Page 20 (1/2)
Dev caht he was under attack, until he realized it was only his pal, he shook his hand, then looked at it to see what he&039;d done to it
His stoht No
It wasn&039;t possible It just wasn&039;t possible
Yet he couldn&039;t deny what he saw There in his pal he&039;d waited a lifeti mark
And there was no doubt who his mate had to be He hadn&039;t been with anyone else in months How could this be? Sam was a Dark-Hunter How could he be mated to one? No Were-Hunter ever in their entire history had been mated to a Dark-Hunter
"You bitches are crazy" The Fates had to be Why else mate him to Sam?
Artemis would have a fit when she found out
Incredulous, he wanted to go to Sam, but he knew better She&039;d tossed him out and she wasn&039;t the kind of woman a man went to At least not without a Kevlar cup
His phone rang
He reached for it and flipped it open without checking the ID
"Dev?"
He went hard at the sound of Saain "IThere&039;sum"
He understood the panic he heard in her voice He felt it too Closing his palm so that he&039;d feel closer to her, he licked his lips "You have a mark on your palm that looks like a bear claw"
"Yes Does this , deep breath before he answered and tensed in trepidation of how she&039;d react "Yeah"
She sucked her breath in sharply "We can&039;t do this, Dev You knoe can&039;t"
He winced at the determination he heard in her voice "You know I can&039;t force you" Mating was always up to the feht as well kill me"
"Dev!"
He clenched his teeth "I&039;m not a eunuch, Sam I don&039;t want to live in celibacy for the rest of my life I&039;d rather be dead"
"Don&039;t be so fatalistic It&039;s just sex You can live without it Trustto say It wasn&039;t just the sex It was knowing that she was his mate and that he was forbidden to be with her that would ruin him Were-Hunters were always insanely protective over theirshe was out there alone
It would kill hi do we have to decide this?"
"Three weeks" After that, he&039;d be impotent Gah
"Okay I need to think about this"
Take your tioing to be impotent What ever you do, think about yourself first He had to bite his tongue to keep fro that out loud But if he did, then he&039;d be as selfish as he was accusing her and that he&039;d never do
"You knohere I am, Sam"
"Okay I&039;ll talk to you later"
He turned his phone off and hung his head in his hands as his eo over to Nick&039;s and take her whether she wanted it or not The man knew he couldn&039;t The Fates didn&039;t work that way This was co he could do except wait
I hate you three bitches May you rot in Tartarus
The Greek goddess Atropos pulled back from the loom where she and her two sisters wove the lives of those they were responsible for As the three Fates, each of them had a job to perforth of a person&039;s life Clotho spun the events that shaped and broke those lives
And Atropos was the one who ended the as their brother didn&039;t interfere Bastard
Not wanting to think about that, she looked up at Lazaros atched her in silence "It&039;s done They&039;re mated"
Lazaros sh, little cousin You are truly a lifesaver"
What an ironic thing to say to the one whose prime responsibility was death "I don&039;t see how But if Arte to say--"
"She won&039;t I promise And if she should, I will take care of it" He kissed her hand "Now I have one last favor to ask"
"And that is?"
He plucked at the strand on the loom that represented the Dark-Huntress Samia&039;s life "Don&039;t cut this thread until I tell you to" Because Sa as it was unsevered, he could torture Sam to his heart&039;s content
She inclined her head to him "As you wish, coz I&039;ll leave it until you&039;ve had your fun"
He squeezed her hand before he released it There were ti
Today it wasat his hand It was so strange to see it there after all these centuries of wondering if and when it would happen Even though it was a girly thought, he&039;d always expected histo be really special Like there would be the sound of tru His fa
The reality
It was re had changed and yet everything was different Closing his eyes, he sue of Sa, babe She had to accept him
What was there not to love?
He really didn&039;t like the voice in his head that began cataloging the answer to that Yeah, I&039;ht and I don&039;t listen as much as I should
I&039;hed as he heard his brother Kyle&039;s voice in the hallway Rolling over on the bed, he landed his feet on the floor and went to see what Kyle wanted
He opened the door
It wasn&039;t Kyle
Stryker was on the other side, s snidely "If Mohammad won&039;t come to the mountain"
He shot Dev in the chest
Sa to tell herself why calling Dev would be a bad idea Why she didn&039;t want to be his
How Dev rin of his even when it annoyed her
I ae on her palm that marked her as a bear&039;s mate She should be horrified by what had happened, yet it soht In a weird way she felt like Ioel was happy about it too
But if she went ahead with this, there would be a ain Ever There was no need To be huet rid of her powers They would remain, but she would be mortal
She would die
Yes, she could have children, but that was the only benefit And having died while pregnant
She never wanted to be that vulnerable again And if she didn&039;t have children, she&039;d be robbing Dev of that pleasure
You could always adopt
Could she? She would still be a Dark-Hunter ed her service to Arteoddess understand or would she de her a raine as she tried to unscramble the ing It was fro, she opened the phone and answered it "Yes?"
"In the heart and in the soul,
"Evil takes it&039;s wicked toll
"Whenblood,
"Over the earth the demons will flood"
Her blood ran cold as someone in a demonic voice whispered over her phone "Who is this?" she deht, Bear?"
"Don&039;t come near me, Sarowl that sounded like he wanted to go for soain, leave the house right now, tell no one, and go down the street to Lafitte&039;s Blacks for you outside"
"Hoill I know it&039;s you?"
"You&039;ll know, Dark-Hunter And you better co up
Fury and fearBut worse, it brought out her nightmares and shredded her confidence
How had they captured Dev? How had they known to go after hiathered in her eyes, but she blinked theo doithout a ferocious battle
And right now, she wanted blood from Thorn and Nick Had they known he&039;d be captured? Was that what they&039;d been trying to tell her?
Would Dev have been all right had she stayed with hi to the him out of the line of fire and instead, she&039;d handed him over to her ene boy
Yeah and Ioel had been one too
Right up to the , she dressed in her warrior&039;s garb and had to sneak out of the house without Nick seeing her It was just after dark as she crept down Bourbon Street toward the corner where it intersected with St Philip&039;s There was already a nice crowd there Friends and couples drinking and laughing
How she wished she could be so carefree
Sam looked around for her contact, but all she saere humans Tons of huht And right now, all their residual e havoc in herthe people at the tables while she debated what to do
A dark shadow fell over her "Keep walking, Huntress"
Her blood ran cold as she turned to see the lethal killing machine
It was Stryker
She wasn&039;t about to let hiuard, she sneered at him "So you came yourself"
"I&039;o through ry Daimons ould kill to dismember a Were-Hunter Literally"
She lacked all appreciation for a joke he was proud of And she had to force herself not to attack him "Do I have your word that you&039;ll release him if I obey you?"
"Would you accept h call How could someone trust evil incarnate? And yet Stryker was an ancient warrior--like her
Saered her powers She saw Stryker in a home she&039;d never seen before He ith another Dark-Hunter
Ravyn Kontis
Stryker had him and his woman trapped and outnumbered
"Do we kill him, my lord?" one of the Dai it "Not today, Davyn Today, we show a bit of ht me that you don&039;t trust the human cattle Only other immortals understand the rules of war"
And in another flash, she saw Stryker battling with Nick and Acheron
For theh Stryker was her enemy and didn&039;t shirk to coely a man of honor and he followed a very screwed up code
Once he gave his oath, he would abide by it