The Rise of the Underworld

by Meg Xuemei X

  My difficult, perilous journey had begun, but I’d do anything in my power to keep Ares alive and give my mate and her family their happily ever after.

  I’d return for them, and then I’d bring back Skye from the Underworld.

  I dipped my head, my thumb tracing the rose gold icon my beautiful mate imprinted on my chest when our magic mated. She hadn’t known it.

  When I came back for her, I’d court her and woo her, and then I’d bury my cock deep inside her as I fantasized every night. Once we truly mated, our bond would ignite like the flame of the sun.

  - The End –

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  Author’s Note

  Dear reader,

  Thank you for reading the Of Shadows and Fire series, a spin-off from the First Witch universe. If you haven’t read Freyja and Ares’s epic love story, I’d love for you to check out the Dragonian’s Witch.

  I’m heading to write Dark Fae Kings & Steel Queen. This new reverse harem fantasy romance series will be released in April 2020.

  <3 Meg

  The Dragonian’s Witch

  He abducts me to find his fated mate, unaware that I am she.

  I am Freyja, the First Witch. I was born with a cruel curse: anyone I touch with my bare skin will die an agonizing death. That is, until a formidable, drop-dead gorgeous Dragonian prince invades my forest home.

  The prince’s lust burns hot and bright for me, yet he resists, wanting his destined witch more. The oracle promises the witch will be his true queen and bring him the greatest kingdom on Earth. Knowing he’s the only man who can touch me, I crave his scorching caress. But I’ve sworn never to reveal that I am the witch. Not until he chooses me above her.

  When the mating frenzy drives both of us to the brink of insanity, someone has to give, but it won’t be me.

  SNEAK PEEK: THE DRAGONIAN’S WITCH

  “You want to fuck the shifter?” the Dragonian Prince asked incredulously and viciously.

  I glared at him defiantly. “There’s nothing you can do about it.”

  Red sparks glittered in his golden eyes. In his jealous rage, Ares lunged and grabbed my shoulders, shaking me hard. “You’ll not fuck anyone on my watch!”

  He wouldn’t have me, yet he didn’t want anyone else to have me. This was the most selfish asshole I’d ever met!

  I hissed. “Try me. I’ll fuck whoever I want.”

  He roared in fury. “I’ve suffered enough of your attitude. I’m the future ruler of the great Dragonian race. No one has showed me such contempt, except you. But I won’t suffer yours either.”

  He spun me around and almost slammed me to the stone wall. In a second, he had both of my wrists in his large hand and pinned them up over my head.

  I didn’t struggle. I knew a predator always preferred a squirming prey.

  Besides, I was curious to know what he was going to do to me next.

  His hard body pressed against my back.

  He threw down my hood and breathed into my hair; his strong aroused male scent enveloped me like a midnight net. I had no intention of escaping from it.

  We both panted hard.

  Even in his anger, he didn’t know how to punish me. His mouth lowered to the hollow of my shoulder blade and his lips assaulted my skin.

  And just like that, my body was on fire. My eyelids lowered from the intense rush of lust. A moan of pleasure fled my parted lips. I arched my neck to the side to let him have a full access.

  He didn’t waste it. His hot lips traced up along the column of my neck, the tip of his tongue hitting my every sensual spot. He branded his kisses on my skin with such hunger and passion that I believed I would combust.

  I begged for more.

  His erection prodded the curve of my ass, his heat, enticing and distracting, searing my skin through my pants. Gasping, I swayed my hips and propelled backwards to rub his groin.

  My shame and anger became a distant memory and lust gripped me mercilessly.

  Ares groaned and thrust his hardness toward me and grinded on me. I wanted his cock to be inside me. I desperately wanted it driving deep inside me to expel the twenty-two-years of empty ache.

  Ares moved his hand to my front and slithered up my clothes, cupping my full breast and squeezing it hard. I threw my head back and leaned against his shoulder.

  His lips wrapped around my earlobe and his teeth nipped it.

  “What am I going to do with you?” he said hoarsely. “You set me on fire every second of the day like no other. The very sight of you tortures me. You constantly challenge my destiny. If I give up now, I’ll lose everything. I’ve never wanted anyone as I want you. I wonder if I’ll even feel this way for the First Witch when I finally meet her. Freyja, you’ve stolen something from me and I can’t get it back.”

  “Then take something from me,” I whispered. “Take me. Just don’t think of the future for now. Moments are all we can have.”

  His rough hand yanked my pants down to my knees.

  We were in the alley; anyone could walk in on us, but I didn’t care. My body wanted him more than anything. It didn’t want to be denied again.

  Ares let go of my wrists. He tweaked my nipple between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand; his other hand stroked my sex. I was wet and ready. I was at the peak of the liquid fire.

  A deep, rumbling sound vibrated from his chest. His hand left my breast and pulled out his cock. Its silky, hot, and hard crown rubbed against the curve of my ass, then between my thighs. I could feel the moisture on the slit of his shaft.

  I lifted a leg and pushed my hips backward toward him to let him enter me from either behind or sideways.

  A hot steel rod nudged at my entrance.

  I purred, swaying my ass impatiently. I wanted his cock now.

  No more foreplay. I needed him inside me. His touch was the fire of drugs that had turned me into a junkie. I urgently needed to release the storm of sexual energy in me.

  Ares stilled behind me.

  “Just fuck me, Ares,” I hissed. “What are you waiting for?”

  That only got him to pull away from me. His ragged breath told me how torn he was.

  “I want to bury my cock deep inside you more than anything,” he said. “I want to fuck you like there’s no tomorrow. I want to make you mine.” He let out a string of cusses. “But I can’t do it.”

  “You can’t?” I said roughly. “You’re as horny as I am. You’re rock hard.”

  “I won’t,” he said. “I must be faithful to the First Witch.”

  “You’ve already touched me. Your cock was inside me the other night. It felt good, didn’t it? So what’s the big deal? Just finish what we started. I’ve told you I wouldn’t say a thing. No one ever needs to know. Let’s just fuck this once and get it out of our system.”

  With a growl, he aimed his cock between my folds again. Then with a long, explosive thrust, he drove deep inside me to the hilt. I cried in pain and extreme pleasure.

  Liquid fire erupted from between my thighs and spread, lighting my every cell like wildfire.

  I moaned and he groaned in intense pleasure. He drove hard and fast inside me, and I moved my hips back to meet his every powerful, delicious thrust.

  Ares pinned my hips to stop my moving.

  “If I finish this,” he said painfully, “I’ll fail her. You’re the fire in my blood. You called out the primal male need in me, but you aren’t her. This will be the last time I’ll ever touch you.”

  He drew out of me.

  The fire in me screamed, and an empty ache struck me like hail. I almost told him who I truly was to get him back inside me. I needed him to f
inish it. But I didn’t whisper a word. Even if I told him now that I was the witch, he wouldn’t believe me. He’d only disparage me for being willing to say and do anything to be screwed. He would brand me as an imposter and a liar before walking away.

  “Damn you to the seventh hell, Darken!” I cursed, pulling my pants back up. I wheeled toward him in a blinding rage and kicked him in the calf, but to no avail. It was as if my foot rammed into hard marble. I snarled. If I had an angelic blade, I would have rammed it into his fucking heart.

  The unquenchable, lustful fire kept burning in me, and there was no channel for it to vent out of.

  Ares seemed no better. Agony, lust, and half-insanity brimmed in his now blood-shot eyes, yet his will and reason still won.

  “Damn myself to the seventh hell,” he agreed and pulled further away from me. “Let’s get the things you need and get out of here.”

  We kept our silence. I stormed toward the end of the alley, and he stayed a step or two behind me. I was sizzling. Ares looked like he wanted to destroy the world when I looked over my shoulder. I glared at him and gestured for him to keep the fuck up. I didn’t care for his self-inflicted and much-deserved torment, though I would pity anyone appearing in front of us now.

  When we both exited, a vendor who was selling an assortment of weapons looked at us, face paling, as if seeing ghosts. I glanced at his booth and didn’t spot any angelic swords. They were extremely hard to get anyway and only valuable when fighting an Angel. There hadn’t been reports of Angel sightings for decades.

  A few blocks away, I found the shop that fit my needs.

  It was the largest, busiest clothing store in the area. Rows of hats were at the front, women’s tops and pants and dresses followed, and scarves and undergarments were all the way in the back.

  I strolled in, grabbed two long dresses and a hat, and headed upstairs.

  “Get what you need,” Ares advised. “I’ll pay, and then we go. We’ve been out for too long.”

  “Whose fault was it?” I hissed.

  “Fine,” he grated. “Take all the time you need.”

  “I’ll get five pairs of boots,” I announced. “They wear out too quickly.”

  “We’re mostly flying,” he said.

  “Are you being cheap?” I demanded.

  “What?” He widened his eyes and frowned at me. “I have all the gold in the world. I’m one of the richest men alive. You can have tens of thousands of boots after we find the witch. I’m just being practical while we’re on the road.”

  “Will you let me have new boots or not?” I asked. “I don’t want to meet the First Witch with my toes sticking out of the holes in my shoes. It will reflect very badly on you.”

  He sighed and followed me upstairs. I heard him murmuring quietly behind me, “—the first female who drives me mad … the thorn on my side … I pray to Earth Goddess that the witch will be—”

  “—the opposite of me,” I finished for him. And good luck with that, I snickered. “You don’t need to follow me. You can wait at the cashier and be ready to pay her. I’ll come to you after I try all the dresses and the boots on the second floor.”

  “Like hell I’ll let you out of my sight,” he said.

  While I selected the boots—I was picky—he never took his eyes off me. At one point, I caught him watching me with dark fascination. Now he was fascinated. What about moments ago at the alley? I was still frustrated and fuming beyond words, and his proximity still affected me.

  Even though there were so many other shoppers around, all I felt was his potent presence and the charged electricity between us.

  Soon I found I wasn’t the only one affected by his sexual energy. Women gazed up at him in heated appreciation. A few of them placed themselves between us and swayed their hips, talking and giggling loudly to get his attention.

  I picked up two pairs of boots then nodded toward the third, fourth, and fifth on the shelves. “Do you mind, Ares?” I asked. “My hands are full.”

  Ares blew out a long-suffering sigh, then snatched a pair of crimson hunter boots, “Aren’t they too bright?” he asked as he trailed after me toward the fitting room.

  Must he criticize everything I did? “I like red,” I said in a clipped tone.

  “Fine,” he said. “I’ll get two shop girls to assist you. I’ll pay them extra.”

  Then a velvet, sexy, and cultured feminine voice reached us. “We aren’t in Babylon now, are we? And this shop has its own charm.”

  A stunning blonde glided toward us, escorted by her companions and servants. She was obviously a lady of noble birth in a poor disguise.

  She didn’t spare me a look, but stopped right before Ares, eyes widening in a delightful surprise. “Oh, hello,” she greeted him, her voice musical.

  “Hello, my lady,” Ares said with a soft, silky voice that he had never used on me. With me, his voice was always hard, hoarse, or very much annoyed. With me, he was not a delight for even a nanosecond but full of negative charge.

  He stepped aside and gestured, politely giving the lady the rights of path. He’d never treated me with such respect. Most of the time he was yelling at me, “Freyja, stop it. Freyja, don’t screw it up!”

  The noblewoman didn’t pass by. She tilted up her elegant head to gaze at Ares with a scorching heat. She was tall and slender, but he was taller at seven feet.

  Ares was enormous and powerfully built, but she seemed more taken by his feral, handsome face. Following her line of sight, I reevaluated his features and mostly focused on his sensual lips and his bedroom eyes. When his eyes and mouth weren’t hard, they made him seem even more handsome than he already was.

  The other female shoppers stopped talking and glared at the noblewoman. She outshone them all. A noble like her could afford the best tailors in town. Perhaps she simply wanted to walk on the wild side.

  The half-blood prince could be any woman’s wildest ride if she could rein him.

  A faint spark of jealousy tugged at my heart when I noticed Ares’ eyes shining at her.

  A smile tugged at his lips as he darted a glance at me. Ares wanted to see how I reacted.

  The jealousy left me.

  I was wild. I was free. And I saw a better way out of my slavery to the Dragonian prince.

  Continue to read The Dragonian’s Witch

  Half-Blood Academy 1: Magic Trials

  The demigods can't decide if they want to screw me or kill me.

  My name is Marigold. I'm a hunter living in the Great Merge--Lucifer has brought Hell to half of Earth, and four demigods rule the other half.

  The smoking-hot Demigod of War rounded up my team to enroll them in Half-blood Academy, aka Half-death Academy, because only half the students survive.

  When he sees me, he wants no one else but me. So he offers to spare my team if I go in their place. Problem is, no human outside the bloodline of the gods can survive the magic trials. The demigod insists I'm anything but human, and he's willing to risk my life to find out what I'm made of.

  I'm not the weakest link, even though all the bullies in the Academy mock me. I'm nothing anyone has ever seen before, and when my forbidden power awakens, the demigods will regret they ever tried to make me their bitch.

  SNEAK PEEK: MAGIC TRIALS

  “I wonder how many soldiers she opened her legs for to get here. So sad because no matter how wide her legs spread, it won’t—”

  I lunged at the mean girl, grabbing a handful of her blonde hair and pulling hard. She screamed as she stumbled back and struggled to break free.

  Marie, the Dominion officer, pried my fingers off Demetra’s hair, dragged me back, and pinned me in place. The other Dominion soldiers barked orders at the group, urging them to keep walking.

  None of them wanted to attract a demigod’s attention.

  I wasn’t proud of myself for pulling hair—I was more of a punch-you-in-the-teeth kind of girl. But I was too mad to care about my dignity or anyone else’s. The whole day’s frustratio
n and the fear of what was coming all accumulated and accelerated.

  Plus, when I faced bullies, I became an aggressor myself.

  I took no shit, and walking toward death’s door wasn’t going to change my attitude either.

  “I don’t give a fuck how thick a god’s blood is in your nasty veins,” I warned Demetra. “Talk shit like that again, and I’ll beat the crap out of you.”

  “You’re dead, you inferior human!” she shrieked. “You don’t have an ounce of any god’s DNA in you. You should never have come here. You won’t come out of that building alive. You’ll suffer an agonizing death before the first rune—”

  “What the hell is going on here?” a voice boomed, carrying potent magic.

  Axel appeared at the top of the stairs we were about to climb, which led toward a magnificent yet intimidating red building.

  Power rolled off him in an icy wind, crushing down everything and everyone in its path.

  As one, everyone dropped to their knees, except for me, again.

  Even the noises of the wind hushed.

  The Dominion soldiers around us quickly straightened their outfits, which were already straight and spotless.

  “Are you causing trouble again, Marigold?” Axel asked impatiently.

  “Who? Me?” I asked darting my eyes around in innocent confusion.

  “What did I say about the consequences of you not behaving?” he pursued.

  I bit my lip. He’d let his Dominions punish Jasper and Circe. “This damn robe is uncomfortable,” I said.

  His dark amber eyes dipped to my robe before roving across my every inch.

  Maybe I shouldn’t have complained about my wardrobe. I suddenly understood what it meant to be caressed without touching.