Page 145 of Pareidolia

He doesn’t say anything at first, just whimpers and whines. “I… mnnnf… I… fuck.” He gasps, writhing against the shadows that hold him in place and dragging in a gasping breath. “Harder. Fuck me like you want to kill me.”

I grin against his skin, a press of teeth that makes him moan again.

He liked it.

He liked dying in my arms.

“I’ll kill you a thousand times, little monster… but I need you to beg.”

There’s no pride, no stubbornness. Aspen thrashes his head back against the tree and groans.

“Bite me, Nox. If you think I’m fucking yours… mmmfuck… show everyone.”

Show everyone.

The world.

A thousand prying eyes would want him, like that fucking ranger who stepped into my woods.

My teeth sink into his skin and Aspen screams. I drink down the pleasure and pain that roll off him in waves, and bite my tongue as I lift my head so more of that black liquid spills from between my lips before I dip my head to bite him again.

And again.

On his throat, his chest, his arms. Anywhere I can reach.

Anywhere that will scar.

I want it all.

Aspen’s body starts to spasm as the low growl in my chest grows. My teeth find his skin a dozen times over, biting and marking, piercing flesh until my face is dripping with his blood, my chest covered with it. It spills into the cut he left behind, a burst of heat entering my body that’s unique to anything I’ve felt before.

We feed on the flavor of each other as he comes on my cock, trying to reach for me, to set teeth and nails on my skin in turn, and when the tendrils finally slide from around his arms, he instantly flings himself forward.

His teeth set against my neck and he bites down, filling his mouth with more of the black liquid that pulses through my body.

“Fuck… fuck… mmm… Nox. Fuck you.” He finally manages to get the curse out as he reaches around me and grabs my wings, fisting them in his hands like they can get him closer.

The feel of it sends a pulse of pleasure through me—the touch against a part of me that no one has touched but him, his fingers digging and trying to tear.

My hips buck hard one more time as his cum mixes with the blood and black fluid on my stomach and I bury myself inside him—my cock lances deep, and I pull him from the tree, taking him to the ground so I can rut against him and plant our pleasure as a seed in the earth.

I fill him, spilling more fluid than necessary into the cavity of his body until it dribbles and drips down his thighs. Aspen’s head falls back, pine needles tangling in his hair as he looks up at me with a fucked-out expression and eyes half dazed from blood loss. I can see the things crawling beneath his skin this way—black liquid strands that are tiny mirrors to the tendrils spilling from my back. They work across his skin, knitting it back together as best they can, keeping their host alive because I will it so.

I want to tear him apart and crawl inside him, to live beneath that flesh as it comes back together. I want his heart on my tongue so I can taste it to see if it’s beating so hard, so fast, because somewhere deep in his unfeeling soul, Aspen truly does realize that he belongs to me.

CHAPTER 18

ASPEN

I’ve been torn apart and made new. I can feel every claw mark on my body, every bite and bruise. I probably look like I was mauled by a fucking bear…

But when I stretch, the delicious pain that ripples through me is better than anything I’ve ever felt. For the first time in my life I feel…

Whole.

Full…

I feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.