by Riley, Alexa
Mated to the Reaper
Riley
Contents
HEA on the go
Mated to the Reaper
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Epilogue
Epilogue
Fairytale Shifter Book 1
Stalk the Author
Copyright © 2018 by Author Alexa Riley LLC. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, email to [email protected]
http://alexariley.com/
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Edited by Aquila Editing
Cover Design: Mayhem Cover Creations
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Mated to the Reaper
by Alexa Riley
Ariella Sterling was raised by a coven of vampires, but she was different than the rest of them. She was a miracle from the time she was born, and her parents worried about her safety. She was protected and cherished like no other because of her abilities, but something has changed since her eighteenth birthday. There’s a pain growing inside her and she doesn’t think she’s going to make it much longer. When the Grim Reaper walks in everything changes and now she’s got to fight for what’s hers.
Grim Reaper has spent years alone carrying out what he’s destined to do. But when he’s called to take another immortal soul, he realizes this one is different. From the moment he sees Ariella, he knows she’s his mate, but her family steps in and tries to keep them apart. They can do what they want, but there’s no stopping Death, and he’s going to fight for what’s his.
Warning: Does this all seem crazy to you? Well, that’s because it is! The Grim Reaper is here to fall in love and we’re supporting it one hundred percent! Sit back and enjoy their story without all the little details that don’t matter. It’s steamy good fun and we hope you love it, just like we do.
To the listeners of the Read Me Romance Podcast…
you were not patient, but you were loyal, and for that we thank you.
We hope he was worth the wait!
Prologue
Grim
Three weeks was all I could stand with the coven of vampires. Three miserable weeks with the pain in my chest that wouldn’t go away. What’s it like to be surrounded by happiness twenty-four hours a day? Lonely. Seeing love radiate from mated couples only made me feel more alone in the world than when I was actually alone. To see what I’d never have.
Gordon gave me hope that Bishop held the key to my mate. The dream that I hadn’t dared to put into words blinded all my senses. I went to Bishop thinking he would have what was mine, but I should have known better. I know I’d taken away the chance for Bishop to pay back Gordon for all that he’d done, but rage and hate pumped through my veins like DNA and there was nothing anyone could have done to stop me.
I thought that living among the coven of vampires would somehow teach me to soften my heart. Instead it may have had the opposite effect. By the time I left I was as cold as stone through every part of me and resigned to an eternity on this earth alone. There was nothing left for me in that house, and the longer I stayed the harder it was to be around them.
Besides, I have my calling and there’s no stopping it.
When people whisper in the night about their time on earth coming to an end, it’s me they’re afraid to name. I’m not responsible for every soul on this earth. I can only imagine that task would be a little time-consuming. I’m in charge of the undead. The souls of the secret monsters that live among us belong to me, and when their time is up, it calls to me. Bishop’s soul was knocking at my door the day he found his mate. Gordon was getting just as close, which is why I felt even less remorse about taking his life.
It’s not an easy job, but it’s the one I was born to have. My father before me was the Reaper, and when I was old enough he passed it on to me. For as long as there have been vampires my kind have existed. My mother called it a gift, but it’s always felt like a curse. When it’s time for me to collect a soul it’s because a vampire never found their mate. There aren’t many ways for a vampire to die; it’s either by my axe or at the end of their two hundred years. But either way, it’s with me.
Thankfully there aren’t many of our kind in the world, so I don’t have to track them down often, but it’s enough that I don’t stay in the same place for more than a few months at a time. My father told me that when I found my mate my role would change. He said that when the time came another Reaper would come forward and share the burden so that I could have a family of my own. Even to me, our history is still somewhat hidden and I still have a lot to learn.
I run my thumb along the blade of my axe before I set it down on the table in front of me. I stare into the fire and think about my time with the vampires and how I had to leave. The envy that flowed over me when I looked at the happy couples made my stomach twist into knots. My mind drifts back to the night before I left, and I close my eyes tightly, trying desperately to erase the images that come flooding back.
I’d gone with Kane to speak to Valen and talk about his role as a slayer. He wanted to discuss why he took the lives of the immortals before he met his mate and why he doesn’t do it anymore. I wanted to learn all that I could because I was always the one following around after him and cleaning up his messes. It was going to be a chance for me to have some questions answered, but the second I walked into their house, something changed. A knot formed in my stomach when Ravana walked into the living room. My chest tightened and all I could do was stare at her while my heartbeat pounded in my ears.
I didn’t hear a word Kane or Valen said, and by the time I realized that I’d been staring at her, Valen was already asking me to leave. I’d not only crossed a line with his mate, but I couldn’t defend myself to him or to Kane. The coven had opened their homes to me and made me feel like a part of their family. But I couldn’t get the image of Ravana out of my mind.
I wanted to explain that I wasn’t attracted to her. It was obvious that she belonged to Valen and he belonged to her. I could never come between mates, nor would I ever try. It would be impossible for either of them to allow it. But something inside of me shifted when I looked into her eyes and I knew that night that I had to leave.
Nothing has been the same since I left them, but if this is the way it has to be, then so be it. I’ve resigned myself to being stuck out in the middle of nowhere until I’m called to take another soul. My life isn’t like a vampire’s. I don’t have an end if I don’t find a mate. I’m going to walk this earth collecting souls until the end of time.
There’s something inside of me that knows wh
en an immortal is close to death. It’s the reason I’m the Grim Reaper. I can feel it in my bones when one of our kind is dying and it’s time for me to collect. Right now my bones are cold and there’s nothing for me to do but wait.
As I stare into the flames of the fire, I try not to think about being alone or what it felt like when I stared into Ravana’s eyes. I think of nothing else except the blank space of eternity before me.
Chapter One
Ariella
Eighteen years later…
I stand in the sun, loving the warmth against my skin. My eyes close as I listen to the sounds around me knowing that I don’t have much longer. Death is coming. I can feel it slowly creeping in around me, and no matter how hard I try it’s stronger than me. I’m to the point where I’m not trying to stop it anymore.
How can I long for it and want to run from it at the same time? The image of my parents flashes in my mind and that’s the reason why. I’m their everything, and while I don’t think either could bear losing me, my mom would take it the hardest. It’s what scares me the most about dying. My family would carry the sorrow for an eternity and it would be a never-ending ache.
If it were just me, I’d be gone by now. I’d willingly let death take me and finally make the pain go away. I’ve been fighting it off for them, but the pain is almost unbearable now. My hand goes to my stomach where the ache began on my eighteenth birthday. It’s gotten worse by the second and I can’t take it anymore.
At first I thought it was hunger and I ate everything around me. With a mom like mine, that was easy to do. She loves to cook for Dad and me and my herd of cousins who are always coming in and out of the house. But no matter what I did the ache kept growing. When I told them about it, I saw the worry my mom tried to hide from me and felt it as if it was my own. They thought maybe I needed blood, but the idea made me gag.
I open my eyes and stare up at the sun. I’m not grossed out at the idea of drinking blood because it’s natural when you grow up in a coven of vampires. Family bonds together tightly and we’re all close to one another. My mated aunts and uncles drink blood because only the mated vampires do, but my hybrid cousins, who have turned eighteen, stopped eating altogether and became self-sustaining. They are all born from a human mother and a vampire father, but I’m the exception.
My mom, Ravana, tried to get me to drink some of her blood, but I was so repulsed by the idea I couldn’t do it. She didn’t believe me and began to push it, offering to find me someone else's. I know she’s desperate and would do anything, but I feel it inside me that blood isn’t what I need.
Everyone in my family has been anxious about what would happen to me when I turned eighteen. Bishop has always said I’m one of a kind to his knowledge. He couldn't find another like me in all his research and we don’t know why my mother, a female vampire, got pregnant to begin with. I eat human food and can enjoy being out in the sun. But I’m just as fast and strong as they are, and I have all the same heightened senses. I can also pick up on emotions better than others. I don’t get hurt as easily either and heal faster than them. We learned that from a few tumbles I’d taken with my cousins as a little girl. The only thing I haven’t been able to manage is the pain that isn’t going away. I’m dying.
My cousins always said I was lucky because I could walk in the light, but it looks as though I wasn’t so lucky after all. Maybe I was never meant to be and this is the world's way of fixing an anomaly.
I let out a deep breath and get myself together. The sun is setting and I want to be at my parents’ house when they wake up. I take off running towards their home that’s not far from mine. It doesn’t take me long before I’m entering the back door and moving quietly towards the front of the house.
I put on my best smile and try to be my old self. I pretend to be happy and full of life like both my parents always said. It’s laughable because in reality they are the ones full of life and mine is fading. I try to shake it off as I walk closer to my dad's office because I don’t want either one of them to pick up on my mood. If death is coming, I want my last days to be happy ones.
I stop when I hear my name and I tilt my head a little and listen closely.
“Something is wrong,” I hear my mom say. “I feel it. He’s coming for her.” She whispers the last part, but I still hear it clear as day. Something is after me. I’m not surprised she felt it somehow.
“Who?” my dad asks.
“The Grim Reaper.”
My dad lets loose a string of curses. “It’s you he wants,” my dad barks, sounding more pissed than ever. I can feel his jealousy from here.
I take quiet steps away from his office and back outside. Once I’m there I lean against the house. The Grim Reaper isn't unknown to me. It’s just the first time I’ve ever heard my parents mention it. Not only that, but it sounds like they know who the Reaper is.
Everyone knows the tale of the Grim Reaper. It’s actually a story I’ve always been fascinated with. There are so many different stories, it makes me think there has to be more than one Reaper. When I read about him, I remember Bishop telling me that every tale comes from some bit of truth. It only changes as it passes from one person to another. I’d shamelessly hoped he’d been real, but I couldn’t explain why. Such a dark creature should scare me. I shouldn’t want him to walk this earth taking lives, but I couldn’t stop my curiosity.
“Are you going to come inside?” I jerk my head up to see my dad, Valen, standing there. He tries to read my face, but I smile as brightly as I can.
“Just enjoying the last of the sun.” I glance towards the sunset and see the fading light. “You guys are up early.” I walk over to him and he tucks my long dark hair behind my ear. Dad pulls me into him and hugs me tightly. So tight that if I were human I bet he would have cracked a few ribs.
“Your mom hasn’t been sleeping well,” he tells me before letting me go. I look up at him and hate the worry that rolls off him. Not only for me but my mom, too. It’s consuming him.
I concentrate on releasing calm between us to take away some of his stress, and I don’t think he’s aware that I’m doing it. It’s always harder with him than it is the others. I don’t know if it’s the slayer blood that runs through his veins, but it’s always the hardest to soothe him. It takes extra energy and I should be more careful. I don’t have extra of anything right now, but I can’t help myself. I have to make him feel better.
I start to relax when I feel the tension leave him. His eyes flash with something and for a moment I think he might know what I’m doing. Mom saves me as Dad starts to say something, but she cuts him off.
“Sweetheart.” I smile over at my mom as she moves towards us. Her smile is as fake as mine. I only wonder if she knows mine is. She pulls me into as tight of a hug as Dad had.
“How are you?” she asks as her eyes roam my face. I look so similar to her, but it’s clear when you look at me I’m both my mom and dad.
“Hungry,” I answer in truth. Her face softens, but the worry in her eyes stays.
“I should have known,” she teases. “I think you could out-eat your dad these days.” She pulls me inside and Dad follows right behind us. She’s always loved working in the kitchen while Dad and I sit and watch. I know it won’t be long before some of my cousins come rolling in. The ones that haven’t turned eighteen are still eating, and Mom’s cooking has always been the favorite. I love when they come over, but today I want it to be only us. Emotions swarm me as I think about leaving them behind.
I stumble back as the ache in my stomach hits hard and spreads through me. I gasp at the pain, unable to keep it under control. My dad catches me before I can fall and everything moves in slow motion. My body feels too heavy to react and I can’t breathe.
“Ariella!” my mom cries out.
I reach up, touching my cheek, and feel tears I didn’t know I’d shed. I fought so hard to keep them at bay these past weeks, but it’s all too much. The pain is growing and the tears are my undoing
. When I pull my hand back to look at it, there’s blood coating my fingertips.
“No!” my dad shouts as he tries to hide me behind him, but again everything is in slow motion and he can’t move me fast enough.
As if time stands still, I look up and meet the blackest eyes I’ve ever seen. One look and I know instantly that he’s the darkness I knew was coming.
Death is here.
Chapter Two
Grim
I’ve been on the move lately and I knew this was coming. There comes a point when I get antsy with my surrounds and I’m not at peace no matter how hard I try. That’s when I know an immortal soul is getting close.
This is who am I am and this is what I do, but it’s never easy. It has to be done by someone, and I know that when I come to claim a soul it’s with compassion in my heart. There are those who are evil and who deserve the harshest death I can give them, but for the most part it’s a peaceful end to what can be a very painful death.
The soul that calls to me now is different, though. It caught me in the middle of the night and I couldn’t stop pacing. Normally it begins slowly, but this one came out of nowhere. I didn’t have a direction I was being pulled towards, however. That took time to figure out and even as I began the journey I didn’t know exactly where I was headed.