Claimed by the Demon prince

Lucille Pov “Lucille, please. You have to reconsider. What you’re about to do is a very big risk.” I let out a slow breath and turned to face my sister. “Yes, I know you love him. But this is too much. Can’t you just do the normal mate bond and let it be? That’s more than enough to show you love him, don’t you think?” Keisha’s deep blue eyes searched mine, looking for any sign that I was changing my mind. They were the mirror image of my own. We were twins, after all … the same soft blue eyes, the same flowing blonde hair. The only difference was in our faces. Mine was rounder, and softer at the edges, while hers was sharp and angular, she had the kind of face that turned heads in any room she walked into. She was seductive, people had been telling her that since we were sixteen. She was the other half of my soul, my parents the alpha and Luna of this great pack had died leaving me and my sister in charge, we were all we had left. That was why her worry for me cut deeper than anyone else could. And yet she didn’t understand. She couldn’t. She didn’t know what Lycaon was to me, what he had given me, what he meant to me. And even if no one understood, I wasn’t backing out. “Sister.” I reached for her face and held it gently between both my hands. “This is something I have to do. It’s what I want. It’s what my wolf wants. I’m performing the soul bond.” “Lucille!” She shouted my name, pushing my hands away like they burned her. “If you do this, you’re on your own. I won’t support you.” Tears were already sliding down her cheeks. “I won’t sit and watch my sister destroy herself. I won’t.” “Destroy?” I shook my head. “Don’t you think you’re being a little dramatic? A soul bond isn’t destruction, Keisha. It’s the proof of eternal love between wolves. You know that. Mom and Dad did it.” “And they died on the same day.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. It was almost worse than the shouting. “We watched them drive each other to madness. We watched it happen, Lucille. You watched it happen. Why isn’t that enough to make you stop?” “Because they were mated to the wrong people. But I am not.” “And you know that how?” “Because I love him.” “Oh, Goddess save me.” She let out a broken laugh and turned for the door. “Goddess save you, sister. Because I can’t.” She walked out. It had been like this for days. Ever since I made my decision, every conversation between us ended the same way … with her leaving the room and me staring at the door, telling myself she would come around. She didn’t know everything. That was the problem. If she did, she would understand. I was finally pregnant. Pregnant for my mate, my saviour, the only man in the world who had ever truly seen me. I owed Lycaon everything, and I still shuddered to think about how close I had come to never meeting him at all. Not even Keisha knew the full story. I had been caught by wolf hunters. It happened the year I turned eighteen, four years ago, when my thirst for knowledge and the curiosity I could never seem to outrun pushed me further than I should have gone. Twenty years ago, after generations of hatred and slaughter, the borders had been drawn. The humans hunted us because we weren’t like them — as if they weren’t the real monsters. The vampires were worse. And worse than all of them were the demons, with their red eyes, who killed without mercy and took what was left. Cross to the other side, any side, and you would be killed on sight. There were no warnings. And definitely no second chances.” I only wanted to see what it looked like. That was all. A glance. A breath of air on the human side of the world before I turned back. But they were waiting, and I was a young wolf with no training and barely any control over my shift, and they had me cornered before I could even change form. I remember the smell of metal. I remember a hand twisting in my hair. I remember thinking, so this is how I die. Then I fainted. When I woke up, I was in Lycaon’s arms. That day I announced that he will rule beside me as my equal, I made him the alpha of our park. And today was the day I would bond myself to him forever. The headache crept in slowly, the way headaches do when you’ve been clenching your jaw too long without realising. I sat on the edge of my bed and pressed my fingers into my temples, breathing through it. My wolf paced inside me. She had been restless all morning, whining low in the back of my mind, missing him. Go to him, she kept saying. Go. So I did. The walk to his quarters was short. The pack house was quiet at that hour, most of the warriors out on patrol, the omegas in the kitchens preparing for the evening meal. The corridor that led to Lycaon’s wing stretched long and warm under the late afternoon light, and I let myself smile as I walked it. He would be surprised to see me. He always was. I was a few feet from his door when I heard a soft sound. I slowed down. My ears … wolf ears, sharper than any human’s could ever be … pulled the sound clean out of the air. That was the sound of a man moaning. I froze. Then another sound. A voice I knew. The voice of Marcus, Lycaon’s assistant. “Oh … oh, you f**k me so good, Lycan. Goddess. Oh … “ The hallway tilted. I put my hand against the wall to steady myself, and even then it didn’t feel like enough. My wolf had gone silent. Completely silent. Not whining now, not pacing. Just … still. The kind of still that comes before something dies. No. No, that isn’t … I made myself move. One step. Another. The door wasn’t fully closed; it never was, in this part of the house. He liked the air. He liked to hear me coming. I pushed it open. And there, on the wide bed I had shared with him only the night before, was my mate. My saviour. My alpha. The father of the child curled small and new beneath my heart. He had his hand fisted in Marcus’s dark hair, and he was smiling.