On the verge of bleeding out and hunted by his merciless torturers, Talon has no choice but to seek sanctuary at Underworld, a nightclub run by a jaguar shifter liable to kill him on sight for being a tiger shifter male. What he finds in the old warehouse isn’t the grim shadow of Death though but an angel of mercy, one who offers him salvation and revenge—one who happens to be his fated mate.
Tending bar at Underworld is never dull when you’re a mortal surrounded by immortals, but when a gorgeous tiger shifter covered in blood stumbles into the club, and set’s fire to her boss’s temper, Sherry’s entire world is in danger of being turned on its head. Something about the mysterious warrior has her stepping in to save him, something that ignites her heart and stirs her soul, and no matter how fiercely she fights it, she can’t hold herself back.
When Talon reveals the name of his captors, and his plan to head back in to save his friends, will Sherry be brave enough to embrace the feelings he stirs in her and step deeper into the world of immortals? And will Talon be strong enough to resist the lure of Sherry to protect his family’s secret or will he risk everything to claim his eternal mate?
He lifted his head and Sherry sucked in a breath as bright amber eyes met hers and heat curled through her, a fire that only grew in intensity as a low growl curled from his bloodstained lips.
The club whooshed past her and she gasped as she flew backwards. She stumbled and grunted as the hand suddenly clamped around her right wrist hauled her upwards again, jerking her forwards and slamming her into a broad masculine back.
Kyter.
He held her behind him, shielding her with his body.
Why?
She hadn’t been in danger.
Not physical danger anyway.
She was no cat shifter but she had the undeniable sensation that growl hadn’t been a show of aggression.
It had been a show of possession.
A sign that even in his weakened state, knocking on Death’s door, this mysterious tiger shifter wanted her.
Sherry eased out of Kyter’s shadow, curiosity seizing control of her, filling her with a need to see the tiger. “What do you want?”
Those stunning amber eyes locked on her again, startling in their intensity. They seemed to brighten, glowing gold in their centres as he studied her. He wanted her. It was right there in his eyes for her to read, unmistakeable and undeniable.
Kyter snagged his attention again by moving a step forwards.
Tiger bristled, growling and snapping huge fangs, and then a flash of regret crossed his handsome rough face when Kyter huffed and folded his arms across his chest. The man shrank back, eased onto his butt on the floor and slumped wearily against the black bar.
When his chin dropped and his shoulders trembled, she lowered her eyes to his chest and the wounds that littered it, and then continued downwards to his stomach. The gash that darted across it was deep, still dripping blood.
“Who did this to you?” she whispered.
His lips moved soundlessly at first, repeating a single word, but then he managed to put his voice behind it.
“Archangel.”
Sherry found that hard to believe. The look on Kyter’s face when she glanced at him said he did too.
“Archangel aren’t in the habit of taking innocents, so what did you do to get on the wrong side of them?” Kyter curled a lip at the tiger and fire flared in his golden eyes.
Tiger struggled, managed to get a few syllables out but nothing that resembled a word. His head drooped again and he fought to lift it, but failed and his chin almost hit his chest. The need to know what had brought him to them and who had done such terrible things to him washed away, replaced with a more powerful need to take care of him.
If they didn’t help him soon, it would be too late.
“He needs medical attention.” Sherry ignored the gruff look that Kyter shot her, one that said he didn’t want to help the tiger until he knew everything. She glared at her boss, giving him her best withering stare, the one she had worked hard to perfect since entering employment at Underworld over a decade ago. “We can ask him questions when he can actually talk without passing out… and maybe we’ll get answers then.”
“I want answers now.” Kyter’s deep voice had that hard edge to it, the one he always used when laying down the law with his staff. It wasn’t going to work on her. “I won’t allow a dangerous shifter in my club. If Archangel comes, I’ll hand the son of a bitch over.”
“No!” There was such desperation, so much fear in that single word as the tiger jolted forwards, that she couldn’t stop herself from reacting, even when she knew it might cost her job.
Or more.
She stepped between him and Kyter again, heart racing against her ribs and a tiny part of her screaming not to do this, that it was dangerous and foolish, and blurted, “I’ll take him to my place and that way the club will be safe.”
Kyter’s golden eyes narrowed on her, but it was the feel of the tiger’s eyes drilling into the back of her head that held her awareness, making her want to look over her shoulder at him and answer his silent question.
Yes, she was crazy and she was offering to take him home with her.
She had lost her fucking mind.
“I won’t put you in danger, Sherry. I’m not going to let you take him,” Kyter snapped and shook his head, his golden eyes daring her to go against what sounded a lot like an order to her.
He had hated it when she had decided to move out two years ago, finding her own place so she could have a little space away from the club, a home to call her own, but in the end he had supported her.
Mostly because she had cited his and Cavanaugh’s tendency to snore so loudly she barely got any sleep in her small apartment in the club, and had then made him squirm by making up stuff about how her sex life had taken a huge nosedive because she couldn’t take a man up to her apartment without Kyter prowling around like some terrifying big brother and scaring them away.
Her sex life had been dead on arrival for a long time, but Kyter didn’t need to know that.
She knew he wanted to protect her, loved that about him, but sometimes she had to stand on her own two feet.
“I’m taking him.” She crossed her arms over her chest, mimicking him.
He huffed. “No. What if he hurts you?”
The tiger growled at that, as if the fact Kyter had dared to even think him capable of such a thing had pissed him off.
She looked back over her shoulder at him and realised she had no reason to believe he wouldn’t hurt her. It was a gut feeling, and her gut hadn’t failed her yet. It had brought her to this place at the lowest point in her life when she had run away from home, and told her to stick around when Kyter had offered to take her in like some stray, and again when she had discovered she wasn’t working for humans.
Now it was telling her that this man was innocent, and if she didn’t help him, he would die.
“What if he did something terrible to make Archangel capture him?” Kyter’s words were low spoken, cautious and deadly serious.
Sherry stared at the tiger, right into his amber eyes. “What if he didn’t?”
She looked back at Kyter when he huffed again.
“It wouldn’t be the first time Archangel had taken someone innocent. Cavanaugh’s brother Harbin was captured by them… and what about Loke?” She had known of Archangel’s existence from the night she had discovered Kyter was in fact a jaguar shifter and he had sat her down and told her everything he could about his world, and the truth about the one that surrounded her.
Back then, Archangel had been righteous, had reinvented itself as a champion for the fae and other immortal species after a bloody history with them. It had hunted only the immortals who were a danger to their own kind. Things had been changing though, and she knew even Kyter had his doubts about the hunter organisation now.
Kyter looked as if he wanted to argue with her, but then his face softened on a sigh and he shook his head. She was winning.
“I’m starting to get the feeling that Archangel aren’t all they appear to be… that they do bad as well as good… and you know you are too.” She pressed her advantage, seeing victory within her reach and unwilling to back down now.
Kyter would relent, and the tiger would be spared.
Saved.
That desire, that deep instinct and need that had sparked to life inside her when she had seen him close to falling, would be satisfied at last.
She would have protected him.
Her boss huffed again and glared at the tiger, who didn’t bite. He remained still behind her, so still in fact that she had to glance over her shoulder at him again to check he was still with them. He stared up at her, those amber eyes bright but dull with pain at the same time. His left hand shook against his bare stomach. Blood trickled from between his strong fingers.
“It’s my choice,” she whispered and then added with more conviction as she turned to face Kyter again, “I’m going to help him no matter what you have to say about it.”
He frowned at her. “There’s no way you’re walking out of here with three hundred pounds of half-dead tiger and making it home, not if Archangel are hunting him.”
He had a point, and she didn’t exactly have a solution to offer him. She wracked her brain, trying to think of something that would satisfy him enough that he wouldn’t revert back to refusing to let her go with the tiger in tow.
Kyter tunnelled his fingers through his sandy hair, tousling the already worry-ruffled locks further, and heaved a long sigh that spoke volumes—tomes—about how he felt about what he was about to suggest and what she was doing.
“I’ll ask Io for help.”
The hope that had been fading inside her burst back to life like a phoenix from the ashes, but she didn’t have a chance to thank Kyter for deciding to help her.
He pivoted on his heel and strode towards the door in the right wall of the nightclub beyond the bar, muttering, “Wait here while I ask Io.”
She was going to have to thank Iolanthe a thousand times over if she agreed to help out, and Kyter too for thinking of a way to get her home with the tiger without Archangel seeing her. She really hadn’t thought things through when she had rushed to his aid, acting like some white knight to his damsel in distress.
At least this way, the tiger could heal and Kyter could get the answers he wanted about Archangel.
Answers she wanted too.
She wanted to know why they had done such horrible things to him.
Kyter paused at the black metal door and looked back at her, concern lighting his eyes and echoing in his deep voice.
“Will you be alright?”
Sherry nodded.
He lingered a moment and then punched in the security code, twisted the silver knob and opened the door. It closed with a bang that echoed through the club and jangled her nerves, making her deeply aware of the fact she was now alone with the tiger.
She looked down at him.
He lifted his head, those piercing amber eyes rising to meet hers again.
Sherry stared down into them, drowning in their liquid gold depths.
Heat travelled through her limbs and warmed the space behind her breast that had been cold for so long.
At least she thought she would be alright.
Felicity Heaton is a New York Times and USA Today international best-selling author writing passionate paranormal romance books. In her books, she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons! If you’re a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.
If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, the best-selling Her Angel series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm series or any of her stand-alone vampire romance books. If you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful, passionate and erotic then try the best-selling Vampire Erotic Theatre series. Or if you prefer huge detailed worlds filled with hot-blooded alpha males in every species, from elves to demons to dragons to shifters and angels, then take a look at the new Eternal Mates series.
If you want to know more about Felicity, or want to get in touch, you can find her at the following places:
WEBSITE | BLOG | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | GOODREADS | INSTAGRAM
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A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of more than two dozen titles, Kendall Ryan has sold over 2 million books and her books have been translated into several languages in countries around the world. Her books have also appeared on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists more than three dozen times. Ryan has been featured in such publications as USA Today, Newsweek, and InTouch Magazine. She lives in Texas with her husband and two sons.
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