“A friend of a friend,” I shouted. “Where are you?”She didn’t reply for several heartbeats, but then a plume of fire blew out from several feet above us. I stepped back, my eyes wide, wondering what kind of magic user would dare to employ the element.“Griff,” I whispered. “Is Coral using fire?”“It’s legal now.”“Are you sure?” Back when I was alive, fire was a forbidden form of magic, punishable by death.“Something big happened between Yule and Candlemas, and Logris split into smaller villages. The Council even has a Fire Queen who is a phoenix shifter.”“Oh.” I squinted up toward the ceiling, where I swore I saw a green wing. “Is that a dragon?”A pointed head poked out from above us and glared down at us through red eyes.“Coral?” I asked.“Where are you?” she replied.“Inside the cave?” I licked my dry lips. “Are you looking for a green dragon?”“You’ve found him?”A column of flame appeared several feet in front of us, making us flinch. I clapped a hand over my mouth to suppre
Trevor gave Griff a nod, and the two of them walked further into the cave.Coral watched them leave. As soon as they disappeared around the corner, she turned to me and asked, “What did you say your name was?”“Cathwulf,” I murmured. “Cathwulf Aibek.”She gave me a blank look.“I came from Shifter City, looking for your help. We’re having a problem with Hades—”“Hades?” Her pretty features twisted, and sparks flew from her clenched fists.I gulped. Ophois hadn’t been exaggerating that she knew the Demon King. “Yes.” I stood straighter. “He’s holding my pack in Hell, and we need to rescue them.”“That bastard never changes. Let me guess, your pack contains at least one beautiful woman.”“Yes?” My brows drew together. “Why?”“He has a habit of abducting people. Last year, my siblings and I escaped a cult, and guess who was driving the bus that took us to freedom?”“Hades?”“He kept us in Hell for weeks and didn’t even tell us.”I rubbed the back of my neck. “Was anyone hurt?”“Not reall
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