by James Tate
I snorted a laugh. "We're not betting on Archer to lose, you asshole."
He just smirked. "You never know; Jimbo is a tough cookie and Arch is out of practice. The big bad wolf might mop the floor with your Sunshine."
I just rolled my eyes. "Jimbo. What a stupid name for a gang-affiliated UFC fighter. And Archer's hardly out of practice with how hard he's been training." He'd also had several mock fights at our mountain lodge with a few of UFC's greatest, so yeah, I was pretty confident he had this fight against Jimbo in the bag.
Sure enough, halfway through round two, Archer unleashed his inner beast. Blood flew, splattering the blue floor of the octagon, and the next thirty seconds were a heart-racing flurry of hard fists, sharp elbows, and stealthy knees. Then it was all over. Jimbo hit the deck with a crash as a final right hook snapped his head back and turned out the lights.
"Told ya." I turned to Steele with a victorious grin.
He just laughed, then jerked his head to the cage. Archer was at the mesh, beckoning for me to come closer. Kody grabbed my hand, hauling me up into the octagon with him as he jumped around and whooped his excitement over Archer's win.
Once Jimbo was back on his feet, the referee did his bit to officially announce Archer as the victor. Then, the second his gloved hand was released, Archer grabbed my face and kissed me long and hard, right there in the middle of the former big top.
* * *
The after party was held in the old fun house. Hades has converted it into a seriously funky nightclub, but I still needed to swallow past a lump of lingering fear as the four of us made our way through the front door.
Inside, though, not a trace of that horrible old fun house remained. The only nod to what had been there the last time I'd been inside was the abundance of mirrors everywhere, except now they just reflected flashing strobe lights and scantily clad dancers. I tried not to ask too many questions about the Timberwolves—their gang was none of my damn business—but I was getting the distinct impression the less legal side of their income came from the sex trade. Prostitution, I meant, not human trafficking. Given how Archer had saved Seph, I’d think Hades might be firmly against the skin market.
A handsome guy in nothing but a pair of black latex hotpants greeted us as we approached the bar and advised us that we had a table reserved in the VIP section. He escorted us over to it, shaking his ass in time to the music as he walked, then left with our drink orders.
As soon as we were seated, I looped my arms around Archer's neck and kissed him again. "Congrats on your win, Sunshine," I told him in a husky whisper.
He just gave a lopsided grin and tucked a loose, blonde curl behind my ear. "I don't think you've ever looked hotter than when I saw you dancing beside the cage tonight."
I scoffed. "Uh-huh, 'cause I'm wearing your hoodie."
Kody cleared his throat and tipped his head at Archer like he was trying to remind him about something. Or maybe just hurry him up.
"Right," Archer muttered. He swept his hand over his wet hair—fresh from the shower—and reached inside his jacket. "Kate, seeing as tonight sort of marks an anniversary for all of us, especially here, I wanted to give you something."
He placed a folded stack of papers down on the table in front of me, then a single sheet of folded paper beside it. Steele pulled a pen from his own jacket pocket and placed it beside the papers.
"For all the bad memories October 31 holds for you, Hellcat, we hope this might be the start of repairing them." His gray eyes held mine for a moment, sincerity shining through.
Kody shifted in his seat, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. "This might seem like a gift just from Archer, but it's really from all of us."
Archer rolled his eyes. "Right. But mostly from me. Open this one first." He tapped his finger on the thicker stack of paperwork.
Frowning in confusion, I picked it up and unfolded it carefully. My eyes scanned the top page, and my heart stopped. Dread pooled in my stomach, and I flipped through the pages until I found Archer's signature already on the appropriate lines.
Hurt squeezed my chest, and my gaze flicked up to meet Archer's eyes. "You're divorcing me?"
His expression stayed carefully neutral, not giving away any emotions as he stared back at me. Was... were they breaking up with me? If so, this was a monumentally shitty way to repair my lingering fear of Halloween.
"I married you without your knowledge or consent, Kate," he told me in a carefully even tone of voice, despite the booming music all around us. "I'm giving you the opportunity to start over... if that's what you want."
My brows flicked up, and a sharp streak of stubborn anger shot through me. "And what if it's not?" I slapped the divorce papers back down on the table, and my diamond ring glittered under the lights as if mocking me. "What if I don't want this?"
Archer drew a deep breath, his jaw tight as he picked up the single sheet of folded paper. "Well, then you could take this one instead."
Seething, I snatched it from his fingers and flipped it open. I wasn’t sure what I expected to find there, but it sure as hell wasn't the simple legal document with his signature at the bottom.
My brows shot up even higher. "A dissolution of our prenuptial agreement?"
Steele cleared his throat, pulling my attention from Archer's blank face. "We thought... if you're happy with things the way they are—"
"I am," I snapped, cutting him off. "I thought you all were too."
"What?" Kody exclaimed, panic flashing across his face. "Of course we are. Why would you—?" He broke off, understanding dawning. "Oh shit. You thought—"
"You guys gave me fucking divorce papers; what am I supposed to think?" I demanded, feeling my cheeks heat. I was so fucking confused. What the hell were they trying to achieve here?
"Princess," Archer murmured, placing a finger under my chin to bring my gaze back to his. "We're not ending things. We're offering you a fresh start on equal footing with all of us. That's all. Trust me, Kate, nothing on this entire damn Earth could make us leave you now. We all love you too damn much."
Relief washed over me in waves, and I could finally breathe again. I'd jumped way into the wrong conclusion there, and my panic had momentarily blinded me to logic. But I got it. He was trying to right his first wrong against me.
"Oh," I murmured, all other words failing me.
Archer's lips curled in a smile. "Exactly." He knew I was on the right page with him now.
"So, you don't want to divorce me?" I bit my lip, still tense. Of course, it was always going to be a messy situation with the four of us. I couldn't legally marry them all, but... Archer and I were already done. We'd even had a wedding, complete with multiple fatalities. And cake. We'd had wedding cake... albeit licked from each other's bodies in the kitchen of a bakery.
His pale blue eyes softened, and his thumb tugged my lip from between my teeth. "I never want to divorce you, baby girl. You're my reason for living."
My heart thudded faster as my breath caught.
"For the record," Kody added, his tone dry, "Steele and I already have IDs made for you in alias names, you know, in case you ever wanted to make things semi-official with us one day."
Shock held me frozen for a second, then a bubble of way too excited laughter worked its way out of my throat. Shaking my head in disbelief, I picked up the divorce papers again, then ripped them into confetti.
"Does that answer the question?" I asked, meeting each of their gazes one at a time.
Archer's grin was wide as he smoothed the other document out on the table and handed me the pen. "Sign this, Kate. I don't need or want any legal claim over your estate. I just want you."
Groaning inwardly at the delicious things his declarations of love were doing to my lady bits, I took the pen and scribbled my signature on the line marked with my name.
Satisfied, Archer folded the document back up and tucked it into his jacket once more.
Steele grinned, nodding his head across the club. "Ho
w's Seph's impeccable timing?" he joked as my bubbly friend bounced her way through the crowd. She had a bright, fruity cocktail in one hand and body glitter smeared down her arms. Seph clearly intended to have a good time tonight.
"Hey!" she shouted, coming over to join our table with a broad smile pasted to her face. "Oh my god, Archer, that fight was insane. Totally insane. I've never even liked fighting before, but that was..." She trailed off with her jaw slightly unhinged as she gave my husband heart eyes.
"Down girl," Kody teased. "Don't make MK shank you for drooling on her boys."
Seph's mouth snapped shut, and her eyes widened as she gave me a guilty look. "Sorry, MK," she squeaked. "You totally can't blame a girl, though." She burst out laughing, and I just shook my head as I chuckled.
"Actually, there was one other thing we needed to clear from the air," Archer admitted, his arm tucked around my waist as a waiter delivered our drinks to the table.
I cocked a brow. "Oh yeah? What else?"
He just shrugged. "We all promised you there were no more secrets between us, but something you said the other day made us realize we had let something slip through the cracks—entirely unintentionally, I'll add."
"Definitely unintentional," Steele agreed with a grimace. "More just from force of habit."
"And old loyalty," Kody added.
Seph wrinkled her nose, looking as confused as I felt. "What the fuck are you guys talking about?"
Archer ignored her question, addressing me. "We realized, Princess, that you still haven't met Hades in person."
Seph choked on her drink, laughing. "Yes, she has!"
Archer rolled his eyes at my younger friend. "Not officially. Anyway, now seems as good a time as any." He nodded at a familiar face approaching our table. "Kate, meet Hades, leader of the infamous Tri-state Timberwolves."
My jaw dropped, then I burst out laughing. "You've got to be kidding me."
THE MOTHERFUCKING END.
Come back to Shadow Grove in
HADES #1
Coming January 8th, 2021
Books2read.com/hades1
7th Circle
HADES #1
Five years ago, I masterminded the infamous massacre of the Tri-state Timberwolves.
The streets outside the Wolves HQ ran red with the blood of the old guard, and not one of those members loyal to my father were spared mercy. Not a single one.
I let the media twist and distort the story. My new recruits eagerly proved themselves in spreading false news, in covering our tracks. To the general public, the Tri-State Timberwolves were extinct.
But that couldn’t have been further from the truth. We changed, we grew, we evolved and came out stronger than ever. Now, I live, eat, sleep and breathe Timberwolves. I’ll do anything to keep my empire safe and thriving. To keep the people depending on me safe.
So, what do I do, when it’s my own weakness that places us all in danger? When I let sex cloud my judgment, and my people pay the price?
Simple. Kill the distractions.
I’m called Hades for a reason, after all.
A LETTER FROM THE AUTHOR
Hey you… Yeah, you! The reader currently glaring at this page like maybe the next line will be all “haha April Fool’s, here are the answers you seek!”
Spoiler alert.: it’s not gonna happen.
Let’s clear the air real quick before this gets out of hand. That, the minor detail that made you just curse me out and yell WTF Tate?! That was not a cliffhanger. You know this. Steele getting shot? Yeah, that one counts, but this was just sparking interest in the next Shadow Grove series! Besides, it just wouldn’t be the same without those death glares you’re shooting me right now. It’s all part of the fun! All those muttered curses about what a monster I am? They keep me so nice and toasty warm at night.
Besides, I’m already neck deep in Timberwolves and it’s so, so much fun! I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I do! But if you don’t… well… fuck it. At least I tried! I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, I don’t make this shit up. My characters have a story to tell, and I just write up the incident reports for it all.
But back to the matter at hand. Madison Kate’s story is OVER! That was a pretty wild ride, am I right? I’m still finding it a little bit nuts that she’s done. This series took almost half a million words to write, and has totally consumed my writing brain for the last 5 months. (yep, this was all released over just 5 months!)
2020 has been a fucking rough one, and I know lots of you agree. For me, I’ve dealt with the Australian Bushfires looming on my doorstep for months, then co-hosted a book signing event, got flooded in by the worst flood my area has seen in 100 years, dealt with coronavirus isolations, and… my mum died.
For anyone who read my authors note in HATE you already know, my mum was my first and biggest fan, so this whole series for me has been bittersweet. I feel like its my best work to date, but it’s the only series my mum never read. I hate that. I hate that she won’t read my next series, too. Or the ones after that… all I can do is hope like hell that she would have loved them, or that she’d have been proud of how far I’ve come in this career.
My mum started me on my love of books as a kid, she would read Watership Down to my brother and I every night, before we could read chapter books for ourselves, and she did the worst voices for all the rabbits. But from there my love of books only exploded. She never censored my reading or tell me I wasn’t old enough for certain content, which was how I ended up reading The Horse Whisperer at about age 10 and getting totally hooked on romance from there on out.
When I told her I was writing a book, it was never even a question whether she would read and give feedback. She didn’t even know what reverse harem was, but went off and did some thorough googling so she could fully appreciate the genre. She never even blinked when I started writing graphic sex scenes and grisly death, only gave me notes on characterization and realism.
If it wasn’t for my mum, I wouldn’t be here, writing this. This was my thirtieth book, and I never would have made it past number one if she hadn’t been standing there in my corner, supporting me and cheering me along every step of the way.
So… what I’m saying here is Fuck 2020. Seriously. Fuck it right up the ass with a cactus then fuck it some more. It’s been rough as shit, but I’m so lucky to have the support of some incredible friends and crown-fixers who have been keeping my head above water, even when I wanted to hibernate and quit.
My awesome content editor Heather has been with me through this whole series, pumping me up and cackling at new ideas and scenes as we’ve gone. She was also the first person to guess that MK was living in D’Ath Mansion—not Danvers Mansion—and the first to figure out that it was Dave doing the stalking. Although, I did cackle with glee that she never saw the Declan twist coming!
All in all, I like to think of her as that little devil on my shoulder, whispering, “yeah, good, but make it worse. Make them cry!”
See that? Just backed a bus over Heather. Beep beep!!
Anyway, I should wrap this up. It’s time to shift gears into Hades! **drool** I can’t wait for you to see what the Timberwolves have been up to behind the scenes in Shadow Grove.
Thanks for sticking with MK through her series! It means the world to me, and I hope these books have offered you some kind of break from the clusterfuck of 2020. #FuckCovid #FuckCancer #FuckDaveWithAChainsaw
Want to talk more about Madison Kate? Join us in the dedicated spoiler room on Facebook – facebook.com/groups/wtftate
Want to keep up to date with my future projects, random musings, and Netflix recs? Join my readers group on Facebook – facebook.com/groups/tatejames.thefoxhole
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