The Devil Takes by Fae Quin

It was cold.

The kind of cold that takes bites from your flesh and burrows deep inside the marrow of your bones. Icy. Mean. Painful in its winter flavored vitriol.

If I’d been a smarter guy, I would’ve been at home, tucked safely inside my dorm room on the wrong side of campus. I’d be staring at my always studying roommate—like I did every night—wondering why the hell I’d gone to college in the first place when I knew I’d never fit in.

Instead, I was naked.

Dirt clung to my knees and shins, and my toes and fingers were numb.

The scent of dead things permeated the air so strongly that even I could smell it. Rotting leaves and decay, like an exhale between winter’s first harsh, life-sucking kisses.

The sun had sunk below the horizon ages ago.

But stubbornly, I didn’t leave.

I listened to the whistle of the wind, shivering, as my cock shriveled up and the hair on my thighs did nothing to warm the tremble of my quaking limbs.

I was stupid.

I’d always known I was stupid.

Hell, I’d been told it enough times that in my mind it had become just another fact. But even knowing that—for me, this was a new low.

Tales of myths and monsters had kept me awake for days in preparation for this moment. So, I couldn’t help myself as I stared at the gaping hollows between tree trunks, searching through the darkness for the passage beneath the bridge I knew lay hidden in the shadows. At any other time of the year, it was just an ordinary underpass.

Not today.

Not for long.

At least if the rumors were to be believed.

They said the Devil came out on autumn nights just like this one. That the passage to Hell was only a few short steps away, hidden behind tombstones and half-wilted bouquets at the back of a graveyard older than the town itself. They said the Devil visited those that were most vulnerable. They said the Devil took what he wanted to take.

Just like any rumor I’d heard whispered between my peers in crowded classrooms, I’d disregarded this one.

When the brothers’ fraternity had suggested this as initiation, I’d laughed along with all the other guys. It seemed a small price to pay if it meant winning a permanent spot in the frat house starting the next semester.

They said the Devil only took what you were willing to give.

I wasn’t willing to give much, so even though one by one the other freshmen had fled when the sun had bled blue, I stayed behind.

Stay the whole night.

Naked.

Fail to stay, and you forfeit.

Those were the rules.

Maybe it was stupid to risk my life for this, but, hell, I was stupid. The kind of stupid that no one notices till they ask you a question and get to watch your blank-faced confusion as you scramble to understand what they’d even asked in the first place.

Unfortunately for me stupidity wasn’t my only weakness.

I wasn’t particularly great to look at either.

I had no skills to write home about, unless you counted artfully avoiding my roommate’s attempts at painting my toes.

Thick-bodied and untrained, I was athletic, sure, but not in the way that turned people’s heads, or cushioned my dad’s empty pockets. Too big to look the way I was “supposed to.” Too small to look the way my dad wished I did. About as dangerous as a rather large bunny rabbit.

All of that, plus I was hiding the fact I was an omega from ninety percent of the population?

Yeah.

The only thing I really had going for me was my desperation. I needed this. Needed that room more than I was willing to admit, all my faults be damned. Without the money to pay for it this was my last and only option.

So, stubbornly, I stayed. Even though my nipples were hard and my pecs trembled with each painful, icy breath.

Was this even safe?

Was hypothermia a thing you could get just from wind alone?

Recognizing that those thoughts would only lead to madness, I swiftly put a stop to them. Maybe being stubborn would save me from the cold.

Maybe not.

Either way, I stayed.

Each breath hurt more than the last. My lungs expanded, then shriveled up tight. The cold choked its way down my throat as I stared into the darkness and waited, and waited, and waited.

God, the sun was taking forever. What an asshole.

Maybe I could go home early?

Maybe they wouldn’t know?

Maybe I was just making excuses.

Maybe by staying I was just as stupid as everyone always said I was.

Maybe I’d die out here, only the wind for company, the frost eating my frozen stiff flesh.

Macabre.

A French word I only knew because I’d Googled it on one of the library computers after my roommate had used it in a sentence I didn’t understand. Though, what I’d Googled was Mah-cob. So, I was surprised I’d gotten a result in the first place.

To distract myself I watched as the moon climbed high in the sky, its pale silvery light creeping through the bare limbs of the bonelike trees that bracketed the gateway to Hell. Funny that people called it that, when I knew the truth. Hell was waking up every day knowing there was nothing you could do to end the nightmare. Hell was craving the love and attention of the people that would never stop hurting you. Life was Hell.

Despite what Tommy said, I was a realist, not a pessimist. (Another word I had to Google recently.)

“Hello?” I called, because sitting in silence was almost more painful than the cold.

Predictably, there was no answer.

My cheeks tinged red with humiliation. I swallowed my tongue.

The wind whistled.

An owl hooted.

The stars glimmered, then dodged behind a passing cloud.

“Hello.” The simple reply was spoken so quietly I wasn’t sure I hadn’t imagined it. It crept around me, made of creaking tree limbs and mausoleums. Drafty as the bitter breeze. Low. With good humor. Curiosity too.

Hello.

Had I imagined it?

Maybe.

Maybe the cold was driving me crazy.

Maybe I’d used the word maybe way too much tonight.

I wasn’t sure I would be able to move, let alone run, should the voice be anything but my imagination. It wouldn’t be that surprising if I wasn’t alone tonight. If there was something far scarier hidden deep within the woods than a devil that didn’t show his face. In a town as small as Madison, you’d think the likelihood of something dangerous lurking inside the woods would be low, but I wasn’t sure I believed that. There were probably serial killers in the woods. Hunters of human flesh. Alphas ready to take things that weren’t theirs. To bite what wasn’t theirs to bite.

“Hello?” I called again, the deep timber of my voice glancing off tree trunks. I waited.

Each breath forced its way through my trembling lungs. My pulse thrummed.

“Hello.” Again. The voice wrapped around me, louder this time, sweeter. A quiet purr that sounded too close to flirting to make me anything but terrified.

Stupid omega.

Something I’d been called more times than I could count.

Stupid omega.

Stupid omega.

Stupid omega.

“Are you lost, omega?” The voice was clearer this time, an accent lilting through words that tasted like tart berries bursting on my tongue. The base of my skull tingled, the mating gland on my neck throbbed. That voice was…it was—

It was.

“I’m not lost.” The words choked their way out of my throat, catching on the breeze as I moved—stiffer than I would have liked—trying to spot who was talking to me. I didn’t see anyone, though. Only graves. Only leaves. Only the gaping hollow beneath the barren cobblestone bridge.

“You are cold,” the voice observed.

I still couldn’t see anyone.

Fear made my pulse sluggish, my knees weak.

That voice though—

It rumbled up inside me, causing an avalanche of emotion. My thighs trembled as my cock gave a feeble twitch despite the cold. Heat, unlike anything I’d felt before, began simmering under the surface of my skin. Bubbling, bubbling, bubbling.

I had become so used to the dull numbness of the suppressants and scent-blockers I took, that the influx of new sensation nearly blinded me.

“Creatures as pretty as you should not be bare.” The voice caressed the shell of my ear, tickling its way inside me till my insides burst with light and the cold shriveled away, almost like magic.

I’d never been called pretty before.

Burly, sure.

Hot.

Dumb.

Useless.

But pretty? No.

I glanced around again, still searching for the owner of the voice, but instead, all I found was a low throaty chuckle that made my toes curl and my lashes flutter. Slick. I was slick. I could feel the way it dripped down my thighs, my ass cheeks rubbing, my breath coming in panicked little bursts.

Was the fear breaking through my suppressants?

I’d never had fear as an arousal trigger before.

I still didn’t. Probably, anyway.

I wasn’t sure what this was.

And then I saw him.

It.

That.

The shadowy depths of the desolate bridge gave birth to a tall silhouette. Lean. Dressed in inky black shadow that sloughed off like water as he took step after step out of the darkness and into the silvery moonlight. The more he was illuminated, the clearer his figure became. Not because he was getting closer, but because the moon leeched the magic from him like bleach on blood.

From a distance, all I could see were bones. They decorated his shadowy silhouette in an illusion that made him look like he was nothing but a skeleton whenever he stepped into a puddle void of light.

He wore a mask in the shape of a human skull that lit up silver as his long legs led him out of the tree line. And as he stepped closer and a beam of moonlight hit his face, I realized if I squinted, I could see his eyes behind the hollows of the mask. The first thing I noticed should’ve been obvious. Even from a distance I could see that they weren’t human. Inverted colors. White where they should be dark, black where they should be light, his irises glowing softly.

Devilish, just as the stories had warned.

My cock throbbed and a whimper burst unbidden from my throat. The cold had now been chased away entirely by heat. My body thrummed with nervous energy, sweat beading across my temple as my knees trembled and I glanced down, for just a moment, only to spot the already dripping tip of my throbbing dick.

Fuck.

Precum leaked down my crown, slicking the pink surface, and I reached down without thinking, ready to squeeze till I eased the pulsing ache of desire. I stopped myself just in time, grabbing my thigh instead, my nails biting into the frozen-stiff muscle. I had company. I didn’t really want skeleton dude to see me jack off, no matter how badly I wanted to.

Consent was a thing.

It was bad enough I was already naked and needy.

Only a second had passed, but when I glanced up, the skeleton dude had crossed a surprising amount of the distance between us. He now strode across the rocks that edged the graveyard, though his steps were silent.

He was taller than I’d first guessed. And the closer he got to me, the more he began to make sense. He wore a uniform—not unlike a military uniform—though his was covered in silvery-white embroidery that took the shape of the bones I’d spotted even from a distance. Detailing on the fabric caught the light as his long, lean figure strode confidently across the grass. The skull shaped mask he wore cast shadows over his eyes as dry, dead leaves crunched beneath his tapered leather boots. I could hear his footsteps now.

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

Was this a trick?

It felt like a trick.

A Halloween prank gone wrong?

Or had the Devil come to take what he was owed?

I’d thought I didn’t have much to give, but as my cock jumped and my hole gave a needy twitch, I realized I’d been wrong. There was a buzzing in my ears, a fog in my head, a heat coursing through my body that I had only ever felt once before. A whine built up in the back of my throat unbidden. A primal sort of sound, a call for something I didn’t have the words to put a name to.

“Hush.” Ten steps away became nine, then eight. Long legs moved leisurely, muscular thighs flexing as the Devil came closer and closer. Distantly, I wondered if this was my fault. If I’d invited him here by calling a greeting into the darkness.

For a second, nothing felt real. The world was full of possibilities. My waking nightmare was forgotten as he stopped only a few feet away. He was so close I could count the silver beads etched across his uniform. But instead, I did something I’d never done before. I checked him out. Staring at his thighs made my dick twitch, my hole clenching as my gaze dragged upward. Though slim, there was no doubt that he was all man. His shoulders were broad, his jaw, where it poked out beneath the mask, square. With compact hips and thighs that should not be as supple as they were—I was lost.

I didn’t need to smell him to know that he was an alpha.

That didn’t stop me from trying. I inhaled greedily but his scent was as masked as mine. Though I doubted his was chemically stunted. It was more likely it had been swallowed by the same magic that had coated him with shadow. Which wasn’t to say that finding no trace of him in the air, even with my nose twitching and my toes curling, didn’t make my heart ache.

The lack of scent was jarring.

Wrong.

A needy feeling I didn’t recognize trembled like butterfly wings in my belly.

I wanted to plead, but he’d told me to hush.

The quiet command, husky with no room for disagreement, had done things to my already squirmy insides.

“What do you want?” he asked, dipping at the waist. He was so close I could’ve stared into his eyes. I could’ve admired his broad shoulders, his tapered waist. I could’ve counted the embroidered bones etched into the leather gloves that hugged his hands like they were dipped in ink.

There were so many options, but instead, I took the mortifying route. The slutty one. The one I’d never traveled down until now, chasing his scent away from my moral high ground.

Instead of doing any matter of socially acceptable things, I did the one thing that would probably get me punched.

I stared at his cock.

I was shocked, delighted, mortified, and relieved to find that it was hard.

So fucking hard.

My mouth watered, my lashes fluttering as I eyed the thick swell of it. Though skeleton dude’s voice was deceptively even, he was clearly just as affected by this. I could see the evidence of it right in front of me. I didn’t fully understand what was happening between us, but that didn’t stop me from leaning forward and closing the distance between my mouth and his dick. I’d never been the kind of guy that thirsted after anyone. Not even the fictional characters on TV—other than the occasional emaciated Victorian British boy. But, despite the fact it was totally out of character, I couldn’t stop the way I nosed at the bulge in his surprisingly soft trousers with an eager whimper that, in any other situation, I would not have recognized as my own.

On the hunt for his missing scent, I nuzzled at the swell of his full balls, chasing the faint essence of him like a moth hunts a flame.

Finally, beneath the winter air, I caught what I’d been searching for.

On the surface, his essence was musky, sweet. Like graveyards and freshly turned dirt. Underneath that layer, I found a trace of the very real scent of sweat. I trailed it with my tongue, pressing flat against the now-slick fabric, desperate to taste. His cock twitched as I nosed at him, sucking eagerly as the cotton scraped the nerve endings on my tongue. Despite my enthusiasm, he didn’t respond. Desperate for recognition, I pushed harder, sucking along the thick swell of his cock till I found where his crown pressed tight against the fabric.

“Needy.” Skeleton dude’s voice was just as quiet, just as unaffected as before. Somehow, that only made me harder. Slicker. My hole clenched tight, and I doubled my efforts. Gloved fingers twisted in my hair, giving it a sharp tug that had me gasping as he forced my head back so he could look at me, my mouth still sucking at the now-damp fabric. “Greedy.” His cock twitched, and I nearly howled my approval. “Sweet, omega.”

I’d never bought into the whole alpha-omega thing. Never been drawn to one before. Never wanted something the way I wanted now. This wasn’t who I had been raised to be. But what I felt now was different. I was different. Like something about this encounter had rearranged who I was. A slut for dick. Like if I didn’t get this large, thick—delicious cock inside me, I would die.

Through the mask, I could see his eyes were half-lidded. His lips curved upward, peeking beneath the teeth etched into the bottom of the skull, his skin painted with what looked like smudged charcoal to match bone and shadow.

“You want me,” he said. Like it was that simple.

He’d asked me what I wanted.

I suppose he didn’t need me to verbalize it to figure that out.

“Your name,” I managed, muffled against the fabric. Somehow I couldn’t force myself to release him, terrified of losing the already faint tease of his scent.

“You want my name?” he asked, amused. “Clearly you want a good deal more than that.”

“Please.” Wow. Begging. I’d never begged. Ever.

“Haden.” His name rolled like silk from his tongue and I melted, precum dripping down my crown as my hole gave a needy twitch. Empty.

Haden.

“And yours?” Haden asked, his grip on my hair still tight enough my lashes fluttered from the sting.

“Percy?”

“Is that a question, Percy?” Amused again.

“Percy.” I corrected myself, still nuzzling at his sac, chasing the scent of sweat like a starving man.

“You are lovely, Percy.” Haden sounded almost reverent as he tightened his grip till my scalp tingled, and a gasp tore its way from my lips. “I did not know your people still offered sacrifices.”

“They didn’t. They don’t.” The words stumbled on my tongue before I could take them back. He was probably confused; hell, I was. I didn’t know why I’d felt the need to correct him, only that for a moment the idea of him thinking my mouth on his dick was anything other than my own decision made me crazy.

“Why are you naked then, pet?” Again his fingers tightened till I answered. Pleasure-pain zinged down my spine and I gasped, my thighs trembling, my balls drawing up tight. If he did that again, I wasn’t sure I would be able to stop myself from coming, so I distracted myself by answering his question.

“Money.”

“Money?” Clearly my one-word answer wasn’t enough because he stopped pulling my hair, and a needy, plaintive sound left my lips. I scrambled to answer again, desperate to be good for him. Desperate for him to hurt me again.

The feeling was so unlike me, it made my head spin.

I’d always run from pain, not chased it.

“I get free housing for the year if I can stay the night.” It wasn’t the whole story, but I didn’t know how to explain the rest. It seemed cheap now, saying that out loud. Especially when, just moments prior, Haden had thought I was an actual human fucking sacrifice. But hell…it was the truth, and I’d never been any good at lying. My own honesty had gotten me into trouble more times than I could count.

“And this ‘housing’…is important to you?” Haden clarified.

I thought about it.

Honestly, at that moment, no.

What was more important was getting through the layers of clothing separating my mouth from Haden’s dick. I didn’t say that, though. I was already acting like a whore, I didn’t need to talk like one too. I could practically feel my mother rolling in her grave at the other side of the cemetery, and I shuddered, pushing that thought from my mind.

Hot, slick, wet-wet-wet.

My hole clenched around nothing.

Why weren’t we fucking again?

Oh, right.

Because I was supposed to be answering Haden’s question.

It was hard to remember what he’d asked, my mind was scrambled with images of me on my knees in the dirt, his cock in my mouth, gloved fingers stretching my ass wide. The fact I was a virgin had never meant I didn’t have a wildly enthusiastic imagination. Saliva pooled on my tongue and I swallowed, sucking at Haden’s heavy balls with renewed vigor. C’mon fucker. I could feel his cock twitch. Don’t let me down! Give in.

“Did your…”

“Frat brothers?” I offered before greedily sucking again. Boo. He still wanted to talk.

“Did your ‘frat brothers’ know you were going into heat when they sent you here?”

Heat?

No.

No.

That couldn’t be right.

I was on suppressants. Strong ones. Military grade. That wasn’t possible. I hadn’t had a heat since I was sixteen and my dad had locked me in the basement with a handful of pills and a water bottle.

No heat.

It couldn’t be that.

“Not in heat,” I said, though the words felt like ash on my tongue.

They felt like lies.

Haden made a soft, growly little noise that was equal parts frustrated and fond. He was a stranger and yet he still managed to be kinder to me than anyone had been in a long fucking time. My eyes burned as I shook my head, never straying far from where I’d made myself at home against his cock. “Can’t be. Suppressants.”

Words were harder to get out. Slippery as wet noodles.

“I hate to break this to you, darling, but you’re wrong.” He said it so easily, like stating my suppressants weren’t working was a simple fact and not an earth-shattering problem.

Fear bubbled up inside me as my earlier visions of murderers and feral alphas came to mind again. I must’ve made a panicked noise because Haden hushed me softly, pulling my hair tight, just the way I liked, till I relaxed again and resumed my needy nuzzling.

I tried not to think about how stupid I must look right now, lips swollen, eyes blown wide and dark.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure I even cared.

Later, I would. I’d pick apart this encounter till all I had were bitter memories about myself, but for now, I was content to bask in his touch.

Heat.

I couldn’t be in heat.

I couldn’t.

I wasn’t allowed.

“What are suppressants?” Haden asked, his voice curious, low. He had a strange way of speaking. Old-fashioned. Like he’d fallen right out of a storybook for overeager cock-sluts.

I didn’t really want to answer, especially because alphas tended to be dicks when it came to omega birth control. They either went one of two ways: the traditionalists who believed omegas didn’t have the right to make decisions about their own bodies, or the kind of alphas like my dad—the ones that thought omega was just a synonym for embarrassment. He’d been pumping me full of scent blockers and suppressants since the day I’d presented. My longest relationship was with two matching bottles full of little white pills. Dad had always put in every effort to stop the world from seeing that one of his boys had turned out wrong.

I’d never felt wrong until he’d told me I was.

I didn’t know what kind of alpha Haden was.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to, if learning his nature would ruin the taste of him on my tongue, or the way I craved him inside my body.

“What are suppressants?” Haden asked again, endlessly patient.

Usually when people asked me questions multiple times, fists or anger got involved. Not now, though. But I was still conditioned to jump when I was told to—so I spoke, even though it was the last thing I wanted.

I just wanted him to touch me again.

“Suppressants make it so I don’t go into heat. So that I don’t feel the things the others feel. Block scents. Feelings. Whatever the fuck else.”

“Why would you want that?” he asked, clearly curious.

Why did I want that?

I didn’t know.

I couldn’t remember.

Everything that had happened before seemed so very far away now. My skin was hot, my hole slick and empty as my fingers itched to do something—anything—to ease the ache of my rock-hard cock.

“I don’t know,” I said. Dumb, as always. “I’m just on them.”

Haden made a noise, contemplative, like he was mulling over what I’d said. Clearly, I’d made a face or something because he asked, “Why does being off of them scare you so?” His fingers stroked through my hair, rubbing behind my ears till I mewled, then flinched, ashamed of the noise.

I’d never made sounds like this before. Breathy ones. Embarrassing ones.

Even jerking off was done silently, my teeth biting into my pillow, my sheets slick with cum.

“I have to be on them,” I said again, because I didn’t know what else to say—what he wanted me to say. But he didn’t let it go. Huffing with anger, I glared at him.

I just wanted his dick, not a full-blown conversation.

“Why?” Haden asked again, nosy fucker.

I growled in frustration, eyes narrowed at him because this round of twenty questions had scared away my irrational fear. Thinking was getting harder. So was my dick. Slick rubbed between my cheeks, dripping onto the ground, the chill winter air no longer creeping inside my bones.

The heat that burned inside me was too powerful even for a night as cold as this one.

“If I’m not on them, I don’t…” Fuck. I didn’t even know what would happen. The worst case scenario was pretty much my everyday reality. “Dad doesn’t like it,” I eventually settled on. That seemed the simplest way to explain it without diving into details.

“Your father forces you?”

“I don’t know if I’d say force.” Except, it was kinda true, wasn’t it? Before Dad had chucked the pills at my head, I hadn’t ever thought about it. Part of that was because I’d always just assumed I’d pop my knot at sixteen, like my brothers and my dad had. Hell, Dad was always raving about the fact that even Mom had been at least a beta. It was incredibly uncommon for an omega to be born into a family without one.

“If you are not being forced to take them and you dislike them, then why do it?”

Jee-sus.

Talk about beating a dead horse with a stick. (That was how that saying goes, right?)

“Jee-sus, dude. Just let me suck your dick.” I had never in all my fucking life thought that I would say those words. Ever. And yet, here I was—panting for it, nuzzling against him, begging for a taste of the salty-sweet skin of his cock even though his questions made me want to smash my head against the nearest surface.

“You will touch me when I say you can touch me,” Haden said.

I was dumb, so I didn’t listen.

His pants didn’t have a zipper, but they did have a row of shiny ivory buttons. In a surprising feat of dexterity, I flicked them all open in quick succession. He was wearing underwear. Boo.

Staring at the white trail of hair that led beneath the hem of his boxers, I had an out-of-body moment. My hands looked shaky and cold. My knuckles all fucked from the wind, chapped and dry. I was literally naked at the back of the fucking graveyard, thirsting after an actual demon-devil-thing’s dick. What would happen if someone passed by and saw what I was about to do? Then again, that hadn’t stopped me from getting naked and sitting here for four hours. So really, why would I let it stop me from getting fucked?

Priorities.

Haden made a noise, but it wasn’t soft like the ones before. Playfulness disappeared as he pulled my hair tight, forcing my head back. Tingling all over, I realized he was being gentle before. This hurt. The good kind, and the bad. I gasped.

“If you want to touch me, you need to be obedient,” Haden’s words were a rumbled threat.

“Okay.” I was stupid, not suicidal, so I agreed. Then there was silence as Haden scrutinized my face. His lips had pulled thin, his eyes glimmering with darkness as he traced them slowly down, down, down my body. My cock jumped.

“You want to be touched, yes?” Haden confirmed. He had this weird kind of voice. Rumbly, yet soft. Not too low. Not too high, either. Like it couldn’t make up its mind. Like it was an illusion too—just like his shadows.

“Yes.” Obviously.

“Have you been touched before?”

God, more talking. When would it end?

I didn’t want to talk anymore, I was all talked out.

Obedient,I reminded myself. Or you won’t get what you want.

“No.” Even I knew I sounded petulant.

“Have you been fucked before?” The word “fuck” on Haden’s cultured tongue sent a whirl of want through my body. Fuck sounded sinful when he said it. A word with a purpose. A promise.

“No.”

“Do you desire to be fucked?”

“Oh, fuck yes.” The way my voice wobbled—the words barely more than a gasp—gave away my enthusiasm. The heat inside my body was creeping closer to its peak. It wrapped me in honey from the inside, my limbs tingling, the need growing stronger with every labored breath.

Haden’s scent wasn’t enough anymore.

I needed to taste.

I needed to feel.

I needed—

I needed.

Haden released my hair. I didn’t have more than a moment to mourn the loss because seconds later, his fingers were bumping against my lips as he tapped the leather and bone of his gloves against them, asking for entry.

Complying without a thought, I opened wide. Long fingers played with my lower lip for a moment, pulling it down, and releasing it with a soft fwap. Over and over he played until he grew bored and casually slipped his fingers inside my mouth. Haden traced over my teeth like he was inspecting a new horse, before toying deeper to flirt with the slippery swell of my tongue.

The further he pushed into my mouth, the more right it felt. Something loose inside me clicked into place as I sucked, lax and obedient, letting him press a second finger inside. His gloves tasted like leather, butter soft on my tongue. It shouldn’t have felt so good. He shouldn’t have tasted like sin and sex, but he did.

As the second finger joined the first, I forced my jaw to stretch to accommodate their girth.

Drool slipped down my chin as I sucked with vigor, and Haden groaned, low and husky—the first real proof that he was just as affected by this as I was. The finger sucking felt like an audition and I was determined to be cast in whatever role he wanted me in, so long as I got a cock inside me at the end of the performance.

“You are a lovely surprise,” he admitted. The sweet words were at odds with the brutal way he pulled his fingers out and shoved them back inside my mouth, the bone on top of his gloves gently clicking against my teeth. I whimpered. “Oh yes,” Haden’s voice grew deeper, throatier as he watched me suck. “You like this.”

He was right.

I sucked again, slurping around the leather as he rubbed the back of my tongue just to watch my eyes water, then pulled out only to fuck inside again, harder.

Slurp, slick, slurp.

Staring at his face, I hunted for an expression behind the mask, but the shadow had swallowed him again. All I could see was a glimpse of hooded eyes and the way his lips were just slightly parted. His tongue was purple. That should’ve alarmed me. Nearly lilac in color, it flickered out to wet his lower lip. I saw a glimpse of fangs and the base of my neck above my mating gland itched for something I couldn’t bring myself to admit.

Then he distracted me again, pushing deeper—and deeper still.

By some miracle, I didn’t choke, just held very, very still as Haden fucked me. It shouldn’t have been as filthy as it was. It was just fingers. That was all. But the way they pressed inside me, I felt it all over my body. My hole clenched tight with need, my dick sloppy-wet as it bobbed and slapped my lower belly.

The deeper he pressed inside, the more I wanted.

“If you keep looking at me like that, I won’t be able to hold back,” Haden murmured, voice detached, though his fingers continued to slip in and out of me. Like he wasn’t actively fucking me to tears.

My lips were pulled taut, my jaw a little sore. The bone on the top of his gloves gently caught my teeth. Click, click. I liked the sound. I liked how it felt, too.

Then his fingers left again and instead of shoving back inside like I expected, he let them trail wet across my cheek, tracing my jawline down to my throat where he swirled a circle of my own drool around my Adam’s apple.

I shivered.

“Do you want me to hold back, Percy?” Haden whispered. “To be gentle?”

“No.” I didn’t recognize my own voice. It was too sweet. Too soft. Too something.

I watched enraptured as Haden stroked a gloved hand down his chest, tracing over the embroidered rib cage on his jacket, slipping down the knobs of stitched spine, till he reached the waistband of his underwear, black gloves stark against the pale lavender of his skin. He toyed just under the edge of the fabric, teasing me before swirling the curls of his bleached treasure trail playfully between his fingers. I nearly growled at him, jealous of the fact he got to play when I didn’t.

Thankfully, it didn’t take long before he grew impatient and shoved everything down and out of the way. The fat tip of his cock slapped against his lower abs and a smear of precum decorated the skin as he tugged his jacket upwards and I got a glimpse at more of his lovely purple belly. Other than being constructed from a monochromatic color palette, Haden wasn’t much different from any other alpha I’d seen on my curious Google expeditions.

He was veiny and strong. His skin glistening with sweat, thick thighs spread as I watched his chest heave with each stuttered breath.

There was a jagged violet scar that bisected his abdomen and I wanted nothing more than to drown it with my tongue before sucking at the throbbing vein that danced up the underside of his gorgeous cock. It twitched hello before a drop of precum slipped down the uncut crown, and I salivated as I imagined what it would feel like to lean forward and taste.

Just a taste.

Just a little.

“Please,” I whispered, staring at his cock with reverence. “I wanna know what you taste like.”

“Darling,” Haden murmured, reaching down with the hand he’d used to fuck my mouth, gathering the precum from his crown onto his thumb before he swiped it across my lower lip. I couldn’t help the way my tongue flickered out eagerly, my lashes fluttering as the salty flavor lit up my body from the inside out. I’d never so much as tried my own cum, despite my own curiosity, so the flavor was surprising. Not as bad as I’d expected. Kinda good, actually? In an animalistic sort of way.

More.

Leaning forward, I nuzzled at the soft lilac swell of Haden’s sac. It was a darker color than his abs and throat, but not nearly as dark as his throbbing cock. The skin was velvety in texture, soft to the touch. Spongy hair rasped against my lips as I stared up at him reverently, waiting for his command.

“Suck.”

I didn’t need to be told twice.

Haden’s dick was thick, thicker than I thought I’d be able to take. The fat crown dragged along my tongue as I took him inside my mouth, enthusiasm hopefully bridging the gap of inexperience. Yeah, okay. Damn. He tasted good, all sweet skin and musk. The scent of his sweat was deeper here, his natural perfume making my eyelashes flutter and my mating gland throb.

Haden grabbed my hair, squeezing it tight with his slick glove as he flexed forward and I took every inch he gave me without complaint. Every time I choked, he’d pull back just enough for me to catch my breath, before pressing back in again. Demanding. Commanding. Ruthless.

Everything I’d never known I wanted.

Even though I hadn’t sucked dick before, I quickly got used to it, breathing through my nose, a regular old dick-sucking-champion. Even though I was pretty much a pro now I still choked when he pushed too deep, and part of me wondered if Haden did it on purpose because he liked to watch me struggle. Every time he pulled back and I caught my breath, I could see the way his lips curled into a predatory smile.

“Good boy,” he purred.

I should’ve been pissed but I wasn’t. I just melted.

He liked the way I cried.

Which was weirdly flattering, and definitely hot as hell.

Tears streamed down my cheeks, drool slipping down my chin and throat as I labored with each ragged breath, my head bobbing between his spread legs. I couldn’t tell if I was any good at this, or spectacularly horrible. But it was clear to me that neither of us were doing this purely to get off.

No.

There was something else there.

Like he wanted inside me just as much as I wanted him, pleasure be damned. An itch under our skin that could only be scratched with one another.

My hole twitched longingly, my dick so hard it was almost painful. I forced myself not to reach for it, though, because I didn’t want him to stop. Didn’t want to distract him from fucking my face. Somehow, I knew his demand for obedience extended to this as well.

Eventually though—maybe because I sucked at this, despite my earlier confidence—Haden pulled back.

His dick slapped against his belly, a wet little noise that made my cock jump and my toes curl in the dirt.

An owl hooted in the distance, but I ignored it, my face tipped up, lashes wet and cheeks streaked with tears.

“I’m going to fuck you,” he said, fingers still gripping my hair. He didn’t ask me. He told me. Like he already knew it was what I wanted. “On your knees, chest to the ground, arch your back.”

I quickly scrambled to comply.

Heat buzzed through my body, my head full of bees.

Getting into position was possibly the most awkward thing I’d ever done. No one else had ever looked at my ass like this before. All up close and personal. With dirt clinging to my knees and elbows I could feel Haden’s eyes on my back, trailing down my spine, disappearing between my cheeks to where my hole was slick and empty.

I knew I had hair everywhere, and as my cheeks heated, I realized too late why most omegas shaved. This was intimate. Way fucking intimate. My thighs strained as I shuffled around, pressing my pecs to the cold ground as leaves crunched beneath my body and my cheeks burned with humiliation.

Did he like what he saw?

Probably not.

How could he?

I knew what I looked like.

Big. Muscular. Covered in cigarette burns. I wasn’t the pretty omega, the one that got what he wanted. The one with the massive social circle, the lovely family, and many career prospects. I wasn’t the kind of omega who had his pick of alphas, even if I’d wanted that. And I definitely wasn’t the kind of omega who got his happily ever after.

I was just me.

Face down, ass up.

My hole, slick and wet and aching.

“These…suppressants,” Haden began again, and I rolled my eyes heavenward in exasperation. I could feel his presence behind me, so I clenched my jaw tight to keep from outwardly groaning. Weirdly enough, even though I didn’t know who he was, or what he was, his figure looming at my back soothed me. My mating gland throbbed again. My dick leapt as his pants brushed against the back of my thighs. “Do they prevent pregnancy?”

“Can’t get pregnant,” I said, even though the words felt like ash in my mouth. There was a long, painful silence before Haden spoke again.

“Do you want this?” he confirmed, waiting for my answer.

Did I?

It seemed like a stupid question. Of course I did. I was the one that had asked for it in the first place. But then again…I arched my back, hoping that would be answer enough, but it wasn’t. Because Haden didn’t move.

“Fuck me.” I’d never thought I’d say those words, but here I was. Here we were.

Me and…whatever the hell he was. Devil, demon, purple-fuckboy? Polite and shady—because shadows? (Ha!)

He slapped his cock gently against one of my ass cheeks and I groaned as a hot stripe of cum marked my flesh. Haden didn’t ask for permission again. The same fingers that had been inside my mouth slipped leisurely down my crack, tracing around the twitching of my entrance till he gave it an almost perfunctory tap. My hole sucked needily at his fingers, but he didn’t give in.

“You are just as greedy here as your mouth is.”

I could hear his smile. Almost mean again. Sexy as all hell. His fingers gave another loose rub, and I clenched hard around nothing, the heat in my body making my tongue dry and my head thrum.

“Fuck me,” I demanded again, more impatient.

“No.” Haden murmured before one thick finger dipped barely a centimeter inside me. “Not until you beg.”

Beg?

Fuck that. I’d already begged once today, I wasn’t going to do it again.

Demanding was more my style, apparently.

Except…as he slid deeper inside the hot clutch of my hole, everything I had ever known about myself slipped entirely from my head. His finger was almost cold because of the leather, slick and unyielding. A totally different sensation than a cock would be. Felt different than my own fingers, too. Better, honestly. They were longer and moved with single-minded purpose, reaching places I’d never been able to reach on my own. When he was all the way inside, I squeezed around him, letting him fuck me in that same detached way he’d fucked my mouth till my hole was sloppy and wet and he finally took pity on me, shoving a second finger inside.

I wasn’t proud of the noise that escaped in response. Nor was I proud of the way I shoved back, eager to be fucked, genuinely grateful he hadn’t played with my prostate yet because I knew the second he did, I was going to come all over my own sweaty chest.

Haden fucked like he spoke. Cultured. Confident. Playful.

Sometimes he slipped in quick and mean, sometimes he dragged out slow and sweet. The way he spread his fingers wide and watched my rim shudder, made me howl into the crumpled leaves beneath me. By the time he’d deemed me ready, my head was about to explode.

“Please,” I begged, unable to recognize my own voice. Apparently, I’d forgotten my decision not to beg.

And then—fucking, finally—the thick head of his cock brushed my rim.

It was hot, as hot as it had been inside my mouth.

For a moment, I desperately wished I could see it. See the tinged purple crown pop inside my body. Watch the way I swallowed him up, owning him the same way he owned me. I wished I could see him bite his lip, see the way his inverted eyes shuttered tight with pleasure.

“Perfect,” Haden growled, kissing over my shoulder, his teeth and his mask catching on my sensitive skin as his cock slipped deeper inside me. It was thicker than his fingers. By a lot. And it kinda hurt at first—but in a way that was easy enough to ignore.

I knew what real pain felt like and this was…fuck. This wasn’t that.

This was something else entirely.

Something new.

By the time his pelvis met my ass I was drooling all over myself again. He was big, bigger than me, that was for sure. I could feel his knot where it slapped against my rim as his hips gave short little thrusts to get me ready.

Perfect.

His words played on repeat in my mind as I shoved back, ignoring Haden’s unspoken demand to let him take charge. It was that disobedience, however, that finally got me what I wanted.

Haden’s teeth were surprisingly sharp when he bit me. He held the back of my neck tight, rendering me immobile as his cold gloved fingers grabbed my throat in one hand and his hips slapped hard against my ass. Without warning, he set a punishing pace that had me sobbing for mercy, tears slipping hot down my cheeks. The harder he fucked, the slicker I got, the wet sounds filling the air obscene.

My dick rubbed against my lower abs, aching and eager, and with each particularly brutal thrust it would slap against my belly in a way that made me tingle, a wet spot left behind.

“Shit,” I gasped, body throbbing with pleasure. “Shit, shit, shit.”

Haden shifted his hips, grabbing my ass tight in one massive hand as he moved me to change the angle. I trembled when he found what he was looking for, pushing up against something inside me that made my jaw drop open as a broken whine left my lips.

It was so fucking good.

Good enough that my eyes rolled back, my lashes fluttering as Haden’s teeth dug in tighter, harder around my mating gland.

I should’ve been scared.

Even I knew what Haden was doing was considered impolite. If he broke skin, we’d be mated, and well…fuck. How the hell was I going to explain that? It was one of my worst fears, actually. Not because I didn’t want it, but because I knew what getting it would mean for me.

Slap, slap, slap,his hips met my ass.

He gnawed at my neck.

My eyes rolled back with pleasure, despite the danger.

Haden didn’t seem to care though, because his free hand slipped across my pelvis, dragging across my sweaty, sensitive skin till he reached his destination and squeezed tight around my throbbing dick. Fuuuck. That felt so fucking good. I humped into his grip, drunk on the way he panted behind me, hot breath caressing my neck. All thoughts of mating and its repercussions left my mind as the needy, desperate part of me that had been lurking under the surface since the moment I saw him broke free.

When he came, his fangs sank inside my neck.

The pain was so laced with pleasure I hardly noticed. The second I felt the heat of his cum inside me my own cock spurted across his fingers, balls drawing up tight as his knot popped inside me, and I distantly recognized that I was mewling.

Haden’s teeth didn’t release my neck as he forced me off my knees and onto my belly, letting me rest as his body bracketed my own and his cock released another shorter bout of his pleasure inside me. His clothing scraped against my sensitive skin, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. Not when it felt so fucking good to be held down like this. To be overpowered, but protected. To not have to think or worry at all.

In a weird way, I felt…powerful.

That this large, frightening creature was mine until his knot popped free.

We were tied together and therefore vulnerable, but deep down, I knew Haden wouldn’t let anything happen to me.

He would protect me.

Mate, my soul whispered as my lashes fluttered and I finally succumbed to sleep, his warm body atop my own.

Mate.