“Don’t kill him yet, Maddox,” said Jolene. “I’d like to communicate to him just how much I don’t appreciate a person coming after someone dear to me.”
“We all do,” announced Lachlan. “But how do we get in that energy bubble to fuck his shit up?”
“You don’t need to,” said Maddox, lowering the forcefield.
Jolene took a panicked step forward. “He’ll astral project out of here.”
“No, he won’t,” said Maddox. “He doesn’t have the ability to astral project. He’s never had it, have you, Terrence?”
Now on his hands and knees, the harbinger shook his head.
Frowning, Raini reached out to her anchor. You made him believe he doesn’t have the ability? He could actually do that?
It wasn’t difficult, Maddox replied without glancing her way. He was still focused on the harbinger. “His greatest fear … is being confined to a basement exactly like this while several people subject him to sheer agony. Now he’ll get to live out that fear.”
In other words, Maddox had planted the fear into Terrence’s mind. Holy shit.
“You’ll also find that his pain-tolerance level is at an all-time low,” Maddox added.
Lachlan turned to Raini and flicked a look at her anchor. “I think I could like him. Maybe. We’ll see how it goes.” He slid his gaze to Jolene. “That fucker hurled a blade at my daughter. I want at him first. In the name of the sanctity of retaliation—”
“Have at him,” Jolene invited, sweeping a hand toward the harbinger.
Later, when there was very little, for want of a better word, life left in Terrence, Jolene turned to her. “Raini, would you like to finish him off?”
“Sure. I’d advise everyone to get behind me.” Once they’d done so, Raini sent out a wave of psychic hellfire. They all watched as he dropped, convulsed, and then went limp, his skull caving in.
“A small part of me is gonna miss him.” With blood splattered on his skin and clothes, Lachlan cricked his neck. “Well, who fancies some tacos? I’m starving.”
“Tacos sound good,” said Bram.
Halfway to the basement staircase, Lachlan stopped and pinned Maddox with a look. “You take good care of my daughter. She wouldn’t like it if I killed you, and I’d rather not have to hear her whine at me for no good reason.”
Raini stared at him. “For no good reason? You wouldn’t consider killing my anchor and mate a valid reason for me to be upset with you?”
Lachlan sighed at her. “There’s never a valid reason to be upset with your own father—a loving, caring, very involved father. I raised you. Fed you. Sheltered you. Taught you how to snap a man’s neck like a twig and the best place to embed a blade in the spine.”
“You also tried to teach me to skin small animals, and what is up with that?”
“You said you were bored.”
“Bored, not sociopathic.”
“Well I thought it would be good father-daughter bonding time. Honestly, you’re always making a fuss over nothing.” Lachlan looked at his brothers. “Tacos.”
After the imps had trailed up the stairs, Hector smiled at Raini. “I was right in thinking I’d like your father.”
His mouth curved, Maddox took her elbow. “Let’s go home.”
Home. She liked the sound of that.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Damn, she was gonna come so hard.
Lying on her side while Maddox powered into her from behind the next morning, Raini reached back to grip his nape. He’d woken her with his finger on her clit, expertly teasing the hell out of her. It hadn’t been long before he’d plunged his dick inside her, slamming home in one smooth thrust.
Now, his fingertips dug into her thigh as he fucked in and out of her, filling the room with the sound of flesh slapping flesh. His free arm was banded around her body, gripping her shoulder to hold her still for his possession. And she wasn’t going to last much longer.
He put his mouth to her ear. “Mine,” he bit out. “My mate. Aren’t you?”
She licked her lips. “Yes.”
“And you’re going to wear my ring when I give it to you, aren’t you?”
Knowing that by “ring” he meant a black diamond—something demons only gifted to their mates when they were ready to make the ultimate commitment, she hesitated, unsure if he was ready for that or only saying it in the heat of the moment. “I—”
“It wasn’t a request, baby. You’ll wear it. You’ll never take it off. And every time you look at it, you’ll remember that I’ll never let you go.” He upped the pace of his thrusts, pounding harder. So fucking hard that each brutal lunge seemed to send the breath gusting out of her lungs.
Her orgasm hit her suddenly and swept her up. She came hard, arching, crying out, squeezing his cock with her inner muscles. His fingertips bit harder into her thigh as he exploded inside her.
Utterly sated, Maddox kissed the crook of her neck and began to slide his cock out of her. But then her pussy fluttered gently around him, and he smoothly sank back inside. “I think I’ll stay in here a little longer.”