Chapter One

Azazel

I stare at the message on my comm, and my veins fill with ice.

I think I’m being kidnapped.

I slam out of the outlier office, burst out of the building, and take to the air, not caring who sees or what their human brains make of a winged male cutting through the air.

Tracker on, I head toward Fee’s location, wings beating the air as hard as my heart is beating in my chest. I reach out to her, opening the connection between us and activating the soul bond that binds us.

I’m coming, Fee. I’m on my way. I project my thoughts, knowing she should feel their intention, but all I get back is confusion. She isn’t listening to me. She’s in distress.

Shock and rage hit me, and then…Nothing.

I can’t feel her.

Oh, fuck.

I can’t feel her any longer.

The comm continues to beep, tracking her location. I swerve in the air, hit an updraft, and then wheel up and back down like a bullet zeroed in on its location.

I land like a tornado in a narrow, filthy, empty backstreet. No, not empty, there’s a taxicab parked up ahead. I race toward it. The driver’s door is open, the partition smashed. Where the fuck is Fee?

“Fee!” I whirl around, searching for her. The tracker says she’s here. Right here, so why can’t I—

Crunch.

I look down and lift my boot to find a crushed comm.

This can’t be happening.

A gust of air throws strands of my loose hair across my face, and I swipe them away angrily.

Mal lands in a crouch a meter away. “Where is she?” he demands.

I stare into his bright emerald eyes, my chest so tight I can barely summon the breath to speak.

“Azazel? Where the fuck is Fee?” Mal demands again.

I stare at him, my heart in my throat. “I don’t know.”

Fee

Hunter!

I was awake and alert, my heart a rapid drumbeat in my ribcage. Hunter, the bastard. The fucking—

Where the hell was I? The room was all wood, bland rugs, and brick. There was a dresser and a random chair shoved against the wall. The bed under me was huge, the sheets crisp and clean. There was a masculine and enticing scent in the air, and it pissed me off that I recognized it.

I wrinkled my nose.

Hunter.

This was his scent.

His room.

His bed.

But this was no penthouse suite. I canted my head and listened to the silence, looking for clues, while my gaze slipped over the closed door and roved across the room to the window with the partially open drapes. I slipped off the bed and padded over to peer outside.

White blinded me, and I had to squint to allow my eyes to adjust.

Snow.

So much fucking snow all over the place.

When had it fallen so hard?

Where was I?

Snow-covered open land stretched out beyond the window all the way to a tree line. A forest? We had to be in the countryside. Somewhere off the grid, no doubt. Yep, Dorothy, we’re not in Kansas anymore.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what Hunter’s game was. Get me out here alone, wait for the heat to hit, and then take advantage and complete the mating bond.

God, he made me sick. I’d been right about him. He was bad, and not in the bad boy way that a woman could swoon over and find sexy. No, he was just plain fucking evil—the kind of evil that needed to be exorcised out of my life. The cosmos was one fucked-up bitch; I mean, how the hell had it chosen Hunter as my fated mate? Was it some kind of punishment?

Panic nibbled at the fringes of my consciousness, but I beat it back. Panic wouldn’t help right now. I had a week before the heat hit. Plenty of time to escape. I just needed to contact the guys.

My hand went to my wrist and slid over something cool and smooth. I stared at the metal band with symbols etched to it that sat snug against my skin. My comm was gone, replaced by a bracelet thingy with no obvious clasp.

Panic tried to creep back in.

No. Fuck you, panic.

All I needed was my scythe, and this bracelet thingy would be history. I waited for the tingle that signaled the arrival of my celestial weapon.

Nothing.

Something was wrong.

I felt…wrong.

Okay, now it was time to panic. Shit, shit, shit. I needed out. Before Hunter came to get me. I tugged on my boots and lunged at the window. It wouldn’t budge. Fucking thing was nailed shut.

Lucky for me, glass shattered when smacked hard enough, and I had just the tool. I picked up a chair, ready to swing it at the window, but my muscles locked as my body went into a state of high alert. My Loup rose to the surface, flooding my body with a sense of calm.

What the hell? What was happening?

“Put the chair down, Fee,” Hunter said, his voice as smooth as honey.

My chest vibrated, but not in a growl…This was a different kind of vibration, one of assent and compliance.

The bracelet…It had to be the cause.

I lowered the chair, reining in my conflicting emotions, and turned to face him.

He stood framed in the doorway, arms held loosely at his sides, expression neutral, but it was a deceptive pose because my Loup could feel the tension radiating off him. He was ready to react. Ready to bring me down if I made a run for it. He was ready to fight, but I wasn’t sure I was. There was something wrong with me. There was something missing. A piece of me, a part of me was gone, leaving me incomplete. Leaving the Loup in control.

“There’s nothing for miles but woodland,” Hunter said calmly. “There’s nowhere to run.”

I held up my wrist. “What is this? What have you done to me?”

He didn’t bother to glance down. Instead, he kept his unfathomable dark eyes locked on my face, and my gaze devoured his cruelly compelling features like a hungry bitch in heat.

I blinked sharply, forcing myself to focus.

“It’s a blocker for your demon side and everything associated with it,” Hunter said calmly. “It’ll also stop your little tulpa friend from finding you.”

He knew about Cora?

He smirked. “Did you really think you could go behind my back and mate with Grayson?”

My pulse went into overdrive. I rubbed the bracelet, my mind whirring as it made the connections. How did he know about Cora? How had he known where I’d be and where I was headed? This bracelet was magic…Made by a witch.

Anger warred with disappointment as realization dawned. “Vi called you, didn’t she?”

Hunter’s mouth twisted wryly. “You need to be careful who you trust, Seraphina. Your honesty will be your downfall.”

Vi sold me out…

“Aw, don’t look so shocked. What did you expect? You threatened to take her lover from her. Did you think she’d sit back and let you have him?”

He stepped into the room, and the air was suddenly charged with threat. My gut screamed fight or flight, but my Loup, still thrumming beneath my skin, sent conflicting signals to chill the fuck out. It didn’t see Hunter as a threat. Stood to reason considering I’d mated with him in Loup form. The Loup accepted him; it didn’t comprehend how out of order this situation was. It didn’t care what the human part of me wanted.

With my reaper abilities offline and my Loup conflicted, I doubted I’d be able to take him in a fight. I needed to be smart about this, to hold my fire and assess the situation fully.

“She called me a week ago,” Hunter continued conversationally, as if I were here of my own free will, as if he hadn’t just fucking kidnapped me. “She gave me the heads-up. Even offered to make that little trinket you’re wearing. Her only proviso was that her part in all this not be revealed.” His smile was wicked. “I agreed, of course.”

But he was breaking his word to her, and he didn’t give a shit. Just proved my assessment that Hunter only cared about himself and what he could gain.

My glare was direct and filled with heat. “Why are you telling me this?”

He gave me an indecipherable look. “I would have thought that was obvious. To show you that you trust too easily. To teach you that you need to be on your guard.”

“Oh, jeez, thanks for the life lesson.” I gave him a mock salute. “I’m all caught up now, so how about you let me go?”

He gave me a flat look.

It was worth a try.

“I suppose your naivety worked in my favor,” he said. “So, let’s make this as painless”—he moved closer—“and as pleasurable as possible.”

The pulse in my throat jumped and throbbed, enticed by his proximity and his tone.

Breathe, Fee. Control it. “I’m not doing this with you, Hunter. I won’t mate with you. If you want me, you’ll have to take me by force, because I will fight you. If you want me, you’ll have to violate me. Is that who you are?”

His eyes narrowed and glittered with anger as he advanced. “I’m not a fucking rapist, Fee. I didn’t force myself on you in wolf form. You came to me. You instigated it, and when the heat hits, I won’t have to force you. You’ll beg for my cock, and I’ll oblige.”

He gripped my jaw and tilted my face up, his lips inches from mine. “I’ll take away the pain with deep satisfying thrusts. I’ll fill you in a way that only a fated fucking mate can.”

Oh, God. I closed my eyes to block out his burning eyes and his searing words.

“Look at me, Fee.”

“No.”

“Look at me.”

His words were a command, and my eyes snapped open. I stared at my dazed reflection in his inky pupils.

“This is the way it’s supposed to be,” he said. “The heat, you, me, and this bed.”

He propelled me toward it and managed to get me halfway across the room before my brain came back online. I locked my knees and jerked my chin out of his grasp.

“Dream on.” But my words sounded weak, even to my ears, because he was right. When the heat came, I’d have no control.

When the heat came, the desire and need simmering beneath the surface would explode. I wouldn’t be able to control it. Whatever this thing was between us would take over. When the heat hit, it would be game over.