Page 67 of Hades

I stared at him, my mouth dropping open at the sheer audacity. The absolute fucking nerve. “Do you do anything to stop it?”

“What?”

I started counting to ten, but by three, my anger had only climbed higher. Hotter. Sharper. A living thing clawing at my chest. I planted my hands on his chest and shoved him back, catching him off guard. He stumbled. Nearly fell. Good.

As soon as there was enough room, I climbed into my truck and slammed the locks down. The click was satisfying. Final. A barrier between me and the man who’d made me believe I was special.

He pounded on the frame, calling my name and ordering me to unlock the door and talk to him. His voice sounded muffled through the glass. Desperate. Angry. I didn’t care.

I turned the key, and my truck roared to life. The engine rumbled, powerful and reliable, unlike the man standing outside my window. I put it in reverse and backed out of the spot, forcing him to jump back or get run over.

Part of me wished he hadn’t moved.

I sped away without a glance in the rearview mirror. It made no difference whether he stood there watching me disappear or went back inside to the arms of the whore waiting for him. Either way, I was done. Finished. I wouldn’t be played for a fool again.

The drive home passed in a blur. Trees and fields and darkening sky. My hands gripped the steering wheel so tight my knuckles went white. My jaw ached from clenching my teeth. Tears burned behind my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Refused to cry over a man who didn’t deserve my tears.

I’d been here before. Standing on the outside looking in. Watching other people get the love and acceptance I craved. Being discarded. Being forgotten. Being used and thrown away like garbage.

Unloved. Unwanted. Disposable.

The trifecta of my existence. The story of my life written in the spaces between other people’s needs and my own desperate hope that maybe, just maybe, this time would be different.

But it never was.

And I was a fool for thinking it could be.

Cerberus met me at the door, and I dropped to my knees and buried my face in his fur. Focused on the smell of him—dog and earth and home. Something real. Something that wouldn’t leave me. Something that wouldn’t lie.

I took his face in my hands. “You know I have to change your name now, right?”

He answered with a lick on my face, and I laughed. The sound came out hollow. Broken. But it was something.

I sighed heavily as I replayed the evening’s events in my head, second-guessing everything I did, everything I said, waiting for my head to clear. Except it never did clear because my heart was breaking and my mind was racing and the darkness inside me whispered that I should have poisoned them all.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Hades

Dust kicked up in a cloud as Lettie sped down the long dirt driveway like she was running from Satan himself. Only, she wasn’t running from that pussy. She was running from me.

The King of the fucking Underworld.

She could run all she wanted, but she couldn’t hide from me. Not now. Not fucking ever. My blood was already heating, adrenaline spiking through my veins like liquid fire. Watching her taillights disappear into the darkness made something primal and violent twist in my chest. Mine. She was fucking mine, and she’d just walked away from me like I was nothing.

Like I didn’t matter.

Like I hadn’t made her come so hard she’d nearly collapsed in my arms.

“Hades, are you coming back inside?” Echo called out as I walked to my bike. Her voice screeched like nails on a chalkboard, grating against my skull until I wanted to put my fist through something. It was how she got her name. She was a master at giving head because anytime she spoke, a brother shoved his dick in her mouth to shut her the fuck up.

“Hades!”

The rumble of the pipes drowned out her scream as I twisted the throttle and tore off, following the same path Lettie had taken. The one that led straight to her front yard. My hands gripped the handlebars so tight my knuckles went white, bones pressing against skin. The wind whipped against my face, cold and sharp, but it did nothing to cool the rage burning through me. The need. The fucking obsession that had taken root in my chest and wouldn’t let go.

She thought she could run from me. Thought she could dismiss me like I was some prospect she could order around. My jaw clenched so hard my teeth ached. My cock was already half-hard despite the anger, because even pissed off, even furious, I wanted her. Wanted to bury myself so deep inside her she’d forget her own goddamn name.

Cerberus came tearing around from the back of the house as I swung my leg over my bike. I pulled my gun and fired at the ground three feet away from him. Close enough to make him stop in his tracks without hitting him. It worked. The dog froze, and Lettie came barreling through her front door.