Page 7 of His Human to Adore
“Wait, what does that mean?” I ask. I’m definitely not about to mate with a demon, not even one that has me all kinds of hot and bothered. I need to talk to him first. Talk to him when he’s actually conscious and not thinking I’m a figment of his imagination. I was sent here to breed with the demons, but I’m not about to just spread my legs and let an alien fuck me. At least, not until I say a few words to him when he’s conscious. Then, we can see about the whole leg-spreading thing.
Ralleth stares at me, and then his expression softens, the red of his eyes turning black like all the others. “You cannot be here right now, little human. Dath is not himself.”
“He won’t hurt me,” I whisper more to myself. We might be strangers, but he’s a stranger who held me all night like a lover. Somehow, that makes me almost certain he’s the safest demon to be around. It doesn’t hurt that my chest actually warms when I think about him touching me.
“No, he wouldn’t,” the annoying demon, Erkoz, says. “He will hurt us, though. You should have seen the look of surprise on Ralleth’s face when he tried to help his mate get you from the room.”
“Did he hurt you?” I ask, turning my attention to Ralleth.
Ralleth huffs and smiles before speaking to Olivia. “Your sister worries for me.”
“You really slept through all of that?” Kendra asks as she touches my upper arm, trying to redirect me down the hall and away from Dath’s room. “It’s been almost a whole day since you came to this world. We’ve gone in there a few times, but every time, Dath tried to attack any males that entered the room.”
“Dath is blessed with a female that trusts him so much. She has no reason to wake because her soul knows he will keep her safe,” Ralleth says behind us. He’s still standing at the door, his hand clutching the handle like he’s waiting to hold it closed. “Now, get her out before the next storm comes.”
“What?” My eyes go wide. I can’t leave him if another storm is coming. He’ll have more nightmares and be terrified. I told him I would be back. I can’t do that if they’re separating us completely from one another. “No, I’m not leaving”
“Deja, come with us,” Kendra grabs my upper arm a little tighter. Her eyes are pleading with me to do what she asks, but I can’t focus on anything but going back to Dath. My chest is burning with each step I take away from him. A pull that I’ve never felt for anyone tugs at me like I’m on a leash that’s quickly being pulled taut. “Come with us, or my mate will carry you.”
“I can’t leave,” I mumble under my breath as the tightening of my chest squeezes me so intensely that I think I might pass out.
My breathing is ragged by the time we make it out of the hallway and are dumped into a room filled with tables. Dozens of red aliens are sitting around the tables eating food, and they all turn to look at us as soon as we are visible. Anxiety spikes in my mind, and I’m trying my hardest to fill my lungs with one deep breath.
“If you stay, you need to accept him as a mate,” Erkoz says from right behind me. “Are you ready to do that?”
I shake my head, not wanting to tie myself to one of them so soon. Not when I haven’t been conscious in this world for longer than a few minutes at a time. How could I answer yes to that question? Erkoz’s face hardens for a moment, and then he grabs my arm and hauls me through the great hall. I regret my refusal to mate Dath as soon as Erkoz touches me. Heat singes my skin where Erkoz’s scales are touching me, and my heart aches to be back in bed with him.
“I need to go back.” I push against Erkoz’s hold on me, but he doesn’t slow his steps. If anything, he walks faster. Kendra is next to us, so I can see her face and the worried lines that mark it as I try to break free.
“We can’t go back,” Kendra says as she lifts her hand to hold on to mine. “We need to figure out what’s happening with both of you, and we can’t let you make life-altering decisions when you’re like this.”
The tears start as she finishes speaking, but I don’t pull my hand from hers. No, I let them both drag me even as my heart begs me to fight. Pain radiates from where our bodies touch, but it’s the breaking of my heart that causes me the most distress. The imaginary rope around my heart pulls taunt like it is urging me back into bed with my demon, but it’s impossible now. Erkoz isn’t releasing me, and Kendra is practically dragging me by her hold on my hand.
“Deja,” Kendra moves her hand in front of my face as the fight starts to die in me. I can barely see her movement as my brain disconnects from what’s happening. My vision is hazy, the world around me spinning as my feet keep trying to move me forward, even as my nerves scream at me to run back to Dath’s room. “Hey, are you with us?”
“Need to go back,” I say again, but it’s like no one is listening to me. They keep a grip on my arms and keep pulling me forward, even as it feels like I’m torturing myself to move. “Please, I need to go back.”
Kendra releases my arm, and then she’s talking to someone else. “Can we just let her stay?” There’s a pause as another female voice, I think it’s Olivia, says something to her I can’t quite make out. Erkoz keeps dragging me. “Look at her! No, she’s not okay. Where’s your mate? Does he know what this is?”
“None of us know what this is,” Erkoz says. His voice is too close to me. My eyes dart around the room. I can’t make anything out because of how blurred my vision is, but I know I’m way too close to another demon. I’m not supposed to be close to another. Not until I’ve claimed my mate. The thought comes from nowhere, but it sears itself into my mind and into my soul. Dath is the only demon that can touch me, no others.
“Get away.” I move my hand through the air like I’m trying to swat away something, but there’s nothing in front of me. The burning on my arm is still there where Erkoz is holding me, and that’s what I should swat away. He can’t be touching me. I don’t want him touching me.
“Fuck!” Kendra yells. She sounds more worried than I am, but that has to be impossible since I feel like I am about to go out of my mind if I can’t get back to Dath. I can’t see anything. I barely register the words around me, and my body is too sensitive to everything that’s happening around me. “Just, fuck, just pick her up.”
“No!” I try to shake my head, but it’s too difficult. Hands wrap around my waist, and then I’m picked up off the ground even as I weakly try to fight against whoever is touching me. No one is supposed to touch me. No one can touch me but him. I don’t know why, but that’s all my mind is screaming at me as Erkoz wraps his arms around me and carries me further through the building. My chest screaming in pain, my eyes watering as I try to control the swell of emotions threatening to consume me.
“I am sorry, human,” Erkoz says as a large door is pushed open. He’s not being snarky right now, which worries me more than it probably should. “I should have stopped you last night. I should have kept you in the room with us so we knew you were safe. Be angry at Erkoz. He can handle the wrath and the hatred, but do not be angry at your sisters for wanting to keep you safe.”
“Just take me back,” I cry. My vision has completely gone, and I don’t know where we’re going or how far from him I’ll even be. I wipe at the tears burning down my cheeks. I don’t want to be crying, but I can’t stop it. My chest is tight and painful, and my mind only thinking of how to get back to the alien they took me from. “Please, just take me back.”
Erkoz shifts me in his arms. “I am sorry.”
A door swings open, and I hear it tap against the wall of the new building we’re entering. I don’t know how many others are joining us in the house, but I hear more than a few pairs of footsteps.
“Oh god,” a woman already in the building gasps when she sees me. “What did you do?”
Erkoz hisses above me, obviously not loving that her immediate reaction is thinking he’s done something to me. “Ralleth told us to get her away from Dath before the storm came.”