Reclaimed (Shadow Beast Shifters Book 2)

What was it about orgasms that rendered a person all soft and gooey? Shadow and I were hardly the cuddly types… we’d never cuddled once in all our time together. But after that soul-destroying orgasm, I felt like I could wrap myself around him and go to sleep.

Well, at least that was what I thought before he fisted a handful of my hair, holding my head still so he could kiss me long and hard, and I could taste my pleasure on his lips. Fuck if that didn’t make this kiss way more intense.

“You ready, Sunshine?”

I gasped, choking out some words that sounded a lot like oh, my fucking yes, yes, yes. Shadow’s smile was wicked, and again he kissed me with the sort of intense passion that I’d only ever dreamt of experiencing. Shadow’s brutality tempered with just enough gentleness apparently did it for me, and I would forever compare other men to him. No doubt always finding them wanting.

“Stop thinking,” he ordered, and as his grip in my hair tightened, he used his other hand to spin me around. I gasped as he slowly pushed me over, inch by inch, until my ass was exposed in the air before him.

Shadow’s power lifted me so he could fuck me this way, and I felt the head of his cock push against my still-pulsing pussy. “Please,” I gasped, trying to wiggle back on him.

He chuckled, a deep rumble, and I moaned. He held me still, and the force was enough to have my stomach clenching and toes curling as air huffed in and out of me. He pushed inside another inch, so he only had a billion more to go, and I wanted to feel the full freaking length. I needed it.

“Your pussy is the best fucking thing I’ve ever felt or tasted.” Shadow growled. “And it belongs to me.”

“Yes,” I gasped. “It’s yours. Just fuck me.”

The hand that had been firmly pressed to my back started to move, sliding down my spine, bringing with it the burn of his power, and as it mingled with my own, I was about a moment from coming again. Shadow leaned over and another inch entered me; this was torture, but I was definitely not going to complain.

Another inch, and another, until I was panting over his dick like a bitch in heat. This was what I’d always promised myself I’d never do, but who had known it was going to be like this? Definitely not me.

“Our demons match, Sunshine,” he murmured, and I could have sworn he leaned over to press a kiss along my spine, just as he plunged the last of his length inside. The stretching burn had me choking on my next breath, and when he pulled out and slammed into me again, I started to moan and couldn’t stop.

He was relentless, slamming into me, his power keeping me from flying forward with each forceful thrust. The orgasm building was just as intense as before, but different. This time it was fast and earthshattering. When I came screaming around his cock, he just let out a satisfied laugh, not stopping for a moment.

Fucking demon. But fuck, he was good at what he did.

By the time he finally came with me, I was basically dead. “Just roll me over and throw a towel on me,” I moaned, barely able to open my eyes. “I’m done-ski.”

His power turned me so he could hold me close, and in a brief moment of sweetness, his energy cleaned me up, redressed me, and then I was once again on my mat beside Angel surrounded by my creatures.

Sleep claimed me in seconds, but just before I was unconscious, I could have sworn I felt lips press to mine. “Our souls match, Sunshine.”

It was a whisper on the winds, and when I woke the next morning, I knew I’d imagined it. Because souls matching was so much more than our demons matching. It was the building of true mates, and one thing I knew for certain was Shadow and I might have sexual compatibility, but our true mates were other beings.

Fate was fucked sometimes.

“We’ll soon be coming along the main territory of multiple species of creatures,” Ixana said the next morning. She’d been particularly snarky since we’d gotten up, and I wondered if somehow she knew about Shadow and me. I mean, Inky had been blocking us, and I doubted that she was able to get around its power, but there was a chill in her already icy eyes that was much more pronounced than usual.

And I gave zero fucks. She didn’t own Shadow. Until they had an actual relationship, she was the other woman. Mine first.

“I should be able to handle whatever comes our way,” I said, “especially with the abervoqs on my side.”

They all brayed and there was a strength and vitality about them now that had been missing yesterday when I’d found them. My energy was powering theirs, and Midnight was powering all of us—this was what I’d lacked back in Torma when I’d called the mists and creatures. I hadn’t had Midnight.

This is why we bonded, it repeated.

I agreed completely. Midnight had come to me because I’d needed the strength of the mists to complete my life task. There was no going back now; in truth, there had been no going back from the first moment I’d lost my mind and touched the shadow world.

As Ixana had predicted, we started to run into more creatures. The intensity picked up the farther we got from her land, and I was absolutely disgusted by the state of them. Weak and tired. Broken and weary.

It took next to no effort to bond them to me, and even though many of them were mortal enemies of each other, they didn’t fight when they were connected in my net of power. Each time it took some power from Midnight and me, but we were also getting energy back from the healed beings, until eventually there was a veritable hum in the air.

By the time we were starting to slow for the day, I had a hundred or so various creatures following in a long line across the dead land. I had not eaten or drunk a single thing all day, either, and it was the weirdest sensation, since I felt no need for sustenance. I was exhausted but satisfied.

“You’re starting to self-sustain,” Angel said, sounding impressed. “It’s usually a sign of an increase in power and immortality. In your situation, I don’t know for sure what it means.”

I nodded. “I have no idea. I mean, I’m not even hungry! What the fuck is up with that? So trippy.”

Angel shot me an amused look. “The trippiest.”

She was pretty good with my random Earth slang, but it still made her laugh. I liked making her laugh.

“We should stop for a rest,” Ixana called, shutting down any further conversation. “There are more than enough creatures in our army now to keep us safe.”

Our army? Not even in her wildest dreams. But I’d play the game until such a time it wasn’t convenient for me to do so.

We set up camp, and Angel was once again at my side, along with my original abervoqs. I kind of liked the safety and security that came from this new life; not even once had I been overwhelmed with all the energy or noise. If anything, I’d feel desperately alone without it.

But there was a sense of loss already creeping into my being, the knowledge that it was all temporary. I was living someone else’s life at the moment and eventually reality would come crashing right back in.