Sizzling Hot Alpha Male Paranormal Romance Box Set

by Roth, Mandy M.

  She snorted. “Umm, sweetie. The man is practically screaming overblown protector. If he was spreading that amount of concern and energy around to more than one woman, he’d be out cold. And if I was a gambling gal, I’d take the odds your job is completely safe.” Effie tossed her hand up—to block their conversation from Donatus and any other humans, Ava assumed. “Why you even bother to work is a whole other debate.”

  “Oh, I know,” Yvonne said, coming up behind Effie. “Why do you work, Ava?”

  Ava turned toward them, paying little attention to the man who stood just a few feet from her. Donatus seemed to fade away in her mind as she focused on her friends. “Where did the lesson of blending in go?”

  They looked at one another and shrugged.

  Ava sighed. “Why do I bother?”

  Effie grinned. “Because you love us.”

  “Want me to call the rest of the girls for a group hug?” Yvonne asked.

  “Okay, if we’re going to get all touchy-feely I’m going to have to send you both back to Chloe so she can deal with you.” Ava laughed softly. “She’s the emotional one. I’m new to it all. Best I not try too much.”

  Effie’s mouth dropped open. “Was that a smile and a laugh?”

  “Holy shit, I think it might have been.” Yvonne snatched Ava’s cell phone from her hip. “I’m calling Chloe. It’s clear that you’re sick or something. You haven’t been even close to yourself in a long while.”

  “Hey, I’ve been smiling and laughing all day. There is something about this place, these people that just make it feel okay to let my guard down for a bit.”

  Effie grinned. “Ava, I don’t know if I should hug that hottie behind you or kick him in the jaw for doing what we should have been able to do—make you smile.”

  “You’re acting like I walk around bawling my eyes out.”

  Shaking her head, Effie snorted. “No, Ava. That would count as showing emotion. You were so full of life before it all happened. Hell, we all walked in your wake in awe of how vibrant you were. It was infectious. You don’t ever see yourself as funny, but you are, or used to be all the time.”

  “Chloe said she wants a picture.” Yvonne slid Ava’s phone back into its spot. She touched the tip of Ava’s nose. “She also wanted me to tell you that she knew you’d find it here.”

  Raising a brow, Ava pulled back a bit. “I wasn’t aware I’d lost anything so I’m almost scared to ask what she was talking about.”

  “Ava, she was talking about happiness. She, like the rest of us, only wants to see you smile again. I once watched you beat the living crap out of a den of vampires, laughing the entire time. It left me in stitches.”

  Effie shook her head while she stared at Yvonne. “That would be ‘beat the unliving crap’ out of them. And I still want to know why she started laughing so hard that she ended up in tears.”

  Snickering, Ava lowered her head a bit. “Well, the one had me off the ground and looked at that talisman I used to wear.”

  “The one you keep in a box now?”

  “Yep.” Ava shrugged and laughed. “I don’t know what it means still, but I can tell you that his already pale face went completely white when he looked at it. Of course, he launched into the ‘I’m not scared of you, little girl’ routine. As he held me he told me it was a great honor to get to kill the future wife of an old friend. Some old friend who had ‘found the light’.”

  Effie’s forehead creased. “How was a bad guy wanting to kill you funny?”

  “Oh, well, that was funny too—like he even could. But the part about being married is what sent me into the laughing fit.” Ava put her hand out and motioned to them and then back to herself. “Imagine me being a wife, a mother.”

  Their eyes widened. “Oh, Ava, your poor children won’t be allowed more than a foot from you. They’ll grow up getting stepped on by their overprotective mommy.”

  Yvonne glanced at Effie and laughed. “That and her poor husband would be scared to even glance at another woman because of her massive collection of weapons. He’d invest in those things horses wear to keep them from seeing all around them.”

  Ava rolled her eyes. “That or one of those cones animals with stitches wear.”

  Effie snorted. “Ohmygods, I think our girl made a joke. We missed you, Ava.”

  The bartender set the cranberry juice on the counter. Ava watched as Effie grabbed it and brought it to her nose. She took a deep breath in and shook her head. Motioning to the bartender, she set the drink on the bar. “This has alcohol in it. She can’t have that. None of us can.”

  The bartender laughed. “What, are you allergic?”

  Effie took hold of his collar, pulled him to her and licked her lips. Ava shook her head, knowing what was coming. “No. Ava, isn’t allergic. But it does seriously impair her ability to sense very bad things. If she can’t sense bad things and they get a leg up on her, she’s dead. So when a stranger brings my girl a drink with alcohol in it when I can guarantee she didn’t order it that way, I’ve got to wonder why that is.”

  The bartender rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, sensing ‘bad things’ is hard work.”

  Yvonne went to the bar fast and hopped onto it. She sat close to the bartender and winked. “I get so tired of people mocking that. If you had any idea how hard it is to sense powerful evil, the kind that’s older than you can imagine being and so full of rage that tapping into its mind could kill you, you wouldn’t comment.”

  Effie jumped up on the bar too, flanking the bartender. She winked at Ava. “That little girl, she can still sense them. Regardless how powerful they are and that tends to scare the biggest of the bad.”

  “Yeah, and Lucifer hates that about her.”

  Ava snickered. The second the girls began going on about demons and the devil, humans either played along or ran. She leaned into the calming warmth behind her and smiled, thankful her friend possessed the power to block the man who was comforting her from hearing all that was going on. He sipped his drink and appeared to carry on as if he didn’t even know she was there.

  “Well,” Effie winked at the bartender, “that’s just one of the things he hates about Ava. I think the biggest may be the fact that for ten years she’s been a constant pain in his demon ass.”

  Yvonne nodded. “That and he seems convinced Ava’s going to mate with one of the Lost Warriors, forever sealing the guy to the side of good.”

  Ava huffed. “That idiot thinks that about all of us. He acts like we were put here to be the other half of every one of the smart demons that got the hell away from him.” She put her hand out in a dramatic fashion and lowered her voice. “You will not take that which is mine, little woman. You are weak. Nothing more than a child in a league of creatures as old as time. You should not even be here. You should have been exterminated when the rest of your pathetic cause’s warriors fell. You survive only because of traitors. Had they not have turned against their master you would be as dead as your dear family. The powers seek to reward the traitors for what they deem to be an incredible show of courage and good within them. I seek to destroy them.”

  Effie snickered. “Insert evil laugh now.”

  Ava kept going. “It is not courageous to run from your master. They are cowards. Cowards that will know no happiness. You see, child, you will die here and now for the sins of a man you do not even know. He shall not know what it is to hold a child of his own in his arms, nor feel the love of spouse. He shall forever wander the earth fighting the demon within him, alone. The others will suffer as well. In the end they will come to me begging for forgiveness for turning on me. It is then that the final lesson will be taught.”

  Laughing, Ava rubbed her throat. “Okay, I can’t do it anymore. He likes to launch into dramatic mixes of Latin, English, Italian, just about anything that comes to mind. I especially love how he singles me out of the bunch. Like I’m with ex-Host members daily just a-waitin’ to snag me one. Mmm, I’ve always wanted me a demon. Honey, Mommy’s going
to the store, don’t get too close to Daddy, he might eat you.” Ava made a funny face and winked. “If Daddy starts speakin’ in tongues, throw up the sign of the cross and put garlic around your neck.”

  Yvonne stared at Effie with wide eyes as she burst into laughter. Effie piped up with, “Host guys have the biggest dicks I’ve ever seen.”

  Ava dropped her head into her hands and groaned before looking up at the ceiling. “You tell me that I’m supposed to train them to stand up for those who can’t and to protect the gates to the heavens yet you send me women like these. Where exactly is that angelic portion you promised?”

  “What?” Yvonne asked. “It’s hard not to notice something the size of what they’re lugging around.”

  Effie grinned. “And it’s impossible to count the number of times they talk about it, try to get it in us or basically worship it.”

  The bartender let out a snort before hooting like an owl. “Oh, you girls are good. This is one of better stories I’ve heard.” He looked at Ava. “So, care to tell me how you’re still standing here? After all, you were up against the devil himself.”

  Ava shrugged. “I don’t know, dumb luck?”

  Effie narrowed her eyes. “You’re still here because you refused to bow to that bastard. You didn’t crawl at his feet. Ava, you fought to stay standing when your wounds were mortal and you were completely alone.”

  “He’s still listening,” Ava whispered, motioning to the bartender.

  Effie didn’t appear to care. She’d no doubt wipe the man’s mind clear of what he’d heard before they left anyway. She hopped down from the bar and cupped Ava’s chin. “You are the reason we only lost a few. Had you fallen he would have taken every one of us there. He’d own our souls. We’d serve him, not you.”

  Ava gasped and shook her head. “You do not serve me. You are beautiful independent women who choose to stand and do what’s right. I would never demand that you—”

  Effie pressed her fingers to Ava’s mouth, silencing her. “Ava, we do serve you. We do it because we love you. We believe in the cause. You’re the reason we were all raised in safety. When the council on Valhalla wanted to send away those of us who carried no blood of the Valkyrie in us, you stood before them unwilling to allow that to happen. That left you, just a child yourself, to oversee us. You ensured that we had the knowledge of your ancestors. You made sure we learned our own history and abilities as well. Most importantly, you kept and continue to keep us unified.”

  It was all too much. The idea that they looked to her as a savior had never occurred to Ava before and she didn’t like it one bit. “Stop making me into something I’m not, Effie. I’m not perfect. I’m not a leader. I’m just me.” Glancing down, Ava did her best to push the guilt down. She knew that she didn’t do all that she could have. The second she felt the tickle of evil dancing on her skin she should have sent the others away. She should have known that the ultimate evil had finally come to handle the matter himself.

  Yvonne jumped down and came at her fast with her finger out. She jabbed Ava in the chest lightly. “If I ever hear you thinking that again I will gather every one of us so we can take turns kicking your ass for stupidity. Ava, you couldn’t have known. The very fact that you caught that he was coming when you did saved so many lives. No one else I know can sense the devil before he arrives. He just sort of shows up. But you did. You sensed him. What did you do with the few seconds you had?”

  Ava stood silent.

  “Ava, tell me what you did!”

  She sighed and dropped her head. “Told you and Effie to get Chloe and the others.”

  “No, honey, you didn’t tell us anything. You magikally hurled our asses to Chloe. Something you didn’t even know you could do. I don’t know about Effie, but I can guarantee that I wouldn’t have gotten out of there in time to bring help without you doing it for me. I blinked and I was standing with Chloe. That’s not normal, even for our kind.”

  Effie pulled on Ava’s chin, forcing her to look up. “I will never forget when we returned. The sight of you standing face-to-face with the father of all evil is something that I hope I never have to see again. Ava, you had no use of your left arm and I’m fairly sure if you tried to walk you’d have collapsed.”

  Yvonne nodded. “Chloe said that the bastard shattered Ava’s hip when he kicked her. Not to mention he’d ripped a rather nice hole through her abdomen after breaking her arm in four places.”

  “No,” Ava said, softly. “He didn’t do it. He couldn’t. Each time he tried to touch me, something repelled him. I don’t know what it was. It was like I burned him without trying.”

  “Then how the hell did you get wounded so badly?”

  Ava sighed, not wanting to relive any of this. “When I was little Arik told me Lucifer had the power to control the weak, the evil, the dead. He wasn’t just telling me stories to feed a child’s imagination. He was spinning the truth in a way that a child could soak it in. The way a child could learn so they’d know what to expect in the event they face it later in life.”

  Effie gasped. “Ava, are you telling me that Lucifer turned the girls we lost against you?”

  Yvonne clutched her throat, her eyes wide. “No. Ava. No.”

  Reluctantly, Ava nodded. “Yes, he did. And two of his sons helped, laughing as girls I loved—and still love—with all my heart came at me. When they weren’t strong enough to take me down, the sons joined in. When that didn’t work, the rest of the Host with him swarmed me. I swear that I fought back but there were so many. Too many to count and I was so worried about all of the girls who were barely still alive. I turned to look back and the next thing I knew a werewolf Host warrior had his arm buried past his elbow through my lower stomach.”

  Ava’s face creased with pain at the memory. “And as the were pulled his arm out, a vampire slammed into me from the side. I felt the bones in my arm and hip breaking but couldn’t do anything to stop it. I was too focused on the were who’d ripped the hole in me. I will never forget his face. When I see him again, I will be the last thing he sees before he dies. He took something from me that I can never forgive.”

  “Shh, Ava, we know you gave it your all. Hell, you gave it more than that. You put everything you had into beating them back and you won.” Yvonne touched her arm lightly. “You won.”

  “Nobody wins when people die, Yvonne. Lucifer will never die and when he gets me, which he will, Chloe will step in and fill my spot.” Ava pointed at Effie. “You will stand by her side. I think that all here can admit that Chloe, while powerful, doesn’t have what it takes to always do what needs to be done. You do, Effie. And you have a certain quality that the girls will follow.”

  Yvonne nodded. “She’s right, Effie, you do.”

  Effie’s face hardened. “We aren’t going into this because Ava isn’t going anywhere. That piece of shit tried to take her from us and found out she was a hell of lot more than he bargained for. He won’t…”

  Ava laughed. “He underestimated me once, Effie. He’ll not make that mistake again. When he comes for me again, I won’t walk away from it. I’ve come to terms with that. So should all of you. He is pure evil. Being bested by a female, one he’s hated from day one anyway, isn’t something he’ll let go. Chloe knows. It’s why she insisted I leave the area. She seems to think I’m supposed to be here. I think Lucifer couldn’t give a shit where he kills me, only that he gets the honor of being present when it happens.”

  Yvonne stroked Ava’s upper arm gently and shook her head. “Ava, you like to think it’s you against him. It’s not. When he came at you he came at all of us. We love you and if Lucifer thinks for one second that we’ll stand around twiddling our thumbs while he tries to finish what he started, he’s dead wrong.”

  “We aren’t the only ones who will stand against him, Ava. You’ve made so many friends with people and things none of us would have dared to. They won’t stand for him touching you again.” Effie wiped her eyes and smiled. “When we appear
ed and found you, you were terrified. We all were. But you stared the devil in the eyes and refused to let him have your girls.” She snorted. “Hell, you even told the man that he wouldn’t touch the Lost Warriors either.”

  “That was amazing,” Yvonne said. “And I know you. Your word is your bond. You’ll fight to the death for demons you don’t even know—have no idea if they’re committing acts of evil or not right now.”

  “They aren’t,” Ava said softly.

  Effie ran a hand through her long auburn hair. “And how do you know that?”

  “Don’t get Ava started on remembering the Lost Warriors gathering us together and defending us against their own kind. She wasn’t even two yet. The girl firmly believes they’re the reason we ended up on Valhalla’s front doorstep. She also believes we did something to them. That we showed them the light they were looking for.”

  Effie burst into laughter. “Oh, yeah. A bunch of evil guys that spent thousands of years torturing, killing, maiming humans and killing our loved ones took one look at us as children and hung up their evil ways, found some children who were about to die and suddenly found the light. Umm, no. I’m not buying it. I’m a year older than Ava and I don’t remember anything about that day. How can she?”

  “How does Ava do anything?” Yvonne asked. “She’s amazing. Let’s celebrate her finding her smile again and—”

  “And remind her that she swore to give the guy I selected for her a sporting chance.” Effie grinned mischievously. “I selected the hella hunk behind her. He seems perfect for her.”

  “Whatever you do, don’t send me a friggin’ card like Chloe did,” Ava said, smiling.

  “Why?” Effie smiled. “What did she do now?”

  “She sent me a card that was in some ancient language. Not Latin but close. I called and asked her what the hell it said and she told me to sound it out.” Ava snickered. “I stood there like a child reading that out loud while she laughed her butt off on the other end of the line.”

  “Did you figure it out?”

  Glancing at Yvonne, she shook her head. “That’s the weird part. Once I was done reading it, Chloe just sighed and told me to go get some sleep, that I’d have some interesting dreams. She said I had a big day today and that everything would be fine. Okay, she’s my best friend. I love her to death but she can be a freak when she wants to be.”