The Mistress and the Hellhound Read Online Free Page A

more than an interesting bug.
    A snarl rumbled up from his massive chest and he roared right in the scared wolf’s face. With a quick movement, he snapped Kellan’s neck and threw the still quivering corpse in front of Reena.
    “He was not worthy.” With that, Archer went down on one knee and tilted his head to the side.
    Offering his throat.
    Offering fealty.
    To her.
    “Holy shit,” Travis breathed. “We’re never getting rid of you as Mistress now.”

Chapter Three
     
     
    He smelled their fear as he passed, like an exotic perfume teasing his senses.
    Archer straightened his spine and flexed his wings. Wings. Huh, even he hadn’t expected that when he’d opened the gateway in his soul and let the other in. As he’d suspected, the thing woken within him wasn’t lycan.
    It was something else. Something far older and far darker. Something that, like the lycan virus, he’d been born with. It had been waiting, hidden in his DNA, for something to wake it. In his case, that had been the lycan blood coursing through his veins when he’d used Seth’s claw to infect himself. It had risen, roaring into life and tried to make sense of the lycan conversion underway.
    That had been why he hadn’t shifted fully. He wasn’t supposed to be a wolf.
    But a creature that scared the shit out of all these wolves.
    His steps rang out against the polished floor as he followed Reena across the hall. The lycans shrank back, which made him hide a smile. Didn’t they realize that if he wanted them dead, they would be? The only thing that kept them safe was the petite woman walking in front of him.
    He allowed his gaze to caress her curves. She was the constant in his life. The one thing that had brought him through the madness as the two viruses fought within his body. She’d put herself in harm’s way to save him. Far more than she realized because if his hound hadn’t taken a liking to her, she wouldn’t have survived, even when it was weak.
    But both man and hound liked Reena. More than liked her…
    Ours… The being within rumbled, a note of possessiveness in its mental voice.
    Ours, indeed , he agreed, speeding his steps to catch up with her before she reached the door. Without speaking he scooped her into his arms, throwing her over his shoulder to stride through the corridors to her quarters.
    Their quarters. After that little altercation, he doubted anyone was going to challenge his right to be in her bed again.
    Ever.
    “Archer! Put me down!” she squeaked in surprise at his move, but didn’t struggle. Her body was tense and she clutched at his waist, her long hair spilling down his back and tickling his folded wings. The feather-light touch sent a shiver of lust through him.
    “No chance, babe. There’s one place this is heading.”
    Holding her still with one hand behind her knees, he smoothed the other over the luscious curve of her ass. And spanked it. She gasped, stiffening for a second against the sharp sting. A second later, the heady scent of arousal, her arousal, filled the air around them.
    He grinned, speeding up. “You like that.”
    “Uh huh. Maybe. Brute.” She threw the insult at him, but her voice was breathy, catching at the end in a way that signaled her desire.
    They reached her door within minutes. He didn’t put her down. Instead, he shouldered the barrier open, slamming it behind them with a foot and stalked through the rooms to her bedroom.
    “Right, Mistress.” His voice thickened with lust, he dropped her on the bed. She’d barely bounced once before he was over her, pinning her with his larger, harder body. Calling the shadows in the room, he used them to wrap around her wrists and ankles, pulling her limbs out until she was spread-eagled on the bed for his pleasure.
    And hers, always hers.
    “Archer… what are you doing?” She struggled against the bonds, looking up at him. The scent of her arousal flooded with the sharp bite of fear. Instantly, he pulled the remnants of his