Stolen by Her Demon King Mate

Chapter 2: Meeting

I didn’t have enough energy to fight back against my attackers but if I did it wouldn’t have mattered. They were spell-casting demons and I couldn’t counter magic. I couldn’t remember what happened next but what I did remember was when I opened my eyes I was in a cell. No one was around. It was clear to me now that I was kidnapped and sitting in a dungeon. Someone wanted access to my ability so badly that they took me for it. “Hey!” I yelled but nothing.

The cold and rough surface beneath me provided no comfort. Courtney would have a heart attack if she could see me now. There wasn’t much light and it was freezing. I could see the start of a staircase in the distance.

It wasn’t less than an hour before anyone came down and they came down with food. I didn’t eat it. Usually when a blessed one was kidnapped the captor would have a sorcerer or sorceress transfer the ability from the blessed one to the captor. I’d rather myself starve than let them take my ability if I had enough time to starve.

The next person that came down didn’t come with food. They wore a suit and were probably decades older than me.

“You have to be the vibration demon/human hybrid of the prophecy.” I was wrong because now I knew that they didn’t take me because I'm a vibration demon. They took me because I fit the description of the woman from a prophecy that overpowers the king of the demon realm. “The king will be pleased.” It took a second but I realized this was the same woman who was staring at me on the train. She had pale skin, catlike eyes, thick horns at the side of her head that curved in, and red veins that could be seen all under her eyes.“I think you check all the boxes. Not only are you a vibration demon/human hybrid but you have brown skin, purple eyes, and black hair.” Why was the prophecy so specific? I didn’t have plans of overpowering the King and I doubt I ever would.

My mom was a human. She must have noticed my absence by now. She was only still in this realm because of me and my brothers. She knew her children couldn’t live normally in the human realm so she stayed here when she got pregnant. “Speak, girl,” she said but I wouldn’t, instead, my eyes narrowed. “Fine, I don’t need you to speak. You’ll get meals until the Demon King decides he wants you dead.”

I watched her leave. A lot of thoughts raced through my head. Maybe I wouldn’t be in this situation if I stayed with Vey or maybe I still would. I had no idea how long that woman was following us.

I forced myself not to sleep for three days. It wasn’t hard because sleep never came easy to me, to begin with. Even though it wasn’t hard it still hurt not to sleep for so long. I refused to eat any of the meals given to me. I didn’t see any point. I would die here and nothing convinced me otherwise. The thought that I was most likely in a beautiful castle but would die in the worst place in it weighed on me. What was the rest of the castle like? That didn’t matter now.

Guards stood watch near the exit of the dungeon 24/7 while the woman from the train came down to monitor me daily.

I was so famished it felt like my stomach would cave in on itself. Starving to death was still my goal because I wasn’t sure when the king would decide to do away with me or how brutal it would be. Starving might have been the less painful way to go. I might have to endure this for a month or two before I die of starvation. Longer than it would take a human but not as long as it would take a full demon.

I grabbed my chest when my breathing slowed as the most satisfying scent reached my nose. I could feel my veins boiling because of what I sensed. I felt nothing but hope and starvation. Not starvation for food but for the man standing in front of my cell. My back was turned to the bars and I was facing the wall so I didn’t see him yet.

“Why won’t you eat?” The silence broke. His deep voice sent shivers up my spine.

“Wow, I almost forgot that if I eat I won’t be killed at all and your King would just let me go.” The laugh my sarcasm brought out of him was thundering. I grabbed my long horns that curve out the top of my head to the back.

“Maybe the first part of that could be arranged.” He was so sure he could stop my death sentence all because we were mates. Is that what it was?

“What’s it like up there?” I had been trying to picture it for days but failed.

“You’ll see for yourself.”

I hugged myself. “Why would the king listen to you? He sees me as a threat.”

I heard the jingling of the key as my cell door was unlocked. “Because I am the King.” I was lost for words. My mate was the demon king and that was a lot to take in. I stood up and turned around to see a man who undoubtedly looked like royalty. I looked up at him and I felt goosebumps. I couldn’t see him clearly because of the lack of light but what I saw was enough. We stared at each other for half a minute before he spoke. “I only came down here because I heard you refused to eat. Now that I have a better look at you I can see you refused to sleep as well. You need to come with me to eat.”

I was a prisoner who he planned to kill. “You wanted me dead. Why would I go with you?” I took a few steps back. I gave the impression that there was no way I’d leave this cell with him.

“Then starve,” he said coldly after locking the cell and left. It was clear my words of hesitation struck his ego. It wasn’t the best first impression. The soul linked to mine wanted to have me killed because oracles predicted someone a lot like me would overpower him. I thought cold words wouldn’t faze me because I heard them so often from Emilio but the king’s words actually caused sorrow.

I paced back and forth for a while, regretting not leaving with my mate when I had the chance.

Later that day he came back down and unlocked my cell again. “Come up and have dinner with me,” he demanded.

I couldn’t help but chuckle. I was turned away from him on the floor with my knees to my chest. “You haven’t even told me your name…” I muttered.

“You don’t know?” He chuckled huskily. “King Grayson.” I already knew the name of the demon king. I only wanted a proper introduction.

“Aren’t you worried I’ll overpower you?”

“Don’t act like things aren’t different now.'' That was the only thing close to acknowledgment of us being mates from either of us. He opened the cell door.

I leaned against the wall. “If I have dinner with you then you have to let me go.”

“You’re not in the position to be making demands. If you have dinner with me then you can stay in my room,” he negotiated.

“No. I'm not going to spend the night with the man who had me kidnapped and imprisoned.” I wanted to go with him but that was a deal-breaker.

“Follow me,” He insisted after studying me.

I followed him out of the dungeon. I assumed that since our back and forth finished that he decided I wouldn’t be eating. For all I knew I could have been following him to my quick and painless death. I dusted the dirt of the cell ground off my clothes as we moved down the hall. The walls of the hall were full of portraits of past kings and queens. I grew a little more worried every time my feet took another step on the thick soft carpet beneath us.

Grayson was stopped by a woman in a pants suit. She was the same woman from the train who was monitoring me in the dungeon. He gestured for me to wait at a distance while they spoke. I couldn’t quite hear anything except him say, “Have him killed.”

I walked into a room after him and down the small staircase at the entrance. I looked around the spacious room. It had to be his. I had never seen a room this furnished before. I turned to face him and in one swift motion, he hugged me. I was taken aback but felt calm almost instantaneously. Nothing but electricity coursed through me. "Mine...,”he claimed me. My eyes widened when I felt his huge erection against my lower stomach. My panties were no longer dry. I evaded his hold on me.

He stared at me for a while before speaking. “I can get you your own room.” His offer was tempting but I had other things to worry about.

“Why can’t you let me go? If you let me go we could handle this mate thing like adults.”

“And what about the prophecy? If I let you go I can’t prevent it. Since you’re my mate I won’t kill you but I have to take precautions for the sake of my kingdom.”

“The prophecy isn’t about me. I’m sure there are tons of hybrids of my combination who have my hair, skin complexion, and eye color. Plus the term ‘overpower’ is super vague. You’re a large man with huge horns, two sets of fangs and my ability isn’t exactly threatening. If you wanted you could have used force to make me have dinner with you. I could never overpower you.”

Grayson smirked. “I could still use force.”

I blushed. “Slow down...” I couldn’t help but find him extremely attractive. “Seriously though, overthrow would have been a better word.”

Grayson raised his eyebrows. “So you want to overthrow me instead? No one would take you as Queen unless you mated with me. Overpower is a good word because it includes assassination and doesn’t assume you’d take leadership.”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t want to overthrow or overpower you. I want to get back to my mom and my brothers. I don’t know if I even want anything to do with you.” I felt like those last words were a lie.

He walked to the other side of the room and I got a better look at him. He had broad shoulders, a masculine build, and other strong attractive features. He was tall at 6’5 while I was only 5’6”. His jet black hair was shiny and it’s length reached down to his ear lobes. The only thing feminine about him other than his thick hair was his pretty monolid light green eyes.

“Let’s focus on one thing at a time. You want to get back to your family but you can’t go back to them if you die of starvation or exhaustion. Are you thinking any of this through?”

“Fine.”

He held out his hand. “You can take some of my energy, you look like you’re going to fall over.”

“I don’t want your energy.” I refused. The more energy I consumed from a single person the more connected I’d feel to them. I’ve shared a lot of energy with my mother, Vey, and Emilio. That’s why I spent so much time letting Emilio mistreat me. I walked to a plant and took enough of its energy to feel like I had a good nap. I didn’t take enough to weaken the plant. I made sure to never take too much energy from a living creature again after what’s happened as a result of doing it before. I still needed to eat because energy transfer doesn’t give me a variety of nutrients nor stop the pain I felt from my stomach being empty.

He left and came back with a tray of food. I sat at the round table in his room and ate but he didn’t.

When I was done I couldn’t stop looking at my distressed, dirty clothes. They reminded me I only just got out of the cell. I needed to pace myself. I had many fears and worries. My mother needed me so I couldn’t get too distracted with Grayson.

“You’re a mess. Let’s take a shower or a bath. Whichever you prefer.” My head raised quickly in reaction to his words and I swallowed. He actually expected me to bathe with him?