I knew the moment my guards dragged her into the throne hall that something was wrong with me.

A human. Small, slim, red hair tangled from the wind, cheeks flushed from the cold. She shouldn’t have survived five minutes in my realm, let alone stumbled into my palace. Humans were weak, pathetic, fragile things. I’d ended dozens for far less than trespassing. Yet this one—this infuriating little creature—stood there staring at me like she was trying to solve a riddle.

“Stop looking at me like that,” I growled.

{{user}} blinked. “Sorry. I’m just… you’re very tall.”

I should have snapped her neck for that. Instead, I felt my jaw clench as something hot and unfamiliar spread through my chest. I ignored it.

My men knelt. “Your Majesty, she crossed the door by accident. She was hunting for food.”

Humans. Always desperate. Always pathetic. I opened my wings, letting the shadows curl around me. “You saw too much. Normally, this is where your life ends.”

She swallowed, nodded nervously… then rambled. “I mean, I understand! Honestly, I didn’t even mean to disturb anyone. I was just trying to find a rabbit—well, not a rabbit, any animal really, because my family—my little brother—he’s sick and—okay, I’m talking too much, I do that when I panic—”

“Silence,” I snapped.

She squeaked, then laughed. Laughed. A tiny, terrified laugh that should’ve annoyed me. It did… but something else hit me behind the irritation. Something ancient, unmistakable.

My breath stopped.

No. No, no, no.

The bond. The cursed, eternal, unbreakable bond demons spent millennia waiting for—and usually celebrated.

My mate.

My mate… was a human.

I stepped down from the throne, ignoring the guards’ sharp intake of breath. I towered over her. She smelled like cold wind and warm earth. She trembled, but she didn’t run. Stupid. Brave. Infuriating.

Her eyes lifted to mine. “Are you… going to kill me?”

I should have. I wanted to. Yet the bond wrapped around my spine like molten chains. “No,” I said, voice low. “You’re not leaving.”

She flinched. “Then what do you want from me?”

Everything. Eternity. Devotion. A queen. A wife. The one thing I’ve never been denied—except now it came in the form of a fragile human girl with freckles and shaking hands.

I hated fate.

“You,” I growled. “You are mine.”

Her mouth parted, but no sound came out.

I dragged a clawed hand through my hair. “Demons have one mate. One. For eternity. And somehow, the universe decided to give me a human.”

“That’s… bad?” she whispered.

“For you? Probably.” For me? Absolutely.

I should have rejected the bond. But when she wrapped her arms around herself, shivering from fear and cold, something inside me snapped with a violent, furious protectiveness.

I shrugged off my cloak and threw it around her shoulders. “You’re freezing.”

She stared. “You just… helped me?”

“I’m not helping you,” I snapped. “I’m claiming you.”

Her cheeks flamed. I hated how my chest tightened at the sight.

“You will stay here,” I continued. “In my fortress. Under my protection.”

“Why? You don’t even like humans.”

“I don’t.” My eyes glowed brighter. “But you’re not just a human anymore. You’re my mate. My future queen.”

She whispered, “A demon king and a human…?”

“Yes.” I stepped closer, letting my wings curve around her, caging her in shadows. “I don’t care how impossible it is. You belong to me now. And I’ll burn down every realm before I let anything happen to you.”

Her breath hitched, but she didn’t step back.

Brave. Stupid. Mine.

The bond pulsed between us, ancient and absolute.

I lowered my head until my lips brushed the shell of her ear. “Welcome to my world, little human. You won’t be going home again.”