Page 76 of Reaper's Pack

“Blood magic,” Knox muttered.

“As Hazel thought, yes.”

We both sought her out, turning and watching her dance with Declan. Right then and there, she appeared so ordinary. Well, not ordinary. Stunning. Magnificent. Beauty beyond compare. But without her scythe, her robes, her sullen demeanor, she seemed… young.

Free.

It was a good look for her.

Longing strummed through the bond, and I knew Knox shared my sentiment: she deserved to look like that more often.

“If he is a demon, perhaps he’s hiding his scent, his lineage, maybe even his blood through the carvings,” I said slowly, softly, working through it for myself as I went along, “and then we both know that when they get a taste for someone, they obsess.”

A muffled snarl echoed from my alpha, tip to tail, fire sparking in his dark gaze. “You think he has a taste for her?”

“Or you.” I shrugged. “Why else would he be here, watching us?”

Glaring, Knox shot back his whole drink, then tossed the glass aside. It collided with the brick, shattered on impact, shards raining down at the base of the useless portal.

But… why would a demon need a portal? They could access the celestial plane with the same ease as Knox and me—

“She goes nowhere alone,” Knox declared. When my eyebrows lifted incredulously, he cleared his throat, a whiff of uncertainty in our bond—hastily quashed by a hellhound who seldom questioned his own judgment. “For her own protection.”

“Ah. Yes.” I swallowed a grin. “Of course.”

“We don’t know what that thing is,” he carried on, for once unaware of my teasing, “but blood magic is old and foul… accursed. It could harm a reaper.”

This time I let my amusement shine, peering at his gruff profile with a smirk. “Unlikely. Reapers are quite indestructible, but until we get a firm answer on what he is, we should keep an eye on her.”

When my alpha finally tore his gaze away from Hazel, frowning, I offered him an innocent shrug and a hapless smile. “I suspect you will be wholly up to the task, Knox.”

He rolled his eyes at the implication. Declan and I had been cajoling him as subtly as we dared lately; we all felt one another’s desire for her, and no amount of glaring and brooding from Knox could make us ignore that. As a pack, the bond highlighted our deepest desires, our strongest impulses, our sharpest feelings.

He felt for her just as strongly as we did, perhaps even more as alpha.

If he didn’t, he would have offered Hazel up to that bloody lurking fuck in some ludicrously orchestrated scheme just to be rid of her.

Then, in her mysterious absence, oh, look at that… our freedom. What a funny coincidence.

Instead, his first thought was to guard her. Protect her. Like she was already our mate, all of us on the same page at last.

Not that I had a problem keeping a closer eye on the most beautiful woman in the entire fucking galaxy, but as a reaper, she was virtually untouchable, especially when her kind were said to heal like shifters. I hardly feared for her physical safety.

And yet, demons were expert torturers. One needn’t skin a victim alive to scar them for eternity. A few choice words, day in and day out, would do the trick.

As we crossed back into the human realm, sticking to the shadows to not draw attention to our sudden reappearance, I thought it best we told Hazel of the carved man’s celestial loitering tomorrow. After the dancing, the laughing, the drinks, the news would absolutely ruin her good mood. Tonight, she deserved a moment’s reprieve from a life of death and darkness.

“Come on,” I mused, nodding to the dance floor as Knox grimaced, like he already knew what I was about to say. “Let’s go not let her out of our sight, shall we?”

I then cuffed him by the sleeve and dragged him, quite literally, onto the dance floor, which, if Knox’s expression said anything, was akin to the foulest pits of Hell.

Until Hazel tumbled into him, a little off-balance in her heels.

And when he caught her, steadied her, Declan and I exchanged a knowing look: the end was near for our alpha, and if he just let himself, he was going to love it.

23

Hazel

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