Fated for Her Wolves - Tara West
Chapter One
“SITRI, I’VE FINALLY made it back to you.” Balban’s wings sagged with relief as she wiped sweat off her brow. She had been traversing hell’s pit for a year, looking for her lost lover. It hadn’t been easy. She’d had to bribe (mostly with sexual favors) and torture (also through sex) many demons, but all of that was behind her now. She was back with her lover, and that’s all that mattered.
Sitri glared down at her from atop his perch, a nest made of skulls that overlooked the valley of fire below, where the wingless human souls languished. Though they were both succubi, he was not a full dragon demon, like her. He had leathery black wings, a barbed tail and horns, and the body and face of a human, a demon god with a physique that would rival any Grecian deity. A body meant for fucking.
Beside him sat a pretty blonde soul, his human concubine, no doubt. The woman glared at Balban before turning up her nose.
Balban bristled. What right did this bitch have to snub Balban, just because she was fortunate enough to secure a spot next to hell’s most powerful demon? Her good luck wouldn’t last much longer. Sitri would soon discard the human bitch, for no mortal could match Balban’s fucking skills.
She surged forward and tripped over a molten rock, its heat singing the pads of her calloused paw. She bit her lip to hide the pain. “Yes, my love, it’s me, your favorite lover.” She flashed a smug smile at the human, pleased when her pale cheeks reddened. “How I have longed to be reunited with you.” She threw her arms wide, shaking her wings like a bird ruffling its feathers, though her feathers had been either burned or torn off long ago.
Sitri crossed ebony arms over his broad chest, looking down at her like a human father about to scold his child. “We have not been lovers for a hundred years. You mean to tell me you pined for me all this time?”
“Yes, my love.” She inwardly cursed her cackling voice, which made her sound like a wounded bird. She missed living in human bodies. How would she be able to entice her lover in such an ugly dragon skin?
He arched a thin brow, the lines on his shiny forehead more pronounced. “Then why didn’t you follow me?”
“W-what?” She pretended not to know what he was talking about, though she understood perfectly well. They’d made a pact they’d follow each other into the abyss should one of them be cast down, but after he was captured by the wolf gods, she’d turned tail and run. Not her proudest moment, but Balban had never claimed to be brave.
He leaned forward, eyeing her with disdain. “When I was banished to hell by those shadow wolves, why didn’t you follow me down?”
“Surely you didn’t expect—”
“I did!” He roared. “We agreed.”
She jumped with a yelp when he threw a skull at her feet, shards of brittle bone scattering everywhere.
“I planned to, my love, but first I had to take vengeance on the wolf gods who banished you.”
With a grumble and a few curses, he sat back down. “They are not gods but cursed mortals who pretend to be gods in the afterlife. They are nothing more than shadows.”
Though this was the belief Sitri had always held, Balban thought differently. The wolf gods ruled their own realm in the afterlife, and they could freely travel from there to the mortal realm, not to mention they had the power to shift into wolves, and their alphas could turn into goliath furry demons the humans referred to as Sasquatches or Bigfoots. If they weren’t gods, then surely they relied on a powerful dark magic. But Balban wasn’t about to argue with her lover. She’d call them shadow wolves if that made him happy. Though she loved beatings, she would not risk falling out of favor.
She hung her head, leering at him from under her lashes. “Yes, Master.”
Steepling his fingers, he looked at her with red eyes that glowed like hell’s fiery pit. “Well, did you?”
She blinked. “Did I what?”
His upper lip pulled back in a snarl. “Enact vengeance on my behalf?”
She froze at that. She’d spent the past hundred years searching out the wolves, trying to find their weakness. “I was so close. I captured one of their spawn, but I was caught and cast down by a witch wolf.”
“A witch wolf?” He jumped to his feet, hands balled into fists.