Daughter of Hades Read online

  “My angel,” he said as he ran his thick fingers through my wet hair. “I was so worried about you.”

  “I’m fine. I just wish I knew what happened,” I said, looking up into his captivating eyes.

  “Once we get you dressed, I’m sure we’ll be able to figure it out, but no one can think with you in here naked.”

  “I have a towel,” I said indignantly.

  “That tiny scrap of fabric does not count as a towel.” He chuckled. “I mean, what’s it really hiding? You could have walked out there naked and we would have been in almost the same situation.”

  “Almost?” I quirked an eyebrow at him.

  “Well, Emmett or I would have had you up against the wall before you could take another step. We’ve both missed you, missed our queen. This road trip, while necessary, is making us all a little stir crazy if you know what I mean.”

  “Stir crazy, huh? Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?” I smiled and knew he was right. He also wasn’t the only one going stir crazy. We needed to have sex soon or I would go insane with need. It had been almost a full week since we set out.

  “That’s what I’m calling it when I’m trying to be polite around my queen. If you’d prefer me not to be polite, then I can tear that sad excuse for a towel away and fuck you in the shower until you scream my name.”

  My panties, if I had been wearing any, would have promptly melted at his statement. As it was, I could feel myself tighten with desire, my nipples hardening into peaks in anticipation of his touch. “The other guys are just there,” I hissed at him. “We are not having sex while they are so close, or where the walls are so damn thin.”

  “Looks as if your body has other ideas,” he said, running his knuckles over my nipples through the towel.

  I looked up at him and stared into eyes dark with lust. His pants were already straining to hold his cock, and my entire body was betraying me for him. “My body has lost its damn mind. Now, let me go get dressed so we can figure out what the hell happened, and how to avoid it from happening again.”

  “As you wish, my queen,” he said as he moved to the side, allowing me to pass through and go to my suitcase. Knox trailed out of the bathroom after me, heading over to one of the beds. I was surprised when he returned, holding a blanket up in front of himself. “You have your privacy now, angel.”

  I couldn’t help but grin at his term of endearment and the act that was going along with it. I hadn’t even thought about doing something like that. Quickly, I dug around in my suitcase pulling out some jeans and a fluffy sweater. I wasn’t sure what the plan for the rest of the day was, so I wanted to be prepared. I didn’t even know how long I’d been gone, come to think of it.

  After I was sure that nothing private was exposed, I closed the suitcase and wrapped my arms around Knox’s waist from behind. “Thank you,” I whispered as close to his ear as I could get, being almost a foot shorter than him, before moving around him to face the rest of my guys.

  I wasn’t sure when I’d started thinking of them as mine, but I knew in my heart they were, just as I was theirs. Their flames burned bright within me, but it was also more than that. Over the last couple weeks, we had come to respect and trust each other. Sometimes Hunter even let me drive, mainly because I wouldn’t shut up until I had done some time behind the wheel like everyone else.

  “Two things,” I said as I flopped down onto the edge of one of the beds. “First, how long was I . . . wherever I was? Second, I’m starving. Can we go get some food?”

  “A few hours. There’s a diner up the road,” Emmett said, his eyes gleaming in the low light of the room.

  “That’s a lot longer than it felt like,” I said as I pulled on my boots, grabbed a coat and all the other winter accoutrements, and followed the guys out into the evening.

  “Well, that’s because you were stuck between worlds,” Hunter said, trying to be casual about it, but there was a waver in his voice that said the idea gave him anxiety.

  “I was what now?” I asked, stopping where I was on the sidewalk.

  “The human realm and the Underworld realm are connected, but only in a couple places, and it’s really hard to find. Most beings who live and work in one place or the other travel between the worlds through shadow. I think you disappeared into shadow, but without the knowledge of where the Underworld is, you became stuck until you were able to pull yourself back to us.” Hunter shrugged, stomping his feet on the ground as though he were trying to keep the blood flowing. “It’s a place only ghosts reside if their souls aren’t captured and taken to one of the various realms for that kind of thing, like the Underworld or Helheim or Tech Duinn, something like that.”

  I was about to respond when pain ripped through my gut, doubling me over. It was the pulling sensation that had drawn us to the snow-covered north, but it seemed to be increasing exponentially.

  Chapter Three

  Poppy

  Hands landed on my body, and the pain eased. When even more hands touched me, the world began to come back into focus. I straightened, and my eyes locked on to Emmett. He was the only one who had seen this in action before when I was away from most of the hounds and we hadn’t bonded yet. I’d thought it was a one off, but evidently, I was wrong. “Don’t let go,” I said to him, knowing he would understand.

  “Wild horses couldn’t make me.” He smiled as his hand gripped one of mine, while Knox gripped the other.

  Nolan and Hunter both had hands on my shoulders, and they tentatively removed them once I seemed stable. The pain increased slightly, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. We made it to the diner and into a booth before I allowed myself to take a deep breath again.

  I had thought that we would have to split up into different booths with there being five of us, but the diner had a big corner booth that fit us quite well. The red faux-leather seats were slightly sticky from whatever cleaner they used, and a citrus smell had wafted up when we first sat down. Neon lights glowed in the window as the waitress made her way up to us. The sun had well and truly set this time.

  “Coffee?” she asked the table.

  Most of the guys nodded, but I said, “Hot chocolate?”

  “Sure thing. I’ll give you a minute to look at the menu,” she said before walking off.

  “So, are those ghosts stuck there?” I asked.

  Emmett and Knox were still both touching me, either holding my hand or rubbing my thigh. Menus hid most of their faces as I waited for an answer.

  Finally, Hunter sighed and closed his menu. “We don’t know is the short answer. The long one is no one knows, because no one spends any time there. It has a tendency to kill those who don’t belong, and in all honesty, I don’t know how you survived. That is. of course, provided that I’m right.”

  I stared at him open mouthed for a moment, and before I could respond, the waitress was there taking our orders. She was fine with everything, even my massive order of a burger, fries, a baked potato, and a bowl of chili, until I ordered a milkshake. “You sure you want that, honey? It’s real cold outside.”

  “I do, thanks.” What she didn’t realize was that I was basically sandwiched between two heaters. If I didn’t get something cool in me soon, I was going to turn into a puddle of sweat.

  Once she walked away, I asked, “So why do you think I was there?”

  “You disappeared, but we could still feel you. You reappeared in the motel with us. What you described sounds like the area between realms. The ghosts probably inadvertently protected you from the side effects of the realm, or space, I guess.” Hunter checked each item off on his fingers.

  “Why doesn’t being a descendant of gods protect me?”

  “You’re too far removed, but it might have something to do with why you didn’t just die instantly,” Hunter responded.

  “Comforting as ever, Hunt,” Knox said as he squeezed my hand.

  I rested my head on his shoulder and glanced across the table at Nolan. His eyes burned int
o me with desire and loneliness, or maybe I could feel it resonating through our bond. Either way, I knew I needed to spend some quality time with him soon. My head was still there when the waitress came back to deliver our food. Her raised eyebrow and guilty stare when she pulled away from the table let me know she had seen what was going on. My head was still on Knox’s shoulder while my hands were on both Knox’s and Emmett’s thighs. It probably didn’t help that one of Emmett’s hands was getting perilously close to inappropriate on my own thigh.

  For the first time, I didn’t care. When they had first suggested this crazy thing to me, I’d been terrified of how it would work, but now I just accepted it for what it was. And it was beautiful. Our bonds were beautiful.

  Knox and Emmett both let go of me so they could eat, and I braced myself for the pain to return, but all I got was the pull I was used to, except it was stronger than ever before. I could feel the distance between myself and the judge I was seeking closing. As I took a bite of my burger, the door to the diner opened, and the man who walked in made direct eye contact with me.

  He was wearing a deep cranberry-red sweater and jeans that fit him perfectly, along with a black winter coat that hung to his knees. His eyes looked black from where we were sitting, but as he walked closer, I could tell they were a deep brown, which was highlighted by his umber skin. The light caught on his silky dark-brown hair. I immediately thought of how he and Knox could trade hair care tips. Although, looking from my own limp brown locks, maybe I needed to take their advice. The man’s goatee made him look a little like a villain in a story since his facial hair was so dark.

  Emmett and Nolan were the first to notice the fact that I was staring at someone. I could feel Emmett stiffen in his seat, preparing to attack and defend as needed, while Nolan’s head just swiveled around and caught the man as he approached the table.

  “Hello,” he said quietly. “I’m Cassian.”

  “I’m Poppy. It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Is this him?” Emmett whispered into my ear.

  I simply nodded. By now, everyone was staring at Cassian. Some, like Hunter, with open hostility, while the rest of the guys were cautious but welcoming. I wasn’t sure how he found us, or anything like that, but if this meant we could leave all this snow behind, I’d be a happy woman. “Guys, can you make room?” I asked as our new friend stood awkwardly at the end of the table.

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Hunter said. “We don’t know anything about him.”

  “I know he’s who I was looking for,” I answered, ready to throw down if need be. Hunter was not in control of our group, nor did he need to treat me like a child, something he apparently needed a reminder of. I added it to my mental to-do list. Currently, the list was fairly short—find the other two judges, make it to the Underworld, bond with the new guys, defend the Underworld from attack, claim my throne, take Hunter down a peg or two. Oh, and figure out how to get those ghosts out of the space between realms, if they wanted to leave, that is. See, short and simple. I snickered at my own joke, making the guys look at me as if I were crazy.

  “Seriously, scoot down so Cassian can sit,” I said, letting the lack of patience I had for these kinds of shenanigans come through in my voice a little. I didn’t want to scare Cassian, but I needed the guys to know I meant what I said.

  Nolan moved to the point that he was actually pushing Hunter out of the way. Before I could share my opinion on Hunt’s behavior, the waitress came over.

  “Coffee?” she asked Cassian.

  “And a cheeseburger, please,” he said with a disarming smile, even for the waitress who seemed immune to the good looks of the rest of my guys.

  “How did you find us?” Hunter spoke slowly and quietly, putting me on edge.

  “I just felt an overwhelming desire to go south, and the closer I got to you, the stronger it became. It was like a tension, or maybe a buzzing. If I veered too far from my trajectory, the buzzing got louder, but the closer I got, the quieter it got. When I was outside walking down the street, it was barely there at all. I passed the diner and saw you through the window.” He said the last part looking directly at me. “I knew immediately that you were what, or who, had been drawing me here.” His voice was slightly accented, with the O sound being drawn out.

  “Where are you from?”

  “Small town outside of Calgary in Alberta.”

  Before the guys could go into full-on interrogation mode, I asked, “Do you know anything about what drew you here?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe a little. Maybe nothing. I don’t know that I’m comfortable discussing it here.”

  I nodded. The diner was altogether too empty to have conversations like ours. “Once we are done eating, we’ll go back to the hotel and talk.”

  Everything seemed awkward. Eating, talking to Cassian, Hunter’s irrational distrust of the man, even Knox and Emmett being so intimate with me while we were sitting with someone who, although I knew was meant to be there in the long run, felt like a total stranger. At least when I’d first met Nolan, he’d felt familiar, as if he had been missing, and when he turned up, he completed the circle.

  I began shoveling food into my mouth in an attempt to speed this outing up. Now that I was desperate to get out of there so we could talk without worrying about being overheard, I regretted ordering so much food, not that I was any less hungry, but I didn’t want us to take more time just because my appetite after I came back from the between space was huge.

  Eventually, after eating so fast, I almost felt sick, not to mention drinking my milkshake fast enough to give myself a brain freeze, we were back in the hotel room. Hunter had been grumpy about bringing Cassian back to the room, but I had insisted. I didn’t want our first judge to feel left out or isolated if I could help it.

  “Cassian—” Hunter began.

  “You can call me Cass,” he said with a smile, pulling his dark locks away from his face and up into a bun. A few wisps of hair weren’t long enough to be secured. They fell around his face, highlighting his strong jawline and delicately arched eyebrows.

  “So, Cassian,” Hunter said pointedly, “tell us what you know.”

  “I know this isn’t normal. I know ghosts or spirits exist—”

  “You can see them?” I asked, cutting off whatever he was about to say and earning a glare from Hunter.

  Cass nodded. “All of them. It’s unnerving, and I don’t know why it started so suddenly, but it did.”

  “And?” Hunter asked.

  Nolan’s bond tugged at me, almost as though this new addition was making him nervous, so I wandered over and sat in his lap, squirming about until I got comfortable, and felt him growing hard against me. I wanted to purr in satisfaction while his hands rested on my thighs and his fingers drew shapes through my jeans. Cass’s eyes watched the two of us with fascination.

  “And all I know is I feel drawn to Poppy.”

  “I feel drawn to you, too,” I said with a slow smile.

  Nolan’s hands squeezed my thighs, and I could feel his cock press up against me. My mind spun away from the conversation, filling with thoughts of Nolan and letting the conversation drift into the background. Desire was a fire in my veins, and in that moment, it was all for Nolan. But part of me, a spoiled side, demanded more, needed more. I needed to be with Emmett and Knox again, to feel the orgasm rip through me as it had done the time before. I never came for guys, and rarely for myself, so this craving was somewhat new to me. But not only did I want to be with Emmett and Knox again, I wanted Nolan to join us. The thought of the three of them touching me, fucking me, it was enough to make my panties wet.

  “You’ve been sent to help her, to become part of her . . . team,” Knox said in a low voice.

  “Help how?”

  “That’s where it gets complicated,” Knox said. He paused and looked at Nolan and me, desire flaring in his own eyes as he probably sensed my emotions through our bond. “Why don’t you guys take a walk and we’ll
explain the situation to Cass?”

  Out of all the men, Knox seemed the most in tune with my needs and was the most attentive to making sure I wasn’t missing something. He knew that my need for Nolan had been rising slowly as we spent more and more time together. Now, if given the opportunity to explore our connection and further secure our bond to one another, I wasn’t going to turn it down.

  I smiled at Knox, and he mouthed, “My turn later,” at me. Butterflies erupted in my belly, and I wanted later to hurry up.

  Nolan stood behind me and I felt his arm slip around my waist, pulling me tight against him as we walked out. “Be back in a while,” I called before the door shut behind us leaving Nolan and I alone for the first time since... well, ever.

  Chapter Four

  Poppy

  The door had barely shut behind us when Nolan had me pushed up against the wall, his mouth on mine and his hands tangling in my hair. He claimed my mouth. There was no question of his need or his passion as his tongue swirled around my own and his teeth nipped on my bottom lip. His mouth pulled away from mine, and we were both gasping for breath. My chest heaved against his own, pressing my breasts even further into him. I had to resist the urge to grind my whole body along his, to climb him like a tree and let him take me right there in the open.

  Thankfully, the rundown motel we were staying at was mostly empty, so no one had spotted us, at least not yet. “We should go to the van or something,” I said breathlessly.

  “Why don’t we get a room?” he asked, his dark eyes glittering in the dim light.

  I bit my bottom lip and nodded.

  “Stop that or I will have you right here, right now,” he growled at me.

  I let my lip pop out from between my teeth, even though part of me wanted to see exactly how far he would go to make good on that threat. As I walked next to him, I realized just how tall he was. Knox maybe had a couple inches on him, but not much. My head barely came up to his shoulder. His face was longer and more angular than Knox’s, though, and his nose looked as if it had been broken a few times. A few dark hairs had sprouted along his jaw since he hadn’t shaved in a couple days. They stood out in contrast to the paler skin of where he’d cut his hair the other day. The back and sides were faded down to the skin, while the top wasn’t even an inch long.