I squeezed my eyes shut and rested my forehead on the door. The thought of spending the night with Griff as myself made my insides twist into agonizing knots.Beki’s sharp barks told me I was being pathetic. The worst part was that I couldn’t disagree. It turned out that I could withstand all that time in Hell—the torture, the pain, the humiliation—yet my insides quivered at the thought of being rejected once again by my mate.My wolf pushed against our bond, making my skin itch. This was her way of telling me that if I wasn’t woman enough to walk through that door and claim my mate, she would do it for me.“Give me a minute,” I murmured.The porter cleared his throat. “Miss,” he said with barely concealed impatience. “You have already contravened section twelve, subsection forty-two, article five of the Supernatural Secrecy Act, which states—”“Stop.” I cracked open an eye. “The door just got jammed.”He placed a gloved hand on the wooden surface and unlocked it with a pulse of magic
Griff’s gaze dropped to my breasts. “What are you doing?”“We didn’t get any sleep last night.” I shouldered off the garment and kicked off my boots.“Get naked if you want but you’re sleeping on the floor. I’m not getting into bed with you.”“My wolf and I already made arrangements to shift for the night,” I said, keeping my voice flat.Griff’s features tightened, but he didn’t turn his head as I slid my leggings down my hips and let them fall down my shins. I stepped out of the pool of fabric and tried to ignore the furious wolf.His breathing became faster, heavier, and the temperature rose several degrees, even though the cabin had air conditioning. As I slid my hands beneath the hem of my tank top, Griff leaned forward and panted.“Do you mind?” I snapped.“I didn’t complain when you were salivating over my body,” he said with a smirk and folded his arms across his chest. “Right now, I’m enjoying the sight of Cathwulf Aibek undressing. For me.”My nostrils flared. “Take a good lo
I stared into the furious amber eyes of my mate, my mind still struggling to pull itself out of its drowsiness. For the briefest of moments, my hand wouldn’t cooperate. My fingers spasmed around his erection, squeezing it tighter around the top.Griff’s snarl reverberated across my entire body, making my traitorous nipples tighten. “Cathwulf Aibek,” he said in a voice that curled around my neck like a garrote. “If you don’t release my cock this instant—”My fingers snapped open, and I rolled to the furthest side of the bed with my back pressed against the window. It turned out that the red I had been seeing throughout the dream had come from light streaming in through a lowered blind.Not that any of this mattered because I’d just molested Griff in his sleep.He rose from his spot and glowered, his lips curled with contempt. “First, you disguised yourself as someone else to scam a fuck, and now this.” He spread his arms wide, revealing his erection, which hadn’t so much as wilted sinc
“How is that being selfish?” I snapped. Before she could launch into an explanation, I added, “Don’t tell me he’s made me climax twice, and I’ve left him with blue balls.”My wolf raised her snout in the air and sniffed in a gesture that said I was being an asshole. I bit down on a chunk of sausage and resolved to deal with her later.“Did you ever love me?” Griff asked.The words hit me like a glove-slap, and I raised my head to meet his penetrating gaze.“I beg your pardon?”He flashed his eyes. “You heard me the first time.”“Well, I already know how you felt about me,” I said, trying to stay calm. “Cathwulf was difficult to love.”“Answer my question.” He clenched his hand around a piece of toast, reducing it to crumbs.“It’s hard to love someone you never knew,” I said with a bit of bite.His chest heaved as he inhaled a long, deep breath. “What about when you were Katie?”I shook my head and tried not to roll my eyes. “You fed me two different sets of stories, proving that you’r
As the red vehicle approached the stranded carriage and officers in black uniforms piled out, Griff snarled through the phone he clenched between his jaws to run.He didn’t need to tell me twice.The moment the enforcers, or whoever those people were, pulled the crowd of irate customers off of the porter, they would notice that the occupants of two of the cabins were missing. I turned around and bolted down the winding path.Leaves and low branches tangled in my fur as I passed, but the minor irritation was nothing compared to what would happen if we were caught. Griff followed a few paces behind me, either slowing because of the mobile phone he had to carry or out of a sense of protecting his mate. It was hard to tell which side of his soul was in charge, but I didn’t dwell on it too long.Our claws scraped across stony ground, and a cool breeze meandered through the trees and low shrubs. We continued down a winding slope leading to a fast-running stream that looked narrow enough to
The door at the other end opened, and Lydia jogged in, wearing a pair of leather pants and a fitted blazer that made her look like she was both business-like and ready to kick ass. Her blue hair was arranged in a messy bun, with strands that looked purple in the basement’s peculiar light.“Cathwulf, do you want to come with me?” she asked with a smile.I gave both gods what I hoped was a deferent nod of thanks for the rescue before bounding across the room toward Fenrir’s mate.Lydia held the door open for me, and I rushed out into a concrete hallway that led to a stairwell of a similar material. Nostalgia overwhelmed my senses, and memories flooded my mind of Dad and me opening the door to the upper basement and staring down at the floodwater.He used to tell me that this was a problem I would have to fix when I became the alpha. Whenever I asked if we could solve it now, he would pat my head and laugh.I shook off the memories and continued up the stairs to the ground floor, and thr
“How are they going?” I asked.Her smile faded. “There have been a few unexpected developments, but don’t mention anything to Fenrir, or he’ll take charge. He needs to focus on this mission.”I nodded and walked through a room overlooking the front lawn, where a metal stage took up the middle of the space that looked like it had once held a statue. Sunlight streamed in through the windows, illuminating the bed’s carved headboard of a winged wolf flying through an inferno of demons. It almost reminded me of my journey from the Punishment Pit to Hades’ palace.After the first shower since escaping the Fifth Faction of Hell, I felt refreshed enough to face two wolf gods and my furious mate. I dressed in the outfit Lydia had ordered for me and gazed into the mirror. The leather pants I chose made my legs look even longer than ever, and the tank top pinched a little at the waist, accentuating my too-large boobs.I pulled up the neckline and scowled. “Why didn’t I order something more modes
I glanced from a grinning Ophois to Fenrir, who gazed back as though the entire heist depended on my ability to ride an Egyptian wolf god through a void between realms. My throat spasmed. Was I supposed to jump on his back while the atmosphere of that place sucked all the air and moisture from my lungs, or would he transport me in a bag of sand?My gaze darted to Griff, whose features were as tense as the tight band of alarm wrapping around my lungs.“I don’t understand,” I murmured. “Why me?”“Ideally it would be a large team, but Ophois needs someone to help him detonate the smoke bombs, gather the prisoners, and collect the crystals.”The band of alarm tightened around my throat. “It sounds like there needs to be at least twelve of us.”“You know what happens when people who don’t belong to Hell try to enter it,” Ophois said in that booming voice.I rubbed the back of my neck. It wasn’t like I was chickening out, but I wasn’t sure if I could do everything they wanted. But they woul