Page 29 of Hunted By Darkness

He meant every bloody word.

My jaw clenched in frustration. I sunk a hand into my hair and toyed with how to handle the new uncomfortable reality that thewolf bastard was in love with my woman, and he’d do whatever it took to protect her.

Bear Claw was powerful before he died, and now even more so. Turning away someone like that when it could mean the difference between winning and losing, when it could mean she was safe when this all ended, wasn’t an option. I had to do something I never thought I’d do.

I let him stay.

“We have a way,” I said, voice dripping with distaste. “That’s all you need to know right now. Use your contacts and get us to him, and we’ll finish what that bastard started.”

I didn’t wait for him to reply. I wrapped a possessive arm around my bird, making sure it was clear whose she was as I escorted her upstairs to calm the raging monster inside my head.

I’d made a deal with the Devil, but if my goddess survived and Rilas was destroyed, it’d be worth it.

14

Nika

“Sweet girl…” The husky whisper was unmistakable. “Wakey, wakey.”

Ryker.

“Why are you calling to her?”another voice asked, this one just as familiar. “How are we even here?”

Tometi.

Ryker sighed loud enough that I could’ve sworn he was right next to my ear. “I don’t know. If I knew that, do you think I’d be here trying to get her to wake up so she can either confirm or deny our existence, hmm? If you’re not going to do something helpful, just go stand over there and wait like a good bear.”

“You’re not making any sense, wolf,”Tometi complained somewhere nearby. “Why would she know what happened to us? She barely understands her own power.”

“Sheesh, have you always been such a Negative Nancy?”

“I don’t know anyone named Nancy.”

“It’s a turn of phrase, you big idiot.”

“I still don’t know a Nancy. You never make any sense, and unlike in our hosts’ heads, I can’t tune you out anymore.”

Ryker released a long, suffering sigh, and that was when I opened my eyes with a start, sure it was all a dream until two figures next to the bed came into view—and it wasn’t the figures I expected. Two men towered over me, their translucency giving away what they were.

Not of this world.

One had shaggy light hair and a wolfish grin. He was about Lev’s height, lithe but muscular. The air he gave off was distinctly predatory. His smile broadened when our eyes met, and I sucked in a sharp breath of surprise.

I wasn’t sure how I knew it was Ryker, but everything about him felt that way. Big and fun-loving. Full of life for an animal that’d never truly lived his own. A friend who’d been there for me in the worst moments over the last half year.

The other man was a goddamn mountain. Nothing but muscle and masculinity everywhere I looked. Easily seven or so feet tall with how small the other seemed by comparison. Even Silas couldn’t out-height this giant.

His skin was darker, his eyes a striking amber color. Short dark hair framed a lethal stare that would paralyze anyone to their spot, and yet, his eyes were the gentlest I’d ever seen. Simmering with intelligent concentration and affection. Somehow I knew it was the quiet, gentle friend I’d relied on for months.

Tometi.

I’d never imagined him as a man, but now that I was seeing this one, there wasn’t a question in my mind it was him. He couldn’t be anyone else.

The two looked similar to the way my father had in the dream I’d had before finding his soul—see-through specters who occupied the space between life and death. They weren’t solid, but they weren’t flickering in and out of existence, either. They felt more permanent than my father had, and I couldn’t pinpoint why.

Was this a dream?

“Ryker?” I rasped, voice still rough with sleep. “Tometi?”

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