Operation Minotaur (Monstrous Matchmaker Book 5) Read Online Free

human,
if not a little hairier than a normal man, and that soft touch did things to
him he hadn’t been expecting.
    “The pups like you,” she said faintly. “They think
you’re nice.”
    Her words filled him with a quiet kind of joy. He knew
what he looked like—a fearsome beast with great horns and a shining ring in his
nose. To have someone tell him children no longer found him terrifying pleased
him.
    Until Ari liberated him from the labyrinth, it had been
years since he’d spoken to anyone. He’d lived with his solitude because he knew
of no way to break out of it.
    His world had shifted when one adventurous nymph had
challenged him to chase her and set them both free.
    He’d changed in the months he’d been out. It hadn’t been
easy—still wasn’t—but he was more than the beast in the maze now. He was a
friend and a confidant. He might not feel in step with the world, but he was a
part of it.
    Perhaps he could help this beautiful wolf beside him
find her own place.
    Her warm finger withdrew and Akakios twisted his wrist
to catch her before she could pull back entirely. Her skin was soft beneath his
fingertips, silky.
    A shy smile crossed Liz’s face and she ducked her head
again. The flush on her cheeks had mellowed and he thought it might be caused
in part by the wine she’d drunk instead of pure embarrassment.
    She was lovely. As sweet as any he’d seen before.
Sweeter.
    There was a lightness to her that called to him.
    “Are you hungry?” he asked to distract himself from
dwelling on her beautiful attributes.
    Another twitch of a smile and she shrugged. “No.
Nervous.”
    “I will not hurt you.”
    Her eyes were serious when she looked up. “I know. It’s
me. You scare me.” A horrified look came over her face. “Not s-scare.” Her chin
trembled and she tucked her head down, withdrawing from him.
    Akakios had no intention of letting her wallow in her
panic. Catching her chin with one big finger, he tilted her face up so he could
see her. “I understand what you were trying to say. Have no fear, little one.”
    For all he was sitting beside her, she had distanced
herself from him. That would never do.
    “Do you know,” he asked, choosing an apple from the
basket and handing it to her, “how Arabella convinced me to leave my
labyrinth?”
    A quick shake of her head, her eyes still focused
anywhere but on him.
    Akakios found thick sandwiches tucked at the bottom of
the basket. Ari was always conscientious about making sure all her friends were
well fed. He pressed one on his date and sat back, giving Liz space.
    “She stumbled over me in the labyrinth beneath the
college. I had no intention of leaving the place I called home. I would have
stayed there, forgotten, until I eventually died, I suppose.”
    The wolf was picking at her food, but she was eating.
And her head was cocked as though she was listening. Akakios took that as a
good sign.
    “Ari convinced me there was a place for me in this
world. I confess I’m still trying to find that place, but I am better here than
I was in the maze below.”
    Liz looked up at him, the little line between her brows
deepening. “What did she do to make you follow her?”
    Akakios found he liked the soft cadence of her voice. It
wasn’t strident like Ari’s could sometimes get. It curled around him with a
gentleness he hadn’t realized he craved.
    “She asked me to chase her. I was afraid I would hurt her,
but she can be quite persuasive when she has her mind set on something.”
    Falling silent, Akakios let Liz process that. She looked
worried and intrigued all at the same time. Both expressions were a far sight
better than the quiet frustration she’d exhibited earlier when she’d been
tongue-tied.
    “Did you hurt her?”
    Akakios considered how to answer that. What he and Ari
had done together hadn’t involved any pain or panic. She’d forced his hand and
made him chase her to the exit. They’d enjoyed each other thoroughly and