ENTICED (#3 The Valkyries)

Chapter 1 - Pazuzu

With a light caress, Pazuzu, the Demon Prince of the Aerial Kingdoms, kissed his little mate's wrist and forearm, now fully healed and without so much as a scar on her silky olive skin after her recent traumatic ordeal. He exhaled some of the lingering tightness in his chest—he'd come far too close to losing Anna—then clasped her fingers to tug her to her feet, guiding her from their luncheon table.

"I'm going to be round as a ball if you keep stuffing me full like this," Anna complained, rubbing her belly. But the glint in her eyes and twitch at the curve of her lips belied her tone.

Not that she didn't have a point. Maybe he was hovering and fussing a bit much. Still, by Tiamat, he enjoyed pampering her, feeding her, knowing his child lay within that soft, fragile form. And wasn't he entitled to fuss after waiting three thousand years for a willing, compatible female to agree to his mating, to bear his child?

To be capable of surviving bearing his child—the first human-dragon mating.

He swallowed the acidic taste creeping up his throat and souring his tongue. Anna was beyond precious to him. So many things could go wrong. Had he risked her by not waiting even longer for the White Haoma to continue to adapt her body and genetic structure?

His two scientists were sure the herb and generations of discrete crossbreeding of fertility temple acolytes' descendants upon their return to Earth had made her compatible, but fuck... she still hadn't presented an aspect of the demon since receiving his mating bite and venom. Not that he'd observed, at least. If the cosmos asked for his choice, he'd wrap his impenetrable dragon form scales around her at will. Or to give her the ability to create portals and escape. Or to fly. By the Abyss, he'd take any ability of his that would help protect her.

He snorted. He might as well wish upon Apsu until the smoke ran out of his wings. Chaos forces never worked that way, unfortunately. "You, my lovely little mate, will never be a ball. I love your curves. Carrying my dragonet requires lots of energy."

She wrinkled her nose. "At least I didn't spend the morning hovering over the toilet bowl."

Pazuzu flinched and rubbed her back, recalling his terror at finding her retching, pale, and shaking yesterday. How she'd hidden that from him previously, he wasn't sure. He should have noticed, damn it. And her assurance that it was natural for human women wasn't particularly reassuring. Not that he had any experience with pregnant females with them so very rare, although he'd seen a few of the other demon races.

As they turned the corner with the arched door of the throne room in sight, Pazuzu halted and cupped her cheek. "Are you sure you don't want to lay down? You don't have to sit with me. I'll only be a couple of hours if you'd rather take a nap."

Her thick lashes veiled her eyes before she met his gaze again. "But then what would I do when the need hits and you aren't there to take care of me?"

Lust roared through his veins and he drew her up against his body. "Minx. If you wanted me to fuck you on my throne, you know you only have to ask."

"Yes..." Anna's giggle surrounded them, the sound easing the primal hunger that had surged at her teasing. "But perhaps after I've digested the massive meal you insisted I eat. Then you can satisfy my other appetites."

"Deal," he growled and continued through the shimmering barrier protecting the private wing of his palace and into the throne room—a new addition. His enemies would find it far harder to get to Anna again.

As her amusement tinkled off the obsidian stone walls, Pazuzu nodded to Luukas and Rainier, two of Captain Derrick's wolven lieutenants stationed on either side of the throne and pulled Anna down onto his lap in the wide, midnight opalescent seat that represented his rule. Derrick and Bernat had stationed twice as many wolves and gargoyles around the palace as usual, both captains furious that Lamashtu's Lahmu had kidnapped Anna from under their noses.