I visited her here a week ago. Or was it months ago? Time passes so differently in the realms I wander between—looking for her. Pulling the bed into the center for a comfortable enough nest to allow her to sleep, I lay her on the mattress, putting away her protective sunglasses. She won't need those as long as I'm around.

Theodopolis appears in the open doorway. A small blue bottle stands out starkly against his red palm.

"Thank your alchemist for me," I tell him, easing Hayden into a sitting position. Her head turns to rest against my darkness, and her instinctive need to seek comfort from me makes me want to curl around her.

I don't resist the temptation to stroke a shadow along her cheek before turning to the task at hand. I sweep lower, to trace over her mouth. A thirst more tangible than being trapped for an eternity in a desert dimension takes hold of me, and I long for this woman. She is even softer in reality than in her dream state. "Open for me, Hayden. Take your medicine."

Her eyelashes flutter. She doesn't open her eyes, but she parts her lips on a heavy sigh. "Okay, Shadow Daddy."

The name she calls me in her dreams sends a jolt of lust and something heavier through me. Love, I know it. I've known it for years of watching her, stalking her, haunting her. "That's my good girl. Rest now."

Hayden snuggles closer, allowing sleep to take over.

Excellent. The healing can begin.

"Well, then," Theodopolis drawls. For fuck's sake, the demon's still here. I'd hoped he might've teleported off to wherever pissy demon princes go. "I'll leave you to wooing your mate. It seems you might not need the full month."

I take one last chance to remind him of the danger he has put her in. "If the revenants hurt her because you forced her here, I'll?—"

"I know, rip me apart. I've dealt with enough overprotective mates to quote all the threats by now."

Gods save me from asshole demons. I settle with Hayden against the lumpy mattress, deciding I'll hold her all night to keep her safe and comfortable. She smells better than ambrosia nectar from the Valley of the Gods.

"Maximus," I call toward the house, figuring the stray pup I picked up a few trips ago might help comfort my mate.

Theodopolis looks toward the manor as though expecting something much bigger than my dog to come barreling out of the front door. "Keep Hayden away from the portals inside," he says ominously.

"Why? You demon royals are the only ones who can open them, and you won't jeopardize your contract."

He doesn't answer for a long moment. "Something strange is happening lately."

"Stranger than a reaper coming to a demon for a matchmaking contract?"

"You didn't hear this," he says in a low voice. "But portals are opening when they shouldn't."

Fuck. That could spell disaster for this and every other world. But I have my own problems. Win my mate. Vanquish the revenants. The demons can deal with the portals. "I'll protect Hayden at all costs. If it means torching your ruin to the ground, so be it. You can find another house to use as a trap for whatever women you plan to lure here."

He shoots me a suspicious look. "What do you know of my?—"

Happy barks cut him off. Maximus ghosts through the door and charges for the van, his three skeleton heads bouncing atop a tiny body with a wagging tail. The tallest of his ears comes to the demon's shin.

"What the fuck is that?" Theodopolis asks.

"A hellhound." With a shadow, I scoop Maximus into the van.

"That's no hellho?—"

I silence the demon with a look. If Maximus wants to believe he's a hellhound to escape whatever trauma the fuzzy chihuahua obviously went through in his last life, then he can be a fucking hellhound. My dog curls up in furry pup form next to Hayden.

Theodopolis rears back as if Maximus has offended him worse than peeing on his tail. "I would never allow such hairy vermin in my bed."

"You will if it pleases your mate," I tell him with the cockiness of a reaper who knows what makes my woman happy.

"You have one month. To win her and to end the revenants." He vanishes before I can tell him to piss off and leave us in peace.

"Glad he's gone," I say to Maximus, closing the van door and wrapping all my shadows around Hayden except for the dog's spot near her shoulder. "Take out the revenants. Win the girl. Yeah, this won't be so hard."

I hope.