Out of the corner of my eyes, I was sure Griff was giving Glinda silent signals to giddy up, but she was my special friend, not his. And there was no way she would abandon me inside a creepy tunnel. I mounted again, this time, keeping my hands on my thighs.He shot me a filthy glance. “Too proud to hold onto me?”“Actually,” I said with a yawn. “I think I can do better.”Ignoring his low growl, I got Glinda to continue up the gentle slope. She broke into a gentle run that became faster and faster and faster, as though the ground had turned into a travelator and was propelling her forward by magic.My eyes fluttered shut, and the muscles around my chest finally loosened enough for me to exhale. That little trip to Hell had been more emotionally grueling than the Punishment Pits. At least in Tower 1313, I knew exactly what to expect.All the exhaustion I had held at bay while Griff had been recovering from his wounds rushed back, and I slumped against his broad body.“It is time for us
I was about to dismount, when Griff whirled on me, his teeth bared. “You did this.”I reared back. “How could you possibly—”With a roar, he cut off my words and leaped several feet through the air, interrupting whatever I was about to say and knocking me off Glinda’s back. I fell onto the grass with a heavy thud and an infuriated Griff cutting off my air with his weight.“What did you do?” he snarled, rolling me onto my back.I tried to buck him off, but his hands tightened around my neck. He was just holding me in place, so I wouldn’t escape, but he sat on top of my lungs, and I was struggling for air.“Stop.” I tried to jerk to the side.Griff followed my movements as I thrashed from left to right, holding onto me with his powerful leg muscles as though he’d spent his entire life taming buckaroo horses.“Answer me,” he roared.“Trying to,” I said with my last breath.He finally got the message and shifted his weight onto his knees, but he still pinned me down by the shoulders.I gl
Griff stopped the Range Rover as close as he could get to the stage, opened the door, and stormed out without a glance in my direction.I glared at his back, wishing I could set it alight with the force of my hatred, but then my body unfastened my seatbelt and hurried after him.Crowds shoved at either side of me, jostling me from left to right. I couldn’t shove anyone aside because the arrogant, pack-stealing bastard hadn’t given me back control of my arms.Up on the stage, Fenrir stood between his mate, Lydia, and the clean-cut blond wolf Hades had shown us on the slide show. Apart from a blonde shamaness, a pair of mischievous looking twins, and a few enforcers, the entire platform was crowded with young women.My lip curled. All that effort for one boy who was probably basking in all that female attention. Gerrison hadn’t made men compete for my hand in marriage, but then Griff had come along and had made his intentions clear.I finally made my way through the crowd and stopped at
Fenrir’s threat hung over us like a giant guillotine. Swaying on my feet, my gaze locked with Griff’s as he gaped at me, open-mouthed. Maybe he had expected Fenrir to swoop down on me with the wrath of the Norse gods and toss me out of Shifter City to meet my fate with the Demon King. From the shock on his features, he hadn’t imagined Fenrir would make us work together.“Your Majesty,” Griff said, still looking at me as though I was the agent of his death, which I was, but even he had to admit that I had also saved his life. “I can’t work with Cathwulf, she’s a—”“Murderer?” Fenrir growled.“Yes.” My mate turned to look the wolf god full in the face. “She attacked without mercy. I told you how bad it was.”“You did.” Fenrir placed a hand on Griff’s shoulder.In the midst of my panic, part of me took stock at the sheer beauty of these wolves. They were opposites. While Griff was dark haired with golden skin and tight-fitting clothes to accentuate every muscle on his delectable body, Fe
“He’s smuggling us out of Shifter City.” Griff pulled me tighter to his body and shifted. “Demon enforcers always get a little jumpy after our runs and search vehicles going in and out of the wards.”I huffed a laugh. “Do they think anyone would transport souls in a car?”“It’s their way of saying they know Fenrir’s behind the raids,” he growled. “Now shut up.”The engine rumbled beneath us, and Griff scooted backward, pulling me with him. With each movement, my ass bounced against his hardening bulge, and the trunk became too hot, too cramped, too intimate.His cedar and woodsmoke scent curled around my senses, awakening parts of me that should have lain dead. Even though I hated Griff with every fiber of my psyche, my body hadn’t gotten the message and longed for his hands to wander.My nostrils flared. “What do you think you’re doing?”“There’s a second compartment in Beowulf’s trunk,” Griff said, as he continued shifting, his body lighting up my pleasure centers like a New Year’s
“Let go of me, you dick.” I snatched my hand away. Why did he even give a shit?He rang the doorbell, but it made the kind of ominous sound I’d only heard in Hammer House of Horror movies. “That thing arranged Lydia’s murder and the sacrifice of her wolf.”I glanced over my shoulder at the dark-haired figure sitting in the front of the cab. “Why on earth would he have done something so cruel?”“The details are murky, but if you know what’s good for you, stay away from Beowulf Kenneally.”There had to be more to this story. For starters, Lydia looked alive and happy and in love with Fenrir. I was pretty sure that the shamaness up on the stage had been Gerrison’s wife, Aunt Sybil. But just because someone was in the living world didn’t mean they weren’t dead.“If Wulfie was that bad, then why would Fenrir call him to transport us?” I asked.“He wouldn’t risk any self-respecting shifter on such a dangerous task.”I was about to remind Griff that Fenrir had sent us out while the demons we
I turned to where Griff stood by the tree and swings, my brows raised. Why wasn’t he using his charm on the old crone to get her to find an alternative solution? It was as through the mention of faeries had put him into a state of shock.Perhaps he was thinking about the awful bargain he’d made with them to spare his father. Perhaps he was reliving what the faeries had made him do when they discovered he would never have a first-born to pay off his debts.Clearing my throat, I turned to meet Demeter’s cornflower-blue eyes. Within those irises were a multitude of colors—golds, greens, and glimpses of white that made them look like a washed-out globe of the world. Perhaps once she had been an earth goddess, but whatever had happened to her had left her devoid of magic.“How did you build the tunnels in the first place?” I asked.She exhaled a long breath, her shoulders sagging. “Back when I had my powers, I only needed to look at a seed, and it would grow.”“All right,” I said with a no
“Do you see this?” She raised a gnarled finger and ran it from my chest to the door.“No,” I said.She plucked an invisible string, making my heart twang.I clutched a hand over my chest. “What did you just do?”Demeter threw her head back and laughed. “I’m not just the goddess of the harvest, I also govern fertility.”“Well, there’s no chance of me being pregnant.”She tilted her head to the side, her eyes narrowing. “But there was some recent activity. The strings connecting you are taut with sexual tension.”“They’re not.” I glowered into my lap.“You desire him as much as he desires you.”My head snapped up, and I stared into her wrinkled face. What was she, the goddess of false hope? There was no way in Hell Griff and I felt any sort of mutual attraction.“That’s not true,” I said, my words clipped.“Why? Because he’s a pretty boy and you’re…” she wriggled her fingers.My throat tightened, as did my fists. What would she say next? That I was too large for a woman, too tough, too