Page 14

Stryker

“That is not true! There is no way,” Stryker demanded.

“It’s true,” Adam said.

“It is true,” Seb agreed. “I’ve been there.”

“To Atlantis?” Stryker asked.

“Anton, River, and Rainier have been there too,” Seb added. “Rainier has a cousin that lives there. They don’t get many visitors, so Juniper loves when someone shows interest.”

“And does this Juniper have a phone number?” Stryker asked.

“Wait!” Seb exclaimed. “This sounds like you're planning on sneaking off to Atlantis.”

“No sneaking,” Stryker lied. “I just want to talk to him.”

“Nope!” Seb climbed to his feet. “I’m not getting involved in this. I’m not River! Nope.” He scurried off, leaving Stryker to stare after him.

“What just happened?” Stryker questioned.

“We just got rid of the person who would have stopped us,” Adam said with a grin.

Oh no, Stryker knew he was in trouble. This was not what he had been planning. Gavin was going to be really pissed if Stryker realm-hopped again. Stryker had been given very specific warnings about that.

The celebration bar-b-q was in full swing and while Gavin was distracted introducing his brother and Aaron around, Stryker had snuck off with some of his new hell realm friends. He hadn’t meant for things to get out of hand so quickly. This wasn’t his fault!

“Here take my hands,” Adam ordered.

“Maybe we should—”

“You have to hurry!” Adam said. “Seb could rat us out any second.”

“Do you even know how to get to Atlantis?” Stryker asked.

“I just have to do my blinky thing!”

“Your blinky thing?” Stryker did not have a good feeling about this.

“I’m practically hell royalty. I have all these special powers. What’s the point if I don’t use them!”

“I don’t know—”

Adam grabbed his hands and did that over-dramatic blink again.

The ground fell away, wind rushed in his ears, and Stryker landed on his ass in the middle of a large empty room.

“Ow!” Stryker complained.

Adam groaned. “Damn.”

“Where are we?” Stryker asked.

Adam peered around. “Atlantis?”

“Wouldn’t we be in water?” Stryker questioned.

“Oh, good point. Although, this is probably better since neither of us can breathe underwater,” Adam said.

“You didn’t think about that before?”

“Oops?” Adam shrugged.

“Dude!” Stryker exclaimed. He rolled onto his knees to stand.

Alarms started to blare, and Stryker had to cover his ears.

“Shit!” Adam was also covering his ears as the alarms continued to blare.

“How do we turn them off?” Stryker asked.

“I don’t know!” Adam shouted.

A door that Stryker hadn’t noticed opened and three men walked out.

“I told you we had guests!” A tall, slender attractive man stated as he stepped forward. “Hello.”

“Hello!” Adam bounced. “I’m Adam and this is Stryker. Are we in Atlantis?”

“You are in our portal room,” the blond told them.

“But in Atlantis?” Adam questioned.

“I’m Juniper,” the blond replied. “These are my mates Arran and Darwin.”

“Rainier’s cousin?” Adam asked.

“You know Rainier?” Juniper asked.

“He’s part of my pack,” Adam replied.

“Adam,” Arran said. “The fae dryad mated to the master of hell? That’s explains how you broke into our home.”

“We didn’t break in,” Stryker said quickly. He was not getting busted for breaking and entering. “We just sort of popped in.”

“It’s customary to ask permission,” Arran replied.

“True. Sorry! I wasn’t even sure if it would work,” Adam said.

“Then why did you take me here!” Stryker shouted.

“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” Adam told him.

“It seemed like a good idea?” Stryker screeched. This was bad. So very bad! Stryker was all for causing chaos, but he wanted to live to at least enjoy some time being mated to Gavin.

A phone started to ring. Arran groaned before he reached into his pocket and answered. He narrowed his eyes at Adam before he barked. “Hello?”

Stryker really needed to be careful what ideas he came up with. Having his new friends by his side was both fun and terrifying. Anything could have happened to them. Maybe Gavin was right. Stryker needed to learn more about this new world he’d found himself in.

“Yes,” Arran said into the phone. “They’re here.”

And Gavin was going to be pissed.

“Permission granted,” Arran said then hung up the phone.

A second later Mal and Gavin popped into the room.

“Hi, mate!” Adam waved to Mal.

Mal growled.

Gavin stomped forward.

“This was not my fault.” Stryker held his hands up.

“Do you have any idea how it feels to have my mate constantly disappearing on me?” Gavin asked.

Stryker sighed. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean for this to happen.”

Gavin pulled him close. “I’m not letting you out of my sight ever again. I’m going to tie you to my side.”

“I’m okay with that.” Stryker held on tight to Gavin. There was fun and then there was just crazy. Adam might be a little too crazy even for him. Not that Stryker was over causing trouble with Adam. He just needed to plan ahead better where he had more control.

“So!” Juniper clapped his hands. “Who wants a tour? Maybe you can even meet one of the seahorses! Just don’t try to ride them.”

Stryker perked up and Gavin groaned.

“Seahorses?” Stryker asked.

“Don’t try to ride them,” Gavin warned.

But that sounded awesome! A seahorse ride? What would be better than that? “Sure, I’ll totally be cool.” Now, he wondered what he could bribe a seahorse with.

“This isn’t going to end well,” Gavin murmured.

Stryker rose to his tiptoes and kissed him. “How bad can it be?”

Gavin groaned again.