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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real in any way. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Author's note: All sexually active characters depicted in this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older.

Chapter One

“I leave you alone for
one
evening and you bring hell down on us. Literally.”

Reena Leroy, Mistress of the City, turned at the sound of a female voice, a smile already on her lips. The speaker was Isla Meyers, Captain of the City Guard. Tall and blond, she was everything Reena was not, but the two had been friends for years.

“Well, you know me. I don’t like to do things by halves.”

“No, indeed.” Isla chuckled as they both turned to face the room as they had so many times in the past. The last bastion of feminine sense against the idiocy of the all-male Council of Alphas. Well, previously all-male. Today they were investing a female alpha.

“Busy day today, you’d think something important was happening.”

Reena’s lips curved slightly. “Yeah. You’d think, wouldn’t you?”

The main conference hall was filled to bursting with wolves from all the packs for the ceremony and party that was to follow. Sunlight streamed through the floor to ceiling windows along the side wall, warming the previously cold room. Children ran between chattering groups of adults in a game of tag. The unmated males eyed up the younger females with interest until eagle-eyed mamas warned them off with hard glares, and old men traded stories about what life was like when they were young. But they weren’t here to see Keeley Sutton sworn in as the new alpha of her pack.

They were here to see the man who had killed her brother, the previous Sutton alpha. Despite the relaxed act, every wolf in the place had at least half an ear on the opposite end of the room. There, beside the roaring flames, was the man they’d come to see. Although man was a loosely deceptive term. He looked like a man, walked and talked like one. But he wasn’t.

He was something far more dangerous and rare. In fact, until he’d revealed his true form a few nights ago, every lycan in the room would have said what he was didn’t exist. Couldn’t exist. He was just a myth, a legend, or a story used to frighten children.

Archer Davis was the impossible… Archer Davis was a Hellhound.

“He’s really…” Isla asked, her arms folded as the two women contemplated the tall figure of the man standing alone by the fire.

“Yup,” Reena’s reply was short and sweet. Wild stories about that night circulated, and Isla was no idiot. She’d heard enough to put it all together. “Hellhound. The real deal. And just like all the stories…stronger, faster, and more powerful than we are. He held Kellan in wolf form like a kid would hold a rag doll.”

“Uh-huh. No fur, though?” Isla’s nose wrinkled a little. Reena didn’t blame her. None of the stories mentioned Hellhounds were armored rather than furred. Like lots of myths, some of the detail seemed to have been lost through the centuries.

“Nope. None. Wings though. They were a surprise.”

“No shit.”

As they watched, a figure broke from the crowd to approach the fireplace. Archer looked up and smiled. Reena caught her breath as Travis joined her lover, the two men talking in low voices.

“Does Archer know…” Isla trailed off, still protecting one of Reena’s biggest secrets. For years she’d pretended to take Travis to her bed as her Midwinter Offering, but they’d never done the dirty. Instead, they’d stayed up all night, watching movies and eating popcorn. All so Reena didn’t have to fuck a random wolf to satisfy tradition.

“Nope. Although he has to have guessed something with Jennison about.” She nodded towards Travis’s mate. The larger man was already extracting himself from the crowd to join the pair at the fireplace.

“Yeah…big guy. We sure he’s a full wolf?”

“Uh-huh. Travis met both his parents. Says they’re as wolf as wolf can be. There’s a bear way back when, though, so could have skipped a couple generations.”

Reena sighed as the trio of men chatted with no evidence of fur or blood about to fly. Just one last push today and she and Archer had the weekend to themselves. She needed it. After the upheavals of the last week, with an attempted coup that led to a dead alpha and a pack needing a new leader, she could do with a little peace and quiet.

“Right.” She straightened and headed for her throne at the top of the hall, nodding to the master of ceremonies as she went. “Time to get this show on the road.”

The lycan court was, at the best of times, colorful thanks to its politics and intrigue. Now, for Archer Davis, newly revealed as a creature of myth and legend, they were all shit-scared and it was downright amusing.

Most of the wolves had spent the hour before the ceremony both ignoring his existence, while trying to keep an eye on him in case he did something nefarious. Like, eat a child or two, maybe. The effect was hilarious. A couple of attendees had fallen over their own feet or walked into each other because they were paying too much attention to him and not enough to where they were walking. And the two old ladies by the windows were going to be cross-eyed if they kept up their intense study of the lampshade behind his head. He wondered what they’d do if he took it down and wore it instead. Probably have a coronary.

“May I present to you, the new alpha of the Sutton Pack… Keeley Sutton!” Reena’s voice rang through the hall and Archer turned his attention that way. A warm feeling spread through his chest as he looked at her. Mistress of the City, she was a tiny, curvy dynamo of a woman. And she was all his.

“Think she’ll have forgiven you for killing her brother?” the man who stood next to him asked, arms folded as he leaned against the broad chest of the bigger man behind him. Travis, Reena’s oldest friend, and his mate, Jennison.

“Her brother was a prick,” Archer ground out, gritting his teeth against the surge of anger the memory of that night still brought. “Using words to fight. Asshole.”

After her brother’s death and the alpha position of her pack had opened up, Keeley Sutton had fought three challenge matches to claim it. Her face and arms, bared by her gown, still bore the marks of brutal combat. Archer sucked in a deep breath, letting his inner-hound sort through the scents in the room until he reached Keeley’s.

“She’s a stronger wolf than her brother,” he announced.

“Really?” Travis looked at him, pale eyes filled with curiosity. “How do you know?”

Archer tapped the side of his nose. “Not a wolf, remember? Like a wolf, but not a wolf.”

“Yeah…there is that.”

Unlike most of the wolves in the room, neither Travis or Jennison seemed bothered that Archer was a hellhound. In fact, they’d both sought his company. Even with Travis’s somewhat complicated history with Archer’s woman. A history that should have had Archer ripping the guy’s throat out.

“I know, you know?” Archer said, folding his arms across his chest as the newly invested alpha circulated the room with Reena. He wondered if they’d make a stop at the fireplace or if it was a social faux-pas to greet your brother’s killer.

“Hmmm? You know what?”

Archer smiled as Reena turned and walked toward them. “I know you have never touched my woman.”

***

“I am
so
glad that is over.”

Reena smiled as she joined Archer in the court’s entrance hall later that evening. The party for Keeley Sutton was still underway, but ever the diplomat, Reena left early to allow the woman her moment of glory in front of the court. As a female alpha of her pack, she was second only to Reena in power and status…she deserved her evening.

“It is, and you’re all mine now.”

Archer extended his arm and she slid her hand around it, shivering as they touched. As usual whenever she was near him, a bolt of awareness shot through her, lodging itself low in her stomach. Heat licked across her skin. Not his body heat, but a different kind… heat from his hound enveloping her.

“I am, am I?” she teased as he led her out of the building to the waiting car. Settling into the wide seat in the back, she flashed him a smile as he joined her. “What makes you think that?”

“This.”

Before she could say another word, he leaned in and kissed her. Not kissed. Claimed. His lips branded hers as he pried them apart with a simple sweep of his tongue and plundered the sweetness within. His tongue thrust against hers, sliding and stroking in a sensuous dance that left her breathing ragged and her clutching at the lapels of his jacket for support. Dimly she was aware the car pulled away, but the feel of his hot, hard body against hers soon drove all other thoughts out of her mind.

He moved, pulling her half across his lap and she was happy to go. Happy to be in his arms and forget about everything. Her world shrank until it contained just the two of them. Leaning back, he grazed his lips against her jaw, forcing her to tilt her head so he could kiss her neck. A soft moan spilled from her lips when his large hand covered the full swell of her breast.

“You know what I like about your wardrobe?” he rasped against her neck as he dipped his fingers under the draped neckline of her dress. “Easy access.”

He found her nipple, rubbing the beaded peak, cutting off her reply. Teeth grazing her throat, he lifted her and set her astride his lap. She groaned as the thick, hard length of his cock pressed exactly where she needed it.

“Like right now,” he whispered, his voice gravelly with desire. Arching against him, she rubbed along the hardened shaft caged by his pants. “Just a few layers of clothing between us.”

His free hand slid under her dress and between her legs. She started, then turned to look over her shoulder.

“Archer…the driver…”

The privacy screen was already up. He must have raised it when he got into the car, a slight of hand she hadn’t spotted. And a quick glance out the window confirmed they weren’t on the most direct route to her favorite restaurant.

“Don’t worry…we have plenty of time.”

She turned back to find him watching her, his lips quirked with amusement. His eyes though, burned with heat. Before she could say anything, he slid his fingers beneath the satin of her panties and stroked. His touch sweeping between her pussy lips sent a jolt of electricity through her and when he reached her clit, she considered quitting breathing. That felt good. Way too good.

“Plenty of time?” God, she hoped they did. “For what?”

His grin was pure wickedness, and altering the angle of his hand, he pushed two thick fingers deep inside her.

“Well, I thought about fucking you like this. Making you come on my hand. But I’ve decided not to do that,” he said, punctuating each couple of words with slow thrusts of his fingers into her depths.

She pouted in disappointment as the tension in her body rose to a simmering point. “You aren’t?”

Sitting back, he stroked his free hand up her thigh, lifting her dress higher. His eyes were unreadable, almost glowing red. “No. I’m not.”

“Well, what are you going to do?” She couldn’t help rocking her hips, riding his hand. Especially when he pressed his thumb against her clit. She needed a little more…and she would be there.

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