Unchained: An Eternal Guardians Novella (11 page)

He let go of her wrists—wrists, she realized, that were no longer burned but healed from his magical hands—and slid his arms around her waist. “Seemed like the perfect place for both of us to start over. Together, if that’s what you want.”

Her gaze shifted back to his. Warmth gathered in her chest, pushing aside all the fear and doubt and longing she’d lived with for far too long. “I do want. Oh, do I want, Titos. But...the spell I cast on those Sirens won’t last. Athena will be able to tell they’re charmed. Zeus will be free before long.”

“I don’t care.”

“You have to. He’ll come after you. What will you do?”

“What I should have done a long time ago. Help the Argonauts find the water element so Zeus can’t use the Orb.”

Her heart swelled. He might be a Titan but he was every bit a hero as the Argonauts.

“We’re safe here,” he said, gazing down at her with soft eyes. Eyes she could see a future in. A real future. “Zeus can’t cross into this realm, and his Sirens are no match for me...or us.”

Her heart skipped a beat. “Are you sure you want me? Knowing everything you now know about me?”

A sexy half-smile curled his lips, and he tightened his arms around her waist, pulling her against the heat and life of his body. “Yes, I want you, Keia. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re the same, you and I. And the intensity with which I want you has not changed in the last day. If anything, it’s only amplified.”

She smiled because she definitely felt that intensity amplifying against her belly. “You won’t grow tired of me? Witches aren’t the easiest of beings to get along with.”

“Neither are Titans.” Flexing his hands against her lower spine, he pulled her in closer and leaned down toward her mouth. “But I have a feeling we have plenty of time to work all of that out.”

They did. Sighing, she lifted to her toes and threaded her fingers through his silky dark hair as she opened to his kiss.

Thanks to him, nothing but eternity stretched before her, and she intended to spend every moment of it with him.

Also from 1001 Dark Nights and Elisabeth Naughton, discover
Ravaged
.

Sign up
for the 1001 Dark Nights Newsletter

and be entered to win a Tiffany Key necklace.

There’s a contest every month!

Click
here
to subscribe.

As a bonus, all subscribers will receive a free

1001 Dark Nights story

The First Night

by Lexi Blake & M.J. Rose

Turn the page for a full list of the

1001 Dark Nights fabulous novellas...

Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection Three

Click
here
to explore

HIDDEN INK
by Carrie Ann Ryan

A Montgomery Ink Novella

BLOOD ON THE BAYOU
by Heather Graham

A Cafferty & Quinn Novella

SEARCHING FOR MINE
by Jennifer Probst

A Searching For Novella

DANCE OF DESIRE
by Christopher Rice

ROUGH RHYTHM
by Tessa Bailey

A Made In Jersey Novella

DEVOTED
by Lexi Blake

A Masters and Mercenaries Novella

Z
by Larissa Ione

A Demonica Underworld Novella

FALLING UNDER YOU
by Laurelin Paige

A Fixed Trilogy Novella

EASY FOR KEEPS
by Kristen Proby

A Boudreaux Novella

UNCHAINED
by Elisabeth Naughton

An Eternal Guardians Novella

HARD TO SERVE
by Laura Kaye

A Hard Ink Novella

DRAGON FEVER
by Donna Grant

A Dark Kings Novella

KAYDEN/SIMON
by Alexandra Ivy/Laura Wright

A Bayou Heat Novella

STRUNG UP
by Lorelei James

A Blacktop Cowboys® Novella

MIDNIGHT UNTAMED
by Lara Adrian

A Midnight Breed Novella

TRICKED
by Rebecca Zanetti

A Dark Protectors Novella

DIRTY WICKED
by Shayla Black

A Wicked Lovers Novella

A SEDUCTIVE INVITATION
by Lauren Blakely

A Seductive Nights New York Novella

SWEET SURRENDER
by Liliana Hart

A MacKenzie Family Novella

Discover the World of 1001 Dark Nights

Collection One

Collection Two

Collection Three

Bundles

Discovery Authors

Blue Box Specials

Rising Storm

Liliana Hart's MacKenzie Family

Discover Elisabeth Naughton

Ravaged

An Eternal Guardians Novella

By Elisabeth Naughton

Click
here
to purchase.

Ari —
Once an Eternal Guardian, now he's nothing but a rogue mercenary with one singular focus: revenge.

His guardian brothers all think he’s dead, but Ari is very much alive in the human realm, chipping away at Zeus’s Sirens every chance he can, reveling in his brutality and anonymity. Until, that is, he abducts the wrong female and his identity is finally exposed. It will take more than the Eternal Guardians, more even than the gods to rein Ari in after everything he’s done. It may just take the courage of one woman willing to stand up to a warrior who’s become a savage.

* * * *

Daphne darted a look between Zeus and Athena, sure she had to have heard them wrong. “What you need from me?”

Athena shot a frustrated look at Zeus, but the king of the gods didn’t bother to glance the goddess’s way. “We’re in need of a Siren with your talents to complete a mission for us. Are you interested?”

Daphne had no idea what kind of mission they were talking about, but something in her gut said never to say no to the king of the gods. “Yes, of course.”

“She’s too naïve,” Athena mumbled.

“That’s exactly why we’re going to use her.” Zeus’s eyes flashed. “You’ve heard of the rogue Argonaut loose in the human realm? The one they call Ari?”

Daphne’s mind skipped over snippets of gossip she’d heard from her Siren sisters. “We all have. He’s a monster.”

“Yes, he is.” Zeus’s jaw clenched. “A very dangerous monster that needs to be stopped. Unfortunately, our conventional attempts at dealing with him have not worked. Which is where you come in. We want to send you in undercover to terminate him for the Order.”

Daphne stared at the god for several seconds, sure she had to have heard him wrong. “Me? But I-I’m not even a Siren yet. I haven’t taken my final vows. I’m—”

“You are a nymph. A voluptuous, alluring nymph, like your mother. Aristokles has but one weakness: sexy, vulnerable nymphs. You will pretend to be in jeopardy, let him take you back to his lair, and when he least expects it, kill him.”

Daphne’s heart beat hard, and her hands grew sweaty. This was a suicide mission. She’d heard horror stories about the crazed Argonaut and what he liked to do to Sirens. “But...my king...he tortures and kills Sirens. I’ll not make it past—”

“You are not a full Siren yet,” Athena cut in. “You have not been inducted, you do not bear the marking, and because of your nymph heritage, your body was never altered. He will not sense that you are a Siren, because you are not one...yet.”

“If you succeed in this mission, however,” Zeus added, “you will be inducted immediately upon your return. Regardless of your marksmanship scores.”

Daphne’s pulse roared in her head. This was her chance to belong. To finally be one of them. Her stomach swirled with excitement and apprehension. “Wh-what would I need to do?”

“Kill him, of course,” Zeus answered. “But before you do that, I need confirmation of something. I suspect the Argonaut has a very special marking on his body. Not the Argonaut markings on his forearms. This is something else. Before he’s terminated, I need you to search his entire body and either prove or disprove the appearance of the marking.”

“What kind of marking?” Daphne asked.

Zeus glanced toward Athena. A silent look passed between the two gods before Zeus refocused on Daphne. “We’re not sure. But the marking disappears at the time of death, so you cannot kill him and then look for it. You must find it while he is alive.”

So all she had to do was get close enough to the mass-murdering psycho to check every inch of his skin for some unknown marking. Yeah. That sounded easy.

Not.

“I-I’m not sure how I would do that,” Daphne said hesitantly.

“This is where your nymph background comes in handy.” Zeus lifted his brows in a “duh, it’s easy” move. “Use your seduction skills. Charm him. Get him to drop his guard. Earn his trust so he least suspects your mission.”

A whir echoed in Daphne’s ears. “You don’t mean—”

“Yes, you’ll have to screw him,” Athena said. “Probably several times.” An irritated expression crossed the goddess’s face. “You sailed through seduction training, Daphne. This shouldn’t be that difficult for you.”

Unease rippled through Daphne. She’d only been twenty when she’d been plucked from her foster home and brought to Olympus to train with the Sirens. Barely old enough to come into her sexuality, and the males she’d fooled around with as a teenager didn’t count. Yes, she’d made it through seduction training easily, but only because she’d had an amazing instructor, a minor god who hadn’t forced her. One who’d taken plenty of time to teach her about her own body and the powers of sex. That didn’t mean she had any real experience seducing males—she’d been here for seven years, for crying out loud. And she had zero experience with savages like the psycho Argonaut Aristokles.

“We need an answer,” Zeus said. “Either you are with us—”

“Or you are without us,” Athena finished.

Daphne’s gaze slid from one god to the other. She knew what they were saying. Either she did this and became a full-fledged Siren, or she didn’t and was banished from the Order forever.

“Well?” Zeus asked.

Sickness rolled through her stomach. Her small village in Thrace was gone. Her parents long dead. She had no family left, no home, nothing to turn to if she lost the Sirens. Which meant she had to make this work.

Swallowing back the fear, Daphne nodded and prayed she made it through this alive. “I’ll do it.”

On behalf of 1001 Dark Nights,

Liz Berry and M.J. Rose would like to thank ~

Steve Berry

Doug Scofield

Kim Guidroz

Jillian Stein

InkSlinger PR

Dan Slater

Asha Hossain

Chris Graham

Pamela Jamison

Jessica Johns

Dylan Stockton

Richard Blake

BookTrib After Dark

The Dinner Party Show

and Simon Lipskar