Adam felt her hesitation, saw the struggle in her mercury eyes.
Instead of pressing her, a mischievous, cruel light sparkled in his own gaze.
His attention drifted over her shoulder to where Agri and Blair stood, still fuming, their envy tangible.
With a casual flick of his wrist, a tendril of demonic energy, invisible to all but him, snapped out. It wrapped around Agri's waist and yanked her forward.
"Eeeik!"
She let out a startled yelp, stumbling off-balance before crashing into Adam's side.
Before she, or anyone, could comprehend what was happening, Adam's free hand caught her.
One moment she was stumbling, the next she was crushed against the side of his chest, his mouth descending on hers in a deep, claiming kiss.
"Mhmm?"
Agri's initial shock lasted only a micro-second.
"Mhmmm~"
Her body, so well trained by her master's touch, responded instantly. A moan was swallowed by his kiss as her bone armor retracted with a thought, baring her pale blue skin to his roaming hands. One of her legs hooked around his hip, pulling him closer, while one of her hands instinctively dropped down, her fingers wrapping around the hard, familiar weight of his cock, stroking him with practiced ease.
"Master~" She purred against his lips when he finally released her mouth, her face breathing into his; her voice dripping with smug victory and raw lust.
'He chose me! He wants me! In front of her!' Her thoughts were a triumphant whirl.
She knew she was a weapon being used to punish Lyra, yet she relished the role!
Lyra could only watch, frozen.
The scene was so sudden, so blatant, it felt like a physical slap.
The devil who had just whispered his desire for her, so intimately and full of passion, was now devouring another woman right in front of her!
A hot, confusing cocktail of emotions erupted within her: searing humiliation, a sharp, unexpected sting of betrayal, a budding envy, and a disgusting, unwelcome flicker of arousal at the raw display of power and carnality.
Her pride, the very thing he had so expertly played with, screamed in protest.
She was being put in her place, shown her position in the hierarchy. She was the new prize, but Agri was the familiar toy, ready to be used to make a point.
Her hands clenched into fists at her sides, her sharp nails digging into her palms.
She wanted to look away, to deny him the satisfaction of her reaction, but her gaze was locked on the obscene, passionate display; her face a mask of conflict and dawning, horrifying understanding of the devil she now belonged to.
A silent bomb detonated within Lyra.
She didn't understand the feeling at first.
It was a hot, sharp coil of something vile and possessive tightening in her gut. It wasn't just jealousy; it was an outright, primal rejection of the scene before her.
This... thing... this shadow-rat, was touching what was hers!
Adam, his power, his attention, fuck it, even his body; it all belonged to her!
MINE!
The devilish pride that was her new birthright flared into an incandescent rage.
She moved without conscious thought.
"Whoosh!"
A silver-black blur flashed as she stepped forward, her arm a whip. A resounding 'CRACK' echoed off the stone walls as her open palm aimed for Agri's face.
But Adam was faster and had already expecting this.
"Smack!"
His hand snapped up, catching Lyra's wrist an inch from its target, his grip like a vise. The force of the obstructed blow blew Agri's black hair back.
Lyra didn't even look at him.
Her molten mercury eyes were locked on the startled Agri, wide with shock and fear. The message in Lyra's gaze was colder than the depths of space.
'Know your place, bitch!'
A queen's silent command, a furious reminder to the lesser concubines, no, maids of the harem.
Agri shivered, being stared at by a middle-tier lesser devil with such bloodlust almost made her pee herself. She stumbled back and hid behind her master's strong body; for only he gave her a sense of safety.
Seeing her back off, Lyra then slowly turned her furious eyes to Adam; the rage in her expression not diminished in the slightest.
"You do not test me!" Her voice was cold.
In the heartbeat of silence that followed Adam kissing Agri, her devil-born cunning, sharper and more calculating than her elven mind had ever been, connected the dots.
His indulgence, his spoiling, his display of power... it was all a game.
A way to manipulate her, to make her compliant. And this, allowing Agri this intimacy, was a test. A provocation to see how she would react, how her far her natural possessiveness as a devil went.
She knew, yet she had to play his game.
Only now, she was swiping her arms across the board.
Adam didn't need to delve into her mind to know; she was willing to concede in many aspects, even the humiliation and teasing, but this act of being blatantly tested had touched a new and sensitive nerve with Lyra.
"My apologies," He said, his voice and Laced with amusement that held no remorse whatsoever.
He released Agri's wrist and, with his other hand, gave Lyra a firm, decisive shove.
She stumbled back, falling onto the stone slab heaped with thick demon hides.
Before she could even process the push, he was on her. His mouth crashed down on hers in a passionate, starving desire.
As his tongue invaded, his hands roaming her body with a rough, desperate hunger, touching, squeezing, reclaiming every inch of her as his exclusive territory. Lyra's body was weak under his assault.
Any thought of Agri, of the test, of anything else, was burned away in the face of his sudden, overwhelming need.
He broke the kiss, his breathing ragged.
His hands hooked under her knees, spreading her legs, positioning her. His hard and demanding cock ramrod straight. He guided himself, the tip of his cock pressing against her swollen, still-sensitive entrance.
Their eyes met, his burning desire with hellfire and triumph, hers swirling with a storm of anger, understanding, and a reluctant, hunger.
A heated, charged air surrounded them.
Lyra's thoughts surged.
'He is mine. It is his duty to serve me, to worship this body, to protect and nurture me. And in return... I allow it. I serve his insatiable need… with my own.'
It was the devil's bargain, accepted in a single, blazing glance.
Deeper into his grasp she fell.
As if he had read the acceptance in her eyes, Adam gave a low, growl. There was no more gentleness, no more teasing. He shoved himself into her to the hilt in one brutal, deep thrust.
"Hnngg!"
Lyra's back arched off the hides, a choked cry ripped from her throat; a mixture of shock, pain, and blinding pleasure.
He didn't wait for her to adjust.
He started his ruthless, pounding, instantly; each pile-drive a physical manifestation of his ownership.
Soon, the stone room filled with the raw, animalistic sounds of their coupling: the slap of skin on skin, his heavy grunts, her sharp, gasping cries that slowly melted into continuous moans of overwhelmed pleasure.
Breeding at its finest.