guarded her. But the moment she entered the trials, my hands would be tied. Even I had to follow the rules bound by the ancient magic of the Wild Hunt.
And if she perished in the trials—
Fear throbbed in my veins, icing over my blood, even though hellfire burned inside me.
Esme! I reached my advisor’s mind. All three of my dukes and Esme were bound to me by a blood vow, so we could talk to each other’s minds. I need you to find the female with silvery-pink hair at the back of the hall. I need you to make sure she walks out of the trial before it starts. Get her name and where she is staying as well.
That’s why you slipped? Because of a girl? Esme answered in amusement. Who would imagine the King of the Underworld would murmur “Bunny” to a whole house of horny and vicious females.
Focus, Esme. Send that girl home.
Why? She wanted to know. If I didn’t give her something, she’d come back and ask for more.
I need to keep her alive.
Since you fancy her, I can try, but if she refuses, there’s nothing we can do to force her out of the Bride Trials. You shouldn’t have flashed your pretty face here and gotten everyone’s lady bits all worked up. You’re making the task difficult for me, Your Majesty, as I can see no one wants to leave the games. Even a chariot couldn’t drag them away.
I gritted my teeth. I was being polite, though I didn’t need to. Just get the silver-haired girl out before shit goes down.
She groaned. Shit always goes down, Loki. But if she refuses my offer, she can still surrender and leave the games during the first trial. She will if she’s smart and sees things aren’t that romantic in the pit or if she doesn’t have a taste for blood and gore.
She might die or lose a leg before she gets out of the arena! I shouted in her mind. Some people are unlucky like that.
Then she has no business coming to Hell.
Esme, she could be my fated mate. I was to the point of begging.
A pause. Shock flashed through Esme’s mind.
How could you know? she asked in a reserved tone, more careful now.
She woke up my beast when I first met her, I confessed and let out a curse.
I’d always suspected that I had shifter blood, not from my father but from the bloodline of my mother. I could change my shape and looks, but I hadn’t been able to pinpoint the exact nature of my beast. He’d eluded me, though I knew he was there. For a century, I’d believed that he refused to show himself but remained dormant in the dark abyss of my soul because he considered me unworthy.
When that masked female’s icy eyes had trained on me and her unique, feminine scent wafted toward me, the beast in me stirred for the first time. My massive dark wolf had risen to the surface to meet the girl, but she’d sailed into the red mist.
Esme grew more curious. When was that?
A couple of days ago, I said in frustration. My wolf had been raging ever since, which annoyed and affected me too.
Wait, I didn’t even know you had a beast. Is this good or bad? She sounded worried.
We don’t have time for a long story, I snapped. I had no intention of telling her how the girl and I met. It’d been a bad situation that I very much wanted to forget. Just get the job done.
With no control over him, my wolf peeked through my eyes with keen interest. He easily singled out her scent as if it were catnip to him amid thousands of smells and perfumes emitting from the other women.
Carnal desire crashed into me, so primal and gripping I’d be a fool to believe I could fight it off. My cock shot up, painfully hard and straining against the front of my pants.
I had to leave. If not, either my beast or I would pounce. We’d mount her right there with thousands of violent females watching, who all wanted to be my queen.
Ignoring the frenetic shouts of my name from the candidates and the media crews from the top three networks on Earth, I vanished to escape a disaster.
CHAPTER 7
Tessa
“You all go straight to the arena,” Esme ordered. “The first trial will start in ten minutes. May the odds be with you!”
Chaos exploded as the guards herded over a thousand