A Dangerous Fury (The Sentinel Demons Book 3) (3 page)

The Evils had crackled happily when they realized they had Hunter’s family. They despised him. He’d steadily worked his way up on the Evils’ shit list with every one of their kind that he slayed. By the time his family had been taken, he’d been close to enemy number one on the Evils’ list, probably second only to the Sentinels.

“I should have been able to save them,” Hunter growled. “What good was it to be a demon hunter if I couldn’t save my own family?” He’d wanted to die after he’d been unsuccessful in tracking the demons who’d taken his only relatives on Earth, knowing in his heart that they were gone soon after the Evils had taken them to the demon realm.

Kristoff had saved him a few months after Hunter had lost his family, stepping in when Hunter had been aggressively slaying demons in an act of revenge, his usual hunting skills not up to par because of his grief. He’d failed to see an Evil behind him as he cut through a mass of the little bastards during a confrontation. He had made one stupid mistake that should have cost him his human life. Kristoff had come out of nowhere, moving behind the Evil and beheading it just as the demon was about to deal Hunter a death blow that would have killed him instantly.

“Why me? Why did Kristoff save me?” he questioned aloud in a husky voice.

“Because he was drawn to you, just like he was drawn to Zachary and Andrew,” Athena answered quietly. “Although your Winston brothers weren’t hunters when they were human or fated to be Sentinels, you’re all special because your
radiants
have extraordinary powers. They have talents that can help us have stasis again in the battle between good and evil. Kristoff didn’t completely understand why he needed to recruit all of you. He just knew it was important.”

“How do you know?” Hunter questioned irritably. “Did you make me the way I am? Was I one of your personal creations?”

“No. It was prophesized and you were destined to be born a hunter thousands of years ago. It was fated.”

“The demon prophecies are a bunch of garbage that no one can decipher,” Hunter rumbled unhappily. “Talia and Kat are working on them, but I think Drew and Zach humor them. None of us believe in the demon prophecies.”

“Every word in the documents is true. They’re just written in ancient metaphors that nobody can understand until it’s time for them to know.”

“So even
you
don’t know the future, Princess?” he asked cantankerously.

“I’m a goddess, not a princess.” She corrected him patiently, like he was a child. “And no…I don’t always know the things I want to know when I want to know them. The oracles reveal only the information I need when I supposedly need it.” She frowned as she met his gaze, obviously unhappy with that particular part of her existence.

“So when did you realize that you were my
radiant
? And how in the hell did that happen anyway? How does a goddess become a mate to a Sentinel?”

She might be a little naïve to the current generation, but she’s brave, strong, wise, and beautiful. He was inside her mind, and Athena was a goddess with a conscience, integrity. No woman deserves to be mated to me, and certainly not a goddess.

Athena reached out her hand and gently cupped his whiskered jaw, her eyes boring into his as she replied, “Because you’re worthy. Because whether you know it or not…you’ve kept me in existence for all these years by slaying Evils, even when you were severely punished and ridiculed for doing so.” She lowered her hand back to her lap but kept her gaze locked with his. “I didn’t know you were my fated mate until I saw you and you tried to kill me. I saw everything then. I thought I’d just cease to exist some day when I was no longer needed.”

Hunter missed her gentle touch immediately.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

“I thought you were a demon,” he rationalized, cringing as he remembered how he’d attacked her. He could have killed his own mate in his ignorance—not that he was actually planning on making her his
radiant
. But it was pretty sad that he’d been blinded by the flash of red in her eyes. He knew now why the change in color happened, how the creation of the Sentinels had occurred. It was one of the first bits of information he pulled from their shared thoughts.

“I know. I don’t blame you for it. And you couldn’t have killed me. I’m a goddess. We don’t die easily,” she told him arrogantly.

But Hunter
had
caused her pain, and he hated himself for that. He broke contact with her unnerving stare and looked at the space around him for the first time. The room looked like a purple fairy had vomited the color all over the entire space of the enormous bedroom. Purple curtains, purple walls, purple loungers in the sitting area…hell, even the bedspread they were sitting on was a nauseatingly bright purple. He was willing to bet the sheets were the same repugnant color.

“It’s not purple,” Athena said in annoyed tone. “The curtains are mulberry. The carpet is violet and so is the furniture. The carpet is thistle.”

“They’re all purple, Princess,” Hunter answered, amused at her explanation.

“Purple is so common. These are specific tints. I picked them out and coordinated the items myself,” she answered defensively.

“So that’s what you do in your spare time? Decorate this mausoleum in ugly colors?” Hunter asked just to provoke her, beginning to get a kick out of her rationalizations and the flash of red in her eyes when she was irritated. He turned his head just to see what he already knew would be her passionate response.

He wasn’t disappointed. She looked entirely peeved by his words, her eyes flashing briefly to red before returning to icy blue.

“What would you do if you were literally a prisoner for thousands of years inside a house this large that’s in a different dimension that nobody knows exists?” she asked irately. “A goddess does what she can to entertain herself. And I happen to be an excellent decorator.” She shot him a furious look before looking straight ahead again, ignoring him.

“I think I’d downsize,” Hunter answered in an amused voice.

Shortly after, he started to feel her pain, the agony of thousands of years of isolation and emptiness pressing on his chest. It was only then that he began to realize how very alone she’d been for so long. “Thousands of years?”

She ignored him.

“How many thousands of years?” he persisted, calculating how long it should be that she’d been imprisoned here. It should have been a few thousand years judging by the beginning of the Sentinel’s existence, but he saw something different in her thoughts.

“A lot,” she finally answered reluctantly. “Time passes differently in this dimension. One week here is only a day in the human realm.”

Holy shit! A few thousand years was bad…but spending seven times that amount of time here alone was almost unthinkable. Hunter isolated himself by choice, because his main goal was to kill Evils. But he’d still had his family for most of his human life, even if they
had
thought he wasn’t right in the head. And now he had Zach, Drew, and Kristoff. “You were lonely for all those years,” he suggested huskily.

“Of course I wasn’t lonely. I chose this life for myself when I created the Sentinels. I was simply bored.” She tilted a stubborn chin as she continued to stare at the purple wall on the other side of the room, avoiding eye contact.

She was lying. Hunter could sense her profound loneliness, read it in her thoughts. “You can never be free?”

“Only if I fade from existence and enter the Elysian Fields, or you decide to bond me to you as your
radiant
,” she answered flatly. “I’ve never been able to leave this house, even to wander outside, without pain since I was sent here after creating the first Sentinel—Kristoff.”

Not just pain…excruciating, agonizing physical and mental pain that would keep any being on Earth inside this prison to avoid experiencing it. Hunter saw mental images of Athena trying to step outside only to be broadsided by the penalty of leaving the confines of the mansion. And she’d stubbornly tried over and over again. The punishment he’d received for wasting Evils without provocation was nothing compared to what Athena suffered if she tried to leave the front step of her house.

“So if we mate?” Hunter questioned hoarsely.

“I’ll be free to leave. I’ll regain my power and help in the fight to regain the balance between the Sentinels and Evils. It’s the only way, Hunter. You and I are part of the puzzle to regain stasis. The Sentinels need us now.”

I need you. Mine. Mine. Mine.

Primal instinct was beginning to take over Hunter’s brain, and his unstoppable need to make this woman his was beginning to beat at him painfully. “I can’t,” he rasped. He couldn’t make
any
woman his
radiant
.

“I know you aren’t thrilled about having me as your mate, but I’m inside your head, Hunter. You’d give your life for your brothers or Kristoff, and they won’t win this battle without us being mated. I need to be at full power. I need to leave this place and join the fight. It’s time. Every piece of the puzzle needs to be in place for us to claim victory. We can go our separate ways or something if we regain balance. I promise you won’t be stuck with me forever.” Her voice was pleading, a tone that Hunter had yet to hear. He had a feeling that begging wasn’t a practice she did often…or ever.

“You think I don’t want you?” Hunter answered, a low growl of protest forming in the back of his throat.

“I know you don’t. We’re mismatched, but for some reason we need to…do it for the Sentinels.” Athena swallowed hard and started fidgeting next to him.

Hunter realized that she was picking up the negatives in his thoughts, but wasn’t looking at the reason
why
he couldn’t mate with her. He was a drunk, a loser. His entire human and Sentinel lives had been spent with only one purpose:

Kill. Kill. Kill.

He heard the faint words in his head, a previously loud mantra he’d lived with for as long as he could remember.

Strangely, a louder chant was drowning out those three words, replacing the need to slay Evils with an even greater urgency:

Mine. Mine. Mine.

His head fell back against the headboard with a loud
thump
as he thought about his brothers and Kristoff. If Athena was right, he
would
do anything to save them.

I’m so screwed.

His mating instinct steadily growing stronger, Hunter closed his eyes and tried to fight his primordial demon instinct to take his
radiant
, brand her as his. “I’ll do it,” he said stoically, knowing damn good and well that once she belonged to him, he’d probably never be able to let her go. She’d be stuck with him forever, and he wasn’t a pleasant man or demon. “You’ll end up hating me eventually. Most people do,” he warned her ominously, disliking the thought of her despising him more than he wanted to admit.

“I won’t hate you. Thank you for making the sacrifice for the Sentinels,” she said solemnly.

“Is it different than a normal bonding?” Hunter asked, realizing that when a goddess was involved, things were altered.

“I don’t know,” Athena admitted softly. “I guess we’ll have to try it and find out once you’re healed. I’m sorry you have to do this.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Hunter demanded. “It’s my choice.” Although she might not realize it,
she
was the sacrificial lamb in this particular scenario. As Hunter clenched his fists tightly by the side of his body to stop himself from touching her, he expelled a harsh breath, deciding he’d let her figure that out for herself.

“Y
ou’re a what?” Hunter bellowed a few days later, sitting in Athena’s kitchen and eating an enormous breakfast Athena had manifested.

She glared at him from across the table, hating the fact that her body reacted to Hunter’s blatant masculinity so readily. He was healed completely now, and his rugged handsomeness was difficult to ignore. The guy was definitely ripped, and his darkness drew her in ways she’d never experienced before. Maybe it was just the mating instinct, but she had the inexplicable desire to lighten his darkness, make him happy for the first time in his life. Hunter deserved that and more for the sacrifices he’d made in both his human and Sentinel lives.

However, she’d had ample time to experience his irritating sarcasm and growly exterior. He might very well be a hard man to like if she wasn’t sharing his mind. Hunter was exactly the way he was because he had to be. He’d isolated himself with bitterness, anger, and sarcasm, but there was so much more to him than what came out of his mouth or his general attitude.

“I said…I’m a virgin. I was always a virgin goddess. You’ll have to help me with the mating.” She had never known sexual desire until she met Hunter. Now, it seemed like her body wanted to make up for lost time. “I’ve read about sex and I’ve even seen it on television, but I don’t understand the benefit of getting sweaty and messy. What’s the point unless you’re trying to procreate?” That had always been her opinion, but she was beginning to think that there might be more than a little pleasure involved. Her entire body was clamoring for Hunter. Honestly, it was a little unsettling. Restlessly, her female core clenched and her nipples grew painfully hard as she met Hunter’s dark, brooding gaze. She speared a piece of her pancake nervously as she saw the heat in Hunter’s eyes.

“You’ve existed for thousands of years and you’ve never—”

“Never,” she confirmed, cutting off his words.

Hunter stared at her incredulously. “I thought the Greek gods liked to get around.”

Athena shrugged, hating the fact that there was something that she had very little knowledge of. “Some did. But there were a lot of virgin goddesses. We had more important things to do. We didn’t have time to cavort around naked for no reason,” she answered defensively.

“There’s plenty of reason, Princess,” Hunter rasped.

“And what would that be?” She snapped the question at him, looking away from him as she pushed the slice of pancake into her mouth. Normally, she adored the sweet, sugary taste of maple syrup, but her mouth had gone suddenly dry and it tasted like sawdust in her mouth. As a goddess, she didn’t have to eat, but she did it because it was a pleasurable experience.

“Sex is much more pleasurable than eating,” Hunter said huskily after hearing her thoughts.

If there was one important thing she’d learned about Hunter in the last few days of his recovery—and she’d learned plenty—it was that he was blunt. No subject was taboo…and obviously she could add sex as a subject he’d readily discuss. “I doubt that.” She stood up, her food suddenly not very appealing. “And I thought we made a deal to try not to read each other’s personal thoughts.” Neither one of them was really comfortable having the other inside their heads. They had made a deal to try not to intrude on personal thoughts. While it was impossible to completely block each other, they could attempt to not to read each other’s private musings.

“I couldn’t help myself. It was a subject I feel pretty passionate about at the moment.” Hunter rose, and Athena cleared their breakfast in a heartbeat. She’d discovered a long time ago that manifesting physical items and disposing of them didn’t tax her goddess powers. It seemed to be a magical skill inherent to her.

She stood leaning against the counter, her hands on the tile beside her as she watched him. Hunter had the grace of a lethal predator, and the look of a big cat that was stalking his prey. Her breath caught as she blatantly stared at him, dressed in a pair of jeans and a navy t-shirt that she’d created for him.

He came to a stop in front of her, close enough that she could feel his hot breath wafting across her face as he stared down at her. “What in the hell am I going to do with a virgin, Princess? I’ve only been with whores and not a single one of those since I became a Sentinel.” His voice was part irritation and part awe.

Athena already knew that Hunter didn’t indulge in chasing women anymore; hadn’t since his human existence. “Teach me?” she suggested tremulously, her entire body tremoring with the need to take Hunter into her body, to merge with him. It was the Sentinel mating instinct, yet it was not. It was something…more. But the primitive mating need was at the forefront and growing stronger every moment.

He leaned his large, muscular body against hers and trapped her against the counter by putting his hands on both sides of her body. “Do you think I don’t feel the need just as damn badly as you do? Burying my cock inside you is about the only thing I
can
think about. My mating instinct is powerful, so strong that I can barely stop myself from touching you,” he growled. “I have a feeling that with you, I’ll want to take you so hard you’ll never be able to forget the feel of me inside you. But I want you screaming my name in pleasure, not in pain.”

Athena breathed in the scent of him, his essence seeping into every pore of her body.

This is what it’s like to feel desire, to feel need.

Her hardened nipples brushed against his muscular chest and she nearly moaned. “Then show me what it’s like to scream with pleasure,” she whispered softly, wrapping her arms around his neck, shivering with the sensation of his coarse hair between her fingers as she played with the tendrils at his nape. “Teach me, Hunter.”

He lifted a hand and buried it in her hair, tilting her head until their eyes met and held. “You don’t know what you’re asking for, Princess.”

Athena had gotten used to Hunter using the nickname. There was no rancor behind it. She almost took it as a compliment.

“It is a compliment,” Hunter replied in a low, hoarse voice seething with unspent passion. “Because you’re so damn perfect.”

Athena opened her mouth to deny that she was anything near flawless and that he was reading her personal thoughts again, but Hunter swooped down before she could get the words out, covering her mouth with his.

Any logic she’d had flew out of her brain as Hunter took control. She savored the feel of his fiery mouth on hers. He was demanding and greedy, wrapping his other arm around her waist in an iron grip of possession. His tongue sought entrance to her mouth like a ravenous man, and she opened to him hungrily, their tongues entwining in a feral dance of passion.

Yes.

She reveled in the powerful thrust of his tongue, knowing he was desperate to go deeper and deeper into the moist cavity to brand her as his. When he finally released her mouth, he nipped at her lips with his teeth, a growl coming from low in his throat.

Hunter tugged harder on her hair, pulling her head back so he could devour the sensitive skin of her throat. His mouth left trails of flame on her skin, igniting every nerve in her body to fire. “Yes. Hunter…please.”

“Christ! I can feel how bad you want me, and it’s making me insane. Nobody has ever really wanted me, Princess. I don’t give a damn if it’s just the mating instinct. It feels so damn good to know that you need me,” Hunter rumbled against her neck, biting lightly at her skin and then soothing it with his tongue. His hand snaked down her back and gripped her ass tightly, pulling her core tightly against his hard erection.

Desire spiraled deep in her belly, as painful as it was pleasurable. “Hunter, it hurts,” she whimpered, wishing he’d just get them naked and make the feeling go away.

“I’ll fix it, Princess. I promise.” His hands moved to grasp the hem of her t-shirt and jerked it over her head. He didn’t notice or care where it landed.

“I trust you,” she moaned, giving her body over to Hunter. She didn’t know what to do to make the painful longing stop, but she knew
he
did. Having been inside his mind, she knew that her need was far more than the mating instinct. Hunter was
it
for her, the only man to make her feel this way in her very long existence, and it wasn’t all about being his
radiant
.

Cool air brushed across her pebbled nipples as Hunter stood back and cupped her breasts gently. “I knew they’d be a beautiful handful,” Hunter grunted, finally flicking his thumbs across the sensitive tips.

Athena gasped as he pinched and soothed with his fingers, a stimulating combination of pain and pleasure. “Hunter,” she panted. “I can’t take it anymore.”

“You can,” he replied gruffly. “It’s going to make my fucking day to watch you come.”

He swallowed her moan with his mouth, demanding her surrender as he pinched and soothed her breast in the same rhythm that he was claiming her mouth with his tongue. The sensation was intoxicating, and in that moment, she lost herself to Hunter. Gripping his hair tightly, she kissed him back, finally biting gently on his lips as he’d done to her. The truth was…she wanted to claim him, too. She needed to feel like he wanted her, and she knew he did. Maybe it was only because she was his
radiant
. But even though she knew that, it didn’t lessen the intensity of her emotions right at the moment. She understood his earlier confession. Having someone want her like this was dangerously heady after spending an eternity alone. “You’re the first man who has ever wanted me, too,” she admitted breathlessly when he released her mouth.

He reached down to flip the button on her jeans as his chest heaved against her breasts. He lowered the zipper and delved immediately into the denim, determined to find what he was seeking. He did, and he groaned as his fingers slid against her slick core. “Fuck! Don’t you ever wear underwear?”

Athena’s head fell back against the cupboard, her entire body weeping for relief. She’d left her gowns behind, traded them for the traditional casual clothing of humans, knowing if she was able to get free she’d have to blend in. She didn’t bother with underwear, but was starting to reconsider that decision. The denim between her thighs was drenched. “Do I need them?” she asked huskily, her entire focus on Hunter’s touch right at the moment.

“Right now? Fuck, no,” Hunter rumbled.

Her body responded immediately as Hunter ran his fingers along her slick folds. She wanted…she needed…something. Her entire body started to pulsate as Hunter circled his finger around her clit.

“More,” she demanded, holding his hair in a death grip. “More, please.”

“Like this?” he asked huskily, running a rough finger over the tiny bundle of nerves.

“Oh, God, yes. Hunter,” she cried, needing him to keep touching her just like that.

“Not like this. You deserve better than this,” Hunter grunted, starting to pull away from her.

“No! Don’t you dare leave me right now.” Athena gasped, thrusting her pelvis against his fingers and jerking hard on his hair. “I swear I’ll kill you.”

“You’re already very close to your goal, Princess,” Hunter replied with a trace of amusement in his gruff tone, but sounding resigned.

She sighed in relief as Hunter started moving his fingers faster and faster over her clit, the welcome friction making Athena quiver. “Yes. Please, Hunter. Please.”

Athena had no clue exactly what she needed, but the tight coil in her stomach started to unfurl, sending waves of pleasure through her entire body.

“Come for me, Athena. I need to see you come apart,” Hunter demanded, his fingers rolling harder and harder over the sensitive nub. “Don’t fight it. Just let go.”

She trembled and her knees almost gave way as her spiraling body finally came unfurled and waves of pleasure began to grip her core. The ecstasy consumed her, and she held onto Hunter to keep herself on her feet. Instantly, he wrapped an arm around her waist, holding her steady even as her eyes closed, and a strangled scream left her lips.

“Oh, God. Hunter!”

“I’m here, Princess. I’m here,” he crooned quietly, removing his hand from her clothing and wrapping her tightly in his arms just as the last ripples of pleasure washed over her body.

Athena came back to earth slowly, clinging to Hunter like he was her lifeline. Her racing heart slowed as he simply rocked her, keeping her cocooned in his arms. She loosened her grip on him slowly, but still kept her arms around his neck and rested her forehead against his shoulder. Honestly, she didn’t want to let go. His masculine scent was intoxicating and his muscular body felt so incredibly good. For a short time, Athena had felt desired, wanted. After thousands of years of isolation, Hunter’s touch, feeling his racing heart against her chest, his soothing mammoth body rocking her lightly back and forth made her feel like she wasn’t so alone. It made her feel…alive.

“Okay, Princess?” Hunter asked in a graveled voice against her ear.

Okay? Hell, she felt like she could fly. “I have to admit that there might be
some
merit to getting sweaty and messy,” she informed him casually, even as her heart had yet to return to a normal cadence.