Stephanie had been enjoying the dinner party as much as possible. Everyone she met was especially nice, the food fantastic and the event a distraction from the fact she’d left her old life behind several days before. If anything, people seemed warmer towards her than they were Wynn. She hadn’t expected such a welcome from complete strangers after never fitting in anywhere in her life. It was a pleasant experience.
Until the monsters came. She’d started to run from the melee then been cut off and watched several guests attacked. Unable to cope with the sight, she’d simply closed her eyes and waited to die. Somehow, the monsters hadn’t gotten to her yet, despite the screams and sounds of bodies hitting the ground around her. She waited, trying hard not to panic and even harder not to run. She wasn’t getting far in her dressy shoes and she preferred a quick death to a slow one.
“Hey, gorgeous.” Warm hands rested on her forearms, and she flinched. “This party’s gone to hell. You ready to get out of here?”
Her eyes flew open at the familiar voice, and she looked up into the mesmerizing gaze of the enigmatic stranger she’d met in Carmel. He smiled, seemingly unaffected by the massacre occurring around them. He wore a suit of light grey fitted to his athletic form. His shirt was open at the neck to reveal the golden skin of his chest, and his warmth countered the chill creeping in from the open balcony. His light brown hair was mussed fashionably. His direct gaze jarred her out of the cycle of inner panic.
Was he this incredible looking when they first met? Enough for her to forget the monsters around them?
“Y…yes,” she whispered.
“Let’s go.” He held out a hand.
She took it, looking around feverishly at the demons he didn’t seem to notice. The bodies were piling up, and she froze, unable to move. Visions of Olivia were in her thoughts again.
“Head up.” He lifted her chin. “Ready?”
She didn’t respond.
The man casually unbuttoned the jacket of his suit and began walking towards one monster. He tugged her when she hesitated, and she sucked in a breath, waiting for it to see them and attack.
It didn’t. Their timing was perfect, and they reached the spot it was the second after it had leapt to attack someone else.
Stephanie didn’t let herself look at who it was attacking. She gripped his hand in both of hers, hanging onto him for dear life as he seemed to follow an invisible path through the mayhem and monsters. Once, she was certain a monster was headed towards them only to be cut off by one of the soldiers that lived in the castle.
The stranger glanced over his shoulder to give her a quick smile of reassurance at odds with the steely determination in his gaze and continued the confident walk through the madness without slowing or stopping once.
Stephanie’s amazement grew after another near miss, and she crowded him, going so far as to hug his arm so he didn’t accidentally leave her behind. The cries of dying Immortals were soon joined by the pain-filled roars of monsters. She squeezed her eyes closed, close to panicking, and prayed with all her might for the stranger to lead them both to safety.
The sounds of mayhem grew fainter as he led her into the hallway and away from the people. She didn’t release him then or when they turned a corner. It was all she could do to keep from collapsing into a screaming puddle of uselessness, the kind likely to get them killed if any rogue monster escaped the soldiers into the castle.
He stopped and drew her into his body. One of his arms wrapped around her back, the other around her shoulders so his hand rested on her head. He tucked her securely against him.
Stephanie struggled to block the sounds, the memories, the feel of blood splashing her skin. The man’s body was strong, solid and warm. He grounded her when she thought for sure she had finally snapped. A few days pretending to lay low, to accept the insanity of a world she didn’t know existed, had nonetheless been filled with enough angst and anxiety about her fate and that of her family that she’d spent every night crying herself to sleep. She’d been unable to leave and unwilling to try after another warning from Kiki. The sense of helplessness hit her again in the middle of the banquet hall, where she’d found herself almost grateful something was going to end the nightmare.
In the stranger’s arms, away from the mayhem, she shook hard enough she couldn’t stand on her own. Instead of dwelling on how she was cowering in someone’s arms, she focused instead on his faint scent – sandalwood and brown sugar – and pulling her senses and emotions back from the brink. The stranger didn’t speak, for which she was grateful. Slowly, her mind left the banquet hall and returned to her. She clutched at the stranger’s suit and opened her eyes. His heartbeat was steady and strong, and the warmth of his body bled through his shirt, assuring her at least he was real. The physical connection, the heat of his frame with the warm energy he gave off, soothed her.
Like this world, being in his arms felt too natural, too right, for her not to belong.
“I have a feeling what happens next is going to be equally unpleasant.” He spoke in a low, calm voice.
She lifted her head to see his face. His enthralling eyes studied her features. Realizing she was intimately pressed to the body of a complete stranger, she stiffened and shifted away until they no longer touched. He released her readily, and they gazed at one another long enough for the moment to become awkward. The attraction was stronger this meeting than last, and she struggled against the urge to return to his embrace.
“I want to leave,” she said hoarsely. “Now.”
“The situation’s complicated.”
“It’s easy. We just go.”
“Has anything about the Immortal world been easy?” he challenged. “Your father isn’t going to be so quick to free you.”
“That asshole is not a father.” She swiped at tears in her eyes. “I don’t care. You can come or not.” The moment she said the words, she wished she hadn’t. She sounded like she was asking a complete stranger to accompany her, and her face flamed with heat. “I mean … I’m leaving.” She spun away and started down the hallway in the opposite direction of the banquet halls.
She tripped on the heels and cursed, pausing to take them off so she could run without worrying about breaking her neck. Stephanie quickened her step, overly aware of the handsome man following her. His brown sugar scent lingered, and she found herself lost between the images of people dying in the banquet hall and how it felt to be in his arms.
Had she ever felt stripped so bare to the world? She focused on leaving the castle of the man who should never have been a father to anyone. Kiki’s map had the exits marked and she sought to recall which direction would take her out of the madness. She reached the stairwell located in each corner of the castle and hurried down the cool stone steps.
“You don’t have to come,” she said over her shoulder.
“On the contrary, I do.”
I’m not asking why. Something about the man always compelled her closer when she needed to run away. She reached the landing to the third floor and continued. By the time she was at the ground floor, she heard the sound of boots on stone as several people followed them. Fueled by fear of discovery, she reached the ground floor to join the rest of the guests who had been evacuated from the banquet hall. Grateful for the masses to hide in, Stephanie wove through the Immortals in the direction she thought the exit was.
Reaching an intersection, she started to the left, when the stranger touched her arm.
“This way,” he said, indicating the right hallway.
She gazed at him briefly, uncertain what his motivation was for helping her when he was certainly one of these people.
“Trust me.” His wink sent a surge of heat through her. He strode down the hall.
“Not a chance in hell,” she muttered under her breath.
A stir went up among the guests behind her, and she risked a look over her shoulder. The Immortal guards were searching the women, checking everyone’s face before moving on.
Her heart flew, and she hurried after the stranger. She ran down the hallway and turned a corner, pulling him with her just as the first of the Immortal guards called out to them.
She stopped in the middle of the hallway, hearing the clamor of more guards coming from the other direction. She’d managed not to panic with the monsters, but the idea of being trapped here or worse, imprisoned once she was discovered to have tried to escape, left her desperate.
Whether or not she belonged - she wasn’t staying here. It was too crazy. Her mind raced with a solution to being discovered. No doors lined the hallway, and there was nowhere to hide. After a split second of thought, she whirled.
“Give me your jacket!”
The stranger studied her but obeyed, peeling it off his lean upper body. He handed it to her, and she swung it around her shoulders before reaching up to tug her long hair out of the French roll it had been so carefully tucked into. She tossed her shoes at her feet without putting them on and gripped the stranger by the lapels of his shirt.
Putting her back to the wall, she met his gaze. “Kiss me.”
He started to smile.
“Fast! It always works on TV!”
A flicker of something – amusement? – went through his gaze. “As you will,” he replied. He eased into her and wrapped one arm around her while the other hand cupped her cheek.
Before she could talk herself out of what she was doing, she circled his neck with her arms and lifted her face to him. Even after ordering him to kiss her, she found herself surprised by his confident touch – and thrilled by the sensation of his frame against hers.
A tremor of heated electricity tore through her as their lips met. The stranger pressed her to the wall and within seconds, the kiss turned from her idea into his. The pressure of his warm, full lips gently guided her, prodding her when she froze up and deepening the kiss. His tongue slid between her lips. She opened to him out of instinct. Their danger was forgotten the moment she tasted his sandalwood-brown sugar flavor. Any resistance she had to making out with a stranger melted under the combination of his scent, flavor and intensity.
Being in his arms had felt natural but this … this was something else entirely. Primal need awoke within her, bringing with it yearning unlike anything she’d ever experienced. A resounding acknowledgement of her place in his arms warmed her from the inside out until she felt fevered and so aware of every inch of his body, she forgot the monsters and Immortals and Olivia’s death – everything but the feel of his lips, his scent and taste.
In the arms of the man whose name she didn’t know was the only place she’d ever belonged.
Lost in the moment, she pressed herself the length of him, needing more, wanting to experience every part of him.
He lifted his head too soon, and she opened her eyes, breathless and dazed.
“It worked,” he whispered, gazing down at her.
Out of her peripheral, she saw the guards vanish around a corner.
“What … oh. Good.” Awareness crept into her once more, this time accompanied by embarrassment. She rarely dated, and the few times she’d kissed someone had been nothing like this. Did he think her naïve or stupid? Because she definitely felt that way.
Stephanie released her grip on him and stepped away, wobbled, and caught her balance against the wall. Her knees were weak, the hollow between her legs aching to the point she struggled to keep her thighs together and walk straight. Her hands quivered, and her thoughts were scattered by the fevered anticipation of her body.
Her plight returned to her but even her previous desperation wasn’t able to displace the exhilarating connection with a stranger. She didn’t dare look at him, certain he was laughing at a little kiss when she was full on staggering in public.
Shaking her head, she reached the corner and peered both ways before choosing to go right this time.
“Other way.” His tone was huskier, low – and laughing.
She flushed and spun, heading to the left. Invigorated by the kiss, exhilarated by the idea of a second, she rushed down the hallway until she felt the cool breeze of an open door on her warm cheeks. Stephanie raced to the door and outside, stopping to breathe deeply.
“You have a part two to this plan?” the stranger asked, trailing her into the darkness outside the castle.
She faced him, grateful for the night to hide how red her cheeks were and for his calm when she was ready to freak out again. Tilting her head back, she stepped away when he drew too close. Even in the dark the draw was unreal.
“Car? Jet? Other?” he prodded, a faint smile on his handsome features.
She caught herself staring, breathing deeper to catch a taste of his scent, and blinked out of the spell. “Who the fuck are you?” And where did you learn to kiss like that?
He chuckled. “There’s no right time to answer that question.”
“Now would be appropriate,” came a voice from the darkness. Wynn slid from the shadows, followed by a frowning Kiki with several other Immortal warriors behind him.
Stephanie whirled to face the direction from which they came. Between the stranger and Wynn, she’d take her chances with the man who could kiss her breathless. She moved closer to him, until she felt the warmth of his body at her back.
“She’s going to find out eventually,” Wynn added.
I’m sorry, Kiki mouthed the words to her.
“Show me the mark, daughter,” Wynn ordered her.
“Um, no,” she replied.
“Do it,” the stranger whispered.
“You all want me to strip right here?” she snapped.
“I wouldn’t mind,” he said in a low, husky voice.
Desire and heat flared to life within her once more, flooding her with awareness and baffling sexual attraction towards a stranger she didn’t even know if she could or should trust.
“You can do it on your own or I can have the soldiers help you,” Wynn replied.
Stephanie glared at him. He waved two of his soldiers forward.
“I’ll do it!” she snapped. She slung the jacket coat back at the stranger and stretched down. Tugging the dress over her head, she was grateful she’d worn a matching bra and underwear. She covered the front of her body with the dress and showed Wynn her back.
“Show him,” Wynn said, calming.
With a frustrated sigh, she turned around.
“You have any doubts about what this is?” Wynn asked him.
“None,” the stranger said.
Stephanie snatched the jacket from his arms, too embarrassed to meet the eye of anyone. “So what?” she demanded. She yanked the jacket on.
“Tell her, or I will,” Wynn ordered.
Stephanie glanced from her unfriendly father to the stranger whose appearance in her life caused chaos. For once, the stranger didn’t appear aloof, pleased or amused. The dark edge was back.
“There’s no easy way to say this,” the stranger said. “My name is Shai. I’m the deity known as Fate. Fun fact. The ancient Egyptians named a god after me. Maybe you’ve heard of me from them?”
“What?” Her brow furrowed. “Fate, as in the future?”
“Exactly.”
“Are you shitting me?” Stephanie stared at him. “You’re the god of the Future.”
“He is,” Kiki said.
“In the Immortal and deity societies, mates are preordained,” Fate continued, his look softening when he met her gaze. “The name of the Immortal or deity appears on the mate he is meant to be with. Think of it as an ancient matchmaking service where the universe chooses who you marry. Usually, the name of the higher ranking being appears on the lower ranking being’s body. For example, being a deity, my name would appear on you since you’re an Immortal-human hybrid.”
“The bond is unbreakable,” Wynn added, sounding satisfied.
She felt the raised tattoo on her back. “Wait a minute. Are you telling me … you and I … we’re married?” she asked in disbelief.
“Bonded is a better term,” Fate said. “Vows can be broken. What we have cannot.”
That’s why I want to drop my clothes every time we meet. “I’m involuntarily married … bonded to the god of the future.” Tunnel vision was beginning to form. “This is beyond insane. Monsters, Immortals, magic tattoos … No. Just … no!”
The latest chapter of her adventure made her feel panicked, sick and delirious all at once. Before she could offer any sort of denial, she felt herself sliding to the ground. Grass tickled her cheek, and her eyes closed. A father she didn’t want was one thing, but for them to tell her she had no choice in her life partner …
When I wake up, this nightmare better be over.