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Chapter Eighteen

Jagger

Kurgan ignored the deer I put in front of him and paced his cell.

He was wound up, full of aggression. I’d come here after making sure Sutton was home from her shift, locked and warded inside her place. He’d been back to almost feral when I walked in.

“Take a breath, son. Everything’s okay. You need to calm down.” The last time he was like this, he’d worked himself up until he almost decapitated himself trying to get free.

His head lifted, his red eyes burning into mine. “Female,” he snarled and gripped the metal cuff around his throat. “Mine.”

I could tell there would be no calming him. Grabbing my phone I texted War. He was the alpha. Occasionally, his command, his dominance could break through and get Kurgan to stand down. I hoped like fuck it worked this time.

“She’s safe,” I said again.

He shook his head. “I protect her.” He pointed a finger at me. “Not you. Mine. Not yours.”

“Lenny’s yours, son. Not mine.”

His eyes didn’t leave mine as his lips peeled back, then he opened his mouth and let loose a deafening roar. His fists, with nothing else to hit, made contact with his own chest before he spun and slammed one into the stone wall, causing dust to rain down.

Fuck.

He ran for the door and was slammed to a jarring stop when he ran out of chain.

The steel cut into his throat, and he roared again, grabbed the chain and yanked, trying to tear it from the wall.

My heart slammed into the back of my ribs.

Steel forged in hellfire was unbreakable.

He’d shred all the flesh from his hands before he broke that chain.

“Kurgan,” I barked, my voice breaking. “Stop.”

He ignored me, losing it completely. Pain sliced my chest. All I could do was fucking stand there while my son, so desperate to get to his mate, risked fucking killing himself.

War’s knock on the door came about ten minutes later. I opened up and he stepped inside. Kurgan strained and snarled, blind to anything but his instinct to get free.

“You know what started this?” War asked.

“No.”

“You think Lenny’s in heat and somehow he can sense it?”

I hadn’t considered that. She was a fox, it was possible. “Maybe.”

“Stand back,” he said. “It’s better if he doesn’t see you. I want all his attention on me.”

I stepped back into a shadowed corner and hoped like fuck this worked, but if Lenny was in heat, I doubted our chances.

War took several deep breaths, his body growing in size as his muscles flooded with the power of his alpha beast. His face partially shifted, his mouth and jaw becoming hound, then he clenched his fists, drew in another deep breath, and roared, the dominance so loud, the power of it forced me to lower my head as well.

Kurgan paused, but he didn’t stop. Fuck . He was too lost, as close to being completely feral as I’d ever seen him.

“Stand down,” War roared, his voice all beast, all alpha.

Nothing. Kurgan didn’t even pause this time.

Blood covered the chain now and dripped from the cuff around his throat, sliding down his chest and dripping on the floor. My gut clenched tight, and my fucking throat ached. If he died, I would never forgive myself.

There was only one other option I could think of. I hated it. But I wouldn’t lose Kurgan as well.

Sutton

I startled awake when someone knocked on my apartment door. There was no way of getting to that door unless you somehow got through the one at street level, which meant getting through my ward. And mine was the only apartment up here. No one should be on the other side of that door.

I reached for my knife.

“Sutton?” a rough voice called.

Jagger. I blew out a relieved breath. “What are you doing here?” I called back.

The sound of the lock turning, disengaging, came next. I shot to my feet, standing on the mattress and staring at the door in shock. I knew hounds had powers, but I didn’t know they could do that.

The door swung open and Jagger strode in.

“How did you get through my ward?”

His gaze slid over me, down my bare legs and back up, then he was striding over to a pair of jeans draped over my desk chair. He thrust them at me. “Put these on.”

“What? No. Answer my question.”

“You gave me access when I carried you back from Rune’s. You were so fucked up on his mojo you obviously forgot.”

I had. I’d completely forgotten. He could have come in here any time he wanted, but he hadn’t. “Okay, but that doesn’t explain why you’re here?”

“I need your help.” He shoved his fingers through his hair. “Someone…important to me is hurt, fuck, he’s out of control. I need you to do what you did with Poe. I need you to sedate and heal him.”

I frowned. “I don’t understand?—”

“We’re running out of time. Please, just…will you come with me?”

“Okay.” I’d never seen Jagger like this. He was really worried, maybe even afraid. I quickly pulled on my jeans, shoved my feet in my boots, and grabbed my jacket. Slinging my bag strap over my shoulder, I reached for Boo.

“Better he stays here, safer.”

Okay, shit, what was I about to walk into? I kissed Boo on the head, promising I wouldn’t be long, then followed Jagger downstairs. Instead of going to his bike, though, he took my hand and led me down an alleyway.

“Where are we going?” I looked around, but no one was there.

“He’s not here.” He lifted his hand and pressed it against the brick wall. His hand glowed, and the brick beneath it vanished before my eyes. A portal. “He’s in Hell.”

I took an abrupt step back. Jagger’s hand was still around mine, and his fingers tightened, stopping me from retreating completely.

“Nothing and no one will hurt you. Do you trust me?”

Did I? With my heart…the answer was still no. But this wasn’t about that. This was about my safety, and in that, yes, I did. I trusted him completely. I nodded.

“It’s okay,” he said. “I’ll keep you safe.”

I nodded again and reluctantly let him lead me through the now swirling portal. I was a healer. If someone needed me, I went and I did what I was born to do. Ignoring someone in need wasn’t something I could ever do.

Jagger strode briskly through tunnels, leading me deeper and deeper into Hell.

The demon blood in me felt as if it were being drawn forth, as if that part of me knew we were home.

My vision turned red before it settled back to normal.

I lifted my hand and my nails had extended into claws, every vein on my hands, and everywhere else on my body, I was guessing, was now black.

Jagger stopped outside a large steel door and turned to me. When he got a look at me, at the way I’d fully transformed, he sucked in a breath.

Yes, look at your ugly mate. Bet you’re glad you never claimed me now, huh?

“I have no control over it,” I said. “It’s being down here. I can’t make it go away. So if it’s gonna freak out whoever’s behind that door?—”

“You’re fine as you are,” he said, but there was a weird look on his face.

I ignored it. I knew I was hideous, but there was nothing I could do about it. So I straightened my spine. “So, who’s behind the door.”

“A hound, his name’s Kurgan. He’s unstable, broken in ways we don’t know how to help him. Sometimes, he loses control and hurts himself trying to get free. I need you to sedate him, and heal him as best you can.” His thumb slid over the back of my hand. “Can you do it without getting too close?”

“I should be able to get enough sedation magic into him to calm a little, after that, I’ll need to get closer.”

Jagger looked grim but nodded. “You don’t approach him unless I say you can, yeah? And if we can’t physically contain him after that, you don’t approach him at all.”

“Okay.”

As soon as Jagger opened the door, I was hit by a bloodcurdling roar.

The room had to be completely soundproof.

Warrick stood on one side of the room, and the one making all the noise, on the other.

He was huge, the biggest hound I’d ever seen.

His black hair was long and wild, his skin streaked with blood, his own by the looks of it.

It dripped from the iron collar around his throat and from hands that were basically stripped back to bone as he tore and yanked at the chain attached to the wall.

I dropped my bag and slid off my coat. Raising my hands, I stepped forward. The hound spun and dove in my direction. Jagger hooked me around the waist and stepped back, just out of the wild hound’s reach.

The massive hound stared at me with red eyes, huffing and snorting each breath, while he snarled and foamed at the mouth.

“Female,” he roared in a garbled voice. “Mine.”

Jagger’s grip on me tightened. “No, son, mine.” His deep voice resonated through me and made my belly swirl. “You’ve distracted him. Do it now,” Jagger said against my ear.

I let my magic build and sent a rush of it at the hound whose eyes burned into me.

He made a pained sound that lifted goose bumps all over me. It was one of pure agony, but his pain wasn’t the physical kind. I pushed more magic into him, reaching deep.

He moaned and stumbled to the left, then dropped to his knees, but continued to push forward against the cuff around his throat with enough force that blood poured from him onto the floor.

“Don’t stop,” Jagger said.

He was seriously drowsy, and I risked reaching out and placing my hand on the top of his head as I fired another burst of magic into him.

Jagger grabbed for my arm at the same time as the bleeding hound’s own hand snapped up, latched on to my wrist, and wrenched me from Jagger, throwing me to the floor.

He leaned over me, snarling in my face. Jagger and Warrick dove on him as he dipped his nose to my throat and scented me again. His head jerked back, and he shook it as he gnashed his jaws.

“Lenny,” he roared.

I wasn’t who he wanted. I grabbed his massive shoulders—while Warrick and Jagger tried to pull him off me—and pumped him full of power while reciting my spell more forcefully.