Her eyes searched his, heartbeats between them, and she relaxed her thighs open enough to let him have the access he asked for with his trust. If he fucked this up, she would break, and likely run to her family for protection. She knew how to be a proper female within the raven culture, but mates... mates had to find their own way, or face the loneliness of the eons without any other. She would do that even if the strong demon heart within her splintered and fractured beyond compare. It took strength to trust as much as it took to face any other fear.<br/><br/>Thoughts of her parent's marriage, the stories of struggle and pain, until they finally figured it all out. The long centuries of battles, and family strife. She had left him, had forsaken his claim when she had lost their first child, the only male heir she had born. Raven demons weren't prolific, and being what they were, few were born with enough strength to survive childhood. Making it to adulthood, they were very hard to kill, but the infant mortality took so many. Her mother had raged at the loss of each and every one, her father just as enraged would blame her. It was a chance meeting, when Corbin had learned the bitter tang of loss and loneliness, that seeing Victoria made his heavy heart hope. It had been a story told since she could remember. They had talked, and let their natures take them, and Vivian was born a time after. She survived, grew, and the emptiness that had been Corbin's and Victoria's mating was healed slowly. They tried again after Vivian was old enough to kill, and it was that that had taken Victoria from the human world. One last child, that was too weak to survive, pulled her mother into the underworld with it. Corbin had grieved his heart for years, and would wait for her when his errands took him to her spirit. He would hope to one day be released to join his mate, but not until Vivian could take his place, not until her future was secure. She had been told since, had been proving herself worthy, had been making herself perfect in her father's eyes.<br/><br/>Now, she and Marcus needed to find their own way. For all the demon instincts, the ones that said to run to the only one that could ever protect her, the demon heart said that Marcus could protect her, and that he would.<br/><br/>Her thighs felt warm, his hand heavy, but not unpleasant. The soft downy patch of feathers that covered the apex of her thighs felt warm from his touching her legs. The bare flesh below that felt a chill as air hit the exposed skin.