The Mistress and the Hellhound (3 page)

“I see.”

She didn’t say anything else, just waited. And like most people presented with a silence, Kellan hurried to fill it.

“The Council of Alphas requests that the Mistress of the City, Reena Leroy, relinquish her position. That she cede all rights and responsibilities therein to the Council immediately due to her
unhealthy
relationship with the human known as Archer Davis.”

“Human?”

“Unhealthy?”

The protests came behind her, from Travis and Jennison. She held her hand up for silence, still looking at the small group of alphas gathered in front of her.

“Of course, I’d be happy to step down,” she said, her voice dangerously low. “Which one of you will face me in challenge?”

Three alphas went so pale, she was sure they were about to pass out, but Kellan’s jaw set, his lips thinning into a narrow line. “That won’t be necessary, my lady. One of David’s pack uncovered a law laid down by one of your predecessors that allows the Master or Mistress of the City to be removed under a certain set of circumstances. One of those was in the case of said Master or Mistress being moonstruck.”

She couldn’t help it, she barked out a laugh. “You think I’m moonstruck?”

Moonstrike was rare, affecting only a few wolves in a generation, usually when they had sex for the first time. They became fixated on one partner, not necessarily their destined mate, and often pined away when that person was removed or left. Most afflicted died.

“Well, how else do you explain your attachment to this human? Or your unwillingness to put him aside and take a more suitable mate?”

“I don’t fucking believe it.” Fury raged within her, and she stood, making at least two of the alphas flinch. Behind them the massed crowds of the court were backing off in an ever increasing circle. “We’re back to the fact you think I should be fucking you, aren’t we, Kellan?”

“Well, you cannot argue I do not have the correct credentials.” To his credit, he held her gaze as she stalked down the steps. “I am a born wolf and alpha of my pack. I. Am. Not. Human. I am worthy.”

She opened her mouth to snap that he was also a fucking asshole, but something just on the edge of hearing paused her in her tracks.

A low, dangerous sounding growl rumbled throughout the room, freezing the wolves of the court in place. It wasn’t lycan. It struck fear into the hearts of even a wolf, something that reached inside them all and triggered their survival instincts like their own growls did to the human population.

The sound they all knew, but none had actually heard.

Hellhound.

Legends said they once walked amongst wolf-kind. Creatures of the night and the pit, who bred with humans to create the first werewolves. Lycan ancestors, but also the bogeymen who haunted their dreams.
Behave or the hellhounds will get you
was a refrain used by lycan parents.

No one actually thought they existed.

They shouldn’t exist.

They were just a story…

“Human? What makes you think I was
ever
human?”

The court and the alphas scattered from the deep voice. Reena caught her breath, hand over her mouth as a figure emerged from the shadows at the end of the room. Archer, but as she’d never seen him.

He was dressed for the evening, but his jacket and tie were gone. The fine silk of his shirt pulled over his muscled chest and broad shoulders, and as he walked, shadows trailed him like a cloak. His eyes had changed. Not to the amber of a wolf. Instead, fire burned in their depths. As she watched, his claws lengthened one by one, each announced by a scraping slide that reminded her of a sword pulled from its sheath.

“You…you’re not human.” Kellan took a step back, fear leeching from his pores as Archer approached.

He’d always been tall and broad-shouldered, but now he was taller, and getting bigger the longer Reena looked at him. She swallowed, fighting her natural instincts to run. He was shifting, slowly, in front of them. No fur flowed over his skin. It looked harder, like armor plates. His face began to change, a muzzle pushing forward.

“No,” he growled, each step ringing out as he approached Kellan. “Never have been. Looked it. Acted it. Took a dose of lycan virus to wake me…but now, I’m
here.”

He shoved his face down into Kellan’s until the men were nose to nose. “You have a problem with me in the female’s bed…so let’s have it out. Change, wolf…and let’s see who is
worthy
of her.”

She made to leap forward, to get between Archer and Kellan, but a hard hand on her arm stopped her. Turning, she looked up into Travis’s face. His expression was hard. “No. This has to play out.”

Shit. He was right. It did.

Biting her lip, she looked at the two men. Kellan held his ground, matching Archer glare for glare. The sound of tearing fabric filled the room as Archer’s shirt gave at the back, two bony spines rising and fanning out.

“Shit. No one said they had bloody wings!”

A whisper of awe and fear rolled around the room, even Reena’s eyes widened as the full magnificence of Archer’s half form, somewhere between man and beast, was revealed. Large fangs jutted from his muzzle and he pulled back his lips to snarl.

“Fuck. He’s going for it,” Travis whispered, as a wash of power flooded the room. Kellan pulling power from his wolf a second before he launched himself into a shift.

Alphas could shift fast and have teeth in their prey’s throat within half a heartbeat. It was what made them so feared, and the more powerful an alpha, the faster the shift. Apart from Reena herself, she’d never seen anymore change faster than Kellan.

He leapt forward, his wolf form exploding out of his body as he flew toward Archer. But it wasn’t fast enough, wasn’t ever going to be fast enough, and all those who watched knew.

Almost lazily, Archer reached out and caught Kellan midleap. One massive hand grabbed the big wolf around the throat, stopping him without even a stagger back. Desperately, Kellan whined and struggling, snapping his jaws and trying to claw Archer’s arm. All to no avail. Easily, Archer held the fully-shifted wolf, raising his arm to look Kellan in the eye as though the lycan were nothing more than an interesting bug.

A snarl rumbled up from his massive chest and he roared right in the scared wolf’s face. With a quick movement, he snapped Kellan’s neck and threw the still quivering corpse in front of Reena.

“He was not worthy.” With that, Archer went down on one knee and tilted his head to the side.

Offering his throat.

Offering fealty.

To her.

“Holy shit,” Travis breathed. “We’re never getting rid of you as Mistress now.”

Chapter Three

He smelled their fear as he passed, like an exotic perfume teasing his senses.

Archer straightened his spine and flexed his wings. Wings. Huh, even he hadn’t expected that when he’d opened the gateway in his soul and let the
other
in. As he’d suspected, the thing woken within him wasn’t lycan.

It was something else. Something far older and far darker. Something that, like the lycan virus, he’d been born with. It had been waiting, hidden in his DNA, for something to wake it. In his case, that had been the lycan blood coursing through his veins when he’d used Seth’s claw to infect himself. It had risen, roaring into life and tried to make sense of the lycan conversion underway.

That had been why he hadn’t shifted fully. He wasn’t supposed to be a wolf.

But a creature that scared the shit out of all these wolves.

His steps rang out against the polished floor as he followed Reena across the hall. The lycans shrank back, which made him hide a smile. Didn’t they realize that if he wanted them dead, they would be? The only thing that kept them safe was the petite woman walking in front of him.

He allowed his gaze to caress her curves. She was the constant in his life. The one thing that had brought him through the madness as the two viruses fought within his body. She’d put herself in harm’s way to save him. Far more than she realized because if his hound hadn’t taken a liking to her, she wouldn’t have survived, even when it was weak.

But both man and hound liked Reena. More than liked her…

Ours…
The being within rumbled, a note of possessiveness in its mental voice.

Ours, indeed
, he agreed, speeding his steps to catch up with her before she reached the door. Without speaking he scooped her into his arms, throwing her over his shoulder to stride through the corridors to her quarters.

Their quarters. After that little altercation, he doubted anyone was going to challenge his right to be in her bed again.

Ever.

“Archer! Put me down!” she squeaked in surprise at his move, but didn’t struggle. Her body was tense and she clutched at his waist, her long hair spilling down his back and tickling his folded wings. The feather-light touch sent a shiver of lust through him.

“No chance, babe. There’s one place this is heading.”

Holding her still with one hand behind her knees, he smoothed the other over the luscious curve of her ass. And spanked it. She gasped, stiffening for a second against the sharp sting. A second later, the heady scent of arousal, her arousal, filled the air around them.

He grinned, speeding up. “You like that.”

“Uh huh. Maybe. Brute.” She threw the insult at him, but her voice was breathy, catching at the end in a way that signaled her desire.

They reached her door within minutes. He didn’t put her down. Instead, he shouldered the barrier open, slamming it behind them with a foot and stalked through the rooms to her bedroom.

“Right,
Mistress.”
His voice thickened with lust, he dropped her on the bed. She’d barely bounced once before he was over her, pinning her with his larger, harder body. Calling the shadows in the room, he used them to wrap around her wrists and ankles, pulling her limbs out until she was spread-eagled on the bed for his pleasure.

And hers, always hers.

“Archer… what are you doing?” She struggled against the bonds, looking up at him. The scent of her arousal flooded with the sharp bite of fear. Instantly, he pulled the remnants of his hound form back within himself.

Bending, he ran his lips along the soft skin of her throat. She was scared, he knew that, but she had to know he wouldn’t hurt her. That he would never hurt her.

“Shhh, it’s okay. I just want to touch you, taste you…” He groaned at the thought of getting his tongue inside her pussy. He was making that a reality, very soon. “All evening your scent has teased me. All I wanted was to rip this damn dress from you, bend you over the throne and claim you. Then they’d all know you’re mine.”

His fingers flirted with the side tie of her dress. He loved this gown. Of all those in her closet, it was his favorite. Mainly because the wrap-over design tied. Just at the side. No poppers, no zippers. The only thing between him getting his hands on her skin was that small knot.

He undid it.

Spread the fabric.

Revealed her body to his heated gaze.

Black satin and lace supported her breasts, lifting the rounded globes for his perusal. The dusky peaks of her nipples pushed at the lace, playing peekaboo with him as though begging for his attention. Farther down, the apex of her thighs was shrouded in more delicate fabric.

“Yours…” she echoed, her breath hitching as he wrapped a big hand around her throat. Fear showed for a second, but then she bit her lip, eyes fluttering closed. He stroked downward, over her cleavage. A swipe of his hand and the bra was gone, removed by his new claws. It hit the floor somewhere behind them. Lost and forgotten as he looked down at the perfection of her freed breasts.

A growl mixed with a groan escaped his throat and he leaned down, unable to resist the temptation to taste her. He cupped one of the generous mounds, rolling her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, at the same time he curled his tongue around the other. Deliberately, he triggered a small change, adding small ridges from his hound form to his human tongue to tease her.

And tease her it did. She whimpered as it rasped against her, small moans spilling from her throat as he licked and sucked. She had the most glorious breasts. Full, but not too large for his admittedly big hands. The perfect size to fit into his palm rather than get lost in the middle.

But it didn’t take long for the lust rolling through his system to demand more. To taste more. Sliding down her body, he kissed along her soft stomach, scraping his five o’clock shadow against the sensitive skin and smiling at her little squeak. So responsive, she shivered under his every touch.

He reached her panties. Curled his fingers beneath her and tore the second pair off that day. She should just stop wearing them. He’d be happy then.

Dropping a kiss against her inner thigh, he parted her lower lips to blow a cool breath over her pussy. The sibilant moan he got in return was low and full of need. Need he would soon assuage.

Leaning in, he swept his tongue over her, from slit to clit and moaned as her taste exploded on his tongue. She whimpered and bucked beneath him, the unconscious movement of her hips begging for more of the same.

He gave it to her, running his ridged tongue between those perfect lips to taste every drop of her arousal. Zeroing in on her clit, he teased it. Circled and lapped over it in butterfly strokes until she gasped and writhed against him. Never a hard touch, never giving her everything she needed.

He wanted her strung out. Begging. For him.

Pulling her clit into the warm cavern of his mouth, he suckled. Only for a second or two. As soon as she registered the sensation, her gasp deeper, he moved on. Slid down to thrust his tongue deep into her pussy. She jerked, pulling against the shadow bonds he had holding her and arched her back.

He fucked her with his tongue, reaching up to rub his thumb over the swollen nub of her clit. Worked her relentlessly higher and higher toward her climax. She went with him. Her back arched, hips working against him as she rode his tongue, his face.

“Oh god, I’m gonn—”