Page 3 of Another Damned Storm (Another Damned #3)

NEVER

Leo’s home was hidden in the shade of a dense cluster of dwarf palms in the hills beyond the ivory beach of Nidus Island. For a guy who looked like a model-turned-surfer, I still hadn’t figured out why he chose to live so far away from the water.

His small hut was simple, rustic, and inviting in a casual way. There was no porch, just an eave overhanging his front door. Off to the side I spotted three surfboards stacked against the wall, which made his choice to live up here all the more perplexing.

I knew from what Hook and Lily had told me that Leo had once held a position of power in his pack, but I didn’t really understand the structure. At least, not beyond the fact that Lily’s father—Leo’s uncle—was the pack alpha and had been for centuries.

“Leo?” I called out. It was probably safe to knock. The door might have been made of hollow bamboo poles woven together, but it seemed sturdy enough. It just didn’t really matter because the guy never closed his windows.

“Out back,” he answered.

I circled around the adorable home, with its thick thatch roof and earthen walls, to find him shoveling dirt into a shallow hole. Shirtless, as usual, with a sheen of sweat clinging to his golden skin.

When he spotted me, his tight smile had me pulling up short. “Hey, Never.”

“Hey,” I said uneasily. This wasn’t the first time I’d dropped in on him, but it was the first time I’d received a frosty welcome. Normally, my Adonis was all warm smiles that lit up his entire face and the kind of hugs that left a mark. “Everything okay?”

He glanced down at the freshly turned dirt. “I’ve been better.”

“Want some help?” I had no idea what he was burying, or how long Hook and Rue would need to talk, but I figured I had at least a little time.

Leo shook his head. “Nah. Just about done here.”

I wanted to make a joke about what he was burying, like maybe he was laying his last surviving shirt to rest, but given his mood, I figured it was safer to keep my mouth shut.

It only took him a few minutes to finish filling in the hole, then he grabbed a weathered rug and spread it out over the top.

“Buried treasure?” What else would warrant him hiding the evidence that he’d buried something?

He walked over and hung the shovel next to the other tools lining the back wall of his home. “Something like that.” When he turned, a little of the tension faded from his features. “What brings you to my island on such a fine day?”

I glanced up to the sky, forgetting for a second how dense the canopy was around Leo’s place. “Was that sarcasm?”

“If you have to ask, one of us is slipping.”

Maybe I was. I hadn’t felt quite like myself since the whole waking up with godly powers thing. I mean, I was still me, and I was, like, ninety-five percent the same. That other five percent, though? That shit was something else .

I eyed him, then the muggy forest surrounding us. Screw it. I had to ask. “Why are you living all the way up here? Shouldn’t you be enjoying the good life closer to the beach, especially since you were the one who sacrificed decades of your life to find the beloved princess of your pack?”

He rolled his eyes and dropped into one of the weathered Adirondack-style chairs circling his firepit. “I’ve been told a real hero would have brought her back.”

“Who the hell fed you that line of crap? Because they deserve a swift kick to the nuts, and I just happen to be wearing my nut-kicking boots.”

He folded his arms over his broad chest, which made him look even bigger. “Do you really think I need your help defending myself?”

“No, but I’m not the one hiding in the woods.”

He tipped his head to the side. “My pack knows where to find me. I’m just not earning any points with them living up here.”

“So, you are being deliberately anti-social.” I could understand that desire, at least.

He leaned his head back against the wooden planks and pulled in a deep breath, showing off the cords of muscle lining his neck in the process. “Pretty much.”

“Because you spent too many years around a horrible, psycho demon and her soulless hordes?” I asked, moving to stand in front of him.

He was being evasive. Which, fine, whatever.

It was his right. I just thought we’d built the kind of friendship where we could talk about real things back when we were in my world.

Sure, he’d almost killed me, and Petra’s shadow had almost killed him while it was taking my body for one of the worst test drives in history, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t be friends, did it ?

Leo huffed out a bitter laugh. “My alpha, in his infinite wisdom, has ordered me to choose a mate.”

And just like that, I had so many more questions. I’d read enough spicy shifter books back home to know what choosing a mate meant, but I didn’t know if the rules were the same.

“What, none of the hotties from the Shere pack are doing it for you?” I teased, trying to lift his sour mood.

He ignored the taunt.

Leo obviously wasn’t happy about the situation. The thing was, I could totally picture him settling down with some raven-haired goddess. He might look the part of a narcissistic god, but he was a good person through and through. One of the best I’d ever met, in fact.

It also didn’t hurt that he was basically built to take care of someone. That much was evident even in our first meeting... if I disregarded the fact that he was working for a soul-stealing demon when he’d chased me into that dark pit.

“Can you say no? I mean, aren’t mates for shifters kind of a fated thing.”

He let out a tired laugh, but there was more than humor tinting his soulful eyes.

They were ravaged with a kind of longing that made my heart ache for him.

“A fated mate isn’t as common as you might think.

If the pack were to rely only on fated unions to continue the bloodline, we would go extinct. ”

“Even here?” I motioned with my arm, encompassing the Nassa, a realm packed with more magic and mystery than I ever could have dreamed up. Surely, the odds of finding some mystical soulmate were better in a place like this.

“Especially here.” He shook his head. “I’ve met every member of every pack on the island, and I already know none of them are my fated mate.”

“How will you know when you’ve met your one?”

Leo eyed me up and down. “You just do. At least according to the couples in the pack who were lucky enough to find their true mates. It’s an instant connection that grabs hold of you and never lets you go.”

“How can you tell the difference between that and lust? Humans are pretty good at fucking that one up.”

“I wish I knew. But you didn’t drop in to talk about my non-existent love life, did you?”

“No,” I admitted, which made me feel like a jerk. When was the last time I just came by to hang out with him? It’d been weeks. Maybe a month. “I’m sorry I haven’t come by more often.”

He waved me off and got to his feet. “It’s fine. You and Atlas are, well, you and Atlas.”

I knew what he meant, but whatever we were wasn’t any excuse for abandoning a friend. Especially not one who’d risked life and limb to save us both.

“He wants to talk to you, but he doesn’t want to piss off Luther by showing up here.”

He nodded. “I figured as much.” He ducked inside and reemerged wearing a pair of old running shoes and a t-shirt that was more faded than his board shorts. “We should get going then.”

I held out my hand. He eyed it warily. “We’re not taking a boat, are we?”

“You don’t have to sound so scared about it.”

“I know how you drive,” he shot back.

“This is flashing. It’s different.” For one thing, there wasn’t a big metal cage to keep us safe if I veered off course and slammed us into something.

He must have sensed my hesitation because he backed up a step. “You’re not instilling much confidence in me over here.”

Instead of giving either of us too much time to overthink it, I caught him by the wrist and flashed. The effort of just flashing myself was a drain on my energy. Granted, it replenished quickly, but after a game like the one Hook and I had been playing earlier, I usually slept like the dead.

Moving Leo was exponentially harder. While I did manage to get us to the other island in one piece, we skidded into the sand rather than landing on it, and I stumbled forward, tightening my grip on Leo’s wrist to keep my balance.

He let out a growl that raised my hackles. “Easy.”

“Did I hurt you?” I let go, yanking my hand back.

He held up his wrist to examine it, and I could already see bruises forming where my fingers had dug into his skin. “Not bad, but damn, you’ve gotten strong.”

Had I? Hook and I had been so focused on improving my flashing that I hadn’t even thought about the strength aspect of it.

And now I felt like an even bigger jerk. “Sorry.”

A surge of protectiveness rocked me where I stood before Hook appeared at my side. “What happened?” he asked, his voice dipping low and not in a fun way.

“Nothing,” I rushed out.

Leo, the rat, held up his wrist. “Never’s strength is increasing.”

His head tilted slightly, and his eyes narrowed. “She did that during the flash?”

“During the landing,” I admitted.

“She stumbled and used me to catch her balance.”

Hook hummed under his breath. “Interesting.” The emotions coming through our connection weaved together in a way that made it difficult to sense what he was feeling.

“What does that mean?”

His eyes met mine, and a new sensation filled me. Want. Need. A desire so strong it made my insides clench. If meeting a fated mate was anything like the effect Hook had on me when he looked at me like that...

Down girl.

I knew it was a manipulation. He was using his desire to mask something he didn’t want me to see, but I still had to fight the urge to fan myself with my hand. “Smoldering at me isn’t an answer, pirate.”

“You are a human with demon blood who has been imbued with the power of a god,” he explained unhelpfully. “This is new territory for me.”

“For all of us,” Leo chimed in.

I rolled my eyes. “So, interesting literally means interesting.” That was disappointing.

“It means we don’t know what powers or abilities might manifest inside you over time, or if the changes will be permanent,” Hook offered. “Only time will tell.”

A whip of cool air spun around us, kicking up fine particles of sand and cocooning us in a lazy whirlwind. I tipped my face to the sky. “Speaking of time...”

Hook and Leo followed my gaze up to the storm closing in on us, but it was Hook who spoke. “We should return to the ship.”

Leo eyed me. “You brought me here because you still haven’t mastered the art of hitting a moving target. Have you?”

I glared back. “It’s not as easy as it looks.” And no, I hadn’t mastered flashing to the ship. The last time I’d tried, I’d ended up in the water.

Leo nodded and moved to Hook’s other side wearing one of his mischievous smirks. “I don’t care where we go, as long as you do the flashing, Atlas.”