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“You have no right to feel jealous because I smiled at a man. You’ve been a dick for nine years and told me you didn’t want me to be around you at all. So, go away. Go do whatever it is that you want to with your freedom. Go find someone else.”

She was pissed.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” I hissed. “Why, so you can flirt with Sam some more?”

“Gods, you're fucking crazy.” She rolled her eyes and turned around.

I don’t fucking think so, Storm.

I hurried over to her and pulled her back against me. Her back was flush to my chest, and my hand snaked up to her neck as I leaned forward so I could whisper in her ear. I squeezed her throat softly because I knew she liked it.

“I think it's time to remind you who you belong to, Storm.”

Her long exhale through her nose let me know she liked this. She tried to pull away, but I held her in place.

“Tell me that you’re mine.”

“Go fuck yourself,” she said with so much confidence that I chuckled against her, and she shivered when I kissed the skin below her ear.

“I love it when you play hard to get.”

Della pushed back against me, and I groaned at how perfect we fit together. I stepped forward, pushing her against the tree. She sighed when I rolled my hips against her.

“Tell me I’m the only man that gets you like this.”

She didn’t say anything, so I spun her around and tried to kiss her, but she moved her face from me, so instead I kissed down her cheek, down her neck. Her chest was heaving as I dragged my hand down to the hem of her dress and dragged it up so I could sink my fingers into her pu—

“Get on your knees,” she breathed.

I pulled back, and her eyes were red. They flickered to mine for a moment, and I did not recognize anything about them.

Her jaw clenched, and I could see her trying to keep the wrath inside of her, my wrath.

The wrath she got when she took half of my damn soul.

Fuck, something about the sight made me weak. I would do anything she asked of me.

I fell to my knees in front of her, and she stared down at me. Her red eyes showed no emotion as she watched me breathe heavily.

“Storm.” I was about to beg when she leaned down, her hand dragging through my hair, yanking it back. She leaned forward and paused.

“I’ll see you at dinner.”

Before I could stop her, she used her magic and disappeared into thin air. For fuck’s sake. Fucking tease.

I looked around to make sure she wasn’t watching from behind a tree. To my disappointment, she wasn’t. I rubbed my hands over my face before standing up and leaning against the tree. I couldn’t help the grin on my face.

I had really fucking missed her.

“Wow, you lasted a whole five minutes before you came out.” Elra’s voice instantly put me in a shitty mood. “You can’t tell me she's that good of a lay that you follow her like a dog.”

When I turned to glare at her, she was emerging from behind a tree, smiling.

“Pathetic,” she said just to be a bitch. I was trying my best to not beat the shit out of my sister.

“Jealous that someone actually likes me?” I snapped back. Her envious eyes narrowed on me. How terrible would it be to always envy those around you? Elra had always been the worst of us. She could never be happy with what she had because she was always comparing it to what others had.

“You’re in a terrible mood,” Lana, Goddess of Lust, smiled as she stepped out as well. “Maybe you need to get laid.”

There was only one woman I wanted to sleep with, and she just left me out here on my fucking knees. I looked over each of my siblings and couldn’t help but think that maybe the stars were right to tie us to Hell.

Seven gods of sin. Seven gods of hell. My eyes flickered to Gareth, and I rolled my eyes at the excessive clothing he wore. I was in a pissy mood because of Della and Sam. I wanted to pick a damn fight.

“Nice outfit; you look ridiculous.” I glared.

His dark eyes narrowed on me. I wanted to fight, and he knew it.

Gareth had never been much of a fighter, just a collector of ridiculous and extravagant things—like the stupid golden robes he was in right now.

Gluttony had no taste, and that was unfortunate for him.

He ran his hand through his dark hair, and I saw all of his rings.

For fuck’s sake, did he spend the last nine years finding the ugliest shit to keep just to piss me off?

“At least we look presentable,” my brother, Mateo, said. He always took pride in his appearance, which made sense as the God of Pride, but he was such a smug prick about it. He thought he was the best of us. My sister, Daya, Goddess of Greed, stared at me oddly.

Her light brown hair and green eyes watched me like she could see that I was being pissy in order to throw them off the fact that I was distracted by Storm. She was the observant one among the bunch.

“Your title of God of Wrath is really shining through today.” Sydra, Goddess of Sloth, smiled.

“Nice of you to catch up with the conversation, sloth .” I taunted her because I knew it pissed her off. “How did you spend your last nine years? Wait, let me guess. You did nothing.”

Her dark eyes turned red, and I smiled smugly at her. Sloth was the sin I found absolutely stupid. Like, really, we couldn’t come up with, like, chaos, destruction, or something else?

“Gods above, you are still such a fucking asshole,” Sydra sneered.

“Can’t change me by burying me for nine years.”

I stared at my siblings and sighed heavily.

“You have a few minutes before you are pulled back to Hell, so you better hurry up with whatever message you have.”

My siblings were not able to stay out of Hell for extended periods of time.

They would be forced to go back until I broke the curse the heavens and old gods put on us—even if my curse was broken because of what Della did.

Being mated to her and her giving up part of her soul to me would make it so I never went back to Hell.

But it also meant my turn was never ending.

I was the only one that could break the curse for my siblings since I could not die and allow them a turn.

They had been pissed when I found a way out of the curse and did not share it with them. There was no way I would have told them before I declared I was using my turn. I knew my siblings well enough that one of them would have tried to do it before me. I guess they should have been smarter.

Avesh, God of Knowledge, had no idea what he told me that day I visited him. It had been easy to manipulate him into telling the story of our parents—Diath and Malamay, but what he told me about the curse changed everything.

Curses can always be broken.

Every curse has a key to freedom. Ours was pretty simple.

All we had to do to be freed was prove to the stars that anyone could become bad, and we did this by corrupting a god.

That god was Della, their favorite. Guilt began clawing at me because it had been my fucking plan.

As soon as I met her, I knew I could corrupt her, but that was before I fell in love with her.

“Our trifecta died.”

“I know, I witnessed it firsthand.” I glared. Watching Luren, Jesper, and Gwyn get their shit rocked by Thea was a fucking beautiful sight to see. “I told you that Thea may not be inherently bad.”

“She is the Goddess of Blood and Vengeance,” Mateo said, like that meant anything. “She could have easily become one of us. She would have been such an asset to have on our side.”

Cassius would never let her lose herself to that extent. Thea was kindhearted, and that was the difference between her and us.

“It was a stupid idea anyway.” I smiled at Elra because it had been her plan to try and start destroying the realm by corrupting those in power. They were already corrupt though, and got their asses handed to them.

“It was not stupid,” Elra hissed. “We corrupted most of Cerithia to hate the gods. We could have created a rebellion and brought hell to Elloryon without even being there.”

“Like I said, stupid.”

“You are just pissed off because your whore is upset with you.” Elra smiled. She wanted a reaction, and I wouldn’t give it to her. “Nine years is a long time. I wonder if she found comfort in another man during that time. She was pretty cozy with that dark-haired man over there.”

“What are you doing?” I asked. Wrath instantly simmered under my skin at the thought of Della touching another man.

Storm didn’t actually want Sam. I could tell by how she had looked at me.

Besides, I did not share what was mine, and she was mine, even if she didn’t trust me right now. But my sister’s taunt got to me.

“I’m just saying, a goddess crawled into your bed as a poor, classless fae. She has low standards and probably spreads her legs for anyone. Maybe she left you out here so she could find that man who she was obviously smitten by.”

Well, that would get a reaction from me.

I shot my frost out at her feet, and she was stuck to the ground for a second long enough for me to punch her in the mouth.

My other siblings jumped in to help her.

One of them ripped me off of her, and I smiled when I saw it was Mateo, my least favorite sibling.

Although, Elra was quickly taking over that title.

I swung and punched him too; my wrath was pumping through me so violently that it would take most of them to stop me. Gareth used his weight to his advantage as he tossed me to the ground and sat on one of my arms while Daya, Sydra, and Mateo grabbed the other, pinning me so I couldn’t get away.

Elra came at me, and I kicked her in the stomach. It only deterred her for a moment, but I saw the rage in her eyes as I smiled at her.

“It looks like maybe we should start this all over again.” Elra pulled out a knife, the same one they killed me with before. I smiled at her because they didn’t know that Della had marked me as her mate, and with that, I couldn’t die.

“No, we don’t want to start this all over,” Daya said and released me. It was enough that I could push my siblings off, all but Gareth that is. Quickly, I summoned my frost magic, creating an icicle, and stabbed it into Gareth’s leg. The gluttonous bitch fell off of my arm, yelling like a baby.

“Go ahead and stab me, and I will have Della rip that ugly soul from you and send your ass to Hell permanently." I dared her. I was free from the fucking curse; I didn’t need to help them, but they would be a pain in my ass for the rest of our existence.

“No, you won’t, because then you’ll have to tell your little crush who you are, and both of us know that she will rip your soul from you.

Maybe you should move your sights to another goddess who isn’t the stars’ favorite.

You picked the only goddess who can kill us permanently.

Go woo the Goddess of Fertility or some shit. ” Elra was completely serious.

“Absolutely fucking not,” I sneered. No one but Della was getting near me. It had only ever been her, and it would remain that way. Just the suggestion of another woman made me want to punch my sister again.

“Why?” Her eyes narrowed on me.

Because I love her.

“I’m not pouring more energy into another goddess. Della has already fallen for my shit.”

My mating bond burned at my deception. I knew there was no way that I would ever use Della, but that meant I needed to figure out how to get rid of my siblings for good.

“I’m starting to think that you are falling for her perfectly fake, boring personality.”

The heavens and the hells better get Elra to shut her fucking mouth before I really lost my shit.

Della was anything but boring. She was kind and selfless, but she was also stubborn and smart.

She was… everything. My siblings would never have been half the goddess she was, and that is why we were banished to Hell.

I was not going to defend Della right then because, one, my siblings would know how much I cared, and two, it would put Della in actual danger.

Elra paused and stared at me. I glanced at the sun as it slowly began to sink below the mountains and smiled.

“It looks like your time is up. Have fun in Hell.”

When they saw the sun, they all came at me, trying to grab me and bring me with them, but the curse ripped them straight from in front of me and sent them back to Hell.

I let out a shaky breath. What the fuck was I supposed to do?

It didn't matter that my curse was broken because of Della.

My siblings would never leave us alone if I didn't help them escape and I wanted the heavens, stars, and old gods to be punished for what they did to us.

We did not deserve to be sent to Hell for the sins of our parents.

I couldn't let my siblings know that Della was my mate.

I looked around and realized how much my sister’s words got under my skin. Storm was mine, and there was no way she was crawling into bed with another man. Gods above know that any version of me didn’t give a shit about anyone but Della.

Tonight was going to be a fucking problem; I could already feel it.

My jealousy over Sam was going to get out of control.

I ran my hand through my hair. Damn it, I knew she wasn’t interested in him.

I was her fucking mate. But what if this bond was like hers and Holden’s had been?

What if she could feel something else for someone that was not me?

I would have to kill them. No man was coming between us.

I was spiraling.

How the fuck had the nice side of me stayed away from her for nine motherfucking years?

I was going crazy already. I took a deep breath.

Okay, I could play it calmly at dinner. I sighed, knowing that I was lying to myself.

How could I pretend like my insides weren’t burning with jealousy.

But deep down, I knew she loved me. Keeping that in mind, how hard could this be?

Really fucking hard.