While she'd hoped for a positive response, Xarakas's response was better than Asha had hoped for, startling a small, happy laugh from her as she returned his kisses and curled into his arms.
"Good," she murmured against his lips with a smile. "Because I have every intention of making sure that's the kind of sex you get used to from here on out."
Xarakas chuckled softly as she laughed, happy to continue with their lazy kisses. Although as she spoke about her intentions, he felt his heart clench, the thought of not only her wanting him but of being in a relationship with someone who wouldn't treat him poorly, who wouldn't use and abuse him and treat him like a whore had the last ounce of restraint he'd managed to keep his demon under control with disappeared.
"Agh, no, fuck-" he cursed, clearly attempting to fight his demon back, but it was too late, his horns growing longer and branching off in places while his teeth lengthened into fangs and his eyes glowed golden, his fingernails sharpening into claws as his features grew more animalistic.
Before he could regain control, his demon began to speak in demonease, a sigil glowing hot-white in one palm while he held her down with the other. "I claim you as my own, my mate, marked with magic and blood as demanded by the old internal laws."
Once the words were spoken he sliced his palm before pressed the sigil into the skin above her heart, the blood and magic mixing to form what looked like a stock on her skin, the seal taking the shape of some sort of herb.
With that completed and his demon satisfied, Xarakas was able to regain control, stumbling back out of bed as he looked at her with wide eyes, trembling as he began to panic, his features still holding onto their demonic appearance as he paced across the room.
"Oh God, what have I done? Ash-Princess, I'm so, so sorry... I-I should get the queen; she's a healer. She'll be able to fix this... Or perhaps the High Priestess? Or your father, the King. He's powerful, he must know a way to undo this."
Realistically he knew that the only way out of this was for him to die, but that seemed like a reasonable punishment considering what he'd just done.
"Xarakas? What's wrong?" The way he suddenly started to curse had Asha sitting up, obviously alarmed, but she didn't realize what was happening until his features changed and he'd pushed her back onto the mattress.
Oh fuck.
She didn't know what had made him lose control like this, but she had to stop him somehow. She usually would have drawn on her demon's strength, but the appearance of his demon had hers fighting tooth and nail to emerge as well, wanting to accept her chosen mate's claim and stake her own.
With eyes blood red and teeth clenched, it was all Asha could do to keep her own demon at bay as Xarakas marked her, then almost immediately regained control, stumbling from the bed to pace and speak frantically.
Asha, however, was in no shape to problem-solve, much less to try and calm him down before he could do something stupid. With nails and horns and canines elongated and eyes burning bright red, though she remained in control, it was obvious that she was struggling to fend off her demon—who was thrilled about Xarakas's claim and pushed to make her own, fighting to be freed to do so with a single-minded determination Asha had never seen from her before.
"Fuck!" Holding back her demon from accepting her mate's claim and making her own, from finishing what she wanted, what had already been halfway done, was physically painful. So much so that dug her nails into her legs, trying to use that physical pain to distract and ground herself from her internal fight.
But a little poke wasn't enough to even register at that moment, and before she knew it, her nails were embedded deep in her skin, drawing blood while intermittent tears rolled down her cheeks, brought on by the pain she was in and attempting not to give into.