As soon as the words left his mouth, blue god-fire engulfed the bodies. He shaded his eyes. The flames burned brighter and hotter, turning the dead to ash. An unnatural wind blew what was left of the beasts away. Not even a scorch mark remained behind to mar the grass. No trace of what had happened here was left behind for mortals to find.
A few more kills like this one and the time until he could see Nika would pass quickly. Leaving the park, Garrick set off to find more prey.
In his den underneath a non-descript farmhouse Nathan—the pack leader of the werewolves sired by Fenris the wolf—watched the members of his pack returning from their night of hunting. He cursed when they straggled through the tunnel opening to the large, central cavern that made up the main part of the den. Less than half of those who had gone out had returned. Most of them were the newly turned, who had instinctively found their way to the hidden den before their first shift.
The Anglo-Saxon god's warriors must have been hard at work cutting down his numbers. Since finding their base, he'd suffered too many losses. This is unacceptable, he fumed. His kind was far superior to those warriors. They may be able to shift into werewolves, but their lack of a bloodthirsty nature made them pitiful. A true werewolf craved the blood of the mortals around him. A true werewolf thrived on the fear of his victims.
Nathan shifted to his wolf form and secluded himself inside the smaller cavern that was his private quarters just off the central one. He hated the servants of Tiw, but so far, everything he'd tried to rid himself of at least one of the warriors had failed miserably.
He lay down and put his head on his outstretched paws. He had to think up a new plan. There had to be a weakness each of the warriors possessed that he could use against them. So far, the only one he knew of was their mates, but only two of the warriors had claimed mortal women as their own. Kept inside their home base, the women were too well protected by their god. That only left one option—he'd have to watch and wait for another warrior to find his mate, and when he did, he'd have to grab her quickly.
Not an easy task to steal the mortal female before her mate fully claimed her, but not an impossible one, either. There would be a tiny window of opportunity after the warrior found her. They usually acted fairly quickly to get their mates safely behind the walls of their mansion.
Nathan sighed, and his wolf's body slumped. He'd have to send some of his werewolves out to watch the warriors during the day. Such a tactic had paid off before and it should work again. But this time, he'd send the ones he'd personally handpicked to turn. These men had been the scum of society even before becoming werewolves. If one of the warriors found his mate, any one of his chosen would be more than capable of capturing her and bringing her to him. With the proper incentive—like being able to have some alone time with the woman—they'd be more than happy to get the job done.
Chapter Five
Since the last customer of the night had left more than a half hour ago, and there was only forty-five minutes before she closed, Nika sent Lee home early. Even if a few last- minute customers made an appearance, they more than likely wouldn't be ordering anything to eat.
"Are you sure you don't want me to stay?" Lee asked as Nika walked him to the pub's front entrance.
"I'm sure. It's been a long day for both of us. Your wife will be happy to have you home early. She probably thinks I work you too hard as is."
Lee chuckled. "She doesn't mind. She's happy to have me out from under foot.
That's what keeps our marriage going—not having to be constantly in each other's presence. Besides, you give me a couple of days off."
Nika shook her head. "Go home. I'll see you on Tuesday."
She usually closed the pub on Sunday and Monday, those days being the ones where she practically had no customers at all.
Lee now gone, Nika let the quietness of the pub wrap around her. She really did love owning the place. Buying a bar may have originally been David's dream, but the longer she stuck it out here, the more she didn't want to let it go. And in Norwich, people led life at a much slower pace than they did in California. She found it no hardship living in the UK.
She had family back in the States, but she and her mom were barely on speaking terms. Her dad had died when she was three. Nika had no memories of him. The rest of her extended family, which wasn't much, lived too far away for her to have formed any kind of tight bond with them.
Starting the nightly clean up, Nika found her thoughts wandering to Garrick.
Something they had annoyingly done more than a few times over the course of the last couple of hours. She had to stop thinking about him, but for some reason, her brain didn't want to let the kiss they had shared go. It seemed to pop into her head at the most unexpected times. The memory was so vivid she swore she still felt his lips moving on hers while he tasted her. Then there was how his cock had felt cupped in her hand through his jeans. Just thinking about it made her pussy wet all over again.
Nika had just started to put the chairs up on the tables so she could vacuum, when the pub's door opened, and Garrick stepped inside. She stood frozen in place as he spotted her, and with a look of pure hunger on his face, he walked toward her. Her heart sped up. This was so not good. Alone, with no one there to distract her, she was liable to act on the hot flare of arousal that suddenly washed through her at the sight of him. She had to get rid of him, and fast.
He was about halfway to her when she finally found her voice. "I'm closing.
You'll have to come back on Tuesday when the pub will be open again."
Her words didn't slow Garrick down. He kept walking toward her. "It's not quite closing time, so you can't kick me out yet."
"I . . . I decided to lock up early," Nika stammered when he stood in front of her, looking at her as if he wanted to gobble her up.
"Good. That way I get to have you all to myself."
Garrick went to wrap his hand around her nape, but she quickly ducked out from under his arm and put the table between them. "I told you what happened earlier today was a mistake." As he stalked her around the table, Nika kept moving, keeping it between her and him.
"It didn't feel like a mistake to me," he said. "If anything, it felt pretty damn right.
And you felt it too. That kiss wasn't all one sided."
She jumped out of reach when he made a grab for her again. "You caught me in a momentary lapse of weakness. It won't happen again."
"I think I'll test that theory."
Moving at a speed no one should be capable of, Garrick closed the distance separating them and dragged her into his arms. Nika couldn't hold back the shiver of awareness that shot through her. The length of her body was plastered to his. Her breasts were flattened against his hard chest. Her nipples grew taut, causing them to feel sensitive against the material of her bra. She sucked in a ragged breath when she realized the hard length of his cock was nestled against her stomach.
With a gulp, she craned her neck to look him in the face. She had to make one last attempt to stop what was about to happen. Her will to resist was already starting to weaken. "Let me go, Garrick." Her voice didn't sound as convincing as she'd hoped.
"Not until you prove you aren't as affected as I am."
He kept one arm anchored around her waist and reached up with the other hand to cup the back of her head. His lips came down on hers, claiming them in a heated kiss.
It was no gentle exploration. No, this was hungry and demanding, just like the man who held her.