Hell Kissed: A Rejected Mates Romance (The Rejected Realms Series Book 1)

by A. K. Koonce

  The sharp attack against his arm hair unfortunately doesn’t work. A quiet grunt is all I get in response. I try again. Then again. If I keep going, he’s going to end up with a bald patch on his arm.

  And he’s too pretty for any kind of early balding.

  It doesn’t seem to be working anyway.

  Fuck.

  I ease back to sit in the middle of the cell and draw my knees up to my chest. My ass practically freezes to the floor, but I ignore the sting of cold and wrap my arms around my legs. Closing my eyes, I find my focus.

  I only have one idea left, and I have no clue if it will work.

  But I’m not going to die here knowing I didn’t try every possible solution.

  The magic inside me responds to my call and I let it build. I’ve never openly called on it before, it just happens. So this is new.

  The familiar warm and light feeling wells inside my chest, and I push it toward Torben with everything I have.

  I don’t dare open my eyes when I hear him grunt again. I’m not about to break the spell and fuck this up. More and more magic leaves me until Torben groans, then I hear the distinct scraping sound of a body shifting in the cell beside mine.

  More. I need more.

  Wake. Up!

  My magic responds along with the growl of my wolf. She lends me strength until I’m overwhelmed with the feeling. The next burst of energy that escapes my chest shakes the room. Small stones and debris come loose from the ceiling and walls, falling to the frozen ground around us like dusty rain.

  I scramble to the chilled bars, holding onto them as hope flares brighter in my chest.

  “Fuck,” Torben curses as he pushes himself up to his knees.

  My gaze flies to his, and then I nearly choke as it immediately falls to an entirely different kind of impressive sword.

  I’m happy to see him alive and well, but he’s really happy to see me.

  And that really says something, given how fucking freezing it is in here.

  The man blinks, and then his gaze falls down my body in a slow, devouring look. The hard length of his impressive cock is all I can see, and it jumps against his abdomen as more power leaks from me even though I try to rein it back in.

  “Fuck,” he growls again, but this time more reverently. He’s staring right at me, speaking about me.

  It’s like he’s never seen a naked woman before. That can’t be right. I mean… just look at him. He looks like Thor minus the hammer… unless you count the one between his legs.

  Long blond hair hangs loose around his shoulders, his muscles ripple as he stands slowly. I follow him up, pulling myself to my feet using the bars that separate us.

  More magic slips out of me, zapping between us like an electric current.

  Lust blazes in Torben’s eyes, hot enough to melt our icy cages until they harden to steel.

  “They hurt you.” His growl is guttural. If Latham and Aric hadn’t told me he doesn’t shift, I’d have guessed there was a deadly creature lurking just under his skin, glaring out through his angry green gaze.

  I’m so thrown off it takes me a minute to blink and assess my arms. Hard lines of dark bruises mar my pale skin, standing out in harsh rebuke. Tacky blood dries against my flesh where a wound is slashed into my bicep. Now that I’m focusing on it, it stings like a bitch.

  “I’m okay,” I promise. “I’ve had worse.” The shrug I give only makes the raging storm inside him more visceral, so I quickly change the subject. “You’re hurt a lot worse than I am.”

  Torben tries to peer over his shoulder at the sword I motion to, but he can’t see it. Craning his hand back, he reaches for the hilt.

  “What are you doing?” My nakedness is forgotten as I scold him.

  “Taking it out,” he grumbles roughly, like I’m nothing but an annoying peasant he has to explain sword shit to.

  “It might be the only thing keeping you alive!” I eye the wound, noticing the trickle of water melting from where it’s embedded inside him. “It could have hit a lung, or an artery or something.” I’m trying to dredge up images from old anatomy textbooks, figuring out just how bad this really is.

  I’m not a doctor, I can’t save him if he starts to bleed out. Fuck, I can’t even save myself from this fucking frozen bird cage I’m in.

  Torben eyes me like I’m ridiculous. “I’m not that breakable, princess.”

  The last word to roll off his tongue comes out derogatory, and though I’ve been called far worse, the way he says it makes it dirtier than all the others.

  “Don’t call me that,” I grit out. I hate the way he makes me feel insignificant when I know for a fact they wouldn’t have come all this way to get me if I was just another human… or even just another shifter. They want me for a reason. One I’m still trying to suss out.

  There’s no way in hell they came all this way just to deliver a message from my long-lost mother or act as my bodyguards to return me to her. The story is deeper than that. I just need to dive in to find out how much.

  But I can’t do any of that if he’s dead. Which brings me right back to the dilemma we’re in.

  Torben’s eyes narrow like he just read my thoughts, word for fucking word.

  Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was one of his superpowers. Stranger things have happened today.

  Torben stalks closer to the bars, and I swear he’s even bigger than Aric, something I thought was impossible until I saw Torben… and even the skeletons made of ice and bone that tower above us all.

  I swallow as his scent wafts toward me. It’s rich and sinister. He smells like a dark forest with warmer hints of fire and musk. The earthy scent drives me toward him, my wolf yearning to get even closer.

  For some reason, she likes each one of these dangerous assholes.

  But she is a bit unstable like that.

  Two feet from the bars, he turns and presents me with the perfect view of his tight ass. Appreciation for his toned physique is all I’m paying attention to when he arches a thick, blond brow at me over his shoulder.

  “Pull it,” he grumbles quietly.

  “I’m sorry… what?” I stumble over my words, wondering if he wants me to reach around him and…

  “The sword,” Torben replies dryly, like he’s dealing with an idiot.

  It’s not my fault he blinded me with his Viking body and… other unspeakable things. My wolf is practically humping his leg, and my lady bits are all kinds of awake. I shake my head and focus.

  “Yeah. No. I’m not pulling that out.” I shake my head and cross my arms over my chest, well aware that the motion is pushing my breasts up and out more than usual.

  Torben’s not immune, either. He notices me just as I notice him.

  Who’s all high and mighty now?

  “If you won’t, I’ll do it myself. But you have a better angle that won’t cause further injury.” He speaks the words slowly, like I need help understanding his logic.

  Which is rather good logic…

  “And if you bleed out?” I question, because it’s a very real possibility.

  “I won’t.”

  I shake my head, but what choice do I have?

  With an angry sigh, my fingers close around the hilt and the ice stings my palms.

  “On three,” I whisper to him.

  His response is simply a brooding look he tosses at me from over his shoulder.

  I roll my eyes at the asshole.

  “One,” I say slowly, and his shoulders stiffen. “Two.” I eye him closely as he tenses hard.

  Then I yank the damn sword out of his back.

  “You said three!” he groans.

  “I lied.”

  Torben’s shoulders hunch, and I know he’s stifling a grunt of pain that tries to escape up his throat. The wound is raw and red. Blood seeps to coat his skin, dripping down his taut muscles to splatter on the ground.

  It doesn’t look good, and every fear I had comes swarming back.

  My hands shake, and
I drop the sword. It shatters into a thousand shards of sharp ice, but I don’t spare it another glance. The power inside of me rises again, the force of it stealing my breath as my wolf’s howl deafens my ears from the inside out

  On instinct, I cover his injury. The bloody wound spans the entire length of my hand, from fingertip to the edge of my palm. Warm magic surges from me into Torben’s body without a conscious thought.

  A string of curses I don’t recognize flow off his tongue as his skin knits together and his body heals before my very wide, extremely surprised eyes.

  Without any warning, Torben tenses and jerks as my magic crescendos, and the sexiest moan leaves his lips. The deep, rich timbre of it shivers down my spine and settles low in my belly. My breasts always feel heavier when I’m turned on, and the weight of them feels like it intensifies as my nipples pebble tighter. Thighs squeezing together, I let my fingers trail down his back in a light, exploring caress.

  Questions bombard me, daring to ask what the fuck I’m doing, but I shut them down. I don’t want to question this. Not right now. Maybe not ever.

  Is it really so unbelievable that I’d be attracted to a man who could have walked straight out of an Avengers movie? This is the most explainable part of my entire unexplainable day.

  With my fingers tracing back up over the newly healed skin, I try to find any sign of his previous injury, but it’s entirely gone, not a scar in sight.

  Holy shit. I did that. My power did that.

  Torben trembles beneath my touch, a breathy groan shaking his frame.

  Air heaves into his lungs before he turns with an accusatory glare darkening his eyes until I can barely see the jade I know is in there somewhere.

  Feet scraping against the hard, frozen floor, I back up a step.

  His tone is as dark, threatening, and deadly as an impending storm. “What the fuck did you just do to me?”

  Chapter Twelve

  Happy Little Accident

  Rhys

  I gape as I notice the cum painting the hard cut of his abs. It drips down the valley of his stomach, and I have to force myself to look away. It isn’t sexy… I mean… It shouldn’t be sexy anyway. Torben sports a semi that’s still more impressive than any human or shifter I’ve ever seen.

  Not that I’ve seen many.

  “I… I barely touched you.” My defense is weak. Obviously I did something. The evidence of his release gleams on his skin like an erotic picture. “I was just trying to help.”

  “Just keep your hands and your magic”—the word snaps out with the force of a whip— “to yourself. I don’t need your help.” Suggestion coats the last word, like I wrapped my lips around his cock rather than healed the wound bleeding all over the floor.

  My thighs shift with an ache spreading deeper, but I ignore the needy feeling as I glare at him.

  “Don’t worry.” I hope my gaze cuts into him as harshly as I intend. “Next time I’ll just let you die.”

  “I’m immortal, princess.”

  I… fuck. What do I say to that? I didn’t know, but it seems painfully obvious now. Of course these men are immortal. Why not? They’re not only hot, powerful, and scary as hell… they get to live for-fucking-ever.

  That seems fair.

  I fume as I pace in my cell, shaking every single icy bar to test for weakness. They’re solid and magic pulses through them… which totally kills any escape plan I had. Even the strength of my wolf won’t be able to bash through the magically reinforced cages that holds us.

  I shiver, my pale fingers starting to take on a blue hue that can’t mean anything good.

  Unlike the asshole next to me, I’m a mere mortal, and dying of hypothermia doesn’t sound like a fun way to go.

  I catch Torben’s entire exterior soften as he takes in my pallor. It’s then that I realize this man has layers. I’d bet my measly life savings that there’s more to the story of why he’s upset than he’s letting on. It begs the question, what would make him upset about a magic induced orgasm? Seems like most guys beg for release. And it was clearly an accident that I feel like a jerk for having caused.

  Torben suddenly seems hurt and angered all at the same time.

  And now I’m insanely curious.

  I want to know, but I don’t dare ask.

  Torben tests each of his own bars before trying out his brand of magic. I saw the fiery blasts he’s capable of earlier, but now only smoke and the smallest sparks flare from his hands.

  A menacing growl cuts through the air.

  “The blade was made of their holy water,” he grumbles angrily as my dream of breaking out of here dies a slow death.

  “What does that mean exactly?” I ask, but I already know.

  “It cancels my Hell magic until it’s out of my system. Enough of it must have melted into me while it was lodged in my back.” Torben drives his hand into his hair, tugging on the long strands with a lost look in his eyes. “I promise I’ll figure out a way to get you out of here,” he says without the rough edge in his tone, more protective than combative now that he’s coming off the high of anger.

  Almost like he actually cares. I don’t know if I should trust it.

  I pace back toward the bars that connect our cells together, my hands trembling from the cold. “I didn’t mean to do anything to… you know… turn you on or get you off or whatever. I… I’m really sorry,” I stammer awkwardly, forcing my gaze not to travel to the mess that’s drying across his hard stomach.

  I want to clear the air since we’re going to be stuck with each other for the foreseeable future, but he only stares at me, clearly not expecting the white flag of surrender. For a long moment, he searches for the truth in my face as well as my words.

  “You don’t know how to use your powers.” It’s a statement, not a question. He knows. Somehow, he sees the truth easily enough.

  “In case you haven’t noticed, I barely knew I had other powers before you all dropped into my life and turned it upside down.” It’s a half-truth for many reasons.

  I’ve always been different, and I’ve always known that. The power living in me has grown with time, though I have no idea what it is or how it works. For the first time in my life, I have to face facts.

  “I’m not a shifter, am I?” The words slip out softly, a whisper that says I’m not sure I really want the answer.

  Torben gives it to me anyway. “You obviously shift.” He shrugs one broad shoulder, and then crosses his arms across his golden chest. His brooding brows smooth slightly when he peers down at the crescent moon mark highlighting my chest. “But no. You’re not a shifter in the sense that you’re asking about.”

  “What am I?”

  Exhaling, Torben scratches at the blond scruff on his face.

  “That’s not information I can give you.”

  “Why the fuck not?” A plea sits heavily in the cursed question. I don’t understand.

  Torben sighs, but it’s the I’m-totally-put-out-by-you kind of annoyed exhale.

  “We don’t know many facts about our targets. Latham’s levelheaded. He’s trusted with information more. He would know. It’s up to Latham to make that call of what you’re allowed to know. I’m just the hired help. Think of me as your bodyguard, princess.”

  If he ‘princesses’ me one more fucking time I’m going to do more than just make him come all over himself next time.

  “You don’t sound too happy about the chain of command,” I point out, pushing for more answers.

  “Latham and I have a… history.” He leaves me dangling on that cliffhanger as if I’m not totally invested now. He’s no better than some of my favorite romance authors ending their books in the worst place, making me immediately buy the next book while I curse at my kindle.

  “Where are Latham and Aric anyway? Do you think they know we’re here?” Maybe they’ll come for us… maybe—

  Torben dashes my hopes again. “They’ll have figured it out by now,” he muses. “But there’s nothing they can
do for us in here, princess. We’re on our own.” He arches a brow as soon as my lips part. “If you thought my entrance in the holy temple was bad, it would flay Latham and Aric alive, peeling the skin from their bodies only to put it back and start all over again.”

  The picture he paints is grotesque, and I swallow down the bile that’s risen to scald the back of my throat. Yet it begs the question, just how different is Torben from Latham and Aric that he can—albeit painfully—enter this place when they can’t? And just how different am I that all I felt was a tingle upon entry to the temple?

  When it’s apparent he’s not going to elaborate more, I sigh and try to massage the tension out of my neck and shoulders.

  Either way, we’re on our own.

  Great.

  I try to focus through the chattering of my teeth, but I don’t get time to hash out a second escape plan because the door at the far end of the room opens with an ominous creak and the icy monsters walk through one at a time.

  I temper my reaction to jump as the giants file into the room.

  Torben growls, prowling in front of the bars of his prison like he can kill each and every single one of our enemies with the force of his glare alone.

  I roll my eyes. Posturing won’t help us at this point.

  My cocky attitude dips, however, when one of the giants flicks his long, bony fingers and the ice that separates us melts to puddles at my feet. Heart thundering in my chest, I swallow, and despite the fact that it shows my weakness, I slash a worried look at Torben who’s seething as his gaze flies between me and the frosty giant. The chill of glacial eyes never leaves my naked form.

  “It is time for the cleansing.”

  “I’m good, thanks.” The sharp edges of my nails bite into my palms as I clench my fists. I’m nearly over the fact that I’m naked, rolling with it rather than being self-conscious of my body on display for so many people, but the vulnerability I’m left with doesn’t flee so easily. I have no weapons to fight with, no way to protect myself. Unlike the bone and ice the giants are made out of, my flesh is easily harmed.