Copyright © 2018 J.D. Light

  Chapter One

  Looking around, I spotted the group I usually tried to avoid, but somehow always managed to get pulled into. I would just grab my lunch and go. I refused to be brought into another asinine conversation about superheroes or whether they should do a crossover movie with the frogs that fell in toxic sludge and grew into real boys and the bug guy that climbs on walls.

  Especially when Larrin spent over forty-five minutes last time quizzing me about what exactly he would have to mix to make a super-rat. I mean, I knew the answer, but I wasn't going to tell him.

  "Hello, little one," Grey Wright said beside me, making me realize I'd been standing there staring at the ridiculous group for far too long.

  Grey was now a part of that group, because he mated the brother of one of the original members. They spent more time here on Terra Mortis than they did in the demon realm, but I'd heard Grey, the king of the fifth demon kingdom, let a minion run it for the most part.

  He trusted his minion explicitly along with his head of security, and I found that oddly sweet. It was hard not to like the demon king. I'd never met one so humble in my life and I never felt like I was faking the calmness I usually had to fake around royalty.

  "Hello, Your Majesty," I said, giving him a nod.

  "Will you please call me Grey?" He smiled softly and I couldn't' keep myself from responding in like.

  The demon king seemed to be very protective of my kind along with the minions in his care and in the care of others, and though I should probably find his sweetness a bit patronizing, I knew it actually came from a place of caring and not his way of letting me know he was better than me.

  "Sorry." I cleared my throat, glancing back at the table and scanning its occupants for the real reason I tended to avoid it. "Force of habit."

  Camp was nowhere in sight and I couldn't quite lie to myself and say I wasn't a bit disappointed by his absence. I'd thought he was back from whatever errand he'd been sent on, but apparently he was gone again.

  Would it have been too much for him to stop by just once to harass me at the lab before he left?

  "Have you heard about the old one?" Grey asked, moving forward and I moved with him.

  "Hagler, yes," I whispered, not sure how to feel about that. "My mother called me this morning."

  On the one hand, Hagler had been a good man, but I hadn't known him at all. I'd never even met him when I lived in limbo and he'd been our neighbor. On the other hand, he had been a hellhound and when one was murdered, it almost always meant we were being hunted.

  "It sounded like bounties," Grey said, confirming my suspicions. "Hagler was old and strong. It had to be quite a few."

  Bounties were gremlins that hunted hellhounds specifically. Gremlins themselves were an awful species known for causing chaos, but bounties were a special kind of little pricks, taught from early on in life how to hunt and kill hellhounds.

  They had little devices crafted for the soul purpose of rendering a hound unable to pop in and out, specifically out and therefore taking its means of escape. Then they attacked in droves not caring how many of their own were taken out in the process of taking one hound down.

  I swallowed, not wanting to think about what they did to the hound once they had it incapacitated.

  "Yes." I cleared my throat, realizing too late that I'd allowed him to lead me to the table of chaos. "My mom thinks I should come home. She's worried about me since I'm the only hellhound on Terra Mortis. But I feel just as safe here as I would in the underworld."

  "Yes. It's unlikely that gremlins would come here. We have a dragon." Grey sent a smirk Martigan's direction and the dragon returned it.

  "Mm, gremlins," Martigan said, rubbing his flat stomach. "I haven't had a nicely cooked gremlin since I was a baby."

  "You eat gremlins?" Miller asked, staring at his mate in horror.

  Blinking at the wolf shifter, Martigan said dryly, "All dragons do."

  It wasn't actually true. Well, it wasn't anymore. But gremlins didn't need to know that. And in all honesty, I couldn't say that all dragons didn't anymore. There were some very old dragons in the world and any of them could very easily have had themselves a gremlin snack from time to time.

  Miller shuddered, glaring disgustingly at his mate and then Grey and I. "That seems wrong."

  "Did someone say something about gremlins?" That voice. I would recognize it anywhere. Because with it, came the pleasant shiver along my body and the accelerated heartbeat. It brought with it the delicious scent of Camp Walt and the feeling in my bones turning to goo as my knees tried to give out on me.

  Licking my lips, I took a deep breath, preparing myself for coming face to face with the man I was deeply and stupidly infatuated with.

  Turning, I gave the Latin man my driest look, blinking. "Martigan was just promising me a pot of gremlin stew if they come to the island."

  His pretty, dark green eyes narrowed and his plump, distracting lips pushed out as he tried to read my face. "I can't tell if you're joking." When I raised my eyebrows, shrugging, ready to walk away, he reached out, latching onto my arm. "Hey! Sit with us."

  Shit! That was exactly what I wanted to avoid. For every moment I spend in Camp's company, it became increasingly clearer to me that I was really and truly growing to adore the idiot and I was under no illusions that the feeling was mutual.

  I knew he enjoyed messing with me, but for someone like Camp whose life kinda revolved around getting a rise out of people, I was a challenge. The fact that I very rarely allowed people to see what I was thinking or feeling via my expression or tone, made me especially challenging for someone like Camp.

  If I ever did give in and let the man see the me I worked hard to hide, he'd probably move on and leave me alone. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure I was ready to let him go. And that was definitely to the detriment of my own heart because the fucker got more and more attached with each encounter.

  "I don't want to interrupt," I said finally, not sure how long I stood there, looking into those pretty green eyes and wishing I could just tell him no like I once would have.

  Back when my resistance was stronger.

  "You're not," he said scoffing, lifting an arm to motion around the table "Look at this group."

  Briec flung her long, bright red hair over her shoulder, sending me a sassy smile that for some reason I actually liked about her. "You can call it a clusterfuck if you want to." Eyes growing wide, she spun her head back to look in Young's direction. "Hey, that should be our new name."

  "Please, little one," Grey said, from my left, also gesturing toward the table. "You should join us."

  Damn. Even though he wasn't technically my boss, or even in command of me since we weren't in a war, I found it hard to say no to a man who could easily kill everyone in this room with little to no effort, but chose to sweetly manipulate me into sitting with these people because he liked them and apparently liked me too.

  "Okay," I said, giving him a nod.

  Pulling out my chair, he waited for me to be seated before sitting down next to his mate. I tried to hide a smile as sweet Ragyn sent me a small wave around Grey's shoulders, but I found it hard to dislike him too. In fact this entire table was full of people I had a hard time disliking.

  When I felt my chair being pushed down the table slightly, I turned my head and blinked at the idiot who was alternating between moving my chair and scooting his forward. "What are you doing?"

  "Sitting between you and the demon king," he said simply, still shoving and scooting, making a scene and looking like a determined child.

  "Why?" I asked calmly, struggling with my mask when he ran out of room to push me so turned and started pushing the very amused Grey.

  "I don't like the way he calls you little one." Camp grumbled, finally making enough space between Grey and me so that he could get his chair in there. It was a snug fit and it would probably take some doing for any of us to get out. "It sounds like a pet name."

  I bit my cheek when he looked up at me with narrowed eyes, and I actually struggled to get my mask in place. "I am a hellhound," I said logically, trying not to laugh at the disgruntled look on his face.

  I didn't know why the idea of me sitting close to Grey and him calling me little one drove Camp up the wall, but now I did indeed know that he hated it, like I wasn't going to use it for my own amusement.

  He leaned toward me, staring me down with his dark green eyes, his face close. I was dying to kiss him. It, among other things, was a ferocious need under my skin. I could almost see it pulsing like a parasite just under the flesh of my chest.

  Of course, that could be my heart. It always picked up to the point of being alarming when Camp was around.

  Why does he always do this to me? I should have more control. Just because he was ridiculously gorgeous and funny and… That didn't mean I should be like every other idiot out there who he showed the least amount of attention to and fall to my knees, begging to suck his cock. I was stronger than that. Maybe.

  "You are not his pet," he growled, and I bit hard on the inside of my cheek, forcing myself not to moan at the possessive sound of his voice.

  It was all bullshit and I knew it. There was no way Camp Walt would be possessive of me, the skinny lab nerd who had been called an ice-queen more than once.

  Pretty ironic for a hellhound, but I was about as socially versed as a chair and interacting with people tended to shut down all but t

he logical side of myself.

  Oddly, it was Camp of all people, the one I should maybe guard myself against the most, that tended to bring out the humor, the annoyance, the lust. It was like I forgot everything when he was around. I forgot to shut down. Sometimes I even forgot to breathe.

  Like right then, surrounded by a group of people I was oddly friendly with. But his mouth was right there. And I'd had so many dreams about that mouth. If I moved forward just a few inches, I could finally taste him. I could feel those full lips against mine.

  My body heated. My half-hard dick flexed in my slacks.

  "Camp, your little green monster is showing," Martigan's voice broke the spell I'd seemed to be under and I pulled back, wondering if anyone else noticed how I'd leaned closer to him.

  How embarrassing would it be for everyone to see just how much I wanted the man I was pretty sure I never had a chance with.

  Camp frowned at Martigan's words, blinking in confusion before looking down into his lap and I actually choked on a laugh, clearing my throat as the guy blinked absently at his crotch.

  "Oh my God, you are actually a moron," Miller said, sounding disgusted.

  Licking my teeth in an effort not to smile, I cleared my throat, leaning sideways to murmur out of the corner of my mouth. "If your little monster is green, you should probably see a healer."

  ***

  "Go out on a date with me."

  The bottle of brownish liquid I'd been holding up, swirling, waiting to see if I was going to get the reaction I wanted, slipped from my hand, tumbling through the air until the top caught the edge of the table which sent it tumbling the other way until it crashed against the floor at my feet, sending a brown, slightly sweet-smelling liquid splashing all over the floor, my shoes and my pants.

  "The fuck?" I growled, blinking down at the mess in amazement. I was never clumsy, especially when I was working. I did my job with sure, confident efficiency, because it was something I knew inside and out and it came to me like breathing.

  Of course, Camp, like always, had the innate ability to throw me off. "What did you just say to me?"

  Hopping down from his perch, which had been the end of the table where I was working, as was his habit no matter how many times I told him not to, he crouched down, reaching for the glass shards. "Go out on a date with me."

  "Don't touch that, you idiot!" I snapped, bending to hook my arm beneath his shoulder and forcing him to his feet, pushing him back and away from the mess.

  "Why?" he asked, eyes wide, his hands going up and out to his sides as I pressed my palms to the firm, muscles of his chest.

  The firm, warm, thick muscles. My fingers burned from the heat of him through his t-shirt.

  Shaking my head, I dropped my hands to my hips, glaring at him. "Because you don't know what it is. It could very well be a flesh eating bacteria that was specifically engineered for shifters."

  "Is it?" he whispered, a horrified look on his face as he peered around me at the mess on the floor.

  Glaring, I pushed my lips out. That was so not the point. "No."

  His eyes narrowed on my face and he leaned in, putting us at eye level, inches apart. "Do you have something like that?"

  Internally cringing, I glanced at the stainless steel freezer with three padlocks and a tape seal that let me know if it had been opened without my knowledge. "No."

  Sighing, Camp reached up, gripping the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes. "Does Kinsey know you have something like that?"

  "Something like what?" I asked innocently, hoping my face was as impassive as it always was.

  His lips twitched and I couldn't deny the thrill that went through me from knowing I was once again, making the gorgeous man struggle with his emotions. "You are a bit terrifying."

  Shrugging, I turned so he wouldn't see my smile. "Be sure to tell all your friends."

  Bending, I picked out the glass shards, ignoring the growl from behind me. He probably didn't like it that I'd turned my back on him, but I really needed to clean up the mess before it left a fuzzy, maple-smelling film that I would need to use a torch to get rid of. Kinsey always got flinchy when I asked for more than three bottles of propane for my torch a week.

  "So?" Camp asked, his voice slightly more growly than usual.

  Standing, I frowned, glancing over my shoulder and finding him looking at the back of my pants. "So what?"

  I tried to bend back to see what he might be looking at, but I didn't see anything. Great, I probably had some of the brown stuff on the ass of my light colored slacks.

  Clearing his throat, Miller grabbed the trashcan and slid it closer to me. "Go out on a date with me."

  Oh, right. Had he been serious? What the hell did he want to go on a date with me for?

  "What's in it for me?" I asked, instead of screaming yes at the top of my lungs and climbing him right there in the middle of potentially dangerous chemicals.

  "I'll let you experiment on me," he said, wagging his eyebrows in an obnoxious way I hated that I found adorable. "Sexually."

  I coughed, hoping it covered my laugh as I cleared my throat and tried to get my face under control. "Why are you suddenly interested in going on a date with me?"

  Chapter Two

  What?! Was he fucking kidding? Had he really not realized why I spent so much time in his lab talking to him and doing my best to get him to laugh?

  "Are you kidding me?" I asked, blinking. "It's not sudden. Ask anyone."

  He frowned, fishing his phone out of the front pocket of his button up shirt. "Hmm," he said, opening the screen.

  It was so damn hard to read him sometimes. I could swear there were moments when I could read the fact that he actually liked me in his actions, or the expressions he didn't control on his gorgeous face fast enough.

  "What are you doing?" I asked on a sigh that made me sound a bit like a teenage girl with a crush.

  His head was tilted down at the screen, so his gorgeous, light hazel, nearly amber eyes, set in his light brown, caramel complexion were suddenly gazing at me from under his dark, thick lashes and I growled slightly.

  "I'm calling Bentley," he said simply, like it was obvious, before looking back down at his phone and pressing a button that made the thing start ringing.

  "What for?" I whispered harshly.

  "You said ask anyone."

  "You're seriously going to call a pregnant man at eleven at night to ask him a stupid question?" I asked just before Bentley perkily answered with a hello.

  "Hello, Bentley," he said dryly, but oddly more friendly than I was used to hearing him. "It's Shepard. Did I wake you?"

  "Nope. Kinsey and I just got back from a movie."

  "Good. How are you feeling?"

  "Great," Bentley giggled and I made a mental note to tease him about it later. "Everyone kept telling me as soon as I was over that first trimester I'd feel better, but it was like, to the day! I seriously didn't get sick once today and I ate like three pies!"

  When Shepard chuckled, I felt my body heat and my dick flexed beneath my jeans. "Good. I'm glad." He paused, licking his bottom lip as he glanced up at me. A small growl bubbled out of my chest, making his eyebrow raise as he watched me. "Can I ask you a crazy question?"

  "Sure. What about?"

  "Camp."

  Bentley giggled again, and I seriously thought about pulling my phone out to record the noise. It would definitely make better blackmail for later. "This has all the signs of being an interesting question."

  Shepard frowned before blinking. "Has Camp been interested in me?"

  "Wow," Bentley said, chuckling uncomfortably. "I forget how blunt you can be sometimes. Uh…"

  God, I loved my sweet brother-in-law. I pestered him and teased him all the time, but he wasn't willing to spill my secret.

  "What has he done now?" I heard my brother growl in the background and I rolled my eyes, sighing. "I swear that moron doesn't have the faintest clue how to flirt."

  Hey! "Fuck you!" I snapped, snatching the phone out of Shepard's hand, ignoring the way the corner of his mouth had actually curled at Kinsey's words.

  "He's there?" Bentley squeaked. "Why are you asking me if he's been interested in you? Shouldn't you be asking him?"

  "He doesn't believe me, Bent?" I whined, pushing my lips out even though I knew he couldn't see me and therefore feel sorry for me.

 

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