That pleasant, helpful tone got on Kraft’s last nerve, and he lunged at the elf and took him down in a stranglehold.
Behind him, he heard Orion and Rolf enter and start placing bets.
To his relief, Onvyr gladly gave him the fight he needed. Enough to sate him until the next sunset, when he’d get the lycan in his claws on a hunt that would surely involve danger and blood-letting.
Kraft couldn’t wait.
CHAPTERFIVE
The woods werethick with dread, the darkness oppressive. The scent of blood that should have been inviting had soured. Instead of terror and fear to spice the coppery tang in the night air, Kraft smelled something tainted, evil.
In wolf form, he growled and sniffed, trying to track the blasted female who hadn’t arrived as she’d promised. So of course, he’d gone out to track her down. He’d be damned if Khent or Rolf thought they could havehisprey.
The snow in the Crimson Claw territory that just yesterday had come to his knees all seemed to have melted, and the bite in the air wasn’t due to cold, but to something that made his fur stand on end.
He looked all around, stopped to listen, and stalked the sounds coming from a cabin nearby.
He didn’t want to enter, and that made him angry, because vampires, especially Kraft, did not know fear. Pushing past the door hanging off its hinges, he stared with wide eyes at the humans feasting on a young boy, eating him while he screamed. They chewed up his flesh and organs, the blood a mess as the humans digging into him continued to feast.
Behind them, a large being in a hooded robe stood watch. “Eat, my children. Gorge on lycan flesh and grow strong.” The man lifted his gaze to Kraft, glowing yellow eyes piercing him with a strange kind of power. “And vampire. Ah, a nachzehrer. Exactly what we need.” He laughed, and the sound of so much power hurt Kraft’s ears.
Kraft snarled and would have attacked when a hand grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and yanked him back. He snarled and snapped out of that grip, but when he turned, he was in another cabin, this one smelling ofher.His berserker.
The man who had held him shrugged. “Sorry, but you’re not ready for that one yet. I figure this will be a lot more fun to watch.”
Kraft growled and barked, but the tall man only cupped his ear and leaned in. “Can’t understand you. Change back so you can yell at me.”
Kraft shifted in an instant. “You.” He recognized the man, a god, if he wasn’t mistaken. Not long ago, he’d seen this male talking to Mormo in the basement. Except the basement had turned into some endless speakeasy with multiple access points, which made sense considering Hecate was not only the goddess of witchcraft and necromancy, but of boundaries as well. Apparently, she’d created a bar as the central point where worlds connected.
“Morpheus, at your service.” The dark-haired god looked like a movie star, bronze and shimmery with features anyone would find attractive. Even Kraft, and he hated gods. As before, the god wore a toga, exposing muscular shoulders and strong thighs and calves.
“What the hell are you doing here?” came a husky, female voice.
Kraft turned to see Riley, the berserker, standing by her bed. He blinked, not sure when he’d entered her bedroom. But he didn’t much care, seeing her naked and angry, huffing as she tried to stare him down. Her eyes blazed blue, her hair whipping around her head though there was no breeze.
“I wish I had popcorn,” Morpheus muttered behind him.
“Who the hell is that?” Riley asked.
But Kraft didn’t care. He lunged and tackled her to the bed. “Ah, female, you were waiting for me,ja?”
“Jackass.” She rolled with a speed he admired, straddling his waist, her hands on his wrists, planted on either side of his head as she thought she held him down. “Why are you here?”
Kraft couldn’t answer, taken with her naked strength. All lean muscle and glorious golden flesh. And those breasts... His mouth watered. She had full breasts tipped with pink nipples, so tight and pert.
He leaned up to take a nipple in his mouth, and lust, sure and true, filled him.
Her grip on his wrists tightened. “Wh-what are you doing?” she breathed.
He groaned and sucked harder, then turned to the other breast and did the same. But it wasn’t enough. He needed more.
Kraft nipped her, sipping a droplet of blood, and felt his entire chemistry change.
Riley snarled at him and tried to pull back, but he sucked harder, and then she swore and lowered herself, giving him better access. “More,” she demanded.
Happy to give her what they both wanted, Kraft continued to drink from her before sealing the small wound with a lick. When he leaned back, Riley was there, kissing him with a punishing melding of mouths and tongue. Then teeth, and he didn’t know when she’d bitten him, or why he’d allowed it.
But his arousal wouldn’t wait. And then his clothes were gone, and he was plunging inside her.
