Immortals After Dark 09 - Pleasure of a Dark Prince Read Free Page B

Lykae!”
    For miles, Lucia the Huntress had been stalking her night’s prey, growing increasingly perplexed when the tracks she followed led her closer to what sounded like a battle, echoing with roars and curses.
    Mayhem? Without inviting the Valkyrie?
And in our territory, too?
If beings were going to trespass in order to war, they should at least have the courtesy to invite the host faction to the conflict.
    When she came upon the battlefield, Lucia canted her head to the side.
Clash of the Loreans
, she thought as she beheld modern gladiators—not at war, but at play.
Immortal rugby.
    Winds whipped along the mile-long field, and lightning flashed above them, mirroring the intensity of the contest. It was like a ceremony celebrating… maleness.
    Lucia easily recognized the horned players as demons, and she suspected their shirtless opponents were Lykae. If so, then the rumors were true. The werewolves were in fact encroaching on Valkyrie territory. She was surprised. In the past, they’d kept to themselves, staying at their sprawling compound outside of the city.
    Congregating at the sidelines, Nymph spectatorstrembled with excitement, likely seeing this as no more than a mud-wrestling match between brawny heart-throbs.
    A ruthless hit on the field made Lucia raise a brow. Not at the violence—she was a shield maiden after all—but at the
unthinking
violence. Though these Loreans all trespassed, they were oblivious to an Archer in their midst, one who could inflict serious damage—very swiftly and from a great distance.
    Levelheaded Lucia, as she was now known, didn’t comprehend
unthinking
. But then she didn’t comprehend men. Never had.
    Luckily for them, the only violence she’d deliver this eve would be to her targets: two kobolds—vile gnome-like creatures—who’d been seen stalking human young to feed on.
    Her sister Nïx, the half-mad Valkyrie soothsayer, had dispatched her to these bayous to dispose of them. Lucia had asked Regin to join her, but she’d declined, preferring to play video games in the comfort of their coven over another “rain-drenched bug hunt.”
    Lucia had jumped at the chance. After donning a T-shirt and hiking shorts, she’d strapped on her leather thigh quiver, archer’s glove, and forearm guard. With her trusty bow in hand, she’d set out at once….
    Another brutal hit
. She nearly winced at the impact from that one—a piece of horn skipped down the field like a lost helmet—but she wasn’t surprised. Lykae and demons were two of the most brutal species on earth.
    Worse, one of those bare-chested males had caught Lucia’s attention. Completely. No matter how badly shewished otherwise, Lucia still noted attractive men, and as the teams skirmished, she couldn’t help but appreciate the power in his towering frame, his speed and agility. Though mud splattered his torso and a shadow of a beard swathed his lean face, she still found him handsome in a rough and tumble way.
    His eyes were a burnished gold color with rakish laugh lines fanning out from them. At one time, he’d been happy; he clearly wasn’t now. Tension radiated from his body, anger blazing off him.
    When those golden irises flickered a bright ice blue, she confirmed what he was. A Lykae. A werewolf.
    An
animal
. His handsome face masked a beast, literally.
    “You call that a hit, you bluidy ponce!” he yelled at one of the demons, the muscles in his neck and chest standing out in strain as he bowed up and bared his fangs. His accent was Scottish, but then most of the Lykae were Highlanders—or they used to be, before homesteading southern Louisiana.
“Aye, Caliban! Go fook yerself!”
    Others were drawing him back from a particularly large demon, seeming exasperated, as if the male had been picking fights all night. Probably had. The Lykae were considered a menace in the Lore, with little control over their ferocity. In fact, they seemed to revel in it.
    One hundred percent unadulterated male, alpha to