Lucifer crouched in front of Adela, but he kept his distance.
It was obvious she didn’t want him to come closer.
“All those in my lands are my business,” he explained evenly.
“Being on my lands means that my laws must be followed.” Her watery blue eyes stared into his red ones for a few moments before she pulled her gaze away with an audible scoff.
“I believed laws could protect me in the past,” she responded.
“But laws never benefit the weaker when the ones who abuse them are the ones who create them.” Lucifer’s expression seemed sympathetic as he stared down at her, but she didn’t trust it.
Why would she ever trust a man again for as long as she lived?
“Are they the ones who did this to you?” he wondered.
Her eyes widened.
She had forgotten what she looked like, but the split lip and black eye were probably a dead giveaway.
At least this time they hadn’t broken her nose.
“It’s just…” she trailed off, wondering why she was coming up with an excuse for their behavior.
“They didn’t mean it.
It was right after a full moon.
Their emotions were… intense, and they couldn’t control themselves.” What surprised Adela the most was the sarcastic laugh that escaped Lucifer’s proud lips.
It felt like he was making fun of her.
She sprang up.
“If you’re not a werewolf, then I don’t expect you to understand how werewolves love one another,” she responded coolly.
“And is that why you’re running away?” he asked.
“Their love?” Her eyebrows lowered.
“They said it was love,” she admitted, still backing away, but her posture showed that there was no point in protecting herself anymore as she thought of the alphas waiting for her on the other side.
“Passing me back and forth between them each night.
That was what their love looked like.
It’s because I’m not enough of a werewolf that I couldn’t come to terms with it, so why should a half-breed like me have to be their Queen?” “You shouldn’t,” Lucifer responded quietly.
“There are world laws beyond those of the various clans that nullify this sort of misuse of power.” “Right,” Adela responded, clearly not believing him.
“You must not be a werewolf.” “You’re right,” he confirmed.
“Then you won’t understand that I’m supposedly a dominant omega that makes me irresistible to alpha werewolves, but it all makes my skin crawl when it’s over with,” she confessed quietly, and her arms hugged herself as she became more vulnerable.
Lucifer’s expression became darker.
Adela noticed, but she was taking a chance that this man wasn’t a werewolf, but someone who seemed to care about laws.
“The heats, the marks on my body when I’ve come down from being controlled by their pheromones… I walk free, but I feel imprisoned.
Even now…” She gripped her arms, her nails sinking into her skin through the thin sweatshirt.
“My bond is burning me, telling me to return.
Somehow, my fear of having to live like them for a moment longer is worse.” At that, Lucifer closed up the floor again.
Adela found herself not feeling afraid of it this time because Lucifer’s expression was serious as he looked down at her.
The more she spoke, the angrier he seemed to get.
If she were more optimistic, it might seem like he was trying to keep her safe, as he said.
“Tell me something,” he requested.
“What is it?” “How old were you when you were given to the werewolves?” he asked.
Her brown eyebrows lowered at his question.
She knew that if she was truthful, he was going to judge her for it, but it was like he could read her mind.
“Be honest,” he insisted.
“I was sixteen when I was given to them after my parents died,” she admitted.
“But they had been involved in my life for a while before that.” For some reason, the dungeon started to get warmer.
There were candles on the walls in bronze sconces that flared.
“At any point, was any of this your choice?” he asked, his voice hollow.
The room was hot by that point; she had to unzip her sweatshirt because she was beginning to sweat.
It gave her a bit of distraction from his burning question.
“My pheromones chose it… chose them,” she corrected herself.
“I didn’t choose it.” The fire in the candles seemed to explode, and the fire disappeared altogether.
When the room was cast in darkness, Adela pressed herself against the wall.
She was trembling, but she remained silent.
Soon, Lucifer lit a fire in what looked like his hands, but he must have been holding a lighter, Adela reasoned.
In the darkness, she didn’t see that horns appeared out of his head, but he concealed them before lighting the candles again.
Once one was lit, it seemed to form a chain reaction until the others were lit and the room was light again.
“I’m going to help you,” he finally said as he turned back to her.
“Why?” she asked.
“You’re on my lands, so you’re my responsibility,” he reasoned.
“On top of that, I hate when beings think they are too powerful for established laws.
Laws must be followed.
There should be punishment for breaking those laws.” As he began to walk away, Adela eyed him.
He was attractive.
There was nothing seemingly wrong with him.
Men like that always meant trouble, but he hadn’t done anything that should make her believe he had ill intentions.
However, that was always how it began.
“What now?” she wondered, still debating his trustworthiness despite his noble words.
In front of Lucifer, a section of the wall slid open, and he passed through, but he turned to the side as he looked at her.
“That’s entirely up to you,” he responded.
“As long as you stay on my lands, you’ll be under my protection.
She opted to get up and began to follow him, since it seemed he was the key to getting out of the dungeon.
“My home is yours to explore while I get to the bottom of this… situation,” he continued.
However, the closer she got to the door, the more curious she got about the noises outside.
“Where are we?” she wondered.
“You’re the one who begged to be sent to Hell,” he responded, a faint smirk pulling at his lips.
Her mouth hung open when she finally walked out onto the castle wall he had started across.
“Are you-Are you the Devil?!”