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“Poe’s taken an interest in her, one that could be easily exploited to get the information we need?—”

“No fucking way,” I said, my voice all beast. “I don’t give a fuck about your deal.”

Lucifer’s hand shot up, and he pointed at me.

“Quiet,” he barked. “I’m losing my fucking patience with this.

” His gaze bored into me. “If Sutton’s your mate, then why the fuck aren’t you mated?

” I opened my mouth to respond, but he kept talking.

“The way I hear it, you rejected her, and in doing so, forfeited any authority you have over her and this situation. I know you’ve changed your mind on that front, but she made a deal with Rune, and that shit is binding.

You know that as well. He’s a soul collector.

Be grateful he didn’t take her fucking soul instead of just asking her to get intel. ”

Rune smirked. “Thank you?—”

“And you can shut the fuck up as well,” Lucifer said to Rune.

“You knew how this would mess with Jagger. You know how territorial hounds are. You could’ve blown this whole operation messing with Jag’s female, mate or not.

” Lucifer took a deep breath. “This is a delicate situation. Tarrant is Beelzebub’s nephew.

My lords’ confidence in me is already on shaky ground after Relic’s drama with his female, discovering Lukan the way they did.

They feel I failed them, and they’re right, but there are…

things on the horizon…” His face transformed, a flash of his true face broke through, for just a moment, something that rarely happened.

“Let’s just say I may need them, and pissing one of them off now, without proof, will cause me serious problems later on.

Sutton is in a position to get that proof for me and, I believe, find Brick as well as another missing hound in the process. ”

“Another hound’s missing? Who?” War growled.

“No one you know,” Lucifer said, an odd look on his face.

What the fuck?

“I’m the alpha, I know every hound in my pack.”

Lucifer’s yellow eyes locked on War’s. “We’ll talk later.”

War dipped his chin, but he looked pissed.

“Sutton will do what is asked of her, but since I see now that Jagger has strong feelings in regards to her safety, he’ll shadow her.”

I didn’t want her anywhere near this, but there was no stopping it, not when Lucifer ordered it. At least this was something I could do to make sure she stayed safe.

“I don’t need his help,” Sutton said.

“You don’t get a say in this,” Lucifer said to her. “Not only do you have demon blood, you chose to use it to call in your favor with Rune. You’ve put yourself on this path. Jagger will be shadowing you, and you’ll deal with it.” His eyes glittered. “You might even enjoy it.”

Her face flushed red.

Lucifer turned back to me. “But if you fuck this up in any way, Jag, I will summon you back to Hell and lock you up until this is done.”

“I won’t fuck it up,” I said and hoped like hell I would keep hold of my control.

“Good. Getting both hounds back is of the utmost importance.”

Who the hell was this other hound?

“On that note.” Lucifer waved War over, taking him aside.

Roxy moved to stand with Sutton, talking quietly with her, and I strode over.

“Keep your cool,” Lothar said, following me.

Sutton looked up when I reached them, her chin set. “Shadow me if you have to, Charming, but don’t expect anything else.”

I thought about what War said, and instead of growling and demanding she let me close, that she forgive me and submit to me, like I wanted her to, I tried something else. “I’ll do whatever you need to win your trust back.”

She blinked up at me. I’d surprised her. Good.

“That was nice,” Rox said to Sutton. “See, he’s trying.

Hounds are big softies really, well, most of them.

They just don’t know it ’cause they’re all emotionless and stuff, and that sometimes leads to them doing really stupid or hurtful shit.

” Her eyes darkened as they lifted to Lothar. “Hey, Loth. How’s it going?”

“Good, sweetheart,” he said, pulling her in for a hug. He gave her a squeeze and kind of screwed up his nose and leaned away, then awkwardly patted her back as he untangled himself from her.

I’d seen him do that before around Roxy, fuck knew what his problem was? He seemed to seek her out, then couldn’t get away from her fast enough.

“You know anything about this mystery hound Lucifer’s talking about?” I asked her.

Her face went blank. “I can’t talk about that.”

“You sure about that?” Lothar asked, staring down at her, his expression intense, until he winked.

Yeah, he knew the handmaid had a crush on him, and going by the grin he was now flashing her, he obviously wasn’t above using it.

Her eyes narrowed. “I’m not a fucking moron, Lothar.”

He frowned. “I know that, Rox.”

“If you think a wink or a grin from you is enough to get me to betray Luci, then you don’t know me at all. Some of us don’t so easily betray the people we’re supposed to love,” she said cryptically, then turned to Sutton. “I’ll text you, and we can hang soon, yeah?”

Sutton nodded and watched as the little warrior strode away to stand with Ursula. Rox said something to Urs, and Urs narrowed her eyes at Lothar as well.

“What the fuck did I do?” he muttered.

I had no idea, all I cared about was Sutton, who still stood beside me. Having her this close and knowing she would be for the foreseeable future, I finally felt as if I could breathe for the first time in days.

Sutton’s phone chimed, and she pulled it from her pocket—and paled.

“What is it?” I asked, barely stopping myself from snatching the phone out of her hand.

She looked up, fear in her eyes. “It’s Poe. Tarrant wants to meet with me.”

Sutton

“When?” Jagger’s voice was like he was gargling gravel.

This wasn’t going to work. Lucifer had made a seriously bad call assigning Jagger to shadow me. After the way he’d reacted to Poe touching me last night, and seeing Rune near me today, it was obvious there was no controlling him.

I looked up at his handsome, stubborn face. “I’ll tell you, because I have to. But if you get Luke killed because you can’t control yourself, I’ll never forgive you.”

His gaze locked on mine, and heat swirled through me so fast, it was hard not to squirm. “I can control myself, Sutton.”

My belly went all weird. “I hope you’re right.”

“I am. Luke’s the guy from your coven, the one Tarrant has?”

“Yes, though he’s more like family.” He was standing way too close, so close, I could feel the heat radiating from his body, and yeah, I was getting a serious lungful of his scent. Comfort. He smelled like comfort. His scent soothed me instantly, like it always did.

Well, your nose is a freaking liar. Stop smelling him!

He nodded. “Look, I’ll admit my control around you can be…shaky, but it’s only because I want you so much,” he said, again shocking the hell out of me. “But now I know that keeping a handle on it is what will keep you safe, you have nothing to worry about because your safety is all I care about.”

Of course now he knew all the right things to say.

Had he been practicing in the mirror? I bit my lip as the picture he’d send me last night flashed through my mind.

He’d been shirtless and covered in Poe’s blood.

I’d stared at it for way too long. He could have sent it without any kind of written message, and I would have understood what he was trying to say.

I’ll make anyone who fucks with you bleed.

But then I’d seen his actual message.

A picture for your wank bank .

I had to assume he was trying to be funny, but Jagger didn’t do funny, so I could only assume he was just being an asshole again. But that didn’t feel right, either, not now anyway. Which took me back to him trying to make me laugh.

Add that to the box of herbs, and there was only one assumption I could come up with. It was his weird way of trying to say he was sorry.

Then again, assumptions were dangerous. Sometimes they ended in utter humiliation—and a viral video of you being rejected, falling on your face and flashing your undies.

I looked back down at my phone and fear washed through me as I read the text again. “They want me to report to Tarrant in an hour.”

His jaw tightened, but he nodded. “Wait here.”

I watched as he strode over to Lucifer and War, said something, then strode back to me.

“Let’s go.”

I headed for the door and felt his hand touch my lower back, guiding me through it. Tingles immediately danced down my arms and zipped through my lower belly. I rushed ahead to break contact because it was too much.

I couldn’t believe this was happening. I’d been trying so hard to avoid him, and now I was forced to take him with me every-freaking-where I went.

The fates really were evil bitches.