The Cambion's Hoard

The color drained from Rose’s face. It made my heart drop and feel like I’d been gutted. Her reaction reminded me of my mother’s words. Humans reject mates. They don’t want to be with an Other. Humans like doting monogamy like the next couple, but only if it is with another human. So they rejected their children and left their mates. Some humans didn’t feel a mate bond until a child was conceived. They didn’t understand.

She continued on with that shit for years. I’d finally convinced myself that if I ever felt the mate pull for a human, I’d kill myself before I admitted it. If the human didn’t feel it, it wouldn’t hurt, right?

A human mate would love you and then leave you. Yep, I didn’t want to live through that. Then Biggs and I met Henson. After that, the potential and very unlikely human mate was in the past.

“Ow.” Roes’s words pulled my mind back. Hurtling like a meteor.

I let go of her arms. “Rose, I’m sorry.”

She shook her head and grabbed my hand. It was a comforting feeling. Fuck, I wanted to bury myself in her touch. Each mood: angry, sexually, joyfully, and even in sadness. No one told me it would happen this fast and I’d fall this hard.

“Thatch?” Her voice was soft.

My eyes stung. I wanted to pull away and take it back. Why did she have to show up? She’s ruining everything. Rose grabbed my cheek, and I had to fight, rubbing her hand.

“Are you sure?”

I pulled away and felt the heat of pain in my belly. But, of course, she didn’t want to be mates with a dragon. Because some humans claimed we were worse than most shifters, orc and ogre kind, dragons made gargoyles like child’s play. So more and more humans reject Other mates because we are monsters.

“Yes, I’m fucking sure.” I stepped back.

Rose grabbed me again. “Oh, no, no, no. I mean, there is something I need to tell you. ”

I looked down at the curvy, petite woman and hoped I wasn’t being rejected. “What’s that?”

Rose stepped back and twisted the hem of her sweater. She was unsure of where moments ago she’d been confident. I moved before I grasped what I was doing. Wrapping my arms around her, I pulled her tightly against my body. I leaned her back slightly, pressing our hips together.

Brushing my lips to her ear raised bumps on her skin. “Tell me. I need to know.”

I didn’t expect them to come out in such a pleading way.

“My father, he’s an incubus.”

I froze. Incubus? She smelled human. This woman could stoke the fire and douse it in a second flat.

“You’re a cambion?” I didn’t let her go.

“Technically, yes. Genetically, yes. Capabilities, no. Outwardly, no. I don’t have any traits that would come with having an incubus father. That and I’m immune to an incubus or succubus’s influence. So that’s why I can work at Twilight. I was raised by my human mother and stepdad.” She tapped nervously on my chest.

I let her words settle in. Maybe she wasn’t rejecting me. Couldn’t she react to that, being my mate?

“Thatch?” Again, so gentle. The way she said my name. Like it was important, so vital.

“All I need to know is if you’re willing. If you’re going to reject me or not.” There put it out there again.

Rose reached up, tentatively touching my jaw with her fingertips. “We can go slow, right.? I’m being a giant... flirt, but I’ve known you for 24 hours.”

I nuzzled her ear, took the lobe between my lips, and pulled gently. She pressed against me, and I chuckled. “One stipulation.”

Rose wrapped her hands around the back of my head. “What does the good boy want?”

I moaned. Good boy. Fuck. “I want to be able to touch you every day. As if I was walking by, a quick innocent brush. Until I’m begging for it. Really begging. You’ll know.”

“Only when my good boy’s eyes plead me to take him.” Rose pulled away, and I tried to grab her.

She tutted me. Wagging her finger in the air in time with her ample hips. “You’ve already touched me today.”

Fuck.