Before I could even blink, Ryker had me on my back and twined his hand in my hair so he could expose my neck. He slowly kissed down the side of my neck. Each kiss sent a shiver down my spine and straight to my clit. Ryker slowly worked his way down my body and stopped at my breasts, taking a nipple into his mouth. My body arched as he sucked.
“Please, Ryker.” My words came out breathless.
He pulled back from my nipple, and I immediately wanted his mouth back on me. “What do you need, Paldon?” Ryker smirked down at me.
“You.”
“You’ve always had me, Paldon.” He circled his tongue around my nipple before taking it back in his mouth.
“I think I’m going to die.”
Ryker smirked. “We can’t have you dying before I give you an orgasm.”
He put his mouth on my clit, and my whole world was bliss. The orgasm ripped through my body with the touch of his lips. Everything about the man turned me on, and my body hummed with energy.
When Ryker’s weight lifted for a second, I felt lost without him. He reached over and grabbed his wallet from his pants and pulled out a condom. I was glad one of us was thinking clearly. I knew I would spend the rest of my life with Ryker, but I wanted time for just us before we talked about kids—kids who had two influential parents.
Once he had the condom on, he kissed his way back up my body and stopped, taking a nipple into his mouth. His warms lips had me close to the edge again. I had never experienced that type of lovemaking before. Pure bliss—those were the only words that came to mind.
When his tongue found mine, everything around me disappeared. “Paldon, you need to control your magic.”
When I opened my eyes, black magic was circling both of us, and we were covered in black glitter. I closed my eyes again and took a couple of deep breaths, and when I reopened them, the magic had cleared. “Sorry.”
Once the magic stopped, Ryker rose and thrust inside of me. He leaned down and kissed my lips as his body moved inside me. With each thrust, I pushed my hips up, needing more of him. Ryker’s kiss deepened as I held tight to his biceps. My body was close to going over the edge. When Ryker whispered, “Now,” into my ear, my body went over the cliff as I screamed his name. For a moment, all the worries from the past week went away, and I felt nothing but happiness. And I would get to experience that the rest of my life as long as we took down the person trying to end the world.
Ryker rolled over and pulled me in close then ran his fingers over my lips. “Why are you frowning?”
I couldn’t hold back a sigh. “What we did was amazing, and I loved every part.”
“But?”
“I’m worried we aren’t going to be able to stop whoever is trying to get me,” I admitted. It was the first time I’d said the words out loud.
He ran his hand down my face. I tried to commit every moment to memory just in case it would be our last.
“We will win, Paldon. I will make sure nothing happens to you. The only way we can die is by getting stabbed in the heart by King Arthur’s sword.” Ryker pulled me in closer to his body.
“You mean the one stuck in the stone?”
He let out a laugh. “The sword is not stuck in stone. That is some old wives’ tale. The three fates guard it. Now, can I make love to you again?” He leaned in and pressed his lips to mine.
Someone pounded on my bedroom door.
“Go away!” Ryker yelled.
“Alpha, we have an issue and need you back at the house immediately.”
Chapter 16
Every member of the pack was in Ryker’s house, and even a few non-pack members from the neighborhood were there. The two elves who lived next to me were sitting at the bar. Every person in the room was on edge because we’d just found out Mary had gone missing.
“You’re not coming with us.” Marilyn had come to mean a lot to me, and I didn’t want her getting hurt.
The old witch put both hands on the dining room table and leaned forward. “I’m going.”
Wrath, Paul, Frank, Ryker and I had been in the dining room, which we had turned into a war room, discussing logistics since Paul came knocking on my bedroom door. Mary had left a note saying she’d overheard the conversations about her daughter possibly being with the North American pack and had gone to find her. I wanted to head out that second, but Ryker and Wrath wanted to come up with a war plan.
A flash of white fur had me looking toward the living room. Paxdon was playing with two young pack kids there. Their laughter was a light in a dark moment. After we took care of the current alpha, I needed to figure out what Paxdon loved and make it so that he never left.
“No,” Ryker said as he squeezed my hand.
“No?”
“You can’t keep him.”
“Okay.” Though I wasn’t about to argue about Paxdon yet, he would be mine along with the leprechaun. I held off on my planning and listened to the group around the table.
“You and Paldon go in the front and talk to the alpha. Maybe they’ll think you are there to talk about your banishment. Wrath and I will go in from the back.”
“Get your things. We leave in ten minutes.” Ryker piled the maps in a neat pile. “You want to tell me what’s wrong? I can feel your nervous energy.”
“Is this part of the mating? I can feel your emotions. When Paul knocked on the bedroom door, I felt the anger roll through you.”
Ryker pulled out a chair and sat down. “Honestly, I don’t know. I didn’t think mates got any of these senses until they officially mated.”
Sadness washed over me for a second. I thought he’d planned to ask me to mate the previous night. Who would want to mate with me? I come with so much baggage.
“Stop.” Ryker was standing in front of me a second later. “I want to mate with you, but when we mate, I’m going to spend hours worshiping your body.”
I could feel my face become heated because he knew what I was thinking. When I was about to answer, Wrath reentered the room. She had changed into tight black leather and put her black hair up into a ponytail. But her shoes caught my attention. She had on leather knee-high boots with six-inch heels. Her sword dangled at her side.
“Umm... I don’t know if those are the best shoes to wear into a forest and a potential fight.”
Wrath tapped her long red nails on the counter. “These shoes are the best, and if for some reason I lose my sword, I can use the heels to stab someone with.”
Ryker and I were both in jeans and black shirts, and Marilyn came in the same. Frank, her cat, followed her and sat next to her leg.
“Is he coming too?” I didn’t want to miss and accidentally take another one of his nine lives. If cats could glare, I could have sworn his green eyes squinted at me.
But when a man who looked like Thor’s twin brother walked in, I lost all train of thought. His long blond hair shone in the kitchen light. It was as if the gates of heaven had opened and shone down on the man. Ryker cleared his throat, but I couldn’t pull my eyes away from the Greek god. But it wasn’t like I wanted to jump him—yes, he was hot, but Ryker was still in my mind. Still, when the blond god stepped forward and reached out to shake my hand, I wanted him to wrap me in a hug.
“Knock that shit off, Paxdon,” Ryker growled.
Within seconds, the air changed, and the room went back to normal. I reached out and shook the newcomer’s hand. Wait, Ryker called him Paxdon.
“You’re a shifter?” The thought of the pandacorn suddenly wasn’t so exciting. I could never capture a man-slash-shifter.
“Yes, my dear, I’m a shifter.” He turned toward Ryker. “I promise to take care of your pack while you’re gone, old friend.” His accent sounded like someone had taken him out of the Renaissance era and plopped him down in our time.
Wrath walked over and wrapped her arms around Paxdon and placed a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you for helping, uncle.”
“Wait, he’s our uncle too. Do we have a list of family members?”
Ryker covered his mouth to hide his laugh. “He’s not your real uncle. He’s been around so long most people call him uncle when he shifts. Paxdon doesn’t shift into his human form very often. He likes to stay in his shifted form.”
“I can kill more easily when shifted. Never know when the enemy will attack. Now, you guys must go. I’ll take care of the women and children.”
Wrath, Ryker, Paul, Marilyn, and I walked through the woods toward the hell portals. I really hated traveling through those things. My stomach felt turned on end.
When we arrived, the two fairy guards were sitting next to the portal playing miniature cards. “Hi, Alpha.”
“Hello, Gracie. How is your daughter?”
“She is working for the council in West Virginia as a receptionist. She likes it. I will tell her you asked.”
Ryker leaned down and handed the little people a shiny coin. Their faces lit up. “If you see anything go wrong, call the pack house immediately.”
“Good luck, Alpha.”
Paul was the first to step through the portal, followed by Wrath.
Ryker pushed me forward. “Go. I will follow behind you.”
I slowly poked my hand through the portal, still not liking that I might not end up where I wanted, when something once again yanked me to the other side. I flew through the purple portal and landed on my hands and knees on the cold forest floor. Ryker stepped out behind me and raised his eyebrows. Wrath had pulled me through.
“I hate these portals,” I said.
Ryker held out his hand to help me off the ground. The morning light had started to peek through the tree line, but the thick fog made it hard to see. “Where is the portal person on this side?”
Wrath frowned. “There isn’t one, which is not right. Can you feel it?”
Something felt off, but I didn’t know what it was. The air felt heavy, like when Ryker got angry in a small room. I could feel his alpha waves come off him and affect the air in the room. But the forest was a little different.
Ryker crossed his arms and squinted at the cabins. Before I left, the camp had had an alpha house and fifteen small cabins. Other cabins were throughout the pack land.
Marilyn turned from gazing at the cabins. “It’s dark magic.”
“This is going to be fun,” Wrath said with way too much enthusiasm.
I went to take a step forward, but Ryker held up his hand. “We have company.”
Six men formed a circle around us. Their red eyes were the first sign I knew we were in the right location.
“Do you recognize them?” Ryker asked.
I squinted, trying to see who they were. “Can’t tell when their skin is falling off.” They smelled like decay and rotten food. I held back a gag, but I wanted to bend over and puke.
Marilyn waved her hand, and the one who’d been making his way toward us had his leg dragged behind him, then she spoke a different language and sent a bolt of pink magic. She moved so gracefully and with precision when she used her magic. It was like art, the pink streams swirling around her as she let her magic flow. The creature dropped to the ground, and we watched a red soul come up from the dead body.
“Next one’s mine!” Wrath yelled before she jumped forward and chopped the head off the next creature.
Paul and Marilyn took two more down. Only two were left, and I would not miss out on the fun. I closed my eyes and let the magic run through my body. It was becoming a part of me. A sparkling black glob of light danced on my hand, and I threw it at one of the last men who had turned into a creature. His body crumpled to the ground when my magic hit him, and like the four others, a red soul left his body. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the people responsible. I wanted them to die a slow, painful death.
Ryker took out the last of the creatures with a swipe of a sword I hadn’t seen him grab, and I had no idea where he’d put it. Damn, that man is sexy when he wields a sword.
“I think we found the right spot,” Wrath said with too much glee.
The already-heavy air shifted, and two figures came into sight through the thick fog. I could faintly hear a chant before my legs and arms became paralyzed, then I crashed to the ground, and my head hurt like a bitch when it hit the hard dirt. “Umm, what’s happening?”
“Whoever is doing this has a witch,” Wrath grumbled.
“Marilyn, can you get us out of this?” Ryker asked.
I looked at him. His eyes were bright yellow.
“No. I’m trying, but whoever is doing this is using dark magic.”
“I thought you knew dark magic,” I said.
More newcomers came forward. Joseph was next to a beautiful blonde with piercing blue eyes. He had changed over the years—he looked older and gray, which didn’t make sense. Shifters aged at a slow pace and lived at least two hundred years, but Joseph had to be in his fifties.
“Paldon, I thought I kicked you off my land, and here you are with such weaklings. I knew you would never make it,” Joseph spit out.
But I couldn’t take my eyes off the blonde with striking blue eyes. She looked just like the image in the book. “Why would you do this to your daughter? And I thought you were in purgatory.”
The Kali from the book of prophecies turned her icy-blue eyes on me. Her voice floated through the air and sounded like a beautiful melody. “Like the gods could ever keep me in purgatory. As for your mother, nice try—it’s not me. Joseph plans to rule this world, and now that we have you, we have the last piece to get enough strength to rule an army.”
Ryker struggled to move next to me. “You are going to need a big army for when I come for you.”
Kali cackled. “Seems to me you aren’t going to be able to get me. Guards, take these people to the cell.”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a cell. I still can’t believe my father slept with you.”
She stepped forward, and her long white dress blew in the wind. “You, my dear, are mistaken. I would never stoop so low as to sleep with Lucifer.”
“Then why did you send the world into turmoil when he didn’t want you back?”
The beautiful, evil witch tapped one of her high heels on the hard ground. “Not everything is as it seems. You will soon find out before you die—and you will all die.”
Wrath barked out a laugh. “Do you not know who I am? I can’t die, you stupid bitch.”
Kali’s eyes turned from icy blue to red. “I know who you are, Wrath, but you will soon learn even immortals can die.”
Six more creatures appeared, and Ryker growled as one of them picked me up and started to carry me through the dense forest.
Wrath’s eyes had turned a deep red like Lucifer’s. “I’m going to bring wrath down on you if you don’t let us go.”
Kali chanted a spell, and with each word she spoke, my eyes became harder to keep open, and right before the darkness completely took over, Marilyn screamed in pain.
Chapter 17
The dark fog started to break away, but my eyelids still felt heavy. The feeling in my arms and legs had returned, but someone had tied them down. When I finally cracked open my eyelids, I saw that someone had tied Ryker to the chair next to me, and his head was down. Wrath was sitting across from me. Her eyes were still red. Marilyn’s lifeless body lay on the ground, and Frank was curled up next to her. I glanced at Wrath, and she shook her head. Marilyn died because of me.
I searched the area for a way out. Kali would die for what she did. I closed my eyes and called on my magic, but nothing happened. I couldn’t feel my wolf or my magic. Having someone drain the life out of me was making me tired. I struggled to keep my eyes open and look around. The room was filled with cage after cage of shifters. Mary lay on the floor of her cage, and Sasha was crying over her body.
The cage next to Mary’s had three males who looked much older than the last time I’d seen them. They were just skin and bones, no longer the muscular teens I remembered. I wasn’t sure if they were even alive. Then Ethan, the ol
dest, stood on shaky legs, his golden eyes locked on me. Why would their dad lock them up in here?
“How long was I out?”
Wrath grumbled, “I just woke up. I don’t know how long we’ve been down here.”
I ignored Wrath. “How long has Joseph had you locked up?”
Ethan slid to the floor, no longer able to stand. “When did you leave?”
Anger bubbled through me, but my magic didn’t rise with my rage. “I didn’t leave. Your father banished me, and none of you stood up for me.”
Something flashed across Ethan’s face. “We’ve been down here since the day you left.” He looked at his brothers. “He told us you left.”
“I don’t have time to argue about this with you. Why is my magic not working?”
Someone whispered behind me, and I craned my neck to face them. “Kali?”
“No, she’s my twin sister. She is using our magic and strength to power their mission. When we are down here, she siphons our powers, and we can’t use them. She has access to them all.”
Ryker was still out next to me, but Paul’s eyes started to open. The door to the cellar sprang open, and in walked Kali and Joseph.
“Hello, my dear sister. I thought you would like to see your daughter before she dies.”
Kali’s sister—and apparently the woman who was my mom—screamed as she clutched her head.
Kali walked forward and gripped the bars around our cell. “You see, my dear, your dear mother doesn’t know who you are. I took you when you were a baby and handed you over to Joseph to take care of you and wiped my dear sister’s memory, but I decided to let her see the moment I took her precious baby.”
My mother finally stopped holding her head, and her eyes flashed a deep green. “How could you do this to me? How could you take my baby?” Sparks flew from her fingers, but my aunt sent a ball of blue magic, and my mother’s body flew back and hit the brick wall. Blood trickled down her head, and her eyes closed.
Hell’s Key: Siblings of the Underworld, Book 1 Page 12