Sy chuckled, sapping his energy greedily. “Don’t bring daddy into this. I hate my daddy.”

The wolfman’s face paled, his energy drained, but he didn’t know why.

“Lady, you’ve got some strength, and I have to give you that,” he said. “How about let’s fuck again tomorrow? I didn’t get enough sleep last night. The neighbors had loud jazz on!”

“Hang in there a little longer, sugar,” Sy crooned, and the wolfman groaned as he put in more effort in order to get through it.

An ominous awareness washed over me. I was always the vigilant one when Sy lost herself in the middle of a sex feast.

My skin buzzed with alarm. I stilled, pricking my ears to hear.

The wind stopped. A clatter, followed by a series of metal clangs and the rustling of grass, then a stench hit my nostrils.

Sy! I warned, panic rising in me.

She leaped off the wolfman, landing in a crouch beside him. Her pointed ears pricked. Her hearing was superior to mine.

“C’mon, I’m not done!” the wolfman whined.

“You are now,” Sy said sharply.

Growling, the wolfman sat up and grabbed Sy’s shoulders to push her down so he could mount her. Sy, tougher than the world, swatted his hands away, gripped his hair, and tossed him aside like he weighed nothing. He blinked, slightly shocked at her roughness and super strength.

“Dumb bitch!” he cursed like a loser.

Sy bared her ragged, razor-sharp fangs.

“What the fuck?” The wolfman scrambled back before he gave a snarl, his face about to morph to a werewolf’s.

Sy plucked the sunglasses that covered her glowing eyes and chucked them away, not even slightly concerned at the wolfman’s shocked and betrayed look. She planted her hands on the grass, claws sliding out of her hands.

Enemies! she hissed in confirmation.

They were coming.

Ruin’s agents, the Shriekers, had tracked us down.

Air wheezed out of my lungs. Icy dread filled my head as terrible memories played before my fluttering eyelids.

Agony drenched me as Ruin, my father, fed upon me, absorbing part of my essence and sucking my bone marrow to nourish himself.

I writhed in the pit and stared at the dark sky helplessly, praying for it to be over, praying for death to take me. Then Sy was there, shoving me to the background and letting him feed on her instead. When she nearly broke, I’d surface, taking over and enduring every second of pain, torment, and endless horror.

A cacophony of shrieks and clattering came closer.

You ready, Sy? I asked.

Ready for what? she growled.

2

The wolfman tore his gaze from Sy’s breasts and fangs as she crouched like a lioness, ready to pounce on the monstrous creatures surging toward us.

“Fuck off,” my voice commanded through Sy’s mouth.

The wolfman didn’t need to be told twice. He ran as fast as he could, abandoning his pants. His bare ass got all hairy, then a brown wolf came out, loping through the grass.

Three Shrieker scouts, Sy informed me.