by Milly Taiden
She groaned and arched her back, pressing into his hands. Freaking hell that felt so good. “My family doctor told me there was nothing they could do for me. I was slowly losing the ability to even breathe, but I wasn’t going to die quietly. I called upon Riyanna and asked her for enough strength to get me through seeing my cousin again. In exchange, she’d get my soul.”
“Why until you saw your cousin?”
“I knew that I was going to die. Riyanna gave me the strength I needed to get up off the bed and stop my cousin from destroying more lives. Once I died, she’d go after other family members. I knew she’d get rid of them in her attempt at moving to the front of the line.” She remembered vividly lying in her bed, the life slowly draining from her. She’d cried out in pain, calling to Riyanna and offering the only thing she had to bargain with, her soul.
“Did it work?”
She laughed. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
He pinched her nipple and she gasped. “Out with it, little freak. Or I won’t give you a second dose of cock. And you know you want it.”
He was such a dirty mouthed barbarian. She should be turned off by his words, not wiggling in the warm bath, wanting to straddle him and get it on again.
“She gave me strength. My cousin had been in London for some weeks. I guess she’d been hoping to find me dead when she returned. I waited until she’d gone on a walk by the cliff overlooking the sea from my home.” She pressed her cheek on his arm, taking strength from him so she could continue the story. “I found her by the edge of the cliff. My temper exploded. I was angry at seeing her singing about my death. She actually laughed. I didn’t even say anything, just went blind with fury. I grabbed her by the shoulders and shoved her and myself off the cliff.”
“That’s how you died.”
She nodded. “I can only guess she died at that point as well.” She sighed and glanced up to look at his serious expression.
“You need to learn to work off some of that anger inside you.”
“What do you suggest?” She glanced down. She’d never given her temper a second thought.
“Kickboxing to get that rage monster out and exercise some of that need to hit something. And I hear yoga can help you relax after.” He rubbed his jaw on her hair. “It’s just some ideas.”
Those sounded like things she should look into. What did she have to lose? Nothing. She was already dead. “What about you?”
He met her gaze and lowered to place a kiss on her forehead. “I died for my wife.”
Damien knew he had to share the story of his death with Laura after she’d opened up and told him what happened to her. It was strange, but he felt as if he understood why she’d done what she did. And though she was young when she’d died, it explained her bouts of anger and bad temper. She’d been pushed to grow up when she’d been nothing but a kid.
“Were you very much in love?” she breathed, lifting one of his hands to her lips.
The wolf inside him lifted his head in attention. He heard the slight hesitation in her voice.
“I cared a lot about Kele,” he said, honestly. He’d never been in love with her, but he’d loved how much she cared about him. “She was a great, loving woman. Warm and compassionate.”
She nodded, bumping his chin in the process. “I bet it was awful to discover she’d been abused. How did that even happen?”
He leaned back, brushing his wet hands over her hair. She’d laid it over her shoulder and he found himself fascinated with the long curls. He enjoyed twining the strands through his fingers, feeling the silkiness of them. “It was shocking. This was a higher class individual. She worked for his wife, so she was often alone at his home with him.”
He’d hated that he had tried to give Kele everything she wanted through his job, but she’d been adamant about working. They’d never had children, so that had stopped any argument on his side to keep her at home. Back then, it was natural for both partners to work to maintain the household if there were no children.
“What happened when she told you?” Laura asked softly.
“I wouldn’t let it be. She tried to get me to let it go, but I couldn’t. I was angry that I was supposed to be her protector and instead failed her.” He frowned.
She sat up, glancing over her shoulder to meet his gaze. “You couldn’t have prevented that. It was her place of employment.”
He’d known that. It didn’t diminish the guilt of knowing he’d been off fighting when Kele had needed him. “I went to the man’s home. He was a locally known high profile figure.” A growl built up his throat at the angry memory. “While my wife was at home, crying. He was in his house fucking a servant girl.”
Laura’s eyes went wide with shock. “What did you do?”
“I pulled him off the woman by the neck. I shoved him to the other side of the room, yelling at him. Asking him why he’d done what he had, but he said I was going crazy. He pulled out a sword and I fought him for it. Once I got it out of his hands, I decapitated him with it.”
“Oh, my goodness!” She gasped.
“I was bound by my hands and feet and thrown into the ocean to drown,” he finished. “I don’t recall the rest, but I was here after that. Been here since.”
She cupped his face in her hands, bringing her luscious lips to his for a kiss. “I’m sorry you went through that.”
Hell. She was too sweet. She was upset over his death when she’d clearly suffered just as much as he had, if not more. He scented her pain and pulled her closer, loving every minute of having her curves in his arms. This was right. Perfect. She was his.
“I’m getting highly turned on by this.” He heard his boss’s voice from the door of the bathroom. “I should have brought a video camera.
Laura squeaked and covered herself with his and her hands. “What the hell are you doing in here, Davi?”
Davi gave a flirty grin. “Getting off on watching my two best minions fuck in the tub?”
“Get out!” Laura screeched.
Davi sighed. “Does this mean I’m finally getting new minions from you two?”
“No!” he and Laura yelled in unison.
“But why?” Davi pouted, glancing down at her perfect red tipped long nails. “You can’t still be holding on to that wife of yours, Damien.”
“Leave Kele out of this,” he growled.
Davi raised her brows. “Oh, I see. So this is just sex then. All right, that’s fine by me too.” She grinned at Laura. “Get your shit off and come to work just like that. You’re so fucking sexy right now I could get myself off just looking at you.”
“Davi!” Laura snapped.
“Fine. I’m going.” Davi waived her hand. “Later, Wrath.”
Just like she appeared, she was gone. Laura huffed out of the tub, leaving him to follow after. Clearly the moment was lost.
“Is it true what she said? That you’re not over your wife?”
He hesitated to answer the question. Not over Kele? He didn’t think he’d ever be over not being there to defend her. “It’s not that simple, Laura.”
She laughed humorlessly. “Wow. I guess I was under the impression you might be looking for something new.”
“I never wanted to be matched to anyone,” he said, honestly.
She picked up her robe and threw it on, finally turning to face him once dressed. “I need you to go, please.”
“You don’t understand things.”
“Let me ask you something,” she said, raising a hand to keep him from saying anything else. “If she showed up right now, would you want to be with her?”
His sense of commitment for Kele hadn’t been questioned during his entire time in the Seventh. He didn’t know how to answer her. “She was my wife.”
She nodded. “I know.” She picked up his clothes and handed them to him. “You should go.” Then she went into her bathroom and shut the door. Locking him out.
His animal wanted him to tear down the door and tell her Kele meant nothing.
That Laura was his mate. His one. But he couldn’t do that. Kele had been a special person in his life. The truth was that if she showed up there, he’d still feel indebted to his old relationship with her. A prick of pain hit him in the chest, straight to his heart.
He couldn’t hear anything from the bathroom as he dressed, but he sensed his words had hurt Laura. He wouldn’t lie to her. She was the one woman for him, but he’d been married, and he couldn’t stop himself from feeling committed to Kele if she showed up in the Seventh.
* * *
Damien hated that Laura refused to see him. No matter how much he tried to get Davi on his side, she’d shrugged and told him she wasn’t going to force Laura to talk to him. Now he stood on the training field with his mind at Davi’s castle. Two of the guards in training came at him. Instead of using his bigger body to deflect their hits, he shifted into the wolf dying to break free.
He growled, the sound filled with fury. He knew his wolf was more primal than when he’d been alive. From the moment he joined Davi’s ranks in the Seventh, his animal had changed. He’d been bigger. Stronger. Angrier. Davi mentioned it was all part of the process to keep him as the head of her guards.
He bit into one of the arms of the young guard, pulling it out of the socket and spraying blood all over the field. The second guard used his sword, swinging it to cut at Damien’s large hind leg. Damien snarled and kicked him with the same leg he’d cut.
Two new recruits decided they’d show off by helping out the guys in training. Now it turned into four against Damien. He didn’t give a fuck. His anger over missing Laura and feeling guilty over wanting her instead of Kele pushed the beast in him to rebel.
One of the guards tried to use his sword to cut at Damien’s neck, but he shoved out of the way, keeping the kid from being able to reach. This was hell. If they cut his head off, he’d be seen as a terrible leader of the guards. If he killed the new recruits, who gave a shit? There would be others. It wasn’t like they were truly dead. If he destroyed them in Davi’s level, they’d just be sent to the Sixth. It wouldn’t do to have guards that couldn’t keep up. Davi liked blood thirst. All he’d have to do was tell her the entire gory tale.
Two guys came at him together, trying to overpower him with numbers like the first two had. He pawed at one until the guy dropped the sword, then he bit both arms off the guard. The second guy was kicked off him until he could give him his full attention. He turned on his heels, jumping through the air and landing on the first guard. A single bite to his neck and the recruit was finished. The final guard tried using the sword, but only managed to slice one of Damien’s paws before Damien got his canines into the guy.
He shifted back into his human body. He was bloody. Angry. And horny for Laura.
“That was quite a show there,” Davi said from behind him. “I thought you made it a rule not to shift when training?”
He marched to the building to shower. “Fuck the rules.”
“Oh, Wrath. Are you trying to turn me on?” She sighed.
The woman was crazy. He still couldn’t figure her out. “What do you want?”
He opened the door to the showers and found a surprise he was not prepared for.
“Damien!” Elena flung herself into his arms. “Are you ready to fuck me brainless?”
What. The. Fuck. He had such shitty luck lately. “Elena, it’s not a good time. You need to get out of here.”
He turned to Davi, glaring at her. It was her fault Elena showed up everywhere he went. He could not walk home without her tackling him near the entrance or in the middle of the street, asking him to fuck her in the ass.
“Hi, Davi,” Elena greeted. “He likes to play hard to get a lot.”
Davi grinned. “Does he?”
Elena nodded. “Oh, yes. I’ve practically put my ass on his face and he won’t do me. It’s so frustrating.”
Damien turned to Davi, grabbing her by the arm and tugging her to the other room. He could be sent to the worst level of hell for putting his hands on her, but there was no other way to make her see sense. “Get her the hell out of here. She’s driving me fucking crazy.”
Davi raised a brow and glanced at his hand on her arm. He took his fingers off her and waited.
“Fine. I will get her off your back. Here I thought with that insatiable animal inside, you’d be able to keep a nymphomaniac busy.”
He groaned. “She’s a nympho? No wonder. Just get her out of here. Keep her away.”
Davi raked a nail down his chest. “And what do I get in return, Wrath?”
Fuck. It was like that with Davi. She could never just do a good deed. Then again, if she did, she wouldn’t belong in hell. “I’ll see what I can do to get Laura back. Give you some of those minions you want.”
Her expression brightened. “Really? You want Laura like that?”
Why lie to himself any longer? “Yes. She’s mine.”
“Oh. Okay.” She flicked her wrist. “Elena won’t bother you any longer.”
Finally!
He turned away from her to head into the shower. “Thanks.”
“Oh, one more thing, Wrath,” she called out, making him stop in his tracks to glance over his shoulder at her. She licked her lips and winked. “Nice ass.”
SEVEN
Laura tried not to look at Damien, but it was hard seeing as they were standing in front of each other. His stony face didn’t make her feel any better. It wasn’t her fault that he didn’t want to move from the past. She’d spent too much time with him. Her emotions had gotten tangled up with all thoughts of Damien. A sharp pinch of sadness hit her in the heart.
He finally met her gaze. “Why are we here?”
She pursed her lips, curling her hands into fists. She’d been taking kickboxing lessons like he’d suggested, trying to work on ways to rid herself of the anger. She’d also been doing Pit Yoga. Why anyone wanted to sit in a room hotter than the worst levels of hell out of their own free will was beyond her.
The yoga was supposed to help her relax after the boxing and allow her to control her frustrations and put her mind at ease. Damien had done that. Given her ideas on how to find solutions for her problem. Now look at them. She’d kicked him out of her place and refused to see him. Even Davi had tried to interfere, but Laura had been adamant. If he couldn’t let go of his wife and offer her his heart, then she didn’t want to be with him.
“I don’t know why we’re here,” she snapped, looking away.
“You know, if you were a shifter, I’d say you’re an alpha female. The trait is in you.”
She rolled her eyes and glanced back at him. “But since I’m not, that makes me a bitch, huh?”
Whoa! Where had that come from? She never snapped at anyone like that lately. Seeing him must have agitated the hurt feelings she’d been coping with since they’d last seen each other.
He shook his head. He tensed and sadness flitted through his eyes. “You’re too sweet to be that.”
Right. Not good enough for him to want to commit to, though. She opened her mouth to speak when Davi appeared in her office.
She glanced from one to the other. “Not tearing each other’s clothes off and fucking on my floor, I see. Why?”
Laura cleared her throat, choosing to ignore the question. “You needed to see us?”
Davi grinned. “You two have all this pent up sexual tension. I’ve got the urge to run out of here and go find a new cock for some quick, dirty time in here.”
Laura’s eyes went wide. She hoped Davi wasn’t planning on doing that in front of them. Knowing her boss, she was likely to get it on in front of anyone.
“What do you want with me?” Damien growled.
Davi blinked. Laura’s gaze shot to his face. He didn’t budge or flinch. He didn’t care how Davi took his words.
“You two are pretty sexually frustrated, so I’ll let that slide, Wrath. I have some questions regarding a new soul that came into this level by mistake.”
Laura
frowned. Someone else handled soul transfer. She didn’t know why Davi would think she’d be able to help.
“You two sure you don’t want to fuck like rabbits by my fireplace? It would make for good entertainment.” Davi winked.
“We’re not fucking in front of you, Davi. So get on with it.” Laura sighed.
Davi sniffed. “Party poopers.” She wiggled her fingers and a file showed up in her hands. “I understand you are both acquainted with Ketalina Callis.”
Laura frowned at Damien, shaking her head. “No.”
He did the same. “I have no clue who that is.”
Davi search through her files and then snapped her fingers. Two guards, some of the scariest beings in the Pit, showed up holding a woman. The woman was shackled in fiery chains. She had to be one of the bad ones to have two guards on her and shackles too. Her face was hidden behind a cloak so they couldn’t make it out.
“Ketalina Callis?” Davi asked.
The guards growled a nod.
Davi motioned for the guard to remove the cloak.
“Oh, shit!” Laura gasped.
“What the hell is the meaning of this?” Damien growled. “Why is she shackled like a high security threat?”
Davi moved forward. “Because she is a major threat. Aren’t you, Ket, or as you have been called in Damien’s time, Kele, or as you were called in Laura’s time, Katherine?”
It was her cousin. The evil bitch that had been the cause of Laura’s demise. “Why is she here? Not that she doesn’t deserve it.”
“Ketalina?” Damien snarled, anger and shock visible in his tight features. “Who the fuck is this?”
Ketalina, or as Laura knew her, Katherine, smirked. “I’m too high a witch. Nobody can go up against me. I’m too powerful for the likes of you. I made a deal with Riyanna before I came here.”
Davi grinned. “Ketalina is a bad, bad witch. She’s been transferring from body to body for hundreds of years.”
“What do you mean transferring?” Damien asked, curling his hands into fists.