And he still needed to mate her. Whatever that powerful light within her was, they would have to talk about it later.

She looked like she wanted to interject, but when he paused to let her speak, she didn’t. Instead her shoulders slumped, the dark circles underneath her eyes seeming more bruised than ever. She needed him.

“Selma… We need to make you better, little one.”

She shrugged and attempted to straighten, but he could still see the strain on her face. Their previous seeding had not been nearly enough to make up for her depletion of energy, and he suspected that her usage of the powerful light hadn’t helped things.

“I’m okay,” she said, though her gaze slipped from his to where her hands lay in her lap.

“You’re not okay. I need to take you again. And I will need to do that every day until he is born.”

She paled noticeably, and Kain’s heart sank into his stomach. If he had to force her, he would never be able to look at himself in the mirror again, but he would do anything to save her life. Even this.

28

Selma

She knew he was right. No matter how much she tried to ignore it, bone-deep exhaustion was lurking right underneath the surface, threatening to break through and render her helpless.

She hadn’t thought much about it when they were preparing to rescue Kain—had written it off as a natural reaction to the stress and trauma she’d endured since the attack in Colorado. But after she’d collapsed at the queen’s residence, she’d come to realize that it was so much more than that.

In her bones, she knew that if Kain hadn’t done what he did—as mortifying as it was to be fucked on the side of the road with his father and brother watching—she would have died, along with the life she was carrying.

Selma glanced at the large demon perched on the bed next to her. He was frankly terrifying; there was just no way around that. Though she’d been able to accept that he was her mate, the thought of willingly submitting to his monstrous cock while he looked like this made her heart pound.

The grim determination displayed by the set of his mouth made her remember what he’d said in the car after she told him she was pregnant—that he would take her, regardless of her protests, as long as she carried his child. She knew it was to ensure both she and his son survived, but it had been a lot easier to accept when he still looked like the incredibly handsome and more human man who’d saved her time and time again.