Fallen by Suzanne Wright
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
One month later
“Adorabella?”
“No.”
“Queenie?”
“No.”
“Albert?”
“No.”
“Barney?”
Tanner growled at his mate. “We’re having a baby, not a purple fucking dinosaur.”
Devon crossed her eyes. “God, pooch, you’re so picky.”
“And you’re not drinking enough water.” He pushed a bottle into her hand. “It’s important for you to stay hydrated.”
Raini stifled a smile. He’d been overbearing as hell since learning Devon was pregnant. It was cute, but it was also grating on the hellcat’s nerves. Hence why she kept suggesting baby names that she knew would annoy Tanner.
Maddox had insisted on going ahead with the party that Raini had organized, only he’d turned it into a “welcome to my lair” party that doubled as a celebration for their mating, so here they were at the casino Raini had chosen as the venue. He’d headed to the restroom with Hector, leaving her with Carmen, of course. His protectiveness hadn’t eased up, despite the danger having passed.
Built into one of the many luxury Underground hotels, the casino boasted high ceilings, mirrored walls, patterned carpets, rows of backlit gambling machines, and a small bar where patrons could sit, talk, and drink. People were scattered around the room at the various tables, or sitting on stools while playing machines. There was a lot of noise and activity. Slot machines blooped and bleeped. Dealers called out for bids. Dice tumbled along felt. Alarms dinged to announce winners. Voices muttered, cheered, or cursed.
Pretty much all the guests who Raini had invited were in attendance. The imps mixed surprisingly well with the descendants. But then, the two breeds did have one thing in common—they dealt with a fair bit of scorn from other types of demon.
The casino workers—who were no doubt usually stoic when dealing cards—appeared somewhat paranoid and anxious. Understandable. Imps were fucking brilliant at cheating, but you’d never catch them at it unless they wanted you to. It wouldn’t surprise her if they made off with some of the luxury prizes that were on display. Probably not the cars or motorcycles, but definitely the jewelry.
“We should go find a seat, kitten,” Tanner declared. “You shouldn’t be on your feet.”
Devon shot him a look of exasperation. “I’ve only been standing for, like, twenty minutes. Before that, we were eating our meal while watching the band play in the restaurant.”
“Twenty minutes is a long time.”
Devon turned to Raini, her eyelid twitching.
Raini felt her lips curve. “He’s going to be hell to deal with throughout the entire pregnancy.”
“Don’t I know it,” Devon mumbled.
“Do you think the baby will be a hellcat or hellhound?” Carmen asked her.
“Hellcat for sure.” Devon sniffed, all superior. “My kind have more dominant genes.”
Tanner snorted. “If you say so.” He tapped her bottle. “Now drink.”
Instead, his mate lifted a brow at Raini and asked, “So, how is being a Prime working out for you?”
Raini flicked a hand. “I leave the Prime stuff to Maddox. I’m not interested in leading.”
“That doesn’t mean you’re not his co-Prime,” Carmen pointed out.
“Well we can pretend it does.” Raini had figured, what with him being so controlling, that Maddox wouldn’t want to share his power. That would have suited her fine, because she wouldn’t know the first thing about leading a lair. But he wanted them to be partners.
She’d officially moved in with him the day after the battle. Although she missed being part of the same lair as her parents, there was nowhere else she wanted to be.
“Has Marcella left yet?” Devon asked.
Raini nodded. “She scuttled off to her new lair last night.” After which Raini had done a mental fist pump.
The hellcat sipped her water. “Did you speak to her before she left?”
“Only to say ‘bon voyage.’” Raini had somehow managed to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.
Devon snickered. “I hear you’ll soon be saying the same to Demi.”
“Yup.” Raini sighed. “I’m not all that surprised she wants to leave her lair, considering everyone kind of turned on her.”
“It’s no less than what she deserves,” insisted Tanner.
“That’s what pretty much everyone says.” Dwain’s parents badly wanted her gone—in their mind, if she’d told someone he was behind the boycotting, Jolene would have detained him … thus robbing Euan of the chance to capture Dwain. His parents essentially blamed Demi for his death.
“I can’t help but notice that she isn’t here,” Tanner added.
Raini had anticipated that her sister wouldn’t show. “She won’t go near Maddox, which is probably for the best.”
Tanner’s mouth quirked. “He still wants to dole out a punishment, huh?”
“Oh yeah,” Raini replied. “Knowing Jolene took care of it isn’t enough for him. He works off the rage on his brand-new personal punching bag.”
“As in Euan?”
“Yes. I’m getting the sense that the guy is going to be a guest of ours for a long time to come.”
Just then, Martina approached wearing a wide smile. “See what I got from one of the boutique stores over there?” She stroked her handbag. “Isn’t it fabulous?”
Raini didn’t doubt for a moment that the woman had stolen it. But she didn’t ask, because her attention was snatched by something else. “Do you realize someone drew on your face?”
“Oh yeah,” said Martina. “Khloë drew a baby hippo on me. She called it Fritz. Is it cute? She said it was cute.”
Devon choked down a laugh. “It’s, um … something.”
It was a dick was what it was. But before Raini could say as much, the imp had hurried off to the craps table. Raini might have followed her if Lachlan and Bram hadn’t then appeared.
Bram elbowed her and opened the plastic bag he held. “Hey, get a look at our winnings.”
Raini felt her mouth tighten. “By winnings, you mean the money you stole from whatever machine you broke into?”
Lachlan sighed. “Now don’t go making a big deal out of us purloining a little bit of cash. We’re not harming anyone.”
“You’re committing a crime,” she pointed out.
“Which the economy would thank me for.”
“Knox won’t. The Underground is his baby, which means—in a roundabout way—you just stole from him. Could you not put the money back?”
“Returning to the scene of a crime is a surefire way to get caught. We could probably do it without him noticing, but it won’t be long before the cameras switch back on. The security system wasn’t easy to hack into, you know. I was impressed. Ah, that mate of yours is on his way over. I’m starting to like him. Sort of. It’s a slow process.”
“I hope this means you’ll stop conjuring knives in his presence.”
Shaking his head, Lachlan let out a heavy breath. “You get upset about the strangest things.”
She frowned. “How is it strange to—you know what, I can’t do this with you.”
“You should be thankful I’m such a protective father. But no. You always go whining that I’m being unreasonable. I liked none of your boyfriends, but I was perfectly civil to all of them.”
“You put a shock collar on my prom date.”
“You said he liked surprises.”
Reaching her side, Maddox slid an arm around her shoulders and looked from her to Lachlan. “Everything all right here?”
“Raini’s just making a fuss about nothing again,” her father said. “Come on, Bram.” The two male imps stalked off.
She looked up at Maddox. “I hope you’re being careful not to let any imps too close, because they don’t care who it is they’re stealing from. Anyone is considered fair game.”
“I’m aware,” her mate said, lifting her hand. His mind then touched hers. My cock gets hard every time I see this ring on your finger.
She smiled. I’ve noticed. As he’d promised—well, it had often come out sounding more like a threat—he’d given her a black diamond. She’d asked him to wear the matching masculine version, and he’d easily complied. Her demon loved looking at the ring—it was totally into bright, shiny things. Raini was more wowed by what the jewelry represented, which was that Maddox had fully committed to her—body, mind, and soul.
It won’t be long before the party’s over, Maddox went on. Then I can take you home, and we’ll have our own private celebration.
Hmm, I’m up for that.
Thought you might be.Cupping his mate’s elbow, Maddox led her to another cluster of guests. He wanted to get the mingling over with. For hours they walked from group to group, thanking guests for coming. Carmen and Hector stayed close at all times.
At one point, they got talking to Harper and Knox. The other male Prime was still somewhat stiff toward Maddox, but not rude or uncivil. He appeared to be reserving judgment. There was none of the typical Prime posturing, though.
As he often did, Maddox glanced down at his mate, who was somewhat tipsy at this point. So she almost stumbled when she leaned into Harper and asked, “Where’s Levi? He’s usually never far from Knox.”
Maddox quickly steadied Raini, who didn’t seem to notice.
“Either brooding or solving his problem,” replied the equally tipsy sphinx, mirth in her eyes.
Raini straightened, seemingly intrigued. “Ooh, expand.”
“Well … he found his anchor,” Harper went on in a whisper that was much louder than she appeared to realize.
Raini’s nose wrinkled. “And this is something he’d brood over or consider a problem?”
“I’m not yet sure how he feels about it, I just know it stunned the shit out of him.” Harper put her hand on Raini’s arm. “We bumped into a few of our lair members at the mall, one of whom is the sister of Levi’s ex—a sister he watched like he wanted to devour her. He barely spoke a word to her, though. I don’t know who initiated the psychic contact between them, but someone must have, because they both had a weird ‘what the fuck?’ moment and then Levi was staring at her exactly like a demon stares at their anchor—”
“Waini!” Asher shouted, dashing toward her with Keenan and Khloë hot on his heels.
“I’ll tell you the rest later,” Harper told Raini.
“Hey, little man.” Grinning, Raini scooped him up and righted his collar. “Damn, you’re rocking this outfit. It’s super cool.”
Harper snickered. “You would say that. You bought it.”
“I like making sure my honorary nephew has style.” Noticing he was holding something, Raini frowned. “Hey, what you got there? A credit card, by the looks of it. You and those sticky fingers.”
Khloë chuckled. “Having the soul of an imp makes life supremely entertaining.”
Carmen’s lips twitched. “You think so?”
“Yup,” said Khloë. “Because my life is supremely entertaining.”
“Your life is mostly chaotic,” Carmen pointed out. “Not so long ago, there were attempts on your aforementioned life by a Lazarus demon who was intent on revenge after you played some part in his resurrected daughter being returned to her natural state of death.”
“And you didn’t find that entertaining?”
“I did,” announced a new voice. And then none other than Lucifer—yes, the devil himself—joined their group. He smiled at Asher. “And there’s my favorite nephew and future partner in crime.”
Harper ground her teeth. “Okay, I know for sure you were not invited.”
Lou smirked at her. “You missed me, right?”
“Oh, my middle finger is saluting you as we speak,” said the sphinx.
Lou lightly patted Maddox on the back, like they were old friends. “Good seeing you.”
Knox frowned. “You sounded like you actually meant that.”
He did. Which was perplexing, yes, because Lou didn’t appear to like anyone other than Asher, from what Maddox had observed.
Lou gave Knox a baffled look. “The man was involved in the demise of one of those holy farts from upstairs. More, he carries the blood of a being who did the right thing and fell to Earth long ago. Why wouldn’t I find it good to see him?” His gaze slid to Raini. “Ah, how happy you must be to no longer have Jolene as your Prime. Switching lairs was a good call. These Wallises … there is no end to their evil. Not even when they marry a Thorne.”
Harper rolled her eyes. “He’s still sulking because Knox and I don’t agree that he should be Asher’s full-time carer,” she explained.
“It’s only right that I have quality time with my protégé,” said Lou.
“Stop calling him that,” Harper clipped.
“I’d make a damn good manny.”
The sphinx snorted. “You have absolutely no conscience, a total lack of empathy, get stoned every day, and relish the thought of all life on Earth being eradicated.”
Lou waved an encouraging hand. “Keep going, that’s it, allow the hate to flow through you.”
“I don’t hate you. I just think you’re a nutjob.”
“You’ll need to repeat that in my other ear. This one doesn’t give a shit.”
Flames abruptly burst to life around Asher. Then they were gone, along with the little boy.
“Shit, where’d he go?” Raini frantically spun around, as did the others.
Maddox pointed to the luxury car on display. “He’s in there.”
Harper threw up her arms. “Dammit, kid.”
God, she had a pussy-eating champion right here.
Raini wasn’t shy or demure in bed, so she had no problem shamelessly arching into Maddox’s mouth. The man was good with his hands, but his tongue absolutely stole the show—tracing and swirling and dipping and swiping.
She fisted the bedsheets. He hadn’t even stripped off her clothes. Nope. He’d tossed her onto the bed, flipped up her dress, ragged off her panties, parted her legs, and set about driving her insane with his mouth.
He was succeeding.
The man. Had. Skills. Serious skills. And now she needed to come so damn bad. But no amount of appeals, curses, pleas or threats was making him give her what she wanted.
“Maddox, don’t make me come down there!”
He lifted his head and speared her with those intense eyes. Eyes that then bled to black. His demon was now in charge. Awesome. Because it looked in the mood to slam home and fuck her raw.
It stood upright at the foot of the bed and fisted its cock. “If you want it inside you, you will have to earn it.”
Oh it was a bold fucker. She went to sit upright so she could suck it off, but the demon shook its head.
“You will make yourself come. I want to watch.”
It wanted a show, right.
Well, Raini proceeded to give it a show, following its instructions—pumping one finger into her pussy while using her free hand to cup her breasts, twist her nipples, and play with her clit. Sometimes the demon wanted her to thrust her finger hard, sometimes the entity wanted her to merely rub at her sweet spot. She did as the demon asked, because she knew from experience that it was the fastest way to get what she wanted.
“You have been a very good girl for me,” it said.
Why yes, yes she had.
It withdrew her hand from her pussy and flipped her onto her stomach.
Booyah.She heard a zipper lower and did a mental happy dance. She’d just pushed to her hands and knees when the demon rammed into her pussy with such force it stole her breath. And she came—there was no stopping it. Her release tore through her body hot and fast, making her head snap back and her eyes go blind.
When her orgasm finally subsided, the demon curled over her and put its mouth to her ear. “Now, thank me for letting you come.”
She gawked. Thank it? Jesus, this fucker could be such a pain in her ass. “Thank you,” she said, a bite to her voice that earned her a gruff chuckle.
A soft kiss was pressed to the back of her shoulder—a gentle move that told her Maddox was back in control.
His hand delved into her hair and fisted tight. “Now I get to make you come.”
Sounded good to Raini. She expected him to start powering away, but his thrusts were soft and shallow and far too freaking slow. “Maddox … ”
“What is it, baby?”
“You damn well know what. I did everything your demon asked, and I expect—no, demand—to be rewarded for it.”
Maddox felt a smile tug at his mouth. “You demand it, do you?” He loved that. Loved how she boldly sassed him. Loved how greedy she could be.
“Yes, I do. No more teasing. I’m done with the teasing. Fuck me.”
He smoothly buried his cock balls-deep and swiveled his hips. “I say we make a new deal first.”
“A new one?”
“Hmm. There are several conditions.” He slowly reared back and then just as sluggishly drove his full length back into her pussy. “You must never leave me, you must never take off that ring, and you must never stop loving me. In return, I’ll make you those same promises. Do we have a deal?”
Without hesitation, she replied, “Yeah, deal.”
“That’s my girl.” Her hair still wrapped around his fist, Maddox pounded into her pussy. His thrusts were wild and violent and utterly unrestrained. Exactly what they both wanted and needed. “I’m going to keep fucking you so hard so often you’ll never remember a time when you weren’t taking my cock.” She wouldn’t remember how it felt to have another male inside her, only him.
He kept on slamming deep and rough, knowing it wouldn’t take long before he came—not after he’d eaten her out, watched her little show, and felt her explode around him not so long ago. Considering she’d already had an orgasm, he hadn’t expected another to build so fast, but it wasn’t long before her pussy began to tighten and flutter around him.
“That’s it, baby, come.” He snatched her head back, bit into her throat, and brought his hand down hard on her ass. Her inner muscles clamped around his dick as she came with a scream. Her blood in his mouth, he slammed into her again and again and again. Then he exploded.
When his brain switched back on, he blew out a breath. “Fuck, needed that.” He released her hair and soothingly stroked her scalp. “You good?”
She slumped to the bed, resting one cheek against the mattress. “Your demon is seriously arrogant and annoying at times.”
Maddox felt his mouth quirk. “I know. It gets off on messing with your pretty little head.” It liked to see her nervous, unsure, and out of her comfort zone, but never in a way where it would want her to be upset or afraid.
“I’ve noticed. You’re both dominant, control freaks.”
“Agreed.” He leaned down and pressed a kiss between her shoulder blades. “But you can handle us.”
“Hmm.”
He placed his palm to hers and pushed just enough power in her to heal the weeping bite on her throat. “You love me?”
“Of course. Always will.”
He let out a low hum of satisfaction. “That’s what I like to hear.”
“I like to hear it, too. Why am I not?”
Feeling his lips curve, Maddox nuzzled her nape. “Demanding, snarky little minx at times, aren’t you? It’s a good thing I love you.”
“How could you not when I’m this damn fabulous?”
“Hmm, fair point.” He pulled his softening cock out of her and then cleaned them both up. Settling on the bed beside her, he drew her close. “Did you enjoy the party?”
“I did. It was nice having everyone in the one space like that, even if half of them were robbing the place blind. I was kind of surprised that so many turned up.”
“By that, you mean you thought there would be several from your old lair who wouldn’t attend purely because of your ability to wield psychic hellfire,” he guessed.
“Yes. But aside from a few like Risa and Dwain’s parents, they all came, and they were all perfectly pleasant toward me.” She doodled circles on his chest with her fingertip. “Maybe they’re not so much bothered by what I can do now that I’m part of your lair.”
“Or maybe now that the shock has worn off and they’ve had time to think, they’ve realized they acted like assholes.”
“Hmm, maybe.”
“I noticed Demi didn’t attend.”
“Neither did Levi,” Raini said quickly, clearly not wanting to remain on the subject of her sister. “Harper said he’s found his anchor.”
“Yes, I heard her mention it to you. The sister of his ex, right?”
“Yup. Depending on how well he gets along with his ex, that may or may not prove to be a complicated situation. Whatever the case, I can’t see Levi walking away from his anchor. Not even to appease his ex.”
“He’ll find it a struggle if he does decide to fight the bond. I never had a prayer of holding out. Maybe I knew that. Maybe I knew that if I put you in my path often enough I’d eventually give in. Maybe that was what I wanted, despite knowing you would learn things about me and my kind that it was better you never learned.”
“You know your secrets are safe with me.”
He combed his fingers through her hair. “I do. Speaking of secrets … There’s a little something I haven’t yet told you. Well, it was more that I haven’t had the chance to tell you until now. I only learned of it earlier today.”
Raini’s eyes lit with interest. “Oh? Spill.”
“Celia has the occasional … well, I wouldn’t call them premonitions. It’s not a warning system—the ability is too weak to serve as one. But she sometimes sees snapshots of the future. Some are of senseless, boring things. Some are a little more significant.” He paused. “Sometime after you saved Gunther, she saw a ‘snapshot’ of you and me near the cathedral. We weren’t alone. There was a little boy and two little blonde girls with us. She couldn’t give me accurate descriptions—the visual was gone too fast for her to absorb any specifics. But she thought we might like to know.”
Raini’s face went all soft and warm. “Why didn’t she mention it before now?”
“You and I hadn’t fully committed to each other at that point. She didn’t want to influence whatever decisions we made. Some are uncomfortable at the thought that, beyond us having predestined psi-mates, certain things are inevitable. She worried one of us could have gotten spooked and pulled back from the relationship. I wouldn’t have, though. And I don’t think you would have either. I wouldn’t have let you. You and I were inevitable. I took too long to see that. But now that I have, I’ll never let you go.”
“I don’t intend to go anywhere. We made a new deal, remember?”
He nodded. “We did.”
A huge smile took over her face. “A boy and two little girls, huh?”
“You’re good with that?”
“Oh yeah. You?”
“In all honesty, I never gave much thought to having children until she told me of her vision. But yes, I’m good with it.” He was about to comment on how great she was with Asher, but then he received a short telepathic message that made him inwardly sigh.
Her brow creased. “Something wrong?”
“That was Hector. He caught your father and his brothers trying to remove one of the stained-glass windows from the cathedral—apparently, they sell pretty well. Lachlan told him he’d give me 40 percent of the profit. Naturally, Hector sent them on their way. And he thinks one of them might have taken a shit close by.”
Flushing, Raini squeezed her eyes shut. “That will have been Bram. I’m sorry. There’s no excuse for them.” She let out a tired sigh, and then her eyelids fluttered open. “Really, I should have guessed they’d do that. One of the first jobs my dad took me on was a cemetery heist.”
“What exactly is a cemetery heist?”
“He stole—or purloined—some flower arrangements, religious statues, chapel windows, and then even went grave robbing. You’d be surprised how many people buy corpses. It’s kind of disturbing.”
Maddox smoothed his hand up her back. “Baby, as much as I like your father, I don’t think it would be good for him to ever be around our kids without supervision.”
She blew out a breath. “Yeah, that’s probably a good call.”