Of Gods and Wolves (The Godhunter, Book 2)

by Amy Sumida

  Chapter Thirty-One

  “Where are the chips?” Finn’s voice filtered out to the living room, muffled as he rooted around in my cupboards.

  “Above the fridge,” Trevor said as he walked out of my bedroom, pulling on his shirt. His hair was sleep tousled and he was rubbing his eyes. Cats weren’t the only ones who liked to nap.

  Everyone turned to stare at him. Brahma with a little smile and a lifted brow, Teharon with a tiny frown, Persephone with glee, Hades with calm acceptance, Mrs. E & Mr. T with concern, Pan with a go figure shake of his head, Horus with distaste (I was kinda glad to see it wasn’t just me he gave that look to), and Ull just looked at Trevor in shock.

  Finn came out of the kitchen to silence. “What I miss?” He looked from the team back to Trevor and then over to me, where I sat on the floor, in front of the low Moroccan table we occasionally used for card games.

  “Uh,” I cleared my throat, “I was about to tell you guys.”

  “You and Trevor?” Persephone reached over and hugged me. “How wonderful, I hope you’ll be happy together.”

  Trevor sat down next to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “Thanks, Sephy,” he smiled at her.

  “So you’re even using her nicknames now?” Finn threw the bag of chips on the kitchen table and crossed his arms.

  “What of it, Swan Boy?” Trevor’s voice had gone to its werewolf rumble.

  “It’s okay with me,” Persephone eyed the two men with confusion. “I like the name.”

  “Swan Boy? You think me a child, little puppy?” Finn stalked further into the living room and Trevor stood to meet him.

  “Enough,” I stood up as well and pushed Trevor back down. Okay, he let me push him back down. “Finn. Outside. Now,” I pointed at the backdoor and he widened his eyes but he went. “Anyone else got a problem with me and Trevor?” I looked around the room and everyone shook their heads except Ull. “Ull?” I went and stood before him. “Do I need to take you outside for a talk as well?”

  “No,” he looked at me and there was resignation in his eyes. “I’m just worried about Dad.”

  “Your father has been dating every goddess that’ll have him,” I ground out. Ull looked shocked but he looked guilty as well. “And evidently you knew about it.”

  “I didn’t want to hurt you,” he sighed.

  “How many of you knew?” Everyone but Persephone, Hades, and Trevor suddenly had somewhere else to look. “And none of you thought I might like to know? It didn’t occur to any of you that knowing my ex-boyfriend has moved on, might help me to move on as well?”

  “He hasn’t moved on,” Teharon spoke softly, as he always did, but somehow it was softer right then, gentler.

  “What do you mean?” I narrowed my eyes on him. “I think dating half the female deities in existence constitutes moving on.”

  “Thor has never been a playboy,” Brahma took over for Teharon, who was looking a little lost. “It makes one wonder, why the sudden change?”

  “Uhh,” I threw up my hands in the air. “Fine, you guys had your reasons, whatever. I can’t deal with this right now. I have to go find out what Finn’s problem is.”

  As I walked out the backdoor I heard Horus mutter, “I know what Finn’s problem is… he’s an idiot.”

  I shut the door behind me and sighed. Finn was at the small iron bench I had near the koi pond. I went over and sat next to him. He was staring at the shiny koi fish as they hovered on the bottom, sleeping and dreaming fishy dreams.

  “So what gives?” I leaned back and crossed my legs.

  “What gives?” He shook his head as he eyed me with disgust. “Are you really that cruel or are you just oblivious?”

  Shit. I was hoping this wasn’t going to be personal. I mean I knew he was interested in me but I really didn’t think he’d been expecting anything to happen. I thought I'd made that clear when I talked with him about the flowers he sent. He’d made a few comments and some casual touching to test the waters but Finn never made the butterflies rise. My love magic just wasn't interested in him, which in turn, translated to me not being interested.

  Besides, he was smokin’ hot. Any woman would love to get a chance at him. They had to be practically throwing themselves at his feet. I really didn’t think he’d sit around waiting for me. He also knew Trevor was bound to me and I couldn’t help being attracted to him back. The thought made me frown and wonder how real the attraction was between us. How much of it was werewolf magic? No, I wasn't going to start questioning my relationship with Trevor. I wasn't going to fuck this one up.

  “You don’t have anything to say to that?” Finn brought me out of my musings.

  “I don’t know what to say, honestly,” I closed my eyes for a second and sighed. “I think you’re great, Finn. It just hasn’t been the right timing for us.”

  “The right timing?” He turned on the bench to face me better. “You saved my life before you saved the wolf. Hell, he was trying to kill you!”

  “Is that hell with one L or two?”

  “What?” He looked like he was about to throttle me.

  “Hel, the Viking goddess or Hell the place? Okay, not the time for jokes,” I took his hand. “Trevor shared his magic with me. He bound himself to me forever, knowing at the time that he might never share my bed and yet would never want to share anyone else's.”

  “So he gets you because he played dirty?” His beautiful face twisted in jealousy. It made me uncomfortable, to say the least.

  “He didn’t play dirty,” I counted to ten. “He played honorable or whatever the opposite of dirty is, that’s Trevor. Bonding to me wasn't some underhanded ruse of getting into my pants. He'll never be with another woman. He's sacrificed a lot, including his immortality. He's literally given up his life to be with me. The way he loves me is humbling, mind boggling.”

  “So you’re in love with him already?” I don’t know what was worse, the anger I felt from him or the disbelief.

  “Already?” I dropped his hand. “You make it sound as if I jumped from one man’s bed to the next, throwing my heart like a trophy to the winner.”

  “Isn’t that how it is?”

  I slapped him and it was hard enough that his face twisted and the sound of it echoed in my ears. “Snap out of it!”

  Finn stared at me furiously.

  “Not much of a Cher fan huh?” I smiled as his confusion muted his fury. “Go watch Moonstruck some time and work out your issues, Finn. I’ve enough of my own. I've got full subscriptions. I don't need yours as well.”

  “Vervain, I watched you with Thor and I contented myself with your friendship,” he took both of my hands and dropped to the ground in front of me. “I stood by while he seduced you into loving him and then betrayed your love. I waited for you to heal. I’ve been trying hard to be the friend you need when I want to be so much more.”

  I tried to pull him back up to the bench but he resisted. “Finn, I find you attractive, real attractive, but my heart wants Trevor.”

  “Your heart is following your body’s lead,” he pulled on my hands urgently. “You don’t really love him. You’re attracted to him through magic and pity. You’re heart is so big, Vervain. You can’t bear to have him bound to you while you’re with someone else.”

  I frowned, he was playing on my doubts and I didn’t like that. Doubts were like family, you could insult your brother all you wanted but if someone else said a single bad word about him, you’d punch their nose in. Finn was bad mouthing my brother and he was about to get a bloody nose.

  “I don’t fuck men out of pity,” I stood up and he fell back into the grass. “I love Trevor and I’m sorry things never went anywhere with us but they didn’t, they just didn’t, and if you can’t handle that, you need to stop coming around.”

  “Vervain, I’m sorry,” he grabbed my ankle as I walked by and I had to stop myself from shaking him off like he was garbage. He wasn’t garbage, he was my friend and he’d stuck it out with me. He didn
’t deserve to be treated like that.

  I sighed and helped him up. “No, Finn, I’m sorry. I just don’t know how to handle all this attention. Growing up, I felt fat and stupid. One side of my family was all about looks, I have a Pageant Queen for an Aunt, and they constantly made me feel like I needed to improve my appearance. The other side couldn’t care less how I looked, as long as I was smart. Study more Vervain, have you decided what you're going to do with your life yet? I never felt good enough for either of them so I took a third option, I became an artist. You don’t need brains or beauty to paint.”

  “How could anyone make you feel ugly or stupid?”

  “They’re my family, I love them and I trust their opinion,” I sat back down on the bench heavily. “If I’m not good enough for them, how can I be good enough for anyone else?”

  “You don’t have to be good enough for them,” he sat down next to me. “You just need to be good enough for you and I think you are. I think you’re happy with yourself deep down.”

  “Yeah,” I smiled and flicked his nose. “You’re right. I am and part of me knows my family pushed me out of love. They only wanted me to be the best I could but another part of me is constantly whispering, ‘He can’t want you. You’re not pretty enough, or thin enough, or smart enough for him,’ and I look at you all and wonder if it’s just some big joke. If one day you’ll jump up and say ‘Hah, we got you good, you should’ve seen your face, Vervain.' I’ve a hard enough time with normal men but here I sit with gods and they tell me they want me, me, Vervain Lavine, who didn’t lose her virginity till she was eighteen. I just don’t know how to handle you all.”

  He stared at me for a minute while he digested everything, then took a deep breath, nodded, and stood up. “Let’s go back inside,” he reached down to help me up.

  “We okay?” I searched his face.

  “Yes,” he led me to the back porch. “You’re right; you have enough issues of your own, you don’t need mine. I mean eighteen? How could you not have had sex until you were eighteen?”

  I laughed and slapped his shoulder but I was relieved and so was everyone else when they saw us walk in, hand in hand.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Half an hour later, The God Squad had left and I was showered and climbing into bed next to Trevor.

  “Sweet dreams, Fur Face,” I kissed his chest.

  “Vervain, that’s what you call Nick sometimes.”

  “Well, if the shoe fits,” I grinned, waiting for the explosion… three, two, one, lift off.

  “Take it back or you’ll be kissing my furry ass,” he rolled me over and held my hands above my head.

  “Kiss my big, white ass,” I stuck out my tongue and suddenly felt like Persephone. It made me giggle, which so didn’t help.

  “I’ll bite your ass,” he rolled me again and I yipped as his teeth sank through my panties. I never wore anything but panties to bed. I just didn’t see the point.

  He bit the edge of the panties and pulled them away as I bucked him off me, jumped off the bed, and ran. Looking over my shoulder, I caught the glint of excitement in his eyes. I slammed the bedroom door as he was getting slowly off the bed with a wicked smile.

  I ran for the door, grabbing his long leather coat as I went. The bedroom door slammed open and the sound of padding feet echoed down the hallway. My heart started to beat faster, adrenaline pumping through my veins with muscle quivering heat. I yanked open the front door and ran out, closing it with a soft click.

  Let the wolf sniff me out, it would be half the fun.

  I heard him search through the house, then stop and I knew he was scenting me. I felt a shiver run down my spine and I wrapped the coat tighter before I crept along the house toward the backyard. I stopped a second, remembering the last time I’d tangled with a werewolf there. Maybe I could erase the bad memory with a good one.

  I heard him leave the house and looked around me in a panic. I wanted him to find me, I wanted him to catch me, but on some deep instinctive level, I also wanted to run and hide from the wolf. The beast was on the hunt and the prey had to run, it was the law of nature.

  I searched desperately for a hiding place. The high, thick mock orange bushes that fenced in my yard offered no hope but did fill the air with the heady scent of orange blossoms, adding to the exotic smell of the night blooming jasmine which grew alongside the house. Maybe they could mask my own scent. Oh, who was I kidding? Trevor could find me in a sewer.

  My backyard was wide, spacious, and open, with only a few fruit trees granting very little cover. I looked at the pond with its gurgling waterfall in the corner and then the mango tree opposite it. Maybe I could hide behind the trunk.

  I had just made it to my pathetic attempt at cover, when I heard a twig snap nearby. My heart was pounding so fast, it was taking an effort to keep my breathing quiet. I closed my eyes tight and tried to make myself as small as possible but it really was pointless. He knew exactly where I was.

  I yelped when a large paw grabbed my arm and pulled me out into the moonlight. Trevor was magnificent in half-form, his sable fur shining and soft, his eyes glowing from the hunt. Instinctively, I pulled away, twisting my arm out of his grip and attempting to run again. He growled low and stopped me with ease, scooping me up around the waist. I had to swallow back a scream as I lashed out, kicking and hitting at him till he fell on me to hold me down.

  I writhed, horrified that he was going to make love to me as a wolfman but strangely turned on as well. He was Trevor, no matter what form he took, and I loved him. The emotion overcame the physical reservations I had and as he pressed against me, his fur stroked me seductively. It was so different from skin on skin. Instead of a slick slide, it was thousands of points of silk flowing over me, heightening each movement he made. I ran my leg up his side, delighting in the feel of him, and let out a small moan. His growl turned into a rumbling, desire-filled plea and I met his eyes with my answer.

  He knocked the coat open as he took both of my wrists in one large paw to hold them high over my head. The scent of spicy musk thickened, blocking out everything else. The world narrowed down to my wolf, hard but silken above me, one hand holding me down as the other roamed roughly over my bared body. I looked down between us, my skin seeming to glow under the moon, a bright contrast to his darkness. A wild, rushing excitement ran through my veins when I saw him rising up hard and slick between my legs, still very much a man where it counted.

  I tossed my head to the side, cool blades of grass cushioning my cheeks as his face lowered, his muzzle rubbing against my neck, scenting me, before his rough tongue stroked me up to the ear. His paw-like hand squeezed my breast, surprisingly gentle even with its claws, the pads of his fingers soft against my sensitive skin.

  “We can stop,” the gravel of his voice tickled my ear, lower and thicker from that lupine throat. His face was pressed so close to mine. “Just tell me to stop, Vervain.”

  “Stop,” I whispered and his body froze around me. “Talking. Stop talking and fuck me, you beautiful wolf.”

  His body let loose immediately, wild and wonderfully intense. My legs fell open as he slid into me, grasping me tightly at the hip to keep me still. He was bigger in every way in half form and my body stretched around him with a slight twinge of pain that was soon lost to the onslaught of pleasure. He released my hands and I immediately brought them to his shoulders, pulling him closer with fists full of fur.

  He was so large. I gave up on trying to wrap my legs around him and planted them in the ground, giving me enough leverage to push back. Low savage sounds were coming from his throat, quickening my pulse and the flow of heat between us. The feeling of his hard body slamming against me, cushioned by thick fur, was wickedly sensual and somehow perfectly natural. The pleasure surged up, slamming me into heaven, and I buried my face in his shoulder to muffle my screams.

  With a small desperate sound, he pulled out and flipped me over, pulling the coat off me, paws cradling my hips as he drove into
me savagely from behind. I could barely keep myself up on hands and knees but I clenched my fists into the earth and held on. He went so deep, I cried out and he growled once before latching onto my neck in his favorite spot. A bolt of fear shot through me as his teeth closed over my vulnerable neck but then I was lost again to the pleasure that rode me as hard as he did.

  I barely noticed his fangs lightly piercing my skin as his jaw tightened possessively, I was so overwhelmed by his dominance and the animal urges it was bringing out of me. I wanted nothing more than to be joined with him forever, to feel him in me again and again, to know that life would be erotic and dangerous but I’d always be safe with him. I’d always be loved.

  With a hoarse cry, he came, a last thrust driving me flat into the grass. I felt myself crest a second time, coming with him, and it was brilliantly wild, like a caged beast suddenly released. The first flight of joyous freedom that lets the soul shine bright. When the pleasure finally released us, he lay gently over me, shivering and twitching until he reached around me and turned me into him, taking us sideways so I could curl into the warmth of his chest.

  He wrapped himself around me as we shared delicious little aftershocks and gazed contentedly at the moon together. The geckos were singing in the trees and I heard Nick stalking an insect through the bushes. I was happy as I’d never been before; the happy you get when everything is perfect and you know that no matter what happens, the perfection of that moment will last forever.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  “They're called Dark Horses,” Trevor had his arm casually slung across my shoulders as we watched the band play in an clearing between the trees, on the bottom floor of Moonshine. “What do you think?”

  “I think they're great,” I watched as the lead singer sauntered over to an enthralled woman leaning against a tree. She was probably having a hard time standing in front of such a buffet of beautiful men. “Dark Horses, huh? Are they really horses?” I turned my attention back to Trevor suspiciously.