“Have been for quite some time.”

Her cheeks flared with heat, and she bowed her head.

He stayed with me like this for a while? Minutes? Hours?

How long had Orpheus been awake, basking in her like this?

“How come you’re still inside me? Doesn’t it usually go back inside you?”

He licked behind her ear since she’d hidden her face.

“As long as it is sheltered in something warm and wet, it doesn’t matter where it is. You said I could be inside you whenever I wanted. I chose to rest with it lying in you.”

He wasn’t being sexual, it wasn’t hard. It was strange, but this was one of the sweetest things she’d ever heard or experienced.

Was it possible for someone to fuck their way into someone’s heart? Because it felt like he’d done that.

Emotions, stronger than ever, were swirling within her. Ones that hadn’t been so prevalent before last night.

He licked behind her ear again but twisted his head to follow along the deep scar behind it. He then grasped her knee where her other scar was.

“Why is it you have these scars?” His voice was laced in curiosity, and she knew he would one day ask her about them.

She just didn’t think it would be now.

“I-I don’t want to talk about it,” she mumbled.

“Why not?”

“Because it’s not nice, and I don’t want to ruin this.”

She was enjoying their cuddle. She didn’t want to bring up terrible memories.

A deep growl began to rumble from him, and he slipped his hand forward to cup her cheek that was resting against the pillow to turn her face towards him. He was leaning over her, his eyes already starting to glow a faint red.

“Did someone hurt you, Reia?”

She sighed, seeing no way to escape this.

“I told you the villagers called me the harbinger of bad omens. Well, a few of them thought it would be just a fantastic idea to throw a large rock at me. It hit me in the head. I blacked out and cut my knee when I fell on the ground.”

“Your own people hurt you?” he snarled, his eyes brightening into crimson.

“It’s fine, Orpheus.” She placed her forehead against him.

“It was a long time ago. Those men were arseholes anyway.”

That didn’t placate him, didn’t make his chest stop rumbling with that aggressive noise. She already missed his strange purr.

“You are precious. No one is allowed to hurt you. I can kill them for you if you like.”

Reia giggled, reaching up to stroke his jaw from underneath. “Could you? I would really like that.”

Her humour reached him, and he huffed loudly in irritation.

“If you want me to, I will. I will do anything for you.”

Oooo, you guys don’t know what’s coming! Because Reia was seriously considering it. It wasn’t the first, nor the last time those three men terrorised her. Grown men almost the same age as her, and she despised them for everything they’d done.

They’d thrown food at her instead of giving it to her like they were supposed to. Threw water on her. Nailed her house shut so she couldn’t get inside when it was dark and unsafe to be outside, even in the village.

They’d teased and bullied her relentlessly that her family was dead. Mocking her, their deaths, playacting as if they were her family while one of them pretended to be the Demon killing and eating them. Whenever they mentioned her baby brother, pretended to cry and wail, it always filled her with so much rage that she tried to fight them.

Of course, then she would be reprimanded for shouting and touching others – even though it was in retaliation.

The ringleader of the group’s father had been one of the men travelling back with her that died the day after her parents were eaten. They blamed her for it.

No one in the village did anything to stop them, and some actually laughed while they did. Some were disapproving, but that was more because they were worried about

unsettling the universe because of what they believed she was.

I still can’t believe being a harbinger isn’t real.

Her stomach chose that moment to be as loud as freaking possible and grumbled like that of a deep rumbling thunderstorm.

“You are hungry,” he said, and his tentacles started to loosen from her so he could withdraw.

Wait, no. Reia didn’t care about her stomach right then, but he’d slipped out of her before she could stop him. Her heart sunk at the loss she felt.

She sat up and turned to face him as he started to get up.

She squeaked, quickly getting to her knees to squeeze her bent legs together as she sat on her ankles. She clutched at her thighs, recoiling at the sensation she felt.

“Reia?” he quickly questioned, kneeling on the bed at the sound she made, and her suddenly sitting up like this. “Is something wrong?”

Shit. How was she supposed to explain that she could feel his seed coming out of her!? That she’d reacted to her body letting go of it now that he’d exited her and was currently making a mess between her thighs that felt like a trickling, tickling sensation.

“I’m okay,” she laughed, looking down to his crotch while he was kneeling on the bed, and almost ended it with a giggle.

Although still quite large, his cock was floppy, his tentacles too. That’s cute. It didn’t look like the monster that had made her melt so much she felt like she was going to pool out of her very own skin.

The tentacles were already moving around it to shield it and eventually would hide it away.

“Then what is wrong?” He reached across the bed, his head twisting sideways, as he went to place his clawed index and middle finger to her cheek in what she thought was worry. She only flinched, clenching her eyes shut,

because she could feel another clump leaving her and wanted to die in embarrassment. “Have I hurt you or upset you?”

She shook her head.