Naughty Cupid Trilogy

by Pillow Michelle M.

  “Sophia tells me Lord Malak has come to take us to the portal,” Mina began softly, hoping to discover something about what he thought.

  “Yes,” Larus answered. He crossed over to the fire. “You’re trembling. Are you cold? I sometimes forget how fragile humans are. Would you like me to light the fire?”

  Mina was touched by his concern, but shook her head. She couldn’t take her eyes off him. She thought wistfully, ‘What I want is for you to hold me.’

  Larus’s eyes whipped to her, a strange expression on his face. “What did you say?”

  “I-I didn’t speak,” Mina said, confused. ‘I said I want you to hold me, kiss me. I want you to make love to me, Larus, please. I need you to.’

  “You want me to hold you?” he questioned, unsure. He took a step forward. Mina’s mouth fell open. There was no way he could have known she thought that. “You just said you wished for me to hold you, kiss you, and... make love to you.”

  “I didn’t say that,” Mina thought in horror. Her heart stopped beating. Her mind raced. ‘How did you know that? Oh, blessed saints! He knows! He knows. He knows. He knows. Oh, God, please let him say something. Please. Oh, God, let the floor open up and swallow me whole. If he doesn’t want me, just let me die right here. I don’t want to live. Why doesn’t he say something?’

  “I’d like to know something,” Larus said, his eyes carefully shaded. “It’s been bothering me. Cupid’s spell. He said that it shouldn’t have been broken. How was it broken? What did you whisper to your sister to make her stop her attack?”

  ‘I told her I love you with all my heart,’ she thought. ‘That you were what made me whole.’

  Larus rushed forward, pulling her into his arms. He searched her face. “Do you mean it?”

  “Mean what?” Mina squeaked, near tears. It felt good to be held by him, but she didn’t understand what was happening. “I didn’t speak.”

  “Do you love me?” Larus asked, softly. He pulled her length to his.

  “I…” Mina hesitated. She thought about lying, about saving a shred of her dignity. But he touched her and she couldn’t think. The truth came tumbling out. “I love you, Larus. I want to stay with you for as long as you’ll have me. I’m sorry, so sorry. I didn’t mean to judge you because of your station. I know I’m human and an embarrassment to you in front of your men and I can’t hope that you could feel the same way, but--”

  Larus’s mouth crushed down on hers, silencing her. His lips parted, eagerly claiming hers. When she was panting and breathless, he pulled back, his eyes shining with love for her. “I’ll never let you go. I love you, Mina. You are mine. Only mine. I choose here and now that you are forever my lifemate. Never shall it be undone.”

  She saw the golden light in his gaze purpling and cementing, knowing he’d done something to bind him to her. She smiled, pleasure flooding her heart as she accepted him completely. “Larus, did...? Did you just ask me to marry you?”

  “No,” he said, coming down to claim her mouth. Mina gasped and pulled back, her eyes wide, unsure. ‘I didn’t ask. I just did it. I’m never going to let you get away. You are mine, Mina--my queen, my wife, my mate. You are my heart.’

  “Larus,” Mina sniffed, beginning to cry anew. “But what about your people? I’m human. Won’t they… I can hear you in my head.”

  ‘Yes, and I you. We are bound.’

  “That is going to take some getting used to.” She lifted up, kissing him deeply. There was no more need for words. Larus pulled her onto the bed next to him. The only blight in her happiness was that Sophia would be leaving her. But, who knew? Perhaps Sophia would find what she had. It wasn’t over until it was over.

  Mina felt Larus’s spirit inside her, heard his thoughts, felt what he felt. His love only reflected the depth of her own, making it all the more sweet. He’d heard her words in his head and they’d warmed his blood, brought his heart back to full life. Pleasure and happiness, sweet and pure, burst from him, spreading over her. This was what Rhiannon was talking about. Only with his true mate would he be able to read her thoughts as if she were lycan. They were connected.

  “Forever,” he said, echoing her thoughts back to her. “We are forever.”

  The End

  Cupid’s Favor (Naughty Cupid)

  By

  Michelle M. Pillow

  Cupid’s Favor (Naughty Cupid) © copyright 2005 - 2013, Michelle M. Pillow

  Second Electronic Printing July 2010, The Raven Books

  First Electronic Printing September 2005

  Cover art © Copyright 2010, Natalie Winters

  ISBN 9781452409399

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  All books copyrighted to the author and may not be resold or given away without written permission from the author, Michelle M. Pillow.

  This novel is a work of fiction. Any and all characters, events, and places are of the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or events or places is merely coincidence. Novel intended for adults only. Must be 18 years or older to read.

  Published by The Raven Books

  www.RavenHappyHour.com ~ www.TheRavenBooks.com

  Raven Books and all affiliate sites and projects are © Copyrighted 2004-2013

  Cupid’s Favor (Naughty Cupid)

  By

  Michelle M. Pillow

  Cupid’s Favor

  Paranormal Historical Romance

  Naughty Cupid Book Three

  'Beware of trolls bearing favors'

  When Lord Malak saves him from a sandpit, Cupid is honor bound to settle the lifedebt or risk being called upon later--even if the lycan noble insists he doesn’t want any reward for the deed. Simply breeding the man’s goats isn’t enough to repay such a price. No, for this he needs something more. Knowing the perfect gift to be revenge, Cupid delivers the one thing that seems to aggravate Lord Malak the most--Lady Sophia.

  After being kidnapped and drugged by the horrid troll, Cupid, Lady Sophia just wants to go home--to a place where magic doesn’t exist and there’s no chance of being eaten by a dragon. But most of all, she wants to be rid of her escort, Lord Malak. The charming lycan swore to protect her and see her safely home, but it seems fate and a little troll have other plans.

  Prologue

  Bah! Accursed luck!

  Cupid brushed sand off his arms, mumbling to himself. He frowned, not liking what he had to do, but a debt was a debt. His beady, black eyes flashed with an inner fire. He might be many things, but a troll who reneged on a life debt was not one of them.

  Lord Malak had pulled him from the quicksand and saved his life. Now Cupid owed him a great favor in return, even if the lycan noble insisted he didn’t want it. If Cupid didn’t give it to him now, he knew that someday Malak could come back to call upon him, and that was something he refused to accept. It was bad enough he would be forced to help a lycan, but to be in Malak’s debt? No, that would be worse.

  So, what to do? No small feat would repay a life debt. He couldn’t simply breed Malak’s goats for this one. He needed something big. He needed something grand.

  Love?

  Cupid nearly gagged as the thought popped into his head. He hit himself on the ear to get it out. A gooey clump of sand fell out instead. Love? Why in all the realms would he think of love? He hated love! He hated the way people looked while they were in it. The way they talked, acted, swooned, and kissed.

  Bah! Ach!

  Cupid hacked, spitting sand on the ground. The grains were everywhere, rubbing into every crease, chaffing his flesh. Worst of all, the sinkhole had cleaned him of his most glorious stench. He hadn’t bathed in decades. It would take him forever to get that smell back.

  Damn King Larus for throwing him into the sinkhole and Lord Ilar for letting him! So what if the two were bitter about what he’d done to them? The trolls still teased him about helping Lord Ilar and Lady Rhiannon fall in love, and now he’d be teased for King Larus and Lady
Mina as well. Could he really allow another blemish to surface on his name?

  Bah! No!

  No, love was no way to repay a debt to the lycan who saved his life. Ah, but hate. Now there was a real idea. Hate was much better than love. Hate made your blood boil and your heart race. It made you feel alive and gave you purpose. Aye, hate! He’d just have to watch Lord Malak very closely and figure out whom he hated the most. Then, Cupid would bring that creature before Lord Malak to destroy.

  Hate. Cupid rubbed his gnarled, wrinkled hands together. A smile spread over his flat, wide lips. Now this was a good idea. Besides, what better way to squelch his undeserved reputation as a matchmaker than to help a lycan find his revenge?

  Chapter One

  Lycaon Castle, Realm of Magic, 1407 AD

  “Lady Sophia.”

  Lady Sophia of Aucester looked at the guard, feeling nauseous. He was very tan with dark hair and eyes, and was smaller of build than some of his brethren. His words were a low growl as he said her name, causing her to shiver in revulsion. All the lycans’ words were a low growl. It was as if they were all just on the brink of attacking.

  But, it wasn’t only the way the lycans talked that bothered her. They dressed indecently in draping tunics that fell to the tops of their knees. Like the guard before her in the large square piece of brown material that wrapped the waist and was held over one shoulder with a brooch, leaving his muscular calves, arms and a shoulder bare. On his feet was a pair of short boots with leather cross lacing winding up his legs. Even the lycan women wore a floor length version of the garb. There was no mistaking the fact that they could part from their clothing at a moment’s notice and stand naked for all to see.

  Even though the man looked human, Sophia knew he wasn’t. He was a lycan, a man-beast, a nieten. It didn’t matter what word she used to describe them, they all meant the same thing--men who shifted into horrible, unholy wolves. They were magical creatures in a magical realm. She hated them, hated the realm of immortals and magic. She just wanted to go home to her human world, where men stayed men and animals were hunted for food.

  Sophia couldn’t help being bitter. A horrible little troll named Cupid had kidnapped her and her sister, Mina, and brought her to the realm of all things magical. At first glance this realm wasn’t so different from the human world, from her home in Wessex. The landscape was the same, though the sky was a little too purple and the trees were a little too red.

  Sophia looked around Lycaon Castle’s inner courtyard. The castle was a lot different than her dilapidated home. Lycaon was a grand palace, rich and fine. The battlements circled around the bailey, disappearing in the distance. Square turrets were built in intervals along the outer face, standing tall as lookout towers. A stone house encased the gated entrance. The gate was up so people could walk through it freely. If she were in her world, she would have killed for a chance to live in such a place. It wasn’t as if she had a lot to go back to. Since her father had been murdered for going against his king, she and her sister had been left in ruin, familyless, moneyless, friendless, and most likely soon to be homeless once King Henry granted their lands to some nobleman he felt worthy of it.

  The lycan palace might look undaunting in design, but the people of this realm were another matter altogether. The lycans were beasts. Their castle might be nice, but it couldn’t hide the primitives dwelling within the walls. Every time she saw one of them she shook with fright and if they came too close, she had to suppress tears of desperation and outrage at what had been done to her.

  “Tal,” Lady Rhiannon acknowledged the guard when Sophia did not. She blinked, realizing the beast man still stood before her, staring as if he would like nothing more than to devour her whole.

  Their hostess, Lady Rhiannon, was human. She’d been enchanted by Cupid and brought to the magic realm before Sophia and Mina’s kidnapping. Rhiannon’s enchantment was said to have brought all the lycan men howling to their knees in desire for her. Lucky, or unluckily to Sophia’s thinking, Rhiannon had fallen in love with the very lycan she was meant to punish. Lord Ilar, Commander of the Lycan Guard had mated to Rhiannon and they were now living happily ever after. Once mated, the other wolves let her be.

  Sophia glanced over at the woman. Rhiannon was beautiful, with long curly blonde hair and blue-grey eyes. She looked so… normal. Sophia didn’t know why the woman chose to stay in this world.

  Next to Rhiannon was Sophia’s sister. Mina had been brought to the realm the same time Sophia was. Cupid, seeking to avenge himself against the lycan king, had kidnapped them. It was a fact Sophia was still bitter about. When Cupid took Rhiannon, he enchanted the lycans to pursue her. When he took Sophia and her sister, Cupid did the opposite. He struck Larus with a magical love dart and Sophia had fallen hopelessly in love with the king. Mina had been unaffected by the whole affair--unless you counted the fact that she’d had sex with the lycan king and was now lovesick over him the old-fashioned, natural way.

  Sophia wished she would have been as lucky as the other two as to have kept her wits about her. But, no. She’d been utterly in love with King Larus, mindless and blind to anything else, until every breath she took was for him. Then, to make matters worse, she was kidnapped by a vampire named Devlin and had fallen in love with him as well, mesmerized by his powerful, magical eyes to do so.

  Sophia shivered. Twice she’d been in love, neither time her will or her doing. After the enchantment ended, she was left heartbroken with all the pain but no one really to mourn or fight for, no one who returned the feelings she had harbored so dear. She swore that there would never be a third time. No man would ever touch her heart again. She didn’t think she could survive it.

  All three human women were seated on a bench trying to enjoy the afternoon weather--that was until the lycan guard tried to talk to them. All simple pleasures in the day had fled with his presence.

  Both sisters were dressed as Rhiannon, who’d adopted the look of the lycans. The undertunic, meant to protect the women’s delicate human skin, was the only difference to the lycans’ garb. The sleeved undertunics were much like the ones they wore back home, but the long rectangle of the overdress was like the female lycans. It loosely wound around the body, pinning at the shoulder. Though Sophia would never admit to it, the gown was comfortable.

  Sighing, Sophia turned to look at her sister. Mina could well have been her twin, though she was a few years older and had locks as black as night instead of her own golden waves. Their faces were nearly identical, down to the shape of their pale blue eyes and the tilt of their noses. They were the same height and the same slender build, and even shared the same fullness of lips that had garnered the interest of many men. The men who’d wanted to marry them before their father had been executed by King Henry now wanted the sisters to be their whores.

  Sophia frowned. Was she a fool to long to go back to the human world? It wasn’t like it had been kind to her. Lycan or mortal, all men were the same. Rutting pigs. The only reason she preferred mortals was they didn’t possess the added threat of magic and fangs.

  “We would like to tournament to be Lady Sophia’s lover,” Tal stated, bringing her attention back to him. Sophia gagged, unable to help the natural reflex. Mina instantly put a protective hand on her arm. Rhiannon’s smile faded.

  “No,” Sophia croaked, pushing to her feet. The sooner she left Lycaon the better.

  “But…?” Tal looked confused. His eyes bore into her and Sophia couldn’t meet them, didn’t want to. He looked at her like all the man-beasts looked at her--like she was a piece of meat ready to be torn apart. Rhiannon had said she could have her pick of any of them for a mate or a lover. But Sophia didn’t want the lycan men, didn’t want any man. Tal continued to speak, not taking his greedy eyes off her, “She said she wished to judge for the position. It has been decided. Only those with good teeth will compete.”

  Sophia stiffened. They had heard that? She’d been joking, bitterly spouting off at the mouth to shock M
ina who had slept with the lycan king. Mina was enamored with King Larus. Any fool could see it well enough. The idea that her sister had fornicated with the man just made her sick.

  Sophia saw the man eyeing her and tried to remember what exactly she’d said. She was pretty sure it had something to do with choosing a lover like she would a good stallion--good teeth, decent bloodline, a fine gait and superior form. Someone wild and strong, but also someone she could bend to her will. Then, when she controlled them, she would get herself a new one.

  It might have been a joke, but the idea had merit. Men used their bodies all the time in battle and for what? Fortune? Glory? Power? Why should she not use her body to survive? At least then it would be on her own terms. Only, it wouldn’t be with a lycan, but a human. None of these man-beasts were going to touch her!

  “Come Sophia, let’s go,” Mina said.

  Sophia nodded in agreement. As they walked away, Sophia heard Tal say, “Did she not say she wished to pick one out?”

  “It is, ah, flattering they wish to tournament for you,” Mina said when they were alone.

  “To be their whore.” Sophia walked toward the stairs that led their shared room. She was fed up with it all, tired of being wanted for her body. Mina moved to follow her. Sophia stopped and held up her hand. She needed time alone to collect herself. “No, Mina, let me be alone for a moment.”

  * * * *

  The large fireplace burned brightly, casting the gray bedchamber walls with a golden light. King Larus had given Sophia and Mina the guest bedchamber upon arriving at Lycaon. The room was spacious, doubling as a sort of bower. Beautifully carved high backed chairs with plush cushioned seats were near a long slotted window. Next to the chairs was a carved table of dark wood. Strange rugs were beneath the window, made from a type of wool.