A Dangerous Fury (The Sentinel Demons Book 3) (8 page)

She slipped her hand into his without hesitation, an action that slammed Hunter in the gut. His goddess trusted him completely.
Him
…a man who had never deserved trust in his human life or his Sentinel existence. After pulling her to her feet, he wrapped an arm around her waist protectively. Maybe she didn’t need his protection, but he was going to have her back any damn time she needed it, and maybe even when she didn’t.

Mine.

Drew and Zach got to their feet as Athena asked them, “I trust you two can rally the forces we need?”

The men nodded considerately, acknowledging their duty.

Hunter knew Zach and Drew were rather in awe of their female creator and in some ways…so was he. But his amazement and fascination with Athena was completely different and definitely carnal.

Mine.

“I understand why you did what you did,” Hunter whispered gruffly in Athena’s ear. “But if you ever do that again, I’ll spank that gorgeous ass of yours until you can’t sit down. Understand?” He let his imagination run free, deliberately sending her vivid images of her over his lap, completely naked, dishing out erotic pain and teasing her with pleasure.

Athena looked up at him, her eyes shooting traces of flame. “You wouldn’t dare,” she sputtered, her voice quiet so only Hunter could hear her.

“Try me, Princess. I’m pretty foolhardy, especially when it comes to you,” he rasped, not quite able to clear his mind of having her naked and begging for him to fuck her.

He felt Athena shudder, the vibrations shooting a streak of electricity along every nerve ending in his entire body. She opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again, apparently speechless.

Hunter grinned down at her mischievously as he teleported them both back to his house, his brothers watching as they disappeared. Zach and Drew gave each other a content and knowing look before they hurried back to their own mates, leaving Kristoff’s home eerily silent once more.

H
unter tried to show her the world in twenty-four hours. They trotted around the globe, Athena able to see the changes that had occurred since the reign of the gods as they chased the daylight in various countries. To say the world was incredibly different was a radical understatement. For her, nothing was even recognizable. Any sign of the worship of the gods was ancient rubble. Her father’s temples, her temples, shrines to the other gods and goddess of her time were all…

“Gone. There’s nothing left,” she murmured quietly as she strolled around the Parthenon with Hunter, looking at ancient Greek artifacts with dismay. “I should have known, of course. I’ve watched television for years, seen the images in papers, books, magazines, and on the television. But it never seemed real.” She felt lost and insignificant. Her time had long passed, yet she was still here after all of her fellow gods and goddesses had vanished to the Elysian Fields. Even the revelations from the oracles that had always seemed so real to her were long dead; only their instructions from ages ago remained. The Fates’ revelations were only residual magic, the plan set up thousands of years ago. “Seeing the world as it is now is like watching and reading about a fictional universe. But everything really
has
changed. I really
am
alone.” Athena felt a profound emptiness as she thought about the ancient ruins she’d viewed around the world, the gods that had once been so powerful and revered now reduced to rubble and myth.

“You’re not alone,” Hunter growled, putting a steely arm around her waist. “Your Sentinels are still here, still fighting your battle. The world is like this because of you, Princess, because you cared enough to sacrifice yourself for the human world to survive and continue to progress.”

“Honestly, it wasn’t that big of a sacrifice,” Athena told Hunter as she turned to look at his face. “I was easily exiled, even by my father. I’m not sure how any of them will receive me.” From what she had heard, the Elysian Fields was a pretty big place, and she could probably stay away from her family and the gods who had seen her banished.

“Then stay here,” Hunter growled, wrapping both arms around her waist. “I thought you’d be happy there.”

Athena shrugged. “It’s hard to tell how happy I’ll be since I’ve never been there.”

I want to stay here with you.
Every instinct was clamoring to beg Hunter to mate with her, keep her by his side. But she didn’t want him to agree out of pity or a sense of protectiveness from the mating instinct. “If we don’t bond as real mates, I won’t be able to stay. It’s part of the deal. I’m ready for something different. At least the gods will be familiar.” They may not be happy to see her, but even if they weren’t, it was better than being imprisoned alone.

Athena suddenly felt her form disintegrate, only to reappear in Hunter’s kitchen, a room she loved. Athena had taken a few minutes to redecorate this morning before they left, so the room had been completely remodeled with vivid colors and new appliances. She didn’t care if she didn’t need to use them. She liked the cheery room. Hunter hadn’t said a word about the change. He either didn’t care or he approved. Athena hadn’t had a chance to ask him.

“If you don’t think you’ll be happy there, then be my mate, Princess. Stay here with me,” Hunter commanded as he crowded her against the new refrigerator Athena had manifested that morning.

She tried not to look at his face, but her gaze was drawn to him. His expression was intense, his eyes burning amber as he waited for her answer. She searched his eyes, trying to figure out if he really wanted her to stay, or if his mating instinct was prodding him to convince her. Athena wanted to believe he wanted her forever, but she still had lingering doubt. It was an uncertainty she couldn’t ignore.

Raising a hand to his face, she cupped his whiskered jaw as she said in a voice that was barely more than a whisper, “You’re trying to protect me, Hunter.” She couldn’t decipher his thoughts. His sole focus was on convincing her to stay with him. The reason
why
wasn’t clear. “If we bond, it will be forever. I’ll never be able to go to the Elysian Fields. I’ll change form just like Kristoff and be a powerful
radiant
rather than a goddess.” Not that she cared, but her opportunity to go be with her own kind would be forever lost. If he shunned her later, she would still remain earthbound.

She watched as Hunter took a shuddering breath and pressed his body flush with hers before he spoke. “Do you really think I’d ever let you go once I claimed you forever?” he growled, having picked up her erratic thoughts. “I’d fight for you, Athena. Christ! I live and breathe for you now.” His chest was rising and falling hard, like he was having difficulty speaking. “I’m not afraid that I’ll want to go back in time and not have you as my mate. I’m worried about the damn future and whether you’ll want to get away from
me
. I don’t think I’d survive if you left after we bonded. Hell, I’m not sure I’ll survive now if you leave.” His voice was harsh, as though everything he said was difficult to say. “I’m a selfish bastard to want you forever. You deserve a hell of a lot better than me, but nobody will ever want you more than I do.”

Nobody had ever wanted her
at all
, but Athena knew Hunter made up for all of those lonely times and more. She stroked his jaw, trying to soothe his tortured emotions. He was spiraling out of control, and she needed him grounded to make his decision.

“I want to stay here with you, Hunter. No matter what you think, I couldn’t have picked a better mate for myself. I don’t want to go,” she told him softly. “I just want to make sure you know that this decision is forever. I won’t leave you. I’ve been inside your mind, in your darkest of places. There’s nothing to fear there.”

Hunter pinned her against the fridge, a hand planted on each side of her body. “I’d be fucking terrified if I were you,” Hunter rumbled in a self-deprecating voice. “Be absolutely certain, Princess. Make sure you want a loser like me for life.” He breathed out slowly, as though searching for control.

Athena’s breath hitched as she felt the heat of his exhalation waft across her cheek. She could feel his tension, his anxiety as he waited for her to respond. “I’m sure. I’ve been sure. I just didn’t know how to ask you if you’d let me stay as your permanent
radiant
,” she confessed, releasing a soft sigh as she felt his body relax slightly. “Someday you’ll realize what a special man you really are.” Her words were a vow to make him understand what kind of man he really was. It was an undertaking she planned on starting as soon as they were permanently mated. He’d teach her about the twenty-first century, and in return she’d show him how unique he was to her. His self-loathing had to stop. He’d hated himself for too long, and for no reason other than following his nature. His destiny hadn’t been his own to choose. No Sentinel or human could have fought as long and as hard as Hunter.

“And someday you’ll realize what an asshole I am,” he grunted, stroking her hair as his penetrating amber gaze mesmerized her.

“I already know that,” she told him lightly as she ran her lips along the stubble on his jaw. “But I want you anyway.” Hunter’s acerbic personality was part of what and who he was, and how those experiences had molded him. “I guess I find disagreeable men very hot.”

“If that’s true, Princess, you should be incinerated by now,” Hunter grumbled, but he sounded slightly amused. “I’m not asking again if you’re sure you want me. I’m sealing the deal before you can really think about it anymore,” he warned.

She smiled happily up at him. “Then do it.” Thinking about the mating, a thought suddenly occurred to her. “I hate it that you’ll have to be confined.” Hunter had spent enough time being imprisoned and punished for crimes that he couldn’t help but commit. Her heart sunk at the thought of him being helpless and restrained.

“It’s nothing I haven’t been through before, and it will be a hell of a lot more pleasant with a naked goddess fucking me,” he answered gruffly, bluntly.

A startled laugh escaped her mouth before she could stop it, amused by the way Hunter could make jokes about things that other people would find horrific. His dark humor never ceased to surprise her. “I’ll try to make it agreeable for you,” she shot back at him.

“Sweetheart, it will be so damn amazing that you’re actually going to mate with
me
that I won’t even notice that I’m confined,” he rasped. “Now kiss me,” he added bossily.

She wrapped her arms around his neck compliantly, and then hopped to wrap her legs around his waist. He caught her ass instinctively, squeezing the ample flesh with a masculine groan.

They were eye-to-eye now, and Athena started to drown in his hungry gaze. Neither one of them spoke as their eyes caught and held, hers fiery red and his an amber glow that could light up a dark night. She leaned in slowly, grasping a handful of his hair as she pressed her mouth to his, letting her heated embrace say everything she wanted to tell him.

Desperation and need surged from her being, and she devoured his lips hungrily, savoring the intimacy that she’d only ever felt with Hunter.

I love him!

The thought startled her and she hesitated for a nanosecond before she threw everything she was feeling into her kiss, a sensual merging of mouths, lips, and tongues that was making her break out in a sweat.

I do love him. It’s always been so much more than a mating instinct for me. Hunter is…my heart.

Obviously some of what she felt was the
radiant
instinct, but she knew without a doubt that Hunter Winston had stolen her heart. She’d never loved anyone like this, and the power of her emotion overwhelmed her. She broke the kiss, panting as she met his fiery eyes. “I love you,” she blurted out unchecked. “I love you, Hunter. Maybe you don’t want it, and maybe it would be better if I didn’t feel it, but I love you so much,” she rasped breathlessly.

The words had no sooner left her mouth when she started to feel herself transporting. She fought the displacement of her body, but the power fighting against her was too strong.

“Athena, what the hell is happening? Where are you going? Wait!” Hunter bellowed, clawing at her fading image.

“I don’t understand,” she cried helplessly, getting only a glimpse of Hunter’s stunned face before everything went dark.

“Nooooooo!” Hunter was still clawing at air as he tried desperately to connect with Athena. The emptiness of his mind that accompanied her disappearance was painful, but he tried to ignored it as he howled, “Athena, where are you?” Even as he called for her, he knew that she was gone. He could feel the absence of her mind connected to his, and there was nothing but darkness where her light had been. “Goddammit, no! She’s not leaving me now,” he growled in a low, animalistic tone.

Panicked, he teleported himself to Zach’s home, finding himself landing in the middle of a make-out session on the couch between Zach and Kat. The late-night news was blaring from the television, but neither one of them seemed to notice. Luckily, they had their clothes on and were just involved in a sensual kiss.

“Athena’s gone,” Hunter told Zach in a rush as Kat pushed her husband away. She’d noticed Hunter’s appearance in the living room almost immediately since he’d appeared not five feet from where they were on the couch.

He watched as Zach’s look of fury at being interrupted turned into confusion. “Gone where?”

“I don’t know,” Hunter snapped back at him.

“Were you going through the mating ritual?” Kat asked, her voice concerned as she rearranged her clothing and ran a hand through her unruly hair.

Hunter knew both Kat and Talia had disappeared just as the ritual was completed because of their dormant
radiant
power, but Athena didn’t have dormant magic. “No,” he said huskily. “She’d just agreed to become my permanent mate. We kissed and then she told me she loved me. She vanished right after that.”

Athena had said she loved him. He still wasn’t over the shock of that revelation, hadn’t even had a chance to absorb it.