2. Rylan

Ithanked the waitress as she set our beer mugs on the scarred wooden table and disappeared. Lifting mine to my lips, I took a large gulp from it as I surveyed the room. Zabiza was in the corner working on his latest mark, and if he noticed us, he didn’t show it. As hellhounds, it was our job to drag demons back to hell when they had overstayed their welcome on Earth. Zabiza had missed his last three check-ins below, and there were rumors that he was amassing an army. Lucifer wants him back in Hell to knock him down a few pegs and remind him of his place. Receiving a job directly from Lucifer was an honor and reflected my pack’s status. Failing wasn’t an option.

“I say we storm over there and take him out. He’s no match for the three of us,” Jett stated.

I sighed as I gave Kase a pointed look. Jett was the youngest of the three of us, and he still had impulse issues. Most days, the pup found ways to push me to the brink of my patience with him. He still had a lot to learn but was too cocky to realize that.

My oldest friend returned my look with one that told me to calm the fuck down. “We may be able to overpower him, Jett,” Kase responded, “but the bar is too crowded to march over there and take him out. There are too many humans and other demons. Demons who might try to interfere to gain points with Zabiza by helping him escape. We have to be patient and pick our moment.”

“You have to fight your impulsive nature and learn to observe better,” I added. “The goal is to capture him. Acting before we have all the facts could compromise that.”

Jett nodded in understanding, though I could see the irritation in his eyes. I shared an amused look with Kase. It was easy for us to forget that we were just like him once and had made our fair share of mistakes before we learned the lessons we needed to become an elite pack. Jett had been with us for over two decades but still had much to learn. Initially, I had hesitated to accept him into my pack, but I couldn’t deny the raw talent he had shown at such a young age.

I checked on Zabiza again and saw him whisper something to the woman, making her giggle as his eyes drifted elsewhere. Whatever he saw pleased him. It was likely his next target. Luckily for her, he wouldn’t be getting to her tonight. Very soon, we’d be dragging his sorry ass back to Hell for a century or so if he was lucky. Lucifer was pretty pissed.

“Wow,” Jett said, stunned. “I’d like to observe her better.”

I turned in my seat to see the woman who had mesmerized the little horn ball beside me, and my breath hitched as I laid my eyes on her. Her long lavender hair flowed around her in curly waves that seemed to move on their own accord. She stared at us with a peculiar look, as if she was concentrating too hard on the space around us. When her eyes refocused and met mine, it felt like a punch to the gut. The purple specks in her gray eyes caught my attention, drawing me in and making me wish— no need— to be closer to her.

It couldn’t be.

I turned to Kase, and as his wide, shocked eyes met mine, I knew I hadn’t imagined it.

That woman was our mate!

Fuck Zabiza. He could wait. This was more important.

I turned to look at her again, but the barstool she had been perched on was empty.

“Where did she go?” I asked, panic growing inside of me. We couldn’t let her escape after waiting so long to find her.

“She’s following Zabiza!” Jett replied, bolting after her toward the door that was falling closed.

For once, Jett’s impulsiveness didn’t irritate me. We couldn’t let Zabiza get his hands on our mate. If he hurt her, being dragged back to Hell would be the least of his worries. Kase and I rushed after Jett into the quiet, dark hallway. I zeroed in on the sound of a door closing, and without hesitation, the three of us burst into the room. I quickly surveyed the scene before me. The woman Zabiza had been seducing was crumbled on the floor against the wall, and our mate stood frozen in the middle of the room.

Zabiza was nowhere in sight, but I could sense that he was still with us, and by the unfocused look in our mate’s eyes, I knew he was doing something to her. A second later, her eyes cleared and focused on us. Surprise flitted across her face, quickly being replaced by hunger. A hunger my body was already responding to. I pushed it down as I tried to figure out what Zabiza had done. There was something about her that I couldn’t quite identify. She wasn’t human, but there was something familiar about her that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

The need to figure out what that was quickly dissipated when a wave of arousal slammed into me. The three of us inhaled the scent of our needy little mate, and we exhaled with low growls. Whatever it was could wait as my hound howled inside my head at the proximity to our aroused mate. Before I could react, the woman was suddenly in my arms and biting my lip impatiently. Automatically, I gave her what she wanted and opened my mouth.

Her tongue slipped in, and my senses were overwhelmed by her sweet taste. She tasted like cotton candy, and it only took me a few seconds to wrap my arms around her and respond to her kiss. I deepened the kiss, getting lost in her. I had to hold back the growl that vibrated in my chest when she broke the kiss.

“Take me to bed. I need you. All of you,” she begged.

I didn’t hesitate as I tightened my hold around her and transported us back to the apartment we were staying in. I knew Kase and Jett would be right behind me. As soon as I set her down, she pulled her dress off.

“My name is Rylan. That’s Kase and Jett,” I said, pointing to them as they appeared.

“I don’t care. Get naked,” she replied, reaching for my shirt. I helped her take it off, but fought to tamper down my needs in order to slow this down. We had all the time in the world for sex, and I wanted to learn my mate’s name at least before I bedded her. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you looked at it, she had other plans. The second her hand slipped into my pants and wrapped around my cock, all thoughts of slowing down evaporated. We had all the time in the world to get to know each other too.

I worked to get my jeans off, and as soon as I had them shoved partway down, the goddess before me shoved me onto the bed with more force than I would have expected her to be capable of. I kicked my legs, trying to free them from their jean prison as she moved over me. Thankfully, Kase saved me from continuing to struggle and pulled them the rest of the way off just as my cock was enveloped by the wet heat of my mate’s pussy.

“Shit, you feel good, baby,” I groaned. She moaned as she rode me slowly, testing how we fit together. We fit together perfectly, her pussy hugging my cock like a glove. I slid my hands up her thighs to her hips to move her faster as I thrust into her from below. My pack joined us on the bed, and her moans as they used their mouths and hands to add to her pleasure filled me with deep satisfaction.

Our pack would finally be complete tonight.

I felt the pull of the mate bond toward her in my chest as my hound demanded that I sink my teeth into her and claim her immediately, but I pushed it down. It was one thing to fall into bed with my mate without so much as a conversation, but I wouldn’t mark her and complete the bond without one.

“More,” she begged, “I’m so close.”

I felt my orgasm building as well and hoped I could time it right so that we could come together. My hound rumbled in approval, and as we raced closer to the finish line, I had to grit my teeth to keep him from taking over and marking her. I moved my thumb to her clit and rubbed it in quick circles. “Come for us, beautiful,” I demanded through my teeth. Her beautiful gray eyes met mine, the purple flecks within them shining brightly.

I felt her pussy flutter around me as her muscles seized and her orgasm crested. A scream tore from her lips as pearly iridescent wings sprung from her back. Wings?!

My mind went utterly blank with shock as I stared up at the angel on my cock with horror. My mate was an angel. How could this be? Kase and Jett fell off the bed in shock as her pussy continued to work over my cock.

“She’s an angel!” Kase exclaimed as his worried eyes found mine.

I tried to hold back my orgasm and contemplated pushing her off of me before I could come inside of her, but my hound refused to let me. She was ours, regardless of her species, and he wouldn’t let me ruin this moment for either of us. “It’s too late. I can’t stop,” I said to him. Shifting my gaze to my mate, part of me appreciated how blissful she looked, but I knew it wouldn’t last long. “Fuck. I’m so fucking sorry, baby,” I grunted.

I threw my head back and roared as I came inside her. My heart was torn in two at the sound of her scream from the inevitable. She was falling, and from conversations I have had with other fallen angels, including Lucifer, it isn’t a pleasant experience. I sat up to hold her and try to help her through the process, but as soon as my arms wrapped around her, she disappeared.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I growled, jumping to my feet and yanking my jeans on.

“What just happened?” Jett asked.

“Our mate is a fucking angel. Something we should have picked up on the second we saw her,” I growled. I began to pace as I tried to figure out what to do. Somewhere out there was our mate in the worst pain of her existence, and she was all alone. I looked at Kase. “Any fucking idea what we’re supposed to do now?” I asked.

He shook his head sadly. He still looked a little stunned at the sudden turn of events. “It had to have been Zabiza’s influence. He did something in that room, so we couldn’t tell she was an angel.”

“We didn’t notice it in the bar either, and that was before she went into that room,” I pointed out.

“True. Maybe it was a combination of the two,” he conceded. He redressed and sat on the edge of the bed. He ran his hand through his hair as he looked up at me. “Where do we start? We don’t even know her fucking name.”

And we didn’t have her scent to track either. He left that part off, but we both knew it was true. The scent we had for her wasn’t her true scent because her angelic nature was masked. And now that she has fallen, her scent will have changed again. We were as close to finding our mate now as we always were. Square fucking one.

“Umm, guys?” Jett said, getting our attention. He was shaking, and his eyes were glowing as his hound fought him for control. “I don’t feel so well. My hound is freaking the fuck out that she’s gone.”

I exchanged worried looks with Kase as Jett lost control and his hound burst out of him. The beast shook his large head to clear it, and I knew I only had seconds. I acted quickly and tackled the hound to the floor. Kase landed on his back, and I shifted to wrap my arm around the pup’s neck to cut off his airway.

“Sorry, buddy, it’s for your own good. Hopefully, when you wake up, you’ll be able to control your hound better,” I said as the beast struggled beneath us. We had centuries on him, and he was no match for us. After a few minutes, he passed out, and I rolled off of him. “Fuck! This is the last thing we need.”

“I’ll get some shackles. You figure out what our next move is,” Kase said as he climbed to his feet and dusted himself off before disappearing into a cloud of black smoke.

I waved my hand in front of my face as the smoke wafted toward me and looked at the unconscious hellhound beside me. It was moments like this that I wished I wasn’t the pack leader.

I looked out at the Los Angeles skyline. It had taken some time to figure out where our angel had landed. Luckily, fallen angels aren’t a common occurrence, and after calling in a few favors, we got our first solid lead on her. It seemed fitting that she had found her way to the City of Angels, almost comical in its irony. Unfortunately, this was as far as we had gotten. We had arrived here two weeks ago, and each night, Kase and I took turns hitting the streets in search of our lost mate. Tonight was Kase’s turn, meaning I was on babysitting duty.

I turned from the window to look at Jett shackled to the wall. His hound stared back at me, growling and snarling. He hadn’t taken human form in a month since he first shifted, and he wouldn’t until we found our mate again. As I observed him, I noticed his yellow eyes were dulling. We were running out of time. If he spent too much more time in hound form, the beast would take over completely. If that happened, it would come down to either we put him down or Lucifer would. A feral hound wasn’t any good to anyone.

“Of course,” I said to the beast as I walked to the galley kitchen in our studio apartment, “if you just got control over your fucking hound, that wouldn’t be an issue.” I grabbed a steak from the fridge and walked back to Jett. His hound’s teeth snapped as I approached, and when I was a few feet away, I tossed the steak to him. We had gotten too close on more than one occasion and gotten bit. I wasn’t interested in repeating my mistakes. “Seriously, dude. Get a fucking hold of yourself. If you did, you could help us look for her, and maybe we would find her faster.”

“Lecturing him does no good,” Kase said as he entered the apartment.

“It makes me feel better,” I argued. The truth was I had lost all patience when it came to Jett a week ago.

“He’s young,” Kase reminded me for the thousandth time. “You know it’s because he couldn’t be with his mate.”

“You couldn’t be with her, and you didn’t go feral,” I replied.

“I’m not a pup,” Kase replied. “I’ve had centuries longer than he has to develop control over my hound. You focus on finding us leads to chase down our angel, and I’ll deal with Jett. He’s strong. He’ll pull through once we find her.”

“What if we don’t find her in time?” I asked.

“We will,” he said confidently.

I wish I could be that optimistic. “Find anything tonight?”

“Nothing,” Kase replied as he sat on the couch. “Though I did catch wind of Zabiza.”

My head snapped around to look at him. “Zabiza is here?” I was beginning to think that Zabiza might be our only lead on tracking her down. Surely, he was able to gather some information about her while he was setting her up to fall. Until now, we hadn’t been able to locate him either. “Do you think he’s here for her?”

Kase shrugged. “I don’t know if he knows she is here or not. I only caught a wisp of his scent on some hookers on the other side of town. The scent seemed fresh.”

“It can’t be a coincidence,” I said excitedly.

“But it could be,” Kase cautioned.

I knew he was right, but my instincts told me that we found her once by hunting Zabiza, and that is how we’d find her again. “Start tracking Zabiza again,” I ordered. “I have a hunch.”

Jett’s hound barked angrily, and I barely resisted the urge to punch him. “If you have something to say about it, shift back to your human form and say so; otherwise, shut it,” I growled back instead.

A few days later, I was on babysitting duty again when my phone rang.

“I fucking found her!” Kase exclaimed when I answered.

“I’ll be right there,” I replied.

“You’re going to leave Jett?” he asked.

“He’ll be fine for a couple of hours,” I replied. “He hasn’t been able to escape once; I don’t see him doing so now.”

“Yeah, I know. That’s what I’ve been telling you since we got here. You’re the one who didn’t feel comfortable leaving Jett unsupervised,” Kase retorted.

I rolled my eyes and hung up on him. With a final warning look to the glaring hound, I transported myself to Kase’s location. When I got there, I found myself in a dark alley.

“Where is she?” I asked.

Kase placed his finger over his lips to silence me and then pointed across the street. Her lavender hair made her stand out on the street as she leaned against the side of a building, looking bored.

“What’s she doing?” I whispered.

“I think she’s waiting for someone,” Kase replied. “I was following Zabiza’s scent, trying to pinpoint his base of operations. I followed a hooker into the alley to question her, and when I went to leave, there she was across the street.”

I knew we’d find her through Zabiza.