Mated To The Devil by Eve Langlais Read Free Book Online Page A

your belly.” Despite her tender age and the fact she had nowhere else to go, he marched her out of her childhood home while her mother stood by and watched in silent condemnation.
    Mina might have wandered the streets forever had some stranger not guided her to a homeless shelter. With only the clothes on her back, she spent that first lonely night hugging herself as she cried silent tears. But she didn’t lament for long.
    Life grew within her. So what if the child was created out of sin? Abortion was out of the question, and not just because her religion forbade it. Mina wouldn’t do it. Besides, women bore babies every day, with some mothers younger than her even. If they could do it, so could she. And so she struggled to create a new life for herself. Using the programs and services available to the homeless and young single mothers, she started over. A social worker placed her in a women’s shelter, where she lived in a tiny cubicle of a room and shared a bathroom. She got a job that didn’t last long because no one wanted to have a young pregnant girl on staff, especially not one prone to throwing up—sometimes on customers.
    Halfheartedly, fearful of his reaction, she’d tried for a while to locate Remy in the early stages of her pregnancy. She failed, but the Lord knew she tried harder when at eight months and on welfare because no one would hire her, she hit a low where she sobbed day in and day out, wondering how she’d survive, how she’d ever manage to take care of a baby alone.
    Naїvely, she’d expected her search to be easy given the way the Internet played Big Brother to society’s deeds. However, the college he attended didn’t have a public listing of its student body, and phone calls to their admissions office led to dead ends as the secretaries cited privacy laws when she asked to contact him. Contacting her cousins went nowhere as her aunt slammed the phone down as soon as she knew who called. As for a phone call to the actual dorm the party was held at? The young man who answered denied knowing whom she spoke of, although he did offer to satisfy her sexually so long as she was good-looking. She hung up quickly, his crude jest a painful reminder of the rape she’d almost suffered. The memory of it was why she didn’t dare attempt to visit the college in person, too fearful she’d run into her would-be rapists. Saved once by her devil with the golden eyes, she doubted she’d have the same luck a second time.
    She should have just forgotten Remy then and there, after all, what young college guy would want a one-night stand to show up with a baby in her belly? But she couldn’t seem to erase him from her mind. It might have only been one night, but Remy’s image remained imprinted on her brain. Heck, she’d almost wager, if she was in a dark room filled with him and a dozen strangers, she’d find him because she’d never since experienced the quickness of breath, the jolting electricity, or the awareness of her own body like she had with him.
    The searching stopped when Jacques was born. Although still poor and afraid of the future, she knew when she looked into his little face that she’d make it. She had to, because her baby depended on her. And I will never let him down.
    Part of taking care of him now, though, meant finding out what ailed her son. Or, more frightening, what demon he harbored inside, a gift from his father. Was Remy with the glowing eyes a demon? The devil himself? It would explain how she’d succumbed to sin so easily. However, it also made her son’s existence a terrifying thing because she’d read enough books to know what happened to the son of the devil. If anyone discovered who Jacques’ father was, would they come for him? Take him from her?
    For years she’d lived in terror that some doctors, or government agents, somebody faceless but who she knew had to exist, would show up on her doorstep and take her away, take Jacques away, and treat them little