Stone Cold: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Gods & Monsters Book 1)

by Kate Nova

  A frown settled on my features. I remembered feeling dizzy with warmth as I lifted Callan and myself out of the tunnels, but I didn’t recall hitting my head.

  No, the dizziness and overpowering warmth came from something else. The light.

  The light with the voice that had led us out of the labyrinth. What had that been?

  Who had that been?

  My expression must have shown how confused I was, because suddenly Liam was there, too, placing his hand over mine. His smile reassured me as he nodded. “It’s all right,” he said softly. “You’re safe now.”

  I was safe now. The truth of it reverberated through my body, relaxing me along with the stream of warm water from the shower, which trickled down the wall and soaked my hair. A copper color tinted the water as it ran to the drain and my heart ached at the memory.

  The pit of blood.

  Bones.

  Who knew what else was floating down there?

  “The g-girls,” I sputtered. “What about the—”

  “The girls are …” Griffin and Liam exchanged glances.

  Something inside of me twisted. “Tell me,” I pleaded.

  “Natalie made it out.” Callan squared his shoulders, his expression somber. “We haven’t seen Laura yet. But Katie …”

  “She didn’t m-make it?” I whispered, my voice breaking. Tears blurred my vision, falling when I closed my eyes again.

  Griffin reached out and squeezed my arm. “Her body was found at the bottom of the bleachers in the auditorium.”

  I couldn’t breathe. Suddenly, the shower’s water turned frigid against my clammy skin. I remembered everything I’d witnessed down there—the pit of blood, the phantom screams bouncing off the tunnel walls … Katie’s face, white with fear, as she charged past me.

  She ran right past me and I just let her go. I’d condemned her to death.

  “I should’ve stopped her. I should have made her stay with me. It’s my fault she’s—”

  “No, no,” Liam soothed. He put his hand on my shoulder to comfort me. “You saved Natalie. You helped her find her way out. She’s alive because of you, Medusa. You saved a girl from unspeakable horrors.”

  I tried to let his words sink in. Natalie had made her way out of that dungeon. And Laura might still be inside somewhere.

  “Plus,” Callan added, “Katie managed to get out of the labyrinth. She was able to see above ground one last time before she …”

  Yes. I knew what he was getting at. Katie could’ve been relinquished to the pit of blood, her bones floating there for eternity. She could’ve been devoured by the Minotaur and no trace of her would’ve ever been found.

  But she had managed to pull herself to freedom one last time. Her body would be sent to her family and she’d be given a proper burial. As much as my heart ached for her, that did seem like something to be a little thankful for.

  I shuddered at the thought of the Minotaur. I hadn’t seen him, but I didn’t have to. The rank smell of death in the labyrinth below, the growling of a beast, the sight of Callan and his gored stomach.

  Callan. I spun around to look at Callan, my pulse spiking with worry. “Are you … did you—” I stuttered, reaching out to his side, where earlier there’d been a huge, gaping hole.

  But everything was healed. His shirt was ripped and bloodied from the Minotaur’s horn goring him in the ribs, but beneath it, the skin was taut and uninjured.

  Healed.

  Like nothing had ever happened.

  “How? This isn’t even stitched up! How are you already healed?”

  “Giants heal pretty quickly.” Callan chuckled. “But you still saved my ass. That thing would have come back and finished me off if it wasn’t for you.”

  My head spun and I suddenly felt weak. I tipped my head back against the wall. Closing my eyes, I tried not to think of how it felt to swim in blood or the warm liquid seeping into my hair, the coppery or rancid smell choking my breathing …

  “It’s all right.” Callan pulled me back onto him and some of my anxiety melted away. “You’re all right now.”

  The things I’d seen down there …

  I tried to let them all wash down the drain. But as my body relaxed into Callan again, my relief made me shake my head at how absurd it all actually was.

  “Minotaur,” I muttered. “Orcus brought the fucking minotaur to Terras Academy.” It was ridiculous, yes, but it wasn’t random. There was a reason why Orcus had smuggled the nastiest beast in history down beneath the auditorium … but why?

  “We have to go back,” I said, stumbling forward on weak, shaky legs. “We have to save Laura. Plus, who knows how many others are lost down there, running for their lives. There was so much bl—” I dry heaved, remembering the horrors of the pit. “So much blood. So many bones. Orcus has sent more than three random college girls down there. So many more. We can’t let Laura die. She was k-kind to me.” Tears rolled down my face.

  I wobbled, but before I could crash to the wet tiles, three sets of hands were on me, steadying me, comforting me.

  “Shhh. We’ll go back in once we’ve figured out a plan,” Callan reasoned, as he ran his palm down my spine.

  “Besides, you’re too unsteady on your feet. You need to take it easy for now,” Griffin said, squeezing my hand.

  “We’d be far too worried about you to actually be useful saving someone else at the moment,” Liam added, staring deeply into my eyes, begging for me to understand.

  I glanced up at the three men who’d brought me to the showers and cleaned me off, and my questions, though there were many, vanished. I couldn’t risk their lives. They mattered too much. “I’ll wait until tomorrow then,” I offered in a whisper, taking a moment to look at each of them.

  All three were analyzing me, a different emotion radiating from each of their faces.

  Griffin, his bronze forehead framed by his disheveled, dark curls was furrowed with concern. He was trying hard to smile, but I could see the anguish behind it.

  Liam’s strong face and glittering eyes traveled up and down my body. His desire was evident as his hands massaged my shoulders.

  And Callan with his long black hair hanging in wet tendrils around his massive shoulders and with the blood that was flecked in his beard earlier now washed away, looked at me with so much emotion in his eyes.

  Griffin reached out and stroked my face with his hand, his lips curving into a smile—one that wasn’t based on simply trying to comfort me. “I’m so happy you’re okay.”

  “When I saw you like that, covered in blood,” Liam added, his jaw tense at the memory. He couldn’t finish the sentence but looked at me intently, his eyes tracing my curves where the wet dress clung to me.

  “Medusa,” Callan simply murmured, his voice low and raspy. When I looked up at him, meeting his eyes, his expression instantly softened. “I’m sorry. For everything.” I could see the pain in his dark eyes. “We all are.”

  He leaned down and I couldn’t stifle the moan which escaped my lips as his teeth raked teasingly over my skin. I arched against him, my hands working into his tangled, wet hair as our lips met in a fiery kiss. My hunger for him spiked, an intense need burning deep inside, racing through my veins and pooling between my thighs as he deepened the kiss with a growl.

  Then I felt myself being gently pulled back, my lips aching as they left the heat of Callan’s mouth, but then that fire was back as Liam pulled me into his arms, his hands greedily roaming my body, reaching down to squeeze my ass.

  “You …” he murmured against my mouth, as his hands slowly moved up my body, his fingers clenching onto the hem of my dress as he lifted it. “…are so damn …” The dress slid up my thighs, to my ass, and then with a gentle tug, it was just below my breasts. Liam’s tongue plundered my mouth possessively, desperate to taste me. Then, without warning, he pulled back.

  I panted breathlessly, my head swimming with desire. My eyes opened to find him just inches away from my face. I was mesmerized
by him, transfixed on this exquisite man who made me feel so much. I couldn’t take my eyes off him, nor could I help but bite my bottom lip when he raked his fingers through his messy blond hair. But it was the sly smile that undid me—boyish and charming with a hint of something wicked.

  “Beautiful,” Griffin finished Liam’s sentence as he pulled me into his arms. His hot breath washed over my neck as his lips grazed my skin, his tongue fluttering softly over the curve of my collarbone.

  Griffin’s kiss was a test, a question, and he lingered there, our faces close, our eyes closed, our lips barely apart, until I answered.

  I stood up on my tiptoes and threw my arms around his neck. When his lips finally met mine, I told him everything he needed to know and it took my breath away.

  “Yesss,” my snakes hissed quietly. “She forgives you.”

  I let myself get lost in emotion, swept up in the thunderous current of desire knowing I wouldn’t drown. I was safe with these men. For the first time in my life, I felt as though I could let go. I could let myself feel everything a woman could feel about a man—three men—who I was falling madly in love with.

  There was a sense of urgency in Griffin’s kiss, a longing I felt deep inside. I kissed him back just as hard, matching his tongue stroke for stroke. My fingers moved across his bare chest, drifting lower, wanting to feel every inch of him.

  He growled against my lips but reached down to grab my hand and guide it away from the part of him I wanted so desperately inside of me. Instead, he weaved his fingers with mine, holding my hand so sweetly, so possessively, that for a moment, I felt awkward.

  Lust, desire, sex, I could handle … but this … this was something different, something that pushed beyond the intense desire I felt for him. It felt so loving, so protective.

  He released me gently, but kept my hand tightly squeezed in his.

  “Medusa. I …” He glanced over at Liam and Callan who nodded in agreement. “We want to be with you more than we’ve ever wanted anyone else. What you do to me …I never thought I’d ever meet someone like you. None of us did.”

  “And we will do anything for you,” Callan added.

  “But right now, we want to take care of you. Make sure you’re fully healed …that you’re ready for what’s ahead. So, this …” Griffin stepped forward and brushed his lips against mine. “We’ll have plenty of time to explore all of this later.”

  “Together.” Liam reached out and stroked my hair and I nearly forgot my own name as I lost myself in the depths of his gaze.

  Three men cared so deeply for me, when for thousands of years, I would’ve felt lucky to have one.

  Three men with hands roaming my body—Griffin wrapping his arm possessively around my waist, Callan standing on my other side, his fingers stroking my cheek and neck, and Liam standing before me, ready and waiting.

  “We do this together,” he said, taking my hands in his, “or not at all”.

  All three of them waited for my answer.

  This … to be cared for by three beautiful men who made me feel as though I was all they needed. Three men who had the power to possess me, body, heart and soul.

  This was worth facing the Minotaur for.

  Epilogue

  Griffin

  A Minotaur.

  Of all the fucked up things I could’ve imagined, I never would’ve thought Orcus would have brought a damned Minotaur here to Terras Academy.

  He’d constructed a labyrinth to house the beast. Good thing. Otherwise, the creature would crawl up and out into the school and go on a rampage. All the residents of Sicidonia Island knew that if you so much as walked past the Minotaur’s prison, the bull-headed beast would screech and snarl, then reach out to grab you so he could rip into your flesh with his hungry teeth.

  Even I, a monster myself, had a strong fear of the Minotaur.

  And we were supposed to figure out what Orcus was using it for and try to stop him?

  Zeus himself would probably need to swoop down from the clouds and handle it. I didn’t know how on Earth we’d be able to do anything.

  Callan suddenly woke up from where he’d slept on the floor in the corner of my dorm room, near the window. He rubbed his eyes, stretched and nodded to me as he stood.

  “How is she?” he asked, glancing at the figure on my bed.

  I looked down at the girl asleep on my pillow. Medusa, with her eyes fastened tightly shut and her hair splayed out in snaky tendrils, appeared relatively peaceful, considering the terror she’d survived.

  “Still sleeping.”

  I thought of what had transpired in the locker room. All three of us, kissing her, touching her, worshipping her.

  On paper, it should’ve been awkward, uncomfortable at the least—or one of us should’ve felt territorial.

  But that wasn’t how it felt.

  It seemed right that each one of us had touched her and it felt even more fitting that she reached for each of us in return.

  “So what do we do now?” Liam asked from across the room. He’d slept on the floor, too, stretching out next to my couch. I’d offered to let him sleep on the actual couch, but he’d refused, then fallen asleep moments after hitting the floor. His face was puffy with sleep, but it lit up when he looked at Medusa. “Orcus is never going to let her stay at Terras. Not after this.”

  “I’m not letting her out of my sight,” Callan replied through gritted teeth.

  I felt the same. My fists clenched at the very thought of someone hurting her. We’d worked so hard to keep her safe and she stubbornly had refused to leave school, but she was with us now.

  And we weren’t going to be apart from her.

  “We’ll figure it out somehow,” I replied, the beginnings of a plan unfolding in my mind. “We’ll come up with a way to convince him that she’s gone…that we got rid of her.”

  “And what about the minotaur? How does it fit into all this?” Liam pulled the blanket over one of Medusa’s feet, making sure she was completely covered. “Poseidon wants me to report back to him, every detail—”

  “Apollo wants the same,” I cut in, clenching my fists in frustration. “But I’m as clueless as you are.” Three girls were taken down to the labyrinth already that we knew about: one dead, one returned and one still missing. Not to mention whoever the victims were that became the pit of blood and bones that nearly claimed Medusa. That had to be the remains of countless missing people who’d Orcus snatched from who knew where.

  “You’re both working for gods?” Callan growled and I realized how we hadn’t told him. “For Poseidon? And fucking Apollo?”

  “Yeah,” I replied. “I planned to tell you—”

  “That bastard killed my mother…and you’re working for him?” Callan sucked in a deep breath and I could see he was trying hard to control his temper.

  “I didn’t know.” I shook my head in protest at the revelation. “Callan, really, I didn’t.”

  “Seems we don’t know anything about one another,” Liam added, running his hands over his face. “So many secrets…it’ll fuck us in the end.”

  He was right. How could we have believed that we could work together when we weren’t even honest?

  “Apollo is a fucking cold-blooded killer and one day I’ll get my revenge.” Callan sighed, raking his fingers through his hair. “But right now, all I care about is protecting her, no matter what.”

  “Same. We’ll figure it out.” I swallowed the ball of rage I felt at everything Medusa had been put through. “I’ll keep pushing, keep asking—”

  “Or you could just ask the right person.” Callan leveled us both with his eyes.

  “You know something about this?” Liam asked Callan, his voice sharp.

  “I might. Or at least I have my suspicions. Everyone assumes giants are just big, dumb brutes. But I’ve been paying attention, gathering facts, listening when people think I’m not.”

  Liam cocked his head to the side. “What god are you working for? And why the hell
didn’t we share all of this with each other sooner? Like I said, we have so many secrets. That can’t happen anymore.”

  I nodded in agreement. We hadn’t been forthcoming with each other. If we had, it would’ve made it so much easier to work together. I couldn’t blame them for keeping their secrets. I’d done the same. I was here to earn my place in the world and be free from the island I hated so much. I hadn’t wanted to do anything to jeopardize that.

  “Well? Who do you work for?” Liam asked, growing impatient.

  Callan glanced to where Medusa was sleeping as if to ensure she hadn’t woken up and wouldn’t hear what he had to say. Convinced she was sound asleep, he leaned in, his expression determined.

  “I’m not working for anyone but myself. I don’t report to anyone but my own conscience. The reason I got on board with Orcus’s plan was because I long to be free. I’m tired of being a prisoner. It’s time for Zeus and the other gods to see me for what I really am. Not just a monster. But I know for that to happen, we can’t let Orcus succeed. If any of us wants to be free, wants to return to Mount Olympus, we can’t betray Zeus. With a snap of his fingers, we could all be back on our island prison with no hope of freedom ever again.”

  A chill filled the room. He was right. Zeus could easily send us back to our cages or even strike us down with a flash of lightening.

  “If you don’t have inside information, then how would you know about the Minotaur?” Liam asked suspiciously.

  “I didn’t say I didn’t have inside information. I said I wasn’t working for anyone. After Orcus escorted Medusa from the last assembly, I happened to overhear him talking to someone. And before you even ask, no I don’t know who he was talking to. I didn’t recognize the other voice,” Callan said.

  “How do we know he wasn’t confiding in you?” Liam retorted.