Trying with everything in me to push down the voices, I grabbed my bow and managed to my feet. Notching in an arrow, I took my aim through blurry vision.
The lion’s attention snapped to me. She crouched and leapt into the air and up through the missing stretch of floor to the second story. Below her, three of the six werewolves jumped after her, snapping at her heels but unable to cover the distance. The others splayed across the floor, panting hard and bleeding profusely. Two of the three alert werewolves ran off toward the other side of the floor, presumably to find a way up, while the biggest werewolf stepped right before me. He howled. There was no possible way he would win, but he was telling her he’d die trying.
I lifted my bow, beating back the well of voices echoing through my head. But there was nothing to aim at, the great lion’s mouth closed as it stared down at the werewolf and me.
To my amazement and relief, she began to shrink, collapsing in on herself just as Jackson had done as I healed him. It made no sense to me why she would make herself vulnerable this way. Bleary-eyed and dazed, I raised my bow to line up my shot with where a human woman’s heart should be.
Shapeshifter that she was, I expected her to take the shape of Becca or some member of Jackson’s pack I had yet to meet. But the shape she took was so unexpected, I hesitated.
“You should have taken my deal, wolf,” my handmaiden Misandria said as she crouched down over the hole in the floor. She was naked, but her long black hair covered her breasts and fell down her front. I pulled the arrow back again, aiming directly for her heart, but I couldn’t make myself shoot without knowing how the Nemean Lion could know about Misandria’s existence.
The light of the truck’s headlight glinted off of a tear on Misandria’s cheek as she turned her head to regard me. To my amazement, she spoke directly into my mind. And you should have listened to me, my goddess, I told you to kill the werewolves. I wish you had. I’d changed my mind you see, changed my mind about all of this. I didn’t think I could go through with it. But you never listened to my advice, did you? You prefer Caris or Algea to me, you always have. Her voice was so loud it drowned out the other sounds.
The moment she stopped speaking mind-to-mind to me, the voices in my head grew to a crescendo, and I found myself slackening my aim and dropping my bow to my side. “I know you’re not truly Misandria. She can’t speak mind-to-mind with me. She’s human.”
‘I’m not human; I just never risked you knowing what I truly was. You never recognized our right to fight back—I always had such a hard time understanding that about you.’ She looked away.
“What are you doing in my head?” I yelled up. “Stop this now, Misandria!”
‘But you see, I’m not doing it.’ She shook her head. ‘That’s your animals, Artemis. That is what has become of the wild animals under your rule.’
“No,” I whispered.
‘I wanted you to hear their madness. It’s your fault; you were supposed to rule them, to protect them. But you didn’t.’ Her head came up, and dark eyes fixed on mine. ‘You were so concerned with what man thought of you that you shut yourself away for a thousand years. But what of your animals, Artemis? In your absence, men destroyed their homes and hunted them down to extinction. The few that remain, they locked away in small cages to descend into madness.’
My bow fell from my grip, clattering to the ground. I pressed both of my palms into my temples, but the horrible sound would not leave my head. “How long have you known?” I asked.
‘Always. I tried, again and again, to convince you to destroy man, to leave your hideaway, but instead, you did nothing.’ She sighed and wiped her cheeks. ‘You were my goddess, I wanted you to save all that I loved, but instead, time and time again, you chose to protect humans over your own animals.’
“Why didn’t you tell me, Misandria? How come I never even knew you left the forest?”
Her lips pursed and she drew herself up. Her expression, so filled with grief moments ago, grew cold.
“You didn’t want me to know about what you were doing here, did you? You didn’t want me to know that you were sneaking off to hunt and eat humans?”
“Why should I not?” She growled out loud. “They hunt and kill us! You were never willing to fight back—instead, you hide away and ignore all of our problems!” She stood tall. “The animals deserve a new goddess now. They deserve a goddess who evens the score!”
“You,” I realized. It all made so much sense now. “You’ve deemed me unfit. And is that why you did all this: killing the werewolves and arranging this hunt? Did you cut off a piece of your own coat to entice me out after you? All so you can, what, eat me?”
The werewolf at my feet who I knew to be Jackson whimpered once before his growls started up again. Perhaps he had not realized that the Nemean Lion was one of the only creatures that could kill me—her teeth strong enough to chew through my immortal skin and bones. When I told him about Fawn, he must not have made the connection that it applied to me as well; you could kill a goddess, if you ate her.
She shrugged, slowly. “I love the taste of werewolf—especially ones who proclaim themselves the heroes of men. They had the chance to join our side—to be the heroes of beasts. But instead, they sought the acceptance of men. Men! So, they died like them, one by one, food for beasts. I saw the opportunity to draw you out, and so I decided to try—just to see if it would work. And it did.”
“And now you have me and all the werewolves, Misandria. You have us all, and yet you wait to make your kill. I’ve seen you hunt a thousand times; you never hesitate on the kill, why now?”
She bared her teeth at me. “And you always hesitate on the kill. You always have. Now all of your animals are dying because you hesitated on the kill, you let the humans win.”
“You’re right. I see that you’re right. I have failed you—I failed all of my animals. Instead of fighting, I hid away. You have been like a sister to me for millennia—quit this killing out of hatred. You will not save the animals or anyone that way. Let me fight for you, Misandria, but let me do it in the right way.”
A small sob escaped her. “You’re my goddess, and you failed me! You failed us!”
“I did—I failed all of you.”
At once, two giant gray figures sprang at her from both sides. Misandria dodged, and the wolves hit the floor feet from her, the clattering of their claws echoing loud around us.
Something pushed against my hand, and I found Jackson again offering me my bow, this time in his mouth.
I took it and looked up just in time to see the wolves lunging for her again. This time, as she dodged, Misandria kicked out a leg that connected with one of the werewolf’s sides. He flew through the air and into the hole between floors, hitting hard against our floor’s cement.
As her back was turned, the other werewolf lunged for her.
“Stop!” I yelled, but before the word was fully out, she wheeled around and kicked the other wolf through the hole.
Misandria straightened. “I love you, my goddess, but your heart was always too weak for this war.” She dove, her golden figure gleaming brilliantly in the morning light as she expanded. As her mouth opened to reveal a mouthful of golden spears, all aimed directly at me, I lifted my bow and loosed the arrow.
It whistled through the air and straight into her open mouth. As her giant body collided with mine, I realized the shot was one that only I could have made, and for a second, I regretted the ability. Her dead weight collapsed onto me, crushing me to the floor, and I let it. I lay there as the voices of animals of my dying kingdom filled my mind and cried.
I did not lay there long, though, as only minutes later, her body rolled off of me and Jackson stood over me. As soon as her weight moved away, I felt the burn of my bones and internal organs knitting together again. Jackson crouched next to me, just like the first time I saw him, fully naked.
“What’s broken, what can I do?”
I sat up. “Nothing is broken,” I lied. I
was broken. Misandria was right; I had abandoned my animals. I failed them.
“Hey.” His hand came up, and his thumb wiped under my eyes, brushing away a tear I didn’t even know was there. “What she said, it’s a bunch of bullshit. The world is fucked up—but it’s not your fault or your job to fix all of it.”
“I’m a goddess,” I whispered.
“Yeah, but from what I can tell, you don’t have absolute power over people’s choices. Or am I missing something?”
I shook my head.
“If you were out here in the world—would you have started to kill off the humans to save the animals?” he asked.
I shook my head again. “But I could have done something—I could have protected them.”
“Then do it. Stick around this time and change things. There are still wild animals in the world outside of shitty zoos like this one. Humans are trying to protect animals, tons of good, environmentally conscious humans and zoos. Things are fucked up, yeah, but not as bad as she was saying. She wanted you to go around killing people—and I just don’t see that being you, whether you’re in your forest or here.” Leaning down, he gave me a quick and gentle kiss on my lips. “A thousand years away from the world, huh?” he asked.
“Yes,” I admitted.
“I was way off. My guess was somewhere near two hundred.”
I glared at him. “You didn’t know.”
He shrugged. “Sorry, baby, I did.” He brushed my hair away from my face. “Are you going to be okay if I leave you? I have to look for my sister. I don’t smell her blood anywhere, and her scent is all over the place—”
“Go look. Don’t worry about me; I have bones that mend themselves.”
He rocked back on his feet and jumped up into a jog, heading to the other side of the floor. Before he’d left my vision, though, someone yelled, “Jackson!”
He turned to find a naked Luca standing next to the two smashed vehicles. “Aiden found a scent trail for Becca and Guy leading down to the basement and under the zoo.”
I waited alone as the group charged away. Emotions clotted my throat, and I had a hard time breathing. After everything Misandria had done, I knew it was wrong to mourn her, but I couldn’t help it.
Warm, softly glowing arms wrapped around me, and I turned to find my brother kneeling down beside me.
“I tried to get here earlier,” he said as his arm squeezed around my shoulders.
The tears began to fall. “No, this is the perfect time.”
Chapter Fourteen
Jackson
I woke with a mouse foot on my ear and fifteen werewolves in their wolf-forms vying for space on my comforter. It was another typical Saturday morning in the Hunter House. Removing said mouse from my ear, gently, as I didn’t want to have to deal with Artemis if I squeezed it too hard, I sat up.
“Yo, out!” I shouted over the sleeping crowd.
All I received in response were a few grumbles.
I summoned all of the alpha authority in my body and roared, “Out!”
All of the wolf heads popped up to look at me. Most of them were my submissive wolves, saved from a bunker beneath the Santa Monica Zoo, but I recognized Becca and Luca down there among the submissives. Grumbling as only wolves robbed of their favorite beds can, they uncoiled from their pile and trudged toward my door. Two neighborhood cats, who I hadn’t noticed among the wolf bodies, stretched languidly on the blanket.
I reached my hand forward, thinking that maybe I could get away with ridding my ear of this constant annoyance forever, when Artemis grumbled, “You better not.”
I froze. “Not doing anything, just escorting these little menaces out of the room once and for all.”
“Mmmm,” she whispered, though it sounded a little like a laugh.
After I’d escorted the cats and mouse out just as I said, I closed and locked the door. “They picked it again,” I said as I returned to her.
“I told you to leave it unlocked,” she mumbled into her pillow.
She said it all the time, but I was never going to stop trying to have nights with her all to myself.
“You still want to sleep?” I asked. When I set one knee on the bed, she rolled over to grin.
“No.”
“You’re not tired?”
She wore only underwear and my shirt, and damn did I like the way my clothes looked on her. I liked it especially as I could tell she wasn’t wearing a bra. Perhaps feeling where my gaze rested, she grabbed the hem of her shirt and lifted it over her head, proving that she definitely wasn’t wearing a bra.
“I’m not tired,” she said.
Feeling a grin overtake my face, I climbed over to her. “Well, what do you want to do then—since you’re not tired and I’m not tired—and your menagerie has left?”
“Hmmm,” she said, her hands hooked into either side of her panties and began shimmying them down her sides.
I helped her pull them the rest of the way off and felt a low rumbling sound building in my throat as I crawled up between her legs.
“Wait, wait,” she whispered as she leaned down to grab my shoulders. “I have a different idea for this morning. Slide up here.” Her voice shook as she spoke as if maybe she was a little nervous—though that was so unlike my Artemis.
The moment I was level with her, her lips smashed into mine, drawing me in for a deep kiss.
“Baby,” I growled onto her lips when she pulled away.
“I had a different idea about this morning,” she repeated. Her hands reached down to the waistband of my boxers and slowly pushed down.
For a second, I thought she meant she wanted to go down on me first. If that’s what she wanted, it was fine by me, but when she pressed her heat against me, I understood her meaning.
“Baby,” I growled again onto her mouth.
It had been six months since she came crashing into my life. We had six months of being more than satisfied with not taking things past the point of no return.
She pulled away, her hands going to either side of my face. “Jackson, I am sure.”
“You might be sure for right now, but what about next year?”
“Forever. I am sure forever. This is not an impulsive choice—for once in my existence. I’ve thought this through for months, and this is what I want. You’re what I want.”
Pressing my face into the side of her neck, I inhaled her scent. Fuck it. What the hell? Being with her was what I really wanted in this life—so much so that I’d dedicated all of my life and resources to environmental conservation causes in the last couple of months and had absolutely no regrets about it.
“Please, mortal,” she whispered, and I could hear a smile in her words.
“Well, I can’t make a goddess beg, can I?”
I pushed into her ever so slowly. She grew rigid under me for just one second, gasping as I broke her virginity. A small whimper escaped her mouth, and I met it with a kiss.
Her legs came up, wrapping around my hips as I moved in and out of her in slow, languid strokes. Even with our slow pace, I could feel her pleasure building as her moans deepened and core tightened around me.
“I love you, Goddess,” I whispered as I thrust deeply into her.
“I love you, hunter,” she moaned as her fingers gripped the muscles of my arms.
I quickened my pace as the pleasure built between us to an almost overwhelming sensation.
“I’m going to—I’m going to—” she moaned. Her core gripped around me, squeezing up and down the length of me inside her. I plunged in deep and exploded inside of her center.
Afterward, I held her. Perhaps because she was not a werewolf, our mate bond was not overwhelming. I had doubted it would work at all, but there was something there. I felt her on multiple levels as she lay on top of me—physically, and more than that. She shifted, and her hair splayed over my chest. Her soft fingers intertwined with mine over and over.
“What are you thinking about?” I asked.
She didn�
��t answer me as her hands played with mine, and I thought maybe she didn’t hear me. After almost a minute, she said, “I’m thinking about how scared I am.”
“You, scared?” I chuckled at how ridiculous that was. My laughter died as I realized she was serious. “Why are you scared?”
“Being here on the outside—living—it’s a lot harder. Even as I start my life with you, I know that one day you’ll move on without me . . . and I’ll just remain.”
I ran fingers through her soft curls. “Not for a very, very long time.”
She leaned up, tears shining in her eyes. “It was easier not to live, to sleep. I was so locked into what other people wanted me to be, thinking it was what I wanted. It wasn’t. I wanted to live.” She breathed a laugh. “I just needed you to wake me up so I could realize that.”
I wiped the tears from her eyes. “Any time you need a hapless mortal to wake you up, I’m your guy.” The words sounded so stupid, but a bright smile spread across her face.
“Hapless mortal, I like that.”
Leaning down, I kissed her. “I thought you would.”
“There’s just one thing I need to know, Jackson Hunter.”
“And what’s that?”
“What does wishy-washy mean? I’m still pretty sure that you made it up. I haven’t heard another mortal use it since.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Everyone says wishy-washy.”
She shook her head.
“Yeah,” I drew out the word because suddenly I wasn’t sure. “Everyone says that.” I was pretty sure—almost certain. “My grandmother did.”
“Hmm.” She nodded. “It sounds like a grandmother.”
Laughing, I grabbed her and flipped her under me. Looking down at her smiling face, I realized I was damn scared, too. I was scared of losing her, scared I’d mess things up by not keeping my ever-present drive to protect her in check—as I was trying so hard every day to do. But that was okay. We were okay.
We made love one more time before we had to get up and join the world. And as we walked through our house toward the commotion in the kitchen, I recited our story in my head: once there was a hapless mortal hunter who was shot by a goddess. She healed him and saved his people. And then he loved her for eternity.
The Virgin Goddess and the Alpha Page 13
