Page 4 of Incubus

3

Lilah

I HELDIN the scream that threatened to bubble up from my lungs. If I didn’t, I would only attract mortals, signing their death warrant. Nothing comes between a wolf and its prey and lives.

Backed into a wall, I tried to fend him off with my hands, but he knocked them away and redoubled his efforts, his claws shredding my corset and scratching my skin. Once my breasts were revealed, his tongue darted between his lips and wet them with anticipation. Though he was still in mostly human form, the wolf’s claws had lengthened into deadly tips that could destroy my flesh as easily as they’d scored the fabric.

I tried to summon my bow from the ether, but the wolf was too close. He would be on me before I could even nock an arrow. Instead, I snagged the dagger from my boot and tried to level the playing field.

“Want to play some first?” His voice was guttural, animal. The wolf danced out of my reach, hovering in a silvery pool of moonlight that wafted through the clouds above.

I pointed the glinting tip at him. “You may win in the end, but you’ll bleed first.”

Emboldened, he came at me again. I backed up a pace and lashed out at him, cutting a gash into his chest. He yowled with pain but didn’t stop his approach, high on power and adrenaline. Even if Artemis’s strength had flowed through my veins, the wolf would still be a formidable adversary.

When I threw a vicious right cross, he dodged and backhanded me across the face with enough force to snap a mortal’s neck, stunning me. My head whipped to the side, and I spat blood. Lightning streaked through my vision, and I was lost for a moment. Slowly, the world came back into focus. I was on my back. The wolf was snarling at my throat. I turned my head away and tried to push him off. He barely moved.

My knife lay on the cobblestone street only a few feet away. If I could only get to it, I might have a chance of escape.

The humiliation at running from battle hurt worse than the wolf’s claws. But I could never beat him like this, not with my power stripped and his at peak.

His eyes had gone completely yellow. Feral.

He tried to open my legs with his knee. I glued them shut with all the power in my body. Still somewhat dazed from the last blow, I swung weakly, just missing his nose. He let out a howl that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end before settling his entire weight on top of me, forcing the air from my lungs.

With a violent push, the wolf wrenched my knees apart. Holding me down by my throat with one hand, he used the other to rip his fly open, freeing his shaft. His eyes were bottomless pools of lust, the yellow seeping into them from the center. Disgust roiled inside me, and blood pounded in my ears as I tried to marshal my strength against the monster.

“All right, slut. Let’s see what you got.” His voice was inhuman.

Stars burst in my vision as the wolf tightened his grip on my throat, cutting off my air. I tried to scratch his face. He easily batted me away and rammed a rough hand up my thighs to rip off my panties. He threw them aside as I struggled against him.

I heard Artemis’s voice in my head from all those centuries ago. “No man, mortal or immortal, can ever force a warrior maiden of mine. You are impervious to males because you are their betters. They are beneath you. You are imbued with the power of a goddess.”

Artemis had been full of pride at her creations, the fierce females who accompanied her on the hunt and guarded her while she slept. No man could ever defeat them in battle, and no man could take what was not given. No more.

I burned with rage as the wolf pushed his probing head into my thigh, searching for my core. In seconds he would find it, and I would be defiled more than I already was. No. With all the strength I had, I tried to buck him off. For a split second, the space between us opened up just enough for hope to creep in. I lunged sideways toward the blade. My fingertips brushed against it, and I almost wrapped my hand around it. Then he was on me again, erasing my one chance of escape as the blade spun uselessly on the cobblestones.

He grinned and traced a slow lick up the side of my face. “Gonna make this fun for me?”

Despair filtered through the anger. Still, I refused to give up. I wouldn’t let this happen. I was one of Artemis’s warriors. No male could take what was not given. But the wolf’s grip around my throat was making the world fade. I kept struggling against him, getting weaker by the second as the beast redoubled his efforts to take me. Reaching out again, my fingers grazed the edge of my dagger’s hilt. As I gasped for breath and my vision dimmed, I worked the dagger into my hand. With a weak thrust, I stabbed the wolf’s side. It wouldn’t be enough to stop him, but it would hurt. Hot blood sprayed onto my chest. What in Hades? The wolf leaped away.

I rolled to my side and into the moonlight, once more feeling the hum the glowing orb gave me. I hitched in some breaths and blinked away the spots that clouded my sight. The wolf lay in the shadows, his unearthly yellow eyes gleaming at me. Blood spurted from a deep slash in his neck as he hopelessly tried to stanch the flow with his hand. His mouth worked as if to say something, but could only open and close with a clicking noise.

The cause of his wound was apparent—a large Underworlder stood watching me. The blade in his hand dripped the wolf’s blood onto the stones in lingering droplets. He was easily six and a half feet tall and impossibly broad.

“Gods.” My breath left me in a whoosh as I struggled to sit up. My chest was covered in the wolf’s blood. It coursed down my breasts and pooled on what was left of my leather skirt.

“Ugh.” I started trying to brush the blood off, wiping my hands on the shreds of my corset.

I glanced up to catch the male watching unabashedly as I rubbed the blood from my breasts. His dark gaze seemed to pierce right through me as I brought my arms up to cover myself.

“No, don’t stop. I was rather enjoying it.” A rakish smile turning the corners of his full lips.

Alarm bells went off in my head. I couldn’t get a bead on what exactly he was, which was troublesome. There were a host of immortals from the Underworld—a land the mortals only knew of in myth—who traveled to earth in search of adventure or a new life. Though some made trouble and likely came to earth because they had bounties on their heads, most just sought to live lives free of the highly stratified society that ruled in the Underworld. I had only been to visit a few times. Getting a free pass to and from there was no small feat unless one had the right connections.

I prided myself on my immortal radar. The male in the killer suit before me flew right under it.

One thing was certain—he was powerful. Strength emanated off him like a blast of cold air, which made my nipples embarrassingly hard in my current situation. This keeps getting better and better.

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