I glance down to understand where the little light in the room is coming from and find there’s a glowing red circle with sigils surrounding us. I smell blood in the stale air.
“Whatisthis?” I ask, but in my heart, I already know.
Maxum throws his body repeatedly against the invisible barrier that lines up with the outer circle, ignoring me completely.
“Maxum!” I cry, to get him to stop. I can tell he’s only hurting himself, not making progress. “What is this?”
“A demon trap!” he snarls and slices at the air again, but his claws skid along the trap’s boundary.
“Where are we?” My heart crumbles as I worry about my other mates. “What about the guys? We need to get back to them!”
He spins, eyes wide and feral, and I shiver with his madness. “Do you still feel your bonds?”
My attention drops into my heart, and I can sense the tethers linking my soul to theirs. “Yeah.”
“Then they’re alive for now.” Pointing at the place he was attempting to break through, he then demands, “See if this trap holds you!”
I scramble to my feet. No one is down here, and if this trap doesn’t hold me, then I can help us escape. I rush to the edge and smash against what feels like an electric fence. With a yelp, I’m thrown backward and crash into Maxum.
“Dammit!” He catches me as I fall and holds me while my dazed wits come back online. My vision is spinning, and I wonder how he could have bashed against the barrier like he did.
As he presses me close to his massive body, I realize we are both completely naked. “Where the fuck did our clothes go?”
“Part of the demon summoning process. It strips a demon of all possessions, so the summoner is protected from retribution.” He snarls, “I’m going toretributetheir ass.”
“But how did they do it?” I shake my head. “Why didn’t they do this before?”
Maxum slowly calms his breathing, and some sanity returns to his gaze. He considers my question. “There are only two ways to summon a demon like this. One is to know a demon’s true name. Only a few of my family know my secret and it’s solely in case of emergencies. Two is to have the demon’s blood and a line of sight to cast the ritual. The second option is dangerous for the summoner, since a demon could catch and kill them before it’s done.”
“I heard witches chanting… that must have been it.”
“And they must have found our blood at one of the battles we fought,” he grumbles.
“But why target both of us?”
“I assume she was targeting me, and you were just pulled along for the ride. They were likely worried if they captured you that I might track you through our matebond.”
“But we haven’t mate bonded yet.”
“They don’t know that. And they wouldn’t believe a demon would have waited this long to claim you.”
“Uh, Maxum?” I hesitate because it feels wrong to confront him now, but I don’t know if I’ll ever get an answer. Things aren’t looking good for our longevity. “Why haven’t you bonded with me? If you don’t want to, I’ll try to understand, but I feel like I did something to upset you.”
“What? No.” He clasps my face to make me look into his flaming obsidian eyes. “It’s not that I don’t want to.”
“Tell me what it is, then. This might be our last chance to clear the air.”
He sags to the hard floor and sits cross-legged. Then he invites me to sit, cradled in his embrace. I’d rather have his body as a seat than the cold concrete, so I slip down into his arms and find comfort in his warmth, sitting sideways so I can look up into his beautiful crimson face.
“I’m afraid for you.”
“Because of rutting me? I don’t believe you’d fuck me enough to kill me.”
Maxum studies my face for a long time, deciding what he should confess. Then, with a sigh, he begins. “No. It’s about the demon lords. There are so few females. If I mate you, the lords in hell might be alerted to your demon nature. If they come for you, they will kill our pack, use you for power plays, and attempt to breed you.”
“Well, shit,” I whisper. “Force me to make babies?”
“They’d likely first try to make you amenable to the process, so you weren’t overly stressed and unable to impregnate. High-powered demons might try to stake a claim, or they might share you until someone’s seed took hold.”
