Reaper Undone (Deadside Reapers Book 5)

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Other books by Debbie Cassidy

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2020, Debbie Cassidy

  All Rights Reserved

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, duplicated, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  Cover by Sanja Gombar

  Chapter One

  Azazel

  I stare at the message on my comm, and my veins fill with ice.

  I think I’m being kidnapped.

  I slam out of the outlier office, burst out of the building, and take to the air, not caring who sees or what their human brains make of a winged male cutting through the air.

  Tracker on, I head toward Fee’s location, wings beating the air as hard as my heart is beating in my chest. I reach out to her, opening the connection between us and activating the soul bond that binds us.

  I’m coming, Fee. I’m on my way. I project my thoughts, knowing she should feel their intention, but all I get back is confusion. She isn’t listening to me. She’s in distress.

  Shock and rage hit me, and then…Nothing.

  I can’t feel her.

  Oh, fuck.

  I can’t feel her any longer.

  The comm continues to beep, tracking her location. I swerve in the air, hit an updraft, and then wheel up and back down like a bullet zeroed in on its location.

  I land like a tornado in a narrow, filthy, empty backstreet. No, not empty, there’s a taxicab parked up ahead. I race toward it. The driver’s door is open, the partition smashed. Where the fuck is Fee?

  “Fee!” I whirl around, searching for her. The tracker says she’s here. Right here, so why can’t I—

  Crunch.

  I look down and lift my boot to find a crushed comm.

  This can’t be happening.

  A gust of air throws strands of my loose hair across my face, and I swipe them away angrily.

  Mal lands in a crouch a meter away. “Where is she?” he demands.

  I stare into his bright emerald eyes, my chest so tight I can barely summon the breath to speak.

  “Azazel? Where the fuck is Fee?” Mal demands again.

  I stare at him, my heart in my throat. “I don’t know.”

  Fee

  Hunter!

  I was awake and alert, my heart a rapid drumbeat in my ribcage. Hunter, the bastard. The fucking—

  Where the hell was I? The room was all wood, bland rugs, and brick. There was a dresser and a random chair shoved against the wall. The bed under me was huge, the sheets crisp and clean. There was a masculine and enticing scent in the air, and it pissed me off that I recognized it.

  I wrinkled my nose.

  Hunter.

  This was his scent.

  His room.

  His bed.

  But this was no penthouse suite. I canted my head and listened to the silence, looking for clues, while my gaze slipped over the closed door and roved across the room to the window with the partially open drapes. I slipped off the bed and padded over to peer outside.

  White blinded me, and I had to squint to allow my eyes to adjust.

  Snow.

  So much fucking snow all over the place.

  When had it fallen so hard?

  Where was I?

  Snow-covered open land stretched out beyond the window all the way to a tree line. A forest? We had to be in the countryside. Somewhere off the grid, no doubt. Yep, Dorothy, we’re not in Kansas anymore.

  It didn’t take a genius to figure out what Hunter’s game was. Get me out here alone, wait for the heat to hit, and then take advantage and complete the mating bond.

  God, he made me sick. I’d been right about him. He was bad, and not in the bad boy way that a woman could swoon over and find sexy. No, he was just plain fucking evil—the kind of evil that needed to be exorcised out of my life. The cosmos was one fucked-up bitch; I mean, how the hell had it chosen Hunter as my fated mate? Was it some kind of punishment?

  Panic nibbled at the fringes of my consciousness, but I beat it back. Panic wouldn’t help right now. I had a week before the heat hit. Plenty of time to escape. I just needed to contact the guys.

  My hand went to my wrist and slid over something cool and smooth. I stared at the metal band with symbols etched to it that sat snug against my skin. My comm was gone, replaced by a bracelet thingy with no obvious clasp.

  Panic tried to creep back in.

  No. Fuck you, panic.

  All I needed was my scythe, and this bracelet thingy would be history. I waited for the tingle that signaled the arrival of my celestial weapon.

  Nothing.

  Something was wrong.

  I felt…wrong.

  Okay, now it was time to panic. Shit, shit, shit. I needed out. Before Hunter came to get me. I tugged on my boots and lunged at the window. It wouldn’t budge. Fucking thing was nailed shut.

  Lucky for me, glass shattered when smacked hard enough, and I had just the tool. I picked up a chair, ready to swing it at the window, but my muscles locked as my body went into a state of high alert. My Loup rose to the surface, flooding my body with a sense of calm.

  What the hell? What was happening?

  “Put the chair down, Fee,” Hunter said, his voice as smooth as honey.

  My chest vibrated, but not in a growl…This was a different kind of vibration, one of assent and compliance.

  The bracelet…It had to be the cause.

  I lowered the chair, reining in my conflicting emotions, and turned to face him.

  He stood framed in the doorway, arms held loosely at his sides, expression neutral, but it was a deceptive pose because my Loup could feel the tension radiating off him. He was ready to react. Ready to bring me down if I made a run for it. He was ready to fight, but I wasn’t sure I was. There was something wrong with me. There was something missing. A piece of me, a part of me was gone, leaving me incomplete. Leaving the Loup in control.

  “There’s nothing for miles but woodland,” Hunter said calmly. “There’s nowhere to run.”

  I held up my wrist. “What is this? What have you done to me?”

  He didn’t bother to glance down
. Instead, he kept his unfathomable dark eyes locked on my face, and my gaze devoured his cruelly compelling features like a hungry bitch in heat.

  I blinked sharply, forcing myself to focus.

  “It’s a blocker for your demon side and everything associated with it,” Hunter said calmly. “It’ll also stop your little tulpa friend from finding you.”

  He knew about Cora?

  He smirked. “Did you really think you could go behind my back and mate with Grayson?”

  My pulse went into overdrive. I rubbed the bracelet, my mind whirring as it made the connections. How did he know about Cora? How had he known where I’d be and where I was headed? This bracelet was magic…Made by a witch.

  Anger warred with disappointment as realization dawned. “Vi called you, didn’t she?”

  Hunter’s mouth twisted wryly. “You need to be careful who you trust, Seraphina. Your honesty will be your downfall.”

  Vi sold me out…

  “Aw, don’t look so shocked. What did you expect? You threatened to take her lover from her. Did you think she’d sit back and let you have him?”

  He stepped into the room, and the air was suddenly charged with threat. My gut screamed fight or flight, but my Loup, still thrumming beneath my skin, sent conflicting signals to chill the fuck out. It didn’t see Hunter as a threat. Stood to reason considering I’d mated with him in Loup form. The Loup accepted him; it didn’t comprehend how out of order this situation was. It didn’t care what the human part of me wanted.

  With my reaper abilities offline and my Loup conflicted, I doubted I’d be able to take him in a fight. I needed to be smart about this, to hold my fire and assess the situation fully.

  “She called me a week ago,” Hunter continued conversationally, as if I were here of my own free will, as if he hadn’t just fucking kidnapped me. “She gave me the heads-up. Even offered to make that little trinket you’re wearing. Her only proviso was that her part in all this not be revealed.” His smile was wicked. “I agreed, of course.”

  But he was breaking his word to her, and he didn’t give a shit. Just proved my assessment that Hunter only cared about himself and what he could gain.

  My glare was direct and filled with heat. “Why are you telling me this?”

  He gave me an indecipherable look. “I would have thought that was obvious. To show you that you trust too easily. To teach you that you need to be on your guard.”

  “Oh, jeez, thanks for the life lesson.” I gave him a mock salute. “I’m all caught up now, so how about you let me go?”

  He gave me a flat look.

  It was worth a try.

  “I suppose your naivety worked in my favor,” he said. “So, let’s make this as painless”—he moved closer—“and as pleasurable as possible.”

  The pulse in my throat jumped and throbbed, enticed by his proximity and his tone.

  Breathe, Fee. Control it. “I’m not doing this with you, Hunter. I won’t mate with you. If you want me, you’ll have to take me by force, because I will fight you. If you want me, you’ll have to violate me. Is that who you are?”

  His eyes narrowed and glittered with anger as he advanced. “I’m not a fucking rapist, Fee. I didn’t force myself on you in wolf form. You came to me. You instigated it, and when the heat hits, I won’t have to force you. You’ll beg for my cock, and I’ll oblige.”

  He gripped my jaw and tilted my face up, his lips inches from mine. “I’ll take away the pain with deep satisfying thrusts. I’ll fill you in a way that only a fated fucking mate can.”

  Oh, God. I closed my eyes to block out his burning eyes and his searing words.

  “Look at me, Fee.”

  “No.”

  “Look at me.”

  His words were a command, and my eyes snapped open. I stared at my dazed reflection in his inky pupils.

  “This is the way it’s supposed to be,” he said. “The heat, you, me, and this bed.”

  He propelled me toward it and managed to get me halfway across the room before my brain came back online. I locked my knees and jerked my chin out of his grasp.

  “Dream on.” But my words sounded weak, even to my ears, because he was right. When the heat came, I’d have no control.

  When the heat came, the desire and need simmering beneath the surface would explode. I wouldn’t be able to control it. Whatever this thing was between us would take over. When the heat hit, it would be game over.

  His smirk told me he was thinking the same thing.

  But there was time.

  A week’s worth of time.

  I lifted my chin and locked gazes with him. “The guys will find me before the heat does, and if they don’t, if the heat hits and you take advantage, then you might get your mating bond, but you’ll never have me. I’ll be your mate in name only, and I’ll hate you forever, do you understand me?”

  His lips curved in a sardonic smile. “You can hate me, Fee. It won’t stop you from wanting me. It won’t stop you from begging me to fuck you. It won’t stop your body from coming alive every time I’m near.”

  He bridged the distance between us, and I stumbled away from him, not wanting him to touch me again, because every time he did, my body responded like a flame to oxygen—greedy and hungry.

  The back of my legs hit the bed, and I lost my balance and made a grab for Hunter instinctively to halt my fall, but instead of bracing me, he fell with me, crushing me under his powerful form.

  I gasped and slammed my palms against his pectorals. My fingers curled, digging in and feeling him out before I could stop myself. Fuck, his hips were planted between my thighs, crotch to crotch. He was hard as a rock and pressed against me. I bit back a moan when he rolled his hips.

  “You see what I mean?” His voice was thick with desire, his eyes hooded, mouth parted. He licked his lips. “See what you do to me?” He moved against me again, and heat bloomed at the apex of my thighs, slick and wet.

  I turned my head away, eyes burning with impotent tears because my fucking body, my traitorous bitch Loup, was loving this, wanting this, and without my demon side to counter and give me strength, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to fight him.

  His breath fanned across my cheek, and then he ran his nose down my jawline. “When we’re mated, your Loup will belong to me, and mine…Mine will belong to you.”

  There was an aching vulnerability to his tone now, and I held my breath and slowly turned to face him. I caught the darkness in his gaze, a desperate void, and then his expression shuttered.

  He stood and looked down at me. “I can smell your arousal, Fee. I can’t wait to taste it.” He headed for the door. “Come into the kitchen when you’re ready, I’m making pasta.”

  What the fuck? How do you go from talking about wanting to taste someone’s arousal to talking about pasta? He made my head spin with conflicting messages. I lay on the bed for long seconds, heart pounding, clit throbbing angrily, and waited for the arousal to pass. Long minutes passed while I breathed through it and blinked back angry tears, because there was no doubt in my mind that if I didn’t get away from Hunter soon, this proximity would put me into heat early.

  I could already feel it simmering beneath my skin. The damn bracelet was going to make it extra hard for the guys to find me. The guys…But maybe not a Grigori…

  I sat up quickly, hope blooming amidst a swirling cloud of despair.

  “Uriel, I need you.” I kept my voice low, gaze flicking to the open door to make sure Hunter didn’t come back. Nothing happened. Shit. Maybe I needed to be louder. I shut the door with a soft click and then hurried into the ensuite bathroom. “Uriel, I need you.”

  I channeled every ounce of intent into the call and then waited, barely breathing, for him to appear.

  Long seconds passed and nothing.

  Either the bracelet was interfering with my calling him, or he was ignoring me. I dismissed the latter thought almost as soon as it entered my mind. Uriel wouldn’t ignore me. If he could hear me, if h
e could come, he’d be here. A prickle of foreboding skated over my scalp.

  No. I couldn’t worry about why Uriel wasn’t answering my call right now. I had more immediate problems. I needed an escape plan.

  So, I was sans reaper ability, but I had my Loup and my wits. My Loup, which meant I got to control her, not Hunter or some fated mate rule. I blew out a breath and exited the bathroom to scan the bedroom once more.

  My gaze flitted from the chair to the window. If he was telling the truth, which I was sure he was, then running out all wild and crazy was a dumb decision. I needed to know more about our location and the surrounding area before I made a firm plan, and then my wolf would get me the fuck out of here, I’d make sure of it.

  The smell of carbonara sauce and garlic bread drifted into the bedroom, momentarily distracting me. My stomach grumbled. I should fuel up in preparation for my escape.

  I headed for the door.

  I’d dine with the enemy, but like hell would I sleep with him.

  Chapter Two

  Grayson

  I look at a teary-eyed Vi and feel like a bastard. “I have to do this.”

  “No, you don’t,” she says. “You want to do it. You want her.”

  She’s owed the truth. “Yes, I want her.”

  She looks pained. “Thank you for your honesty, but tell me…if Fee had never come along, would you have chosen me?”

  I don’t want to hurt her any more than I already am. “We had a good thing, Vi.”