Some books just about write themselves. That’s what happened with me when I began Darkness Captured. I knew exactly where the story started—exactly where Darkness Burning ended. I knew that my fierce werewolf princess would be tempted by a dragon while being pursued by her loyal werewolf bodyguard. I wasn’t exactly sure who would win her in the end, although I had a real fondness for Guntram from the very beginning. What could be sexier than a man who sacrifices so much, even his own desires, for the woman he loves? Here’s Guntram when he finally has Gabriella exactly where he’s wanted her for centuries. Too bad they’re in a pleasure dungeon deep in The Land of the Dead.

“Delilah Devlin delivers an erotic tale of good and evil elevated to a higher level… The erotic scenes in this book are hotter than Hades and ten times more tempting. I dare you to resist!”
5 Cups, Coffee Time Romance

“Darkness Captured is…another steamy sensation!… Delilah Devlin is definitely the mistress of erotic romance!”
Reader to Reader Reviews

“Another hot read of dark sensuality, riveting situations and jaw-dropping desire.”
Fresh Pick!, Fresh Fiction

“Devlin creates memorable characters with exceptional emotional depth. Her magical worldbuilding sets as atmospheric scene for a fast-paced story. The sexual tension runs high and the encounters are smokin’ hot.”
4 Stars, RT Book Reviews

Driven by insatiable desire, a werewolf will enter hell to rescue a princess captured by the Master of Demons…

Headstrong and proud—a royal creature of sinuous grace, all primal instinct and lethal beauty—the shapeshifter Gabriella has agreed to serve as emissary to the vampires who rule in the shadows of the New Orleans night. But she cannot resist the pull of the demon she glimpses on the other side of a mirror, and she is drawn to him hungrily, through a magical portal into the Land of the Dead. Now an eternal nightmare awaits Gabriella at the hands of a mesmerizing dark lord who satisfies her every erotic need…while slowly devouring her soul.

The powerful warrior wolf Guntram Brandt is responsible for the safety of the vanished princess he swore allegiance to years before. Yet it is more than a soldier’s loyalty that pulls Guntram down into the depths of nightmare—for Gabriella ignites within him a burning animal passion that must be satisfied.

But when offered an escape, will she follow her rescuer to safety—torn between her lustful obsession with the dark lord who has enslaved her and her fierce sensual attraction to the only wolf who could ever master her?

“May I serve you, mistress?” the man standing in the darkness said softly.

She looked behind her down the long dark corridor, assuring herself that she hadn’t been followed. “I…I think so. Yes.”

He stepped from the shadows, and Gabriella’s gaze swept over him. Her lust renewed instantly. His human form pleased her. Bare-chested, thick brown fur covering his chest, he appeared so like Guntram she nearly cried. She wondered what horror the mask hid, but decided she didn’t really want to know. Maybe he was handsome—one of the undead humans, just playing The Executioner role for entertainment purposes.

His scent was unusual. Beneath a light floral lay an earthier aroma, pleasing to her nose. She stepped inside the cell and slid the barred door closed behind her. “What do you offer?”

“Any fantasy you desire,” he said, his voice deep and gruff.

She shivered at his tone, her nipples prickling to attention. Light didn’t penetrate the deep, hollow shadows of the mask. She couldn’t tell where his glance roamed, and she wondered if she pleased him half as much.

“Would you prefer I take you?” he said, slowly, still rooted to the spot. “Will you submit to me?”

“I think I’d like to be surprised,” she replied, surprised her voice sounded so breathy.

“Will you allow me to bind you?” he said, his voice less hesitant, less submissive than before.

Excited by her own powerful response to just his voice, she gave him a flirtatious glance, peering up at him from beneath her lashes. “I’ll allow it, so long as you promise not to eat me while I’m helpless.”

“Why limit our pleasure?”

Gabriella’s lips twitched. “I belong to Marduk. So long as I walk out of here unharmed, you can do pretty much what you like.”

“Marduk, The Master of the Demons. Do you enjoy his bed?”

Something in is voice, a simmering disapproval, made her uncomfortable. “I…do what I must.”

His head ducked, acknowledging the ambiguity of her reply.

Gabriella found herself enjoying this encounter, enjoying the sight of the man who drew nearer now. When he lifted his hand, his palm turned upward, she didn’t hesitate as she had the first time Marduk demanded.

This man’s hand was calloused, his palm so large it engulfed hers. He drew her closer, his nostrils flaring. Had he caught the tell-tale scent of her heat? Would he know what it meant?

“Will he come looking for you anytime soon?” he asked, urgency making his words clipped.

“He’s occupied at the moment.”

“Then we’re alone.”

The cage door wasn’t solid, but somehow the acoustics of the small chamber softened the sounds from beyond its confines, enhancing the feeling that indeed they really were alone.

He pulled her close enough that the baubles attached to her nipples tangled in his chest hair. The slight tug caused the sensitized tips to swell. She moved closer. “Are you expecting anyone else?”

“I’ve been waiting for you. I chased off the last demon who tried to enter my cell.”

“And they allowed it?”

His lips twitched. “I think I frightened him. I might have mentioned a preference for roasted balls.”

Gabriella tossed back her hair, enjoying the humor he revealed beneath his fearsome mask. “And do you?”

“The only thing I wish to warm is you,” he said quietly.

Gabriella licked her lips, tilting back her head. “With flame…or friction?”

“Do you have a preference?”

“You’re teasing me now.”

“But you aren’t sure.”

“Even when things seem similar to what I’m accustomed to…I sometimes find myself surprised here.”

“Caution is wise.”

“Then we should hurry. Marduk is busy at the moment. Why waste another minute?” When he still didn’t bust a move, she lifted her hand to cup the curve of his masculine breast. Muscle flexed beneath her palm. “However you want me. I’m yours.”

His square jaw tightened, and he nodded toward the bench behind her. “Bend over it. I will ease the tension riding you. Then we’ll play.”

She didn’t ask how he knew. Perhaps all of them knew instinctually. Usually, back in her own world, only wolves sensed her heat. But right now, holding a thought, following a suspicion was beyond her. A heady, powerful swell of arousal held her in its grip. It might have had something to do with the cock encased in his dark trousers and pressing against her belly, which was quickly filling, its size pleasing—not as disgustingly large as the bull-man’s, but exactly proportioned for her enjoyment.

Giving him a challenging tilt of her chin, she tugged her hand from his tight grip and stepped away. Then she turned and climbed onto the platform, settling her knees on a padded step and her belly on the platform, the edge of which ended just beneath her breasts. The position made her feel immediately vulnerable, completely feminine. Her ass was presented in exactly the pose a she-wolf might provide her mate for his inspection.

A deep, slow intake of breath was the only reaction she could discern from the man in the mask. He walked behind the bench and silently urged her to widen her stance, pressing against her knees until he was satisfied. Then he walked to one side and lifted her hand and closed leather straps around her wrist, repeating the action for her other hand.

Gabriella felt no alarm, no fear. Although he remained silent, his methodical approach was reassuring. That was, until he made another slow circle around her, and she sensed his body tautening. His head was held lower, his nostrils flaring like wolf might to draw in scent and stoke his own desire.

Again, she thought his actions, his demeanor was so like Guntram, or what she would imagine he would be like when deeply aroused, that her body shivered with excitement, waiting to see what he would do next.

He surprised her with fingers sifting soothingly through her hair. She released a little sigh, pressing into his hands until he scratched her scalp, petting her tenderly, like a wolf might do for his mate.

Then he lifted her hair and twisted it, dropping the long rope over her shoulder. His hands smoothed slowly down her back and over her buttocks. Standing now directly behind her, she knew what he’d see in the torchlight. Her sex was swollen, red, dripping with honeyed arousal; the inner lips parting, her entrance pulsing, sucking at air.

A low growl erupted from him, and then lips glided over her labia. “Princess, are you ready to be mine?”

Gabriella froze. “Guntram?” she asked, her voice thickening with emotion, but then she realized what he’d said. She jerked against her restraints. Joy and outrage mixing an explosive cocktail. “Guntram! Release me!”

A soft masculine snort sounded behind her. “Alex said that I should ignore your pleas. Take my cues instead from your body. I smell your heat, Princess. Even now, your sweet cunt swells and drips honey, begging my cock to fill you.”

Straining her head upward, she tried glancing over her shoulder to give him a glare, but couldn’t quite turn that far. She rattled the bench with her furious bucking. “You know this can never be. I will never surrender my mantle to a male.”

“And you shall never have to,” he said, his words clipped. “I intend to take it.”

Gabriella shivered at the hard edge of his voice, cursing her own body for the heat that radiated from her womb, tightening her belly and sending rippling shudders down her channel. “Have you come to rescue me?” she said, hoping to turn his mind to the bigger problem.

“Simon and I are working on that. We must retrieve something now that we know where you are.”

“I’m watched.”

“Also working on that. Let’s talk afterward.” His rough palms slid down her back, pausing to cup her bottom, then dropping his hands from her skin.

There was a rustling behind her and the sounds of indrawn breaths. And she knew he was pulling in her scent, letting it enhance his own arousal.

When his lips and nose sank into her folds, she jerked. “Stop it. I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but you have to remember whom you serve.”

“I could never forget. I’ve protected you, stood guard over you, prevented other males from forcing their suits on you. For too long. Did you think I was made of stone?”

His tongue stroked over her folds, and Gabriella’s breath hissed between her teeth. She clamped her jaws shut, knowing soon she’d be begging out loud if she couldn’t figure out a way to put a stop to this. “Why now, Guntram? Why press your suit in this place? Would you really mate with me in the midst of all this evil?”

“I have no choice. I’m as bound by my duty as you are to this bench.”

“Is that what I am? A duty? Is this only your way of protecting me? Because I’m not seeing it. When you’re done I still have to leave with him. I’ll still be in his bed, servicing his desires.”

“Don’t talk about him now,” he growled. “We haven’t much time, and I have to finish this for both our sakes.”

“If you make me pregnant and fail to get me out of here, do you really want your cubs born here?”

“That will never happen. I’d die first.”

“And that’s supposed to make me feel better?”

Again, his tongue stroked over her, slipping between her labia, prodding her entrance and driving inward to lap at her honey-coated walls.

She squirmed on the bench, fisting her hands and pulling at her ties, but to no avail. She was at his mercy. Just as he’d intended. The thought that Guntram had planned this, excited her. That he wouldn’t listen to her pleas confused her—but also made her perversely glad.

“Do you know how many times I’ve stood in the darkness, watching you—smelling your arousal, knowing your pussy melted around another man’s cock while I forced myself to remain unaffected? Hundreds of years, I’ve waited for just one chance to be with you. If I’m to die here, don’t you think you owe me this?”

The tightness of his gruff voice affected her like no other ever had. She’d yearned for him to come. To save her. Had she also, secretly, wanted to surrender to him, her protector, her personal guardian?

She’d always known he’d watched, and the knowledge had spurred her arousal each and every time. Had she been teasing him, hoping to make him break?

As much as she wanted to bend to no man, she wanted to surrender to Guntram—here. Now. Wanted to feel his cock stroke deeply and lock inside her, nestling against her womb while his seed poured into her. She’d never experienced that before, the true connection with another of her own kind, her species. She’d denied herself the joy of children in order to maintain her status—but also because she’d been afraid to trust a mate to see to her happiness, to listen to and heed her opinions. Mated females held power in their own right, but only within their pack, and only over each other.

“Guntram, you don’t know why I’ve resisted this. I have reasons for remaining alone.”

“And I’m sure they’re good ones,” he said, a finger trailing along the edges of her sex. “But this is me, Gabriella. You should know by now, I would never hurt you beyond the pain you desire. You’ve earned respect in your own right among our kind. Do you really think that will disappear once you’re belly’s full and your breasts are nurturing pups?”

A soft sob caught her unaware. The picture that filled her mind was of golden sunlight in a copse, her in wolfskin, cubs suckling her breasts while Guntram kept watch. A sublime image, empty of all her fears.

Even now, tethered to this bench, knowing he would take her whether she gave him the words to grant him that right or not, didn’t feel in the least like that other time that haunted her nightmares.

Guntram had indeed earned the right to her body, to her future. He’d earned her trust. But did he love her? She didn’t think she could bear to mate herself to him if he felt compelled only by duty.

But she was woman as well as a wolf. And she knew a woman could wield power over the strongest man by her wits and femininity. If he didn’t love her now, she would find the key to his heart.

“You know I won’t say it,” she said, her voice wavering.

“Say what, princess?”

“That I surrender.”

“I’d be disappointed in you if you did.”

She almost smiled at the wry note in his tone. “Know this, if I were free, I’d give you a fight you’d never forget.”

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