She didn’t know why the ridiculous plea bubbled past her lips—he was a demon, and as far as she knew, hurting people was the entire purpose of their existence.

The prince arced both eye-ridges. “Don’t hurt you?” He snorted, and she could have sworn exasperation flicked across his harrowing features. He opened his mouth as if to say more, but seemed to think better of it. With a deep sigh, he rubbed a clawed hand over his face and sank into a crouch several feet from where she was huddled. “You have nothing to fear, little one. Nothing bad will happen to you.”

Georgia eyed him suspiciously. His voice had changed pitch entirely, the gruff boom of it now sweetly cajoling. He sounded exactly like she did when trying to lure her mom’s cat into his carrier for a vet visit.

“Then let me go,” she said, tipping her chin up in an attempt to project strength she didn’t feel.

He huffed another breath. “I would love to. But I can’t. Thank your friend who dropped you off in my lap. I certainly plan to, if he ever has the bright idea to cross my path again.” His voice had lost some of its dulcet tones to an acrid note.

Was he… annoyed at her presence? She blinked, the small burst of injustice that the giant monster who had her in his claws seemed inconvenienced at her plight gave way to a burst of wild hope.

“No one… No one has to know. I won’t tell anyone, and I’m sure Irral is long gone.”

The prince stared blankly at her for several seconds before he raised his hand to rub at the bridge of his nose. “No one has to know?” he parroted. “You don’t know what you are, do you?”

Georgia hesitated, that uncomfortable word Jimmy and his bodyguards had called her echoing in her mind. There was no way she was saying that out loud. She didn’t need the giant monster getting any ideas that she was on board with its implications.

“Right. Of course the prick didn’t explain anything. Why would he, when he could just drop you off on my doorstep?” The demon drew in another deep breath. “You see us for what we really are, yes? Horns, fangs, claws, et cetera?”

She nodded, eyes darting to the black, curved horns atop his head.

“Women who can see through our human disguise are rare. You’re what we would call… compatible. We value your companionship immensely.” He gave her a tight smile that did nothing to quell her unease. “And for that reason, it is my duty to protect you. There are those that would do you harm for what you are to us. So no. I cannot let you leave.”

Right. Companionship. Georgia narrowed her eyes at the prince. Even if she hadn’t experienced exactly what kind of companionship his kind was interested in, it was pretty obvious that he was glossing over some major details.

“I’ll take my chances. I’ve managed on my own so far.”

The demon’s smile tightened until scary-looking fangs popped out from below his lips. If it was meant as a comforting gesture, it wholly missed the mark. “You’ve been lucky. You won’t continue to be so. My men are loyal and will keep your presence in my domain a secret for as long as I request it. The scumbag who brought you to me? Less likely. And the second word gets out about you, darling, you’ll be hunted down like a single rabbit by a pack of hungry jackals.”

Georgia swallowed, instinctively cringing away from his menacing words. “I…” Her protest died before she’d voiced it. She knew exactly what Jimmy would do to her if he found her again. The demon prince was the singularly most terrifying creature she’d ever laid eyes on, and he was most definitely not being forthright about his plans for her, but… He might still be better than the alternative. Irral had certainly believed so, or he wouldn’t have risked his superior’s wrath to bring her here.

Defeat slumped her shoulders and pressed down on the knot of guilt and despair that had festered in her stomach since her mother had told her that Larry was dying. She had failed them both. And Mike. And for what? A more comfortable cage?

The tears came unbidden and without warning. Grief cracked through her esophagus and up her windpipe, releasing through her throat in loud, ugly sobs.

“What are you doing?” The demon croaked, the sound of alarm in his voice making it pitch. “Stop that!”

Through the tears blurring her vision, she saw his terrifying face pull into a look of pure panic. It seemed so completely out of place on his brutal features, she would have laughed if she’d been capable of feeling anything but heartbreak.

“Stop it!” His voice was a more appropriate, commanding boom this time, but it did nothing to quiet her sobs.

The demon growled under his breath, his fangs showing once more before he crossed the space between them and reached for her.

Georgia yelped, fear spiking through her sadness, but she didn’t manage to flinch away before he dropped to his knees and bulky arms closed around her body and pulled her onto his lap.

Heat enveloped her from all sides, seeping through her clothes and sinking into her skin, making her panicked heartbeat stutter even as she pushed at his impossibly hard chest to escape the uninvited closeness to the monster. “Let me go!”

“Stop. Please, stop.” The pleading note to his voice was wholly unexpected, as was the hesitant way his large hands brushed down her back, almost as if he was fighting some insurmountable compulsion to try to soothe her.

Georgia blinked, her hands stilling against his chest from pure shock. Was he… trying to comfort her?

She looked up at him through the blurry haze of tears—at his massive horns, his black eyes and monstrous face—and saw anguish on those terrifying features.

The prince exhaled a shaky breath, his dark gaze darting over her as if to ensure she was physically unharmed. “Don’t cry. You’re safe. I promise, little one. You won’t be hurt. Please don’t cry.”

He was. For whatever unfathomable reason, the giant, horned monster was kneeling on the stained carpet of his own throne room, holding her like a child in an attempt to comfort her.

Her pain shouldn’t have mattered to him. Heck, he was a demon—he should have delighted in it. But as she stared at him through snot and tears, it was obvious that he, at the very least, desperately wanted her to stop crying. Why, she couldn’t fathom, but the reluctance painted all over his demonic features as he tried to soothe her made it clear this wasn’t a manipulation. No one was that good an actor—not even a demon prince.

Irral’s words came back to her on a wave of desperation. He was the Prince of Demons. The strongest of his kind in the area—but a demon. She could attempt the bargain that had started her journey into this nightmare again.

“My brother is dying.” The horrible words tumbled out of her mouth on a bubble of saliva, pulling a fresh wave of tears with them.

The demon blinked in what looked like a moment’s confusion, but his face immediately broke in dismay at her renewed sobbing.

“Humans die all the time. It’s nothing to be upset about,” he said. Judging from the softness of his voice, she assumed he was still trying to soothe her, but the cruelty in those words did nothing to calm her anguish.

“He’s nineteen! He’s not supposed to die, not yet!” She hadn’t meant to yell, but fury at the injustice of Larry’s illness ignited at the demon’s callousness. “You can save him. Can’t you? You’re a prince. You’re strong enough?”

He stared at her for a long moment, his hands stilling their stroking movements against her back as his features smoothed into stony blankness.

“If you want me to stop crying, if you… If you want me to accept this, you have to save him. I can’t… I can’t live if he dies.” She set her wobbly chin and held his dark gaze, trying to force enough calm through her lungs to stop the grief still making her shake. “You have to.”