Page 9 of Queen of the Underworld

Hades glowered at her now. He wanted to say he wasn’t a beast who would pounce on her if she strayed too close or made a sudden move, but he could not. There was a growing tightness inside him, one that felt as if it might snap at any moment and he might do something crazy. He pulled down a steadying breath and fought back against the rising darkness, pushing it down deep inside him and clawing back control, hyper-aware of his appearance.

If this delicate creature saw him now, she would bolt in terror. He was no fool. His appearance was monstrous and his reputation was the same. A female like this goddess would never want a male like him.

Even when he desperately wanted her.

He curled his fingers into fists that had his talons digging through the leather palms of his gauntlets and into his flesh. Drawing blood. He needed to appear gentler. He scoffed. If that was possible.

The darkness purred again to take her.

Hades clenched his jaw and denied it.

He didn’t want to frighten her.

That desire was visceral, a living and breathing thing within him that had him at its wretched mercy. He didn’t feel fully in control of himself as it gripped him. It felt as if something else had taken the reins and was making decisions for him, just like the darker side of his blood did, and he didn’t like it.

But he also didn’t fight it.

Because he wanted her to stay.

He wanted it with every beat of his black heart as it thundered and his limbs quaked, his entire body trembling as he fought to hold himself back until he had managed to make his appearance more pleasing.

More human.

And when he was ready, he would return for her.

His lips stretched in a slow grin as the darkness purred within him, his mind flooding with pleasing thoughts that awakened something ravenous and dark, and dangerously possessive. It consumed him, filling his head with a single thought.

Shewouldbe his.

He sneered as another thought punched through that one, shattering his pleasure with a cold dose of reality.

But how?

Hades lifted his hand to reach for her, rage and fear colliding within him as she turned away and began walking further from him. Anger that she meant to leave him clashed with fear that she might, and it was a ferocious storm within him, ripping him apart as he watched her leaving and desperately wanted her to stay.

Black thoughts snaked through his mind like jagged vines to crowd out the light, to banish his softer emotions as something within him—something feral and vicious—snarled that she would leave him if he didn’t stop her.

She could not leave him.

Hades wrenched back on the reins, denying his dark need to take her. Awareness swept through him and his breath leaked from him as resignation chased on its heels.

But he had to leave her.

It beat inside him, drumming faster and faster as the clouds blackened and the wind picked up, and the darker side of his blood howled at him to teleport to her and snatch her now, before it was too late. He would lose her if he didn’t grab her right now.

He would lose her if he did. He was soul-deep aware of that.

What did it matter? He had to take her and she would obey him. She would be his.

Hades growled low and shut down that dark line of thought. Resolve flowed through him, together with determination. He had a plan, and he would stick to it. He would leave. Right now. If he lingered any longer, she would notice the storm and then him. No good would come of that.

So he would leave, and somehow make himself more presentable, and then he would return to this place he was beginning to feel belonged to her.

She hadn’t been born of these magical woods.

They had been born of her.

That was why she took such pleasure in the flowers and the creatures who had made it their home.

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