Chapter 37

ChapterThirty-Seven

The rusalki patched her back together as best they could. They hadn’t been lying when they claimed their magic was more in death than life. Katherine had never been healed quite so painfully before. But they were kind. Their hands were gentle as they touched every one of her hurts and cooed over each bruise.

They knew what it was like for people to betray them. They knew the bone deep hurt that now lived inside her soul. A hurt a regular healer couldn’t touch.

Bony hands held hers, squeezing her fingers through the pain and the anguish that they slowly ripped out of her being. Over and over. Tearing out pain with their fingers until she couldn’t feel it anymore.

They snapped their fingers and claws at her, tearing at the air over the wounds on her body. She thought it mad before she watched her skin start to knit back together. Bruises disappeared after they ripped at her body and suddenly, she was well. Katherine had never been subjected to such magic.

And throughout it all, she watched Gluttony. He stayed frozen in place, his fingers pressed against his lips as the battle form slowly disappeared from his body. His horns were first. They slipped back into his skull, sliding down until they were little nubs and then nothing at all. His claws went after, sliding back into his hands in much the same way as his horns. Then his bloated body returned to normal, his tail last as it slowly disappeared and suddenly, it was her man seated there against the roots.

Though he wasn’t anywhere near as large as he had been, she was still awed by how big he was. He was a massive creature who would stop at nothing to keep her safe and the ease that brought her? Katherine hardly knew how to deal with the feelings that blustered through her.

Finally, the corpse women stepped away from her and stared down. “We cannot heal your injured leg.”

“It is an old injury.”

“It is one that is filled with more pain than we can take.” The woman in front of her, missing half her face, had tangled hair that was so knotted it was hard to tell how long it might be. But it still plastered down beyond her hips, tangling around her breasts and making her appear to have been dipped in a pool of ink. “We would take it, if we could.”

“You carry enough pain.”

“We do.”

Gluttony stood, walking over to her with hesitant steps before he held out his hand for her to take. “We have places to go, pet.”

She looked up at him with a new light in her eyes. He was more than just a man who wanted to keep her. Now he was the monster who had killed for her safety. And she knew that should terrify her. She should be afraid of what he had done, and how easily he had torn through her people like their flesh was butter.

But oh, all she saw was a man who was willing to risk everything for her.

She slid her hand into his and allowed him to help her stand. And then he gathered her up in his arms, tugging her against his chest and tunneling his hand into her hair so he could cup the back of her head. He held her. Just held her against his heart as he breathed her in.

“Katherine,” he breathed into her hair. “You are well?”

“I am well.” Or better than she was before. There would be a time for her to consider the betrayal of her people, but now was not the time.

Like she was in a dream, she followed him through the curtain of weeping willow leaves and out into the place where she had always dreamt of going. The moors put on a show of a lifetime. Thousands of fireflies blinked all around them. The darkness had fallen, but she’d never felt more safe as they hopped from stone to stone, the moss cushioning every step she took as she followed him up a small incline.

There, he released her hand and strode up to the top. She took a few moments to look at him. A dark figure standing in the center of a swamp, blinking lights swirling around him, basking in his magic. The moon silhouetted his tall, muscular form, and his long hair swayed down his back. He was a mythical creature, just like the villagers always warned her about.

The monsters of the swamp would call you deeper, the legends said. They would drag you into the farthest corner and devour you whole.

But oh, she wanted nothing more than for this man to do that.

“Katherine,” he said, his voice deep and low. “I almost lost you.”

“But you saved me.”

“I could have lost you, though. So easily. Your people almost took you from me, and I do not...” He paused, and she watched as his expression shuttered.

No, that’s not what she wanted from him right now. How dare he try to hide from her? This was not what she would do. Not in the slightest. He was hers and no one else’s, and this just proved it.

She stalked up the hill, determination in every step, even if it made her hip ache yet again. Stopping in front of him, Katherine caught his hand. She pressed it against her heart, so he could feel the heavy thud of the organ caged behind her ribs.

“This beats for you,” she said. And it felt like her soul took flight. Finally, she’d said it. She’d let the words free. “I want to be with you for as long as you will have me. You are not just a monster, Gluttony, you are my monster. And I love you.”

He stared at her, apparently lost for words, but that only meant she had to keep going.

“I want you,” she said, purging all the thoughts that had plagued her for so long. “I want you now and forever. And I think I’ve always wanted you, from the first day we met. You have consumed me, Gluttony. No one has ever cared about me like you do.”

At least, she hoped. He was still standing there like he’d forgotten how to speak. Katherine could only hope she hadn’t ruined this for the both of them, but she needed him to know. To understand that she would do anything for him. Everything.

He lunged. Or maybe she moved first. Either way, suddenly their lips were pressed together, and he was kissing her like she was the last woman on earth. He devoured her, tongue lashing at the seam of her lips until she allowed him to deepen the kiss into something so wondrous, so magical, that it made her heart stutter in her chest.

Gluttony glided his hand down her throat, over her collarbone, to cup her breast as he said, “I love you. I have loved you for such a long time, you beautiful creature who walked out of the moors and into my life.”

Soon, they were tearing at each other’s clothes. She had no idea how he’d gotten her dress down around her hips, but then again, she didn’t know when she’d ripped his shirt off either. All she knew was that they were suddenly pressed heart to heart, and her nipples pebbled against his flexing muscles.

Gluttony growled into her mouth, his hand suddenly palming her breast, while the sharp point of a claw stroked over her nipple. “You are so dangerous, pet. One moment I am a man, and the next a ravenous monster.”

“Yes,” she moaned, tilting her head back so her neck was exposed to him. “That is what I want. My monster.”

He groaned and then he was there. His teeth sinking into the side of her neck as he caught her limp body and lowered them to the ground. They curved around each other as he sank onto his knees with her in his lap. He drew deep at her neck and she felt the instant dizziness that she’d come to love.

“So good,” he growled against her as his hand tunneled between them.

His claws delicately parted her folds, and she couldn’t breathe with the feel of him there, at her neck, everywhere. His teeth in her throat and his finger pressing deep inside her. No claw, she didn’t think, but it wouldn’t matter.

Katherine ground herself against him, feeling the burning pressure of a second finger as he strummed her clit with his thumb. He played her body like a masterful musician who knew how to only play one instrument.

Her.

“I have wanted this for a lifetime,” he said. “Your taste, the sounds of your moans, the whispers of your need ringing in my ears. I have wanted you for a thousand years, Katherine.”

She couldn’t speak. Shouldn’t she say something sexy back? Something that would make her seem more ready for this? More experienced?

But then he twisted his fingers, pressing something deep inside her that made light spark behind her eyes and she squeezed them shut. Her entire body clenched at the movement he made, but it was so perfect she couldn’t think at all.

“There it is,” he said. “The sound that I so adore.”

His deep hum of satisfaction made her quake, and then he did it again. His fingers pressing deep inside as his thumb played with her clit and she couldn’t think at all. The coil inside her tightened, near to snapping, and she should be embarrassed by how wet she was so quickly, but she just wanted... needed...

“Beg,” he said, his voice right by her ear. “Beg for me.”

“Please,” she whimpered. “Gluttony, please.”

Katherine slammed her hands down on his chest and arched into herself as a blistering orgasm turned her world to white. She had no idea how long it took for her to wind down, but when she did, his fingers were still inside her, slowly moving in and out, scissoring to stretch her.

“Now, I will have you,” he said, running his tongue up her neck. “You will taste ever more sweet from the inside out, love. And by the gods and all the seven kingdoms, I will know what it feels like to be inside a goddess.”

“Gluttony—”

“Anything, love.”

She felt pressure on her spine as he tilted her back. She bowed in his arms, her legs still spread around him, but now her breasts displayed to his mouth like a banquet. Gluttony dragged his teeth down her chest, hard enough to leave welts before he bit into her right breast. Right around her nipple, where his tongue swirled to mix the taste of her tightened bud and her blood.

“I need.” She didn’t know what she needed, only that she needed him. Inside her. Biting her. Everything she wanted, needed, desired.

“I know,” he whispered, dragging his tongue over the bite marks. “I know what you need.”

He lifted her effortlessly, and she barely even noticed that he moved her skirts over to one side, pillowing her bad hip as he fumbled with his own pants.

And then he was there. The hard head of him, so hot and velvety it made her choke. Notched against her entrance in a foreign feeling and yet one that was so enticing.

“Look at me.”

She did. She looked up at him to see the horns had grown back. Slowly, that long, black tongue slipped out and licked his lips in one wide circle. “I want you,” she whispered, her eyes dancing over all these changes and knowing without a doubt it was the truth. “Demon of mine, I want you to devour me whole.”

She felt his thighs flex below her and then he was moving. Easing into the wet heat of her. She’d heard it would hurt and maybe it was a little uncomfortable, but she was so desperate for him that it was a pinch she hardly focused on.

Because he was inside her. He stretched her near to bursting, and it felt so amazing that she gasped.

“Pain?” he asked, his teeth bared as he froze.

“No.” She clutched his shoulders, her fingers curving into claws that dug into his skin. “More.”

Her pussy fluttered around him, gripping and squeezing until he groaned with her. And then he pushed harder, his cock sliding between her folds slowly until their hips met.

Katherine exhaled, feeling her entire body ease around him. The battle had been won, and he had conquered her so thoroughly that she would never look at him the same.

“Yes,” he hissed through his fangs. “You are so tight, Kat. So perfect.”

“Move,” she ordered, because all she could say were single words. Lifting herself was nearly impossible without the use of both hips and she needed friction. She needed him to move for them, and he knew.

His eyes flashed red with approval, and Gluttony palmed both her hips. His abs flexed as he leaned back just slightly, enough to see underneath her skirts where he tunneled into her. And then he lifted her up until she almost couldn’t feel him inside her and then dropped her.

The sudden slam made her throw her head back and the sound she made was obscene.

Fireflies burst into movement around them, a whirlwind of sparkling lights that filled her vision.

Another thrust sent her world spinning. His hands were on her, his cock inside her, and she was more than just Katherine. The pressure inside her had eased into pleasure only. But it wasn’t enough. Not yet. She wanted more from him because he was her monster, and a monster did not stop until he was finished.

Throwing her arms around his neck, she drew him closer to her neck. Holding the back of his head against her, she whispered, “Please.”

His teeth glinted in the light before he sank his teeth into her throat. And yes, this was what she wanted. This. This pain and pleasure mixing together as he started a pace that made every nerve ending in her body flare to life.

He slammed into her harder and harder, growling against her throat like she was being taken by an animal. His horns flashed in the moonlight, his red eyes glowing ever brighter. He was a demon, ruining an innocent on an island in the middle of the moors. His shallow huffs, mixed with grunts of pleasure, filled her senses. She could only think of him and how his broad back felt against her palms as she slid them down, leaving her own marks with her short nails.

“Gods, you feel so good,” he groaned against her neck. “You taste so good.”

And maybe it was madness. Maybe she had lost all sense, but Katherine leaned down and sank her own teeth into his shoulder.

A rush of blood coated her tongue and suddenly he lost all control. Gluttony plunged into her, in and out, shoving so hard that she felt the twinge of pain in her hip, but she didn’t care at all. He could hammer into her for hours and she wouldn’t complain.

He pressed his thumb into her clit, a little too firm, a little too hard, but then suddenly she was spinning out of existence. She clenched down on him, her orgasm hitting her so hard that she ground her teeth into his shoulder even harder.

He tossed his head back, and she felt him. She felt the pulse of his cock inside her and the warm rush of his release into her body. He pushed in one more time, a hard thrust that she swore she could feel in the back of her throat.

And then he held her. Shuddering. Hissing out long breaths as he tried to get himself under control, but she didn’t want control.

Liquid in his arms, she gathered up the back of his head and drew him down to the unmarked side of her neck. And with a shudder and a twitch of his cock inside her, Gluttony leaned down and feasted.

In his arms, she was both goddess and banquet. Katherine realized the power in that. Because the shuddering demon in her arms was hers and hers alone.