Chapter 3

I locked the door, heart hammering hard enough to crack ribs.

No time to calm down. I dove under the covers and pulled up my phone.

On Mischief & Mayhem, the post had gone nuclear.

OP had updated with a photo that reeked of despair.

That priceless tie had been brutally knotted into a massive lump, cinched just below the man's Adam's apple. The knot was so tight it had warped the shirt collar, making him look like a survivor who'd just escaped an execution.

"She tied my tie into a death knot with her bare hands. Am I completely done for?"

The comments had become a carnival.

"OP, is your wife a rock climber or a professional gift wrapper? That knot is suffocating me through the screen."

"That's not tying a tie. That's clearly trying to help you 'go peacefully.'"

OP replied meekly beneath:

"She told me to clean up my appearance so I wouldn't embarrass her. She wouldn't even look at me. All she cares about is whether I'll show up on time to finalize the divorce in thirty days..."

"I think my energy reserves are bottoming out. My tail doesn't even have the strength to wag anymore."

I stared at the photo of the death knot, mouth twitching uncontrollably.

Not because it was funny — but because that was the exact knot I'd just tied on Silas.

Then someone in the comments started heckling:

"OP, quit crying and show us some proof. A male incubus? You probably made the whole thing up."

A few minutes later, a photo appeared that shattered my entire worldview.

"Just took this in the bedroom..."

In the photo, a man had his back to the camera.

A half-undone white shirt exposed the cold, pale line of his spine. And coiled around his waist — a black, heart-tipped tail covered in tiny barbs — seized every molecule of air in my lungs.

The very tip of that tail was curled shamefully around the death knot, as if seeking comfort.

My phone slipped from my hands and smacked me square on the bridge of my nose. Stars exploded across my vision.

Silas — the man whose walking pace seemed mathematically calibrated — actually had a tail?

With shaking hands, I posted my very first question on Mischief & Mayhem:

"Saw someone with a black heart-shaped tail. AR filter or actual monster?"

Within a minute, a user with a DemonHunter_Official avatar replied:

"Filter my ass! That's an incubus bloodline awakening. Judging by the curvature of that tail — RUN. This one's clearly in heat. Stay any longer and he'll drain you dry!"

Drain you dry.

I stared at those three words, hair standing on end.

Silas was a male incubus.

My husband was not the celibate, self-controlled ice sculpture I'd thought. He was actively, desperately craving me.

Throat dry, I set down my phone and went downstairs for a glass of cold water to clear my head.

But the moment I reached the kitchen, a scent — cold cedar laced with something sickly sweet — engulfed me.

Before I could react, a shadow descended.

BANG.

Silas slammed one palm against the tile beside my ear with staggering force. The coffee cups on the shelf rattled.

The death knot I'd tied was still stubbornly lodged at his throat, pressing the pale skin of his neck even whiter.

He lowered his head slightly. Those silver-gray eyes had turned a shade of crimson I'd never seen before — a heart-shaped pattern flickering through the iris.

He stared at me with the focus of a predator.

His other hand locked around my wrist.

His fingers pressed hard against my lips, tracing them over and over, as though trying to melt me into his palm.

My mind went haywire.

Wait — did I miss a post? Did someone tell him to get aggressive?

I struggled in panic, but he caught my wrist and pinned it behind my back.

His body closed in, suffocating, until there was no space left between us.

His scorching chest pressed flush against mine through the thin silk of my nightgown. I could feel every taut line of muscle.

And where our lower halves met — something rigid and burning was grinding against me through the fabric, unhurried and relentless.

I sucked in a sharp breath, body going stiff.

He was — in the kitchen, really —

"Silas, you—"

Just as I was about to cry out, he leaned even closer.

His warm lips grazed the shell of my ear. His breath swept feather-light across my neck, and my entire body went liquid. My legs stopped feeling like mine.