Jacks Marcy Redemption 02 The Half Breed Werewolf

Redemption 2

The Half-Breed Werewolf

Mathias is a rogue angel sent on a mission to find and protect a

man who is destined to either become a feared general of Hell, or
a powerful warrior of Heaven. He finds his charge in the form of a

wolf, and when it transforms to a man and is in clear lust with
him, Mathias gives in to the emotion he has never felt before.

Taylor Slade knows his mate when he sees him, and he wastes no
time in claiming the innocent angel, but the discovery that angels
and demons really exist, and that he's not as crazy as he once

thought, is not a happy a moment. Those demons still want him,
and the angels believe that Mathias is a traitor. Both must work

together to keep Taylor from losing his sanity to the demons, as
well as prevent the angels from taking Mathias back to Heaven

and punishing him by forever separating them both.

Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Paranormal,
Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 37,679 words

THE HALF-BREED WEREWOLF

Redemption 2

Marcy Jacks

EVERLASTING CLASSIC

MANLOVE

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

ABOUT THE E-BOOK YOU HAVE PURCHASED:
Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you to
only ONE LEGAL copy for your own personal reading on
your own personal computer or device. You do not have
resell or distribution rights without the prior written
permission of both the publisher and the copyright
owner of this book. This book cannot be copied in any
format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer
to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer
program, for free or for a fee, or as a prize in any contest.
Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright
Law. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online,
offline, in print or in any way or any other method currently
known or yet to be invented, is forbidden. If you do not
want this book anymore, you must delete it from your
computer.

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution
of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright
infringement, including infringement without monetary
gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5
years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

If you find a Siren-BookStrand e-book being sold or shared
illegally, please let us know at
legal@sirenbookstrand.com

A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Everlasting Classic ManLove

THE HALF-BREED WEREWOLF
Copyright © 2013 by Marcy Jacks
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62242-283-8

First E-book Publication: February 2013

Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without
express written permission.

All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance
to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com

Letter to Readers

Dear Readers,

If you have purchased this copy of The Half-Breed Werewolf by
Marcy Jacks from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank
you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

Regarding E-book Piracy

This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or
group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing
rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this
book.

The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying
readers high-quality reading entertainment.

This is Marcy Jacks’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect
Ms. Jacks’s right to earn a living from her work.

Amanda Hilton, Publisher

www.SirenPublishing.com

www.BookStrand.com

THE HALF-BREED

WEREWOLF

Redemption 2

MARCY JACKS

Chapter One

All Mathias had to do was follow the stench of demon, and he was

led right into the yellowing forest outside of Haven. It was almost too
easy. He half expected a trap, and perhaps in some backward way it
was, but he hadn’t expected to come upon the host for the second
demon general without so much as a fight.

Then again, maybe he’d spoken too soon. Mathias swallowed hard

when those large yellow eyes turned on him and black lips pulled up
in a ferocious snarl, revealing the kind of teeth that any of Hell’s
dragons would be envious of.

A werewolf. The half-breed demon, destined to become one of the

generals in Hell, was a damned werewolf. A large one at that.

The gray-and-silver hairs on the creature’s back stood on end as

the monster swiveled away from the farmhouse and focused all its
attention on Mathias.

He’d arrived just in time. Mathias looked past the enraged

creature and noted some of the lights that were on in the house. Small,
round, fist-sized demons of many bright colors yanked on the wolf’s
ears as well as the hair on his neck and back, shouting in their demon
language for him to turn around.

8 Marcy

Jacks

They knew what Mathias was. They could see his wings as well as

the sword that he kept sheathed at his hip. They knew he was here to
save this man from becoming what they wanted him to.

Mathias had to take him away from here. The area was hardly

filled with people, but not secluded enough should the demons
succeed and make the werewolf turn around to go about slaughtering
whatever family lived inside of that house.

There was no better target than himself.
He hated to do it, especially since it was such a magnificent

creature, but Mathias pulled his sword, the blue flames coming to life
from the blade as it was held in his hand.

His powers were better suited for healing, but he could hurt if he

needed to.

With one arm, he lifted the sword, stepped forward, and brought it

down hard. Some of the flames from the sword travelled as he willed
them, sending a shot like an arrow at the muzzle of the beast.

He only meant to inflict a quick lash, not kill it. That would be

counterproductive. The fire only licked at the face of the wolf before
vanishing, but it had caused enough pain and fight to make the
creature release a wolf cry of pain.

Then those eyes were back on him, wider, angrier, and the beast

lunged, throwing the many little demons off of it as it surged forward
after its new prey.

Mathias turned around and ran into trees. Could a werewolf kill an

angel? Well, the wolf in question was half demon, so there was the
very real possibility that yes, it could. Mathias was not willing to risk
that he could be killed should he stop and face the beast head-on. Best
to let it run itself out of energy. When it turned back into a man,
Mathias could explain himself. He could gain the man’s cooperation
and trust. Hopefully.

He was beginning to doubt whether he could outrun the wolf

when he was nearly thrown from his feet as a long claw reached out
and swiped at the back of his armor. There was no pain. The claws

The Half-Breed Werewolf

hadn’t reached his flesh, but he had heard the distinct sound of metal
tearing under a powerful force.

He put more energy into his legs as he ran. Good Lord! Thank the

Creator that his wings were unaffected. Perhaps the half demon was
still too much of a mortal to be able to touch them without Mathias’s
permission, but the fact remained that he was nearly caught up to him.
If Mathias wanted to survive this and return later to bring the
werewolf onto their side, he was going to have to escape. He was
going to have to live through the night.

He leapt into the sky, prepared to take this chase higher, where

there would be more safety for him, but still low enough to the ground
that the wolf would continue to see and chase him, but the wolf
jumped high as well, impossibly so for a normal werewolf, and this
time, those heavy paws made contact with his shoulders and brought
him down onto the ground.

Mathias landed with a grunt as the wind was knocked out of his

lungs. Even an angel needed to breathe air. The weight of the wolf
was terrifying on top of him. If it killed him, he would merely return
to Heaven, he assumed, but the murder would still be enough that the
curse would never be lifted. Any murder would do that. The werewolf
would become a full demon general, and unlike Dante, who had
nearly suffered the same fate, there would be no saving him.

Using all of his strength, Mathias pushed the creature off of him

and attempted to scurry back to his feet, but it pounced quickly. Those
heavy paws came down on his arms, locking them to the ground. The
wolf seemed to work as though it had gone mad, but clearly, it still
knew how to keep a prisoner, and this time it had Mathias on his
back, where he could look at the long row of teeth just before those
jaws opened.

The small demons were back, surrounding the both of them,

chattering in their odd language, but their raised fists and wicked
smiles as they jumped up and down could only be encouragement as
they worked their evil magic and tempted the wolf to take Mathias’s

10 Marcy

Jacks

life.

The yellow eyes became golden, and the chest puffed out as the

wolf stared down at him, then it lunged, and the demons shouted out
their victory.

The teeth were around his neck. Mathias could feel them pinching

his skin, but the killing bite never came.

He opened his eyes, hardly able to believe he’d shut them to begin

with. The hot breath of the werewolf above him made his face and
body uncomfortable, but he didn’t dare move.

Then the wolf inhaled deeply through its nose, and it did it again

before the teeth were removed from Mathias’s neck. The wolf did not
let him up as it stared down at him, however. Those eyes were no
longer angry or willing to kill, but now they contained a trace of
something else. Curiosity. Mathias recognized that, especially in the
way the head tilted to the side just a little. There was also something
else he couldn’t place, something that made the pupils of the wolf
widen as it sniffed at his neck and chest some more.

Then that warm tongue lapped at his face, and Mathias struggled

in earnest this time, releasing a disgusted shout.

The werewolf, stupid creature that it was, seemed to take that as a

sort of sign of affection and placed even more of its weight on top of
him, rubbing its face against Mathias’s, and then its whole body.

Mathias squirmed and wriggled, which only made the ruined part

of his armor pinch and scratch at his back, breaking open the skin, but
he had to get out from under the wolf that had him pinned.

Finally, he did, and he managed to back away several steps, the

wolf rising to its paws and shaking itself, loose hairs flying. Then it
just looked at him.

Only then did Mathias take note of how silent the little demons

had gone. He looked up at them, a paranoid fear coming on.

They weren’t attacking or looking at him like he was lunch with

their black eyes. They were just staring at him. Not the same way that
the wolf did. The wolf’s stare held more hunger than theirs. They

The Half-Breed Werewolf

almost looked confused.

Maybe that was what made the wolf so friendly all of a sudden.

Was it possible that the demons were distracted by something and the
spell the wolf was under had been broken?

Well, they were far enough away from other people, and with the

wolf distracted, Mathias had an easier time banishing the demons. He
concentrated and lifted his hand to them. Each and every single one of
their little round bodies made a small explosion of black smoke and
red sparks. The stink of demon lasted in the air for only another
minute before it was carried away by the wind.

The head rush came next, and Mathias stumbled on his feet for a

second before catching himself on―

He pulled away from the wolf, stunned that it had come so close

to him and was still looking at him with those eager eyes. It caught
him before he could fall? That was certainly unexpected.

Mathias shook his head to clear it. There had been more of those

little bastards than he’d thought, and their hold on the werewolf had
been stronger than Mathias imagined as well, otherwise he wouldn’t
feel so drained of energy.

Luckily, he’d brought something for that, but he would still have

to be careful with how he worked. He had to remain on his feet until
after the risk was entirely gone. He couldn’t allow this person in front
of him to become a tool for Hell.

“Can you understand me?”
The wolf’s head cocked to the side. It wagged its tail.
He wasn’t sure what to make of that.
It no longer appeared to be a threat, and the gray wolf certainly

wasn’t giving the impression that it wanted to eat him for lunch.

Mathias would take the risk. He was here to save this man, after

all. He stepped forward, reaching out his hand. “I won’t hurt you.”

The wolf did not hesitate like Mathias expected it to. It trotted

forward, sniffed at Mathias’s offered palm eagerly, tail still wagging
like a happy dog, and then it shifted into a naked man.

12 Marcy

Jacks

He sighed. At least he could work with this.
He concentrated some more on his form. This part took up very

little energy, especially because he wanted the man in front of him to
see what he looked like. He wanted him to see his wings. There would
have to be some secrets, but the fewer, the better.

“My name is Mathias. I’m here to help you.”
The man with the soft, brown hair just blinked at him, and it was

then that Mathias noted the lack of change in the eyes. They were still
the golden color of the wolf.

Mathias then noticed something else about the man. He had an

erection.

He realized too late what that hungry look in the man’s eyes was

as he charged. He was not attacking, and so Mathias did not dare
attempt to defend himself as he was grabbed around the shoulders and
kissed for the first time in his life.

The Half-Breed Werewolf

Chapter Two

Mathias had nothing to compare the kiss to, so he couldn’t say

with any certainty whether or not it was meant to be so rough, and he
wasn’t at all sure about the other man’s use of his tongue, but his
body reacted, despite his brain overthinking the situation.

When the man slid his tongue inside of Mathias’s mouth, using

Mathias’s own gasp of shock against him no less, it was like every
vein in his body, every cell, nerve, everything, lit up with the energy
he received from consuming ambrosia back home, only much more
powerful.

His body became hot, and his cock throbbed and came to life

when, for so long, he hadn’t thought there was a purpose to it. He was
an angel, after all. He would live forever. What was the point for him
to have and experience sex?

The man’s hand came down between Mathias’s thighs and

gripped his swelling prick through his leggings. Mathias had to hold
the man’s shoulders just to keep from falling as his knees no longer
had the strength to hold him upright.

This was…It was…He needed more of it.
He pressed his body back, returning the kiss to the best of his

ability. From what he understood, all that was required of him was to
press his lips back against the mouth that was setting fire to his body,
and slide his tongue along the one that was still inside of his mouth.
He sucked on it a little, unsure of where the idea for that had come
from, but the pleased noise the other man made could only be a good
thing, so he did it again.

Mathias wanted to ask him what he was doing. What was the

14 Marcy

Jacks

reason for wanting to fornicate with a man who he’d only just met,
but when he pulled back and opened his mouth, the most humiliating
sound left his throat. He pressed his face against the crook of the
man’s neck and made that sound again. He couldn’t help himself, nor
could he stop his hips from thrusting against the hand that held his
cock.

Was this what Jeremy had spoken of when Mathias had asked him

about sex? This desperate need that he could never understand until
he’d experienced it for himself? Mathias hadn’t believed the other
man at the time and had assumed that Jeremy, the former guardian in
charge of protecting the first general, had simply allowed lust to
overtake him.

He’d been right. This was something that Mathias could not stop,

and he did not want to stop it now that he had it. That wonderful,
wicked mouth pressed down on Mathias’s neck, kissing and suckling
on the spot where his pulse worked like mad to keep up with what
was happening.

He couldn’t stop his hips from moving. It was like they had a

consciousness all their own, and when the other man pulled on the
clasps that held Mathias’s armor in place and then separated them
long enough to lift it above his head, he raised his arms to make it
easier to pull off.

His clean white tunic was lifted just enough to expose his chest,

then those lips and that tongue touched down on Mathias’s nipple,
and this time he did fall over.

The man he was with caught him and eased him to the ground,

spreading Mathias’s legs with his hand and settling between them.
They kissed and thrust together like wild animals, and Mathias still
could not keep his mouth shut and contain his moaning.

He grabbed the other man by the hair and yanked him down for

another one of those delicious, need-to-have kisses. He did not want
this to stop. Every thrust against his cock only made the heat inside of
him grow stronger, and his balls soon tightened.

The Half-Breed Werewolf

He didn’t understand the purpose to that, but it felt good as well,

and he locked the other man between his legs and thrust against him
fast and harder until something within his cock and balls started to
surge outward.

He cried out, unable to contain himself as he spilled fluids inside

of his breeches. The other man moved with him, riding him faster and
squeezing his eyes shut before he too opened his mouth and cried out
a loud, harsh sound.

He came onto Mathias’s chest, even getting some on his tunic, and

when Mathias felt the warmth there and looked down at himself, he
was shocked to discover that he didn’t mind the mess at all. He was
calm, and his heart rate was settling back down peacefully.

Now he knew why Jeremy was so lazy every time he came away

from having coitus with his new lover. There was something about it
that even made Mathias want to become a pacifist.

Their bodies settled, and Mathias pressed his lips to the other

man’s hair, unsure of why he’d done that specifically, but it had felt
right, and so he did it again.

Then the man looked up at him, and his eyes widened, as though

he were waking from a dream and was shocked to see that there was
someone else in this dream world with him.

The eyes were no longer golden, but now they were a brilliant

shade of amber, and they were wide with shock.

The mind of the wolf was entirely gone now, and all that remained

was the man. Mathias stroked his hair. “What is your name?”

The other man swallowed. He continued to stare down at Mathias

with disbelief, and a little fear, in his eyes, but he did not entirely pull
away from Mathias either. Finally, he cleared his throat. “Taylor
Slade,” he said, then looked down at Mathias’s body, his eyes landing
and staying on the wings for quite some time.

“Did I hurt you?” he asked.
Mathias shook his head, unable to keep the smile from his face at

such a ridiculous question. “No, I rather enjoyed that, actually. Would

16 Marcy

Jacks

it be too much trouble to ask if we could do that again in the future
sometime?”

Those eyes went even wider, if that was at all possible. Then he

nodded. “Any time you want.” Carefully, he then leaned down and
sniffed at Mathias’s neck, his eyes falling shut as he took in the scent.

Perhaps the scent of angels was much more powerful than

anything the humans had.

Then Taylor looked back up at Mathias, and his eyes were golden

once more. “You’re mine. Not ever letting you go.”

* * * *

Taylor’s first thought when he came out of his wild animal mode

and saw that there was a man under him, the most gorgeous man
Taylor had ever seen in his life, was Oh God, I finally did it. I hurt
someone.

Then the man had smiled at him, like there was nothing in the

world that was unusual about being attacked by a werewolf.

Taylor saw the shimmer in the wings, and something clicked in

his head that maybe he was worried for the wrong reasons. Maybe he
was the one who should be scared here.

Then the man asked for his name with such a satisfied smile on

his face, and all of Taylor’s worries vanished as the other man assured
him that he was not hurt.

Then Taylor started to scent what happened around him, and he

noticed the sticky feeling on his torso.

He’d just had sex with this man. This man with the wings that

shimmered in the moonlight, he was Taylor’s mate.

“I think you might have to let me go eventually,” the angel said

when Taylor made his promise to never do such a thing. “It will be
awkward for you to go about your day-to-day routine if you don’t.”

“I’m not dead then?” he asked, pretty stupidly now that he thought

about it. Of course he couldn’t be dead. He could still feel the slight

The Half-Breed Werewolf

prickling pain from having pine needles under his skin as well as the
cold air on his back.

As a werewolf, he had a better resistance to things like that, but

his body was still cooling down after a lot of good sex. This was to be
expected.

“No,” the angel said, still clearly enjoying the buzz from his

orgasm.

“Who are you?” Taylor had to know.
The angel blinked at him, and though he was colder without the

body heat, Taylor sat up, allowing the both of them to get up off of
the ground.

“I can see you have no recollection of that. My name is Mathias. I

am here for you.”

Taylor’s eyes flew wide, but he didn’t back away. “I thought you

said I wasn’t dead?”

“You are not dead, and you are not dying. I am to be your

guardian, from the demons,” he said, looking around, as though
expecting to see the little bastards perched on the branches
somewhere.

Taylor couldn’t see them either. “Where did they go?” They were

always around. Always.

“I banished them, but they might come back.”
Taylor wanted to be sick. He fell back to his knees and clutched at

his stomach, trying to keep that from happening instead. “D–
demons?” That was the word he’d used.

Mathias was in front of him in an instant, kneeling down with

him, and he put his warm hand on Taylor’s back. It tingled when they
touched, and though he felt better, he didn’t rise to his feet. He
couldn’t.

“Are you well?” Mathias asked.
Taylor shook his head. “They’re real then? They’re not in my

head?”

He looked up just as Mathias’s face turned sad. “I’m afraid not.”

18 Marcy

Jacks

Taylor wasn’t sure what he wanted to do more, laugh or cry. He

settled for both, but only because he didn’t have much of a choice in
the matter. He couldn’t seem to stop, and he had to cover his face
with his hands when he fell back on his ass.

The worried look on Mathias’s face was damn near priceless.

Taylor didn’t understand why the man, angel, whatever, wasn’t
running for the hills to get away from him, guardian or no guardian.

“I―what is the matter?” Mathias said, clearly not knowing what

to do. “You’re not injured, so there’s nothing for me to heal, but
you―”

“I don’t know if I should be happy that I’m not crazy or terrified

that it’s all real,” Taylor said through his tears. At least his voice was
working properly for him now. He took some deep breaths and wiped
his eyes with his fists. That wasn’t exactly the best show of his alpha
nature, but hey, less than a minute of hysterics after what he was
finding out wasn’t too bad.

Mathias put his hands on him again, and the tingle was back as he

helped Taylor to his feet. “I need to take you back to your home. I
will cleanse it, and I will keep you safe,” he said.

“Why?” Taylor asked, looking down at the bit of metal on the

ground. It was a chest plate with a metal back, he realized, and his
claw marks had torn three long strips out of it. “I could hurt you,” he
said.

Mathias touched his face, and angel or no angel, Taylor thought

the man was awfully trusting to be so close to him after everything
Taylor had done to him. “You won’t hurt me, now come. I will take
you home. Where do you live?”

Taylor didn’t understand, but the warmth from the man’s hands,

along with that soothing tingle and just looking into the handsome
face of his mate, made everything inside of him relax. He looked
around, finding the scent from whence he came, then he pointed.
“That way. I don’t know how long I was in wolf form, so I don’t think
it’ll be a short walk or anything but―hey!”

The Half-Breed Werewolf

Taylor yelled as the ground beneath him vanished. He watched in

horror as it and the trees got smaller and smaller beneath him before
he was suddenly moving forward, the cold wind in his face and
against his body.

Mathias had a firm grip under his armpits, and Taylor heard a

whoosh and a flap. Several of them. At least this time he wasn’t
screaming and crying like an omega or something. Mathias was flying
with them, and he hadn’t dropped Taylor yet, so…

“You could have warned me about that!” he yelled over his

shoulder.

The other man looked down at him, his dark eyes puzzled for a

moment before a smile touched down on his pink lips. “I’m sorry, I
guess I forgot.”

He forgot. Great.
“Lead the way,” Mathias said. “Let me know when to land.”
“So long as you don’t drop me on my head.”
The chuckle that followed was deep and soothing. Despite being a

werewolf who was apparently haunted by more than just a case of
terrifying nightmares and hallucinations, Taylor could honestly say to
himself that he’d never had a stranger night.

20 Marcy

Jacks

Chapter Three

Mathias landed as gently as he could in front of the run-down

house. It was a simple, square form, with dirty white siding that
needed replacing, and he doubted that the garden was dead because of
the coming winter.

There was more to it than that. It wasn’t just the sight of the

house. Most human structures appeared gloomy in the night
regardless of appearances, but Mathias sensed something more
sinister inside.

“This way,” Taylor said, sounding less than pleased about being

here, at his own home. “I’ve got a spare key for the times when my
wolf takes control and I run off.”

“Wait.” Mathias put his hand on Taylor’s shoulder, halting him.
The other man looked at him questioningly.
“Maybe you should allow me in first.”
Taylor looked toward his house, and Mathias heard the two deep

inhales he did through his nose. “I don’t scent any intruders.”

“But you do know there are more of those creatures inside?”

Mathias asked carefully.

Taylor’s eyes widened as he looked back at his house. “There

are?”

This was worse than Mathias thought. Had the demons been

cloaking themselves while hiding in Taylor’s home? Perhaps that was
the only way to get the host of the demon general to return. If he
knew his house was haunted, he might try going somewhere else.

“Where is your key?” Mathias asked, figuring it was best to not

damage any part of the house. He was fairly certain that Taylor would

The Half-Breed Werewolf

not want his home any more damaged than it already appeared to be.

“There’s a loose board on the second step. It’s right under there.”
Mathias went, and sure enough, when he made it to the three steps

leading to the door, the second one came up with no effort at all. He
took the key and let himself inside. “Stay here,” he said over his
shoulder. “I’ll come back for you.”

Taylor frowned at him. Clearly the man didn’t like being told

what to do, but that was too bad for him. Mathias was his guardian,
and he wasn’t about to have his charge moving into areas that could
make him go wild with demon rage again.

He stepped in and had to cover his nose, his eyes watering at the

stench of sulphur and demon shit.

Was it because he was an angel that he could smell this and

Taylor, a werewolf with superior senses, could not? That hardly
mattered. The air seemed heavier to him, and blacker, like there was a
cloud of dust hanging over everything.

The demons were easy for him to spot, nasty, evil little things that

hissed at him when he entered their space. There were so many,
Mathias could hardly believe it. He’d been told by Jeremy what
Dante’s home had been like before the other angel had a chance to
cleanse it, but he doubted it had been quite as packed as this. He was
going to be exhausted for the lack of energy by the time he finished.

He lifted his sword from his sheath, and once again, the blue

flame lit up, immediately banishing the demon smog in the house.
The tiny demons screamed at him. Some threw their little pitchforks
and spears at him, and it was then that Mathias was reminded of how
he’d left his breastplate back in the woods.

No matter. Demons of this nature, little pests that were designed

to tempt and annoy rather than cause any serious damage, would soon
be dealt with.

He focused more of his energy and this time raised his free hand

along with the blade, pointing it at the demons and releasing the
power he’d gathered inside of himself.

22 Marcy

Jacks

Like before, the little demons shrieked and exploded in puffs of

black smog and orange-and-red sparks. Some scurried out of the
house, escaping back to their portals that would take them to Hell.
Mathias would have to check the house to make sure there were no
portals in here that they could get through.

There was no wind in the house to carry away the scent of the

demons’ death, so Mathias had his sword deal with that as well. He
walked around the small living room with its run-down furniture,
passing the glowing sword over everything, allowing it to absorb
every bit of the demon energy that had wormed its way into the very
fabric of the house.

He was glad he had his sword for this. Jeremy had been forced to

absorb the demons’ influence into himself since he’d been in the same
room with Dante at the time, and he hadn’t yet given away his secret
of being an angel. The act had nearly made him pass out.

Mathias found this draining, especially as he walked into the other

rooms, cleansing them as well and thankfully finding no portals, but
he was not dizzy and was at no risk of falling over.

The house was so small that it must have taken him less than

twenty minutes to banish every last trace of the demons’ evil and
influence.

He took in a deep, calming breath when he finished and then

returned his sword to its proper place at his hip. Then he walked back
outside to retrieve Taylor.

The man was pacing with a scowl on his face, but when Mathias

exited the house, their eyes met, and he jogged over to him.

Mathias noted the way little bumps appeared all over his naked

skin. He did his best to not look below the man’s waist. “I’m sorry. I
forgot you had nothing to wear. Are you cold?”

“No,” Taylor said, and his eyes remained fixed on Mathias before

glancing over his shoulder. “Is it safe to go in?”

Mathias stepped aside. “As it will ever be.”
Taylor entered, and Mathias stayed close behind, which was

The Half-Breed Werewolf

nearly a mistake as he ran into the other man’s bare back when Taylor
suddenly stopped.

He stumbled away, his face heating as he realized he’d just

pressed himself against Taylor’s naked back, but the other man hardly
seemed to notice him anymore.

“Taylor?” Mathias stepped around him, fearful that he’d missed

something and that there was something evil in the house that he’d
failed to banish.

Taylor’s eyes were wide as he looked around his living room on

the right as well as the attached kitchen on the left of him.

“It’s different. What did you do?” Taylor asked, looking at

Mathias with more of that wonder in his eyes.

Though it was incredibly inappropriate, Mathias could not help

but notice how lovely those eyes were. Taylor had large brows and his
dark bangs almost seemed to fall in the way, yes, but they did not hide
how clear and perfect of a color they were. Taylor also needed to
shave. The stubble on his chin and jaw had certainly scratched
Mathias’s face when they’d kissed each other.

“Are you listening? What did you do?” Taylor asked again.
Mathias forcefully pulled himself out of his musings of the beauty

of the man in front of him, as well as his high cheekbones and lovely
skin. “I cleansed the house. You had more of those demons living
here, making nests. I thought you would have been aware of them, but
apparently not. They must have kept themselves hidden from you, in
case you attempted to run away or move out. Though I doubt that
would have done more than make their task a little more difficult
since they likely would have followed you.”

Taylor’s face went pale. “Jesus Christ, they were in here, too?”
Mathias nodded, his stomach rumbling a little with hunger. The

energy that it had taken for him to cleanse such a small house had
been monumental. He would have to eat one of the apples he’d
brought with him from Heaven soon so that he could recharge.

Taylor stepped farther inside of his home. He seemed hesitant, but

24 Marcy

Jacks

then he lifted his nose and sniffed around the area. “It even smells
different.”

“Could you scent the demons before?” Mathias asked, keeping his

gaze firmly locked onto the back of Taylor’s head, and not allowing
his eyes to drop any lower than that.

“No,” Taylor said, looking back at him. “But now it smells, I

don’t know, fresher, somehow, like you just went over the place with
Febreze or something.”

“What is Febreze?”
Taylor’s eyes went even wider for a brief second before he smiled

at him. “Yeah, you really aren’t from around here.”

“No,” Mathias said, watching the other man carefully as he

walked down the hallway and disappeared into another room. The one
with the tub and sink. Mathias followed, hearing the water run. He
turned into the bathroom in time to watch Taylor step into the tub,
rain water falling from a spout above him.

Taylor noticed he was there through the clear plastic that kept the

water from falling onto the ground outside of the tub as he scrubbed
the dirt and grime from his face and body. “Give me another minute
and you can use it, too.”

“I don’t need to,” Mathias said, unable to take his eyes away as

more clean skin was revealed. Hot steam eventually fogged the plastic
sheet to the point where he had trouble seeing, but he could still not
tear his eyes away.

Taylor ripped the sheet away enough to look out at him, those

amber eyes questioning.

His hair was wet and falling into his face and dripping down his

chest. He was so beautiful. Mathias had never seen a creature, not
even in Heaven, who could match him.

“Uh, are you sure? We were just, I mean…” Taylor’s eyes

flickered down to Mathias’s crotch, and Mathias felt himself harden
again, the pleasurable throb returning. “We kind of made a mess of
each other rolling around in the woods like that. I can at least get you

The Half-Breed Werewolf

some clean clothes. We look about the same size,” Taylor finished
after clearing his throat.

“My clothing cleans itself,” Mathias said. “It requires some of my

energy, but―” He stopped himself when those words left his lips.
Requires energy. That was right. To keep himself clean, he was
wasting valuable energy that he might later need to protect the man in
front of him.

Jeremy hadn’t bothered with using his energy for that because

he’d known better, and he’d also come to Earth without any ambrosia
to keep him sustained.

Mathias had only two small apples with him, grown from the trees

of Heaven, and the juice inside would renew his energy only
temporarily. He would be needing to eat one of the apples right away
if he was to keep vigilant this night. He could not waste energy so
easily. He would have to conserve the rest, just in case.

Mathias cleared his throat. “Actually, perhaps a change of

clothing would be best. Usually I can make new clothing appear, but I
should not use too much power while I am here.”

Taylor nodded, rinsed himself, and then stepped out of the tub,

dripping and naked.

Mathias continued to stare as the man bent down to retrieve a

towel from beneath the sink.

When he stood up again, Taylor noticed the way Mathias watched

him. “Do all angels stare like that?” he asked, rubbing the towel
through his hair instead of using it to cover himself.

“Do all humans bask in their nudity?” Mathias still could not look

away. Taylor was hard as well. Did the other man want to have him
again? Mathias certainly would not mind it if he did.

“I’m a werewolf,” Taylor said, drying himself off. “You get kind

of comfortable being in your skin after a while.”

“I see,” Mathias said.
“Have you ever seen a naked man before?” Taylor asked, stepping

past him. “Bedroom’s this way, I’ll get you some clothes.”

26 Marcy

Jacks

Mathias followed him, thinking about his earlier question. “I

suppose I have a time or two, but this is different.”

“How so?” Taylor asked, bending down again to open a drawer

and pull out some pants. Jeans, he was certain they were called.

Mathias really wished the other man would stop bending over for

things.

Taylor stood up and seemed surprised that Mathias was standing

so close to him. He had two pairs of the pants in question and handed
him one of the pairs of jeans before stepping around Mathias and then
left the room.

“Where are you going?” Mathias asked.
“Giving you some privacy, though at this point I don’t know why.

I’ll just be right outside the door,” he said, stepping out.

He didn’t shut the door, and Mathias could still hear him when he

spoke from in the small hallway. “So why is this different?” he asked
again.

“Yours is the only body I have ever seen that has made my cock

stand.”

There was no answer for the longest time while Mathias

undressed. He did his best to keep his prick from getting in the way as
he shimmied into the new garments. Why did humans wear these
things?

“Taylor?”
The other man’s throat cleared. “Here.” The man coughed. “Are

you decent?”

“Yes, are you well?” If he was becoming sick, then Mathias

would need to know.

Taylor came around the door to look at him, wearing the pants

he’d taken out the door with him, and he held his hands in front of
him, his amber eyes moving up and down Mathias’s body.

Somehow, he knew this was a sort of mortal compliment that

Taylor also couldn’t look away from him. Was this what Jeremy had
felt when he had taken Dante for a lover?

The Half-Breed Werewolf

“We need to have a talk, you and I,” Taylor said, and his eyes

were suddenly hard as he looked at Mathias’s face.

He nodded, having expected this. Now his only concern was

making sure to tell Taylor only what he needed to hear and keeping
whatever demon influences he’d been poisoned with from erupting
before he had the chance to be free from it forever.

The man only had to wait until his thirtieth birthday, and that was

in two days. “Yes, we do.”

28 Marcy

Jacks

Chapter Four

Taylor didn’t know what to make of the angel in front of him.

Less than an hour ago, he hadn’t believed in them. After all, what sort
of divine being would stand around watching while evil little
creatures like those demons haunted him for years? They had made
him see things, made him want to do things. Because of them, he’d
resisted the need to shift into his wolf. He’d been so afraid of what
they would make him do if he was in his animal form and far less able
to resist their evil whispers and angry shouts.

Then it had happened. He couldn’t put off the transformation

anymore, even if he tried, and he had tried. He’d tried for so damn
long, but that part of him would no longer be put away.

His wolf had come out, and it had been angry. It had hated being

locked away for so long like that. Taylor couldn’t even remember
what happened while he was in wolf form. Not really, but he did have
the distinct impression that, had it not been for this angel sitting next
to him on his bed, of all places, he would have done something he
may or may not have lived to regret.

“What questions would you like to ask?” Mathias asked.
Taylor had the extreme urge to reach his hand out and see if he

could touch the softness of those wings or if his hands would pass
through them, like he was a ghost or something.

“You said I didn’t hurt you, out in the forest, but I need to

know…I know that we had sex. I need to know if I scared you.” He
wouldn’t be able to handle it if he had.

Mathias smiled that gentle smile at him. Christ, did the man not

realize how beautiful he was? How much Taylor was having trouble

The Half-Breed Werewolf

resisting him? “No, I rather enjoyed it actually.” Then he frowned.
“And I don’t believe we had sex.”

“We didn’t?” Taylor had smelled it. There had been fluids on the

both of them.

Mathias scratched his neck, his dark-brown eyes seeming far

away all of a sudden. “No, Jeremy explained to me the mechanics of
it. I don’t believe that was what happened. Though it did still feel very
nice.”

Taylor thought back, trying to get his brain to unmuddle itself.
The only one of them who had been naked was him. Mathias had

still had some of his clothing on, with the exception of the metal
breastplate, that is. Taylor certainly hadn’t been the one to take it. He
would’ve noticed that.

The only thing that made sense was that he and Mathias had rutted

against each other, lust consuming the both of them.

Both of them, not just Taylor. Mathias had said he’d liked it, he’d

wanted it, and wanted what Taylor was able to do for him.

He breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m glad.”
“I am as well,” Mathias said.
“Why are you here now?” Taylor asked. “For the longest time, I

thought I was crazy. My pack drove me out because of the things they
said I was doing. Why come to save me now?”

Why now when Taylor had stopped praying so long ago for a cure

to his disease or curse or whatever it was that was making him see
and hear the fucked-up shit that he did?

Mathias bit his lips together ever so slightly. The sight made

Taylor want to kiss them. He wanted to suckle on those lips and on
Mathias’s tongue, now, while his wolf was dormant and he would
remember with absolute clarity everything they were doing.

“We did not know about you,” Mathias said finally.
That seemed wrong. Taylor shook his head a little. “Wait, that

makes no sense. How can God not know that someone on Earth is
being tortured like this? You came down here and snapped your

30 Marcy

Jacks

fingers and it’s all gone. Why couldn’t someone have done that
sooner?”

“It was not as simple as snapping my fingers together,” Mathias

muttered.

“Well, you know what I mean. Why now?”
Did Mathias know that he and Taylor were mated? Was that why

the other man had finally come for him? Was that why he was looking
more than happy about the fact that he’d had a lust-driven werewolf
on top of him, giving him an orgasm, kissing and touching him earlier
in the woods when he should have been scared for his life?

Could Taylor kill an angel if he lost control like that again?
“I had orders. We only just recently learned that there were

demons coming to Earth, tempting a select few individuals when they
weren’t supposed to be. I was assigned to protect you until the time
comes for it to end.”

“End?” Taylor couldn’t believe it. That this whole nightmare

actually had an end to it was something he’d never dared to dream
about.

“Yes. On the hour you turn thirty, your curse will end.”
Taylor had to think for a minute. “I was born right after midnight

two days from now.”

“Like Dante.”
“Who?”
“Another man with a curse similar to yours. It was broken,

however, when he and his guardian managed to wait it out. Though
that likely would not have happened if Jeremy hadn’t saved him and
pulled him back from the brink.”

Mathias went on to explain how that had happened, how a demon

even more powerful than the ones who had haunted Taylor for so long
had come for the other man and dragged him into Hell, all with the
intention of transforming him into a powerful demon capable of
laying siege to Heaven, and how he had friends who were in
Purgatory at this very moment, attempting to find some sort of pool of

The Half-Breed Werewolf

souls, a thing that was somehow supposed to give Taylor power
should he make a change for the worse, and they were to destroy it.

Taylor inhaled a deep breath, fighting against the urge to rage

around his bedroom and be sick, all at the same time. “They want me
to fight on their side? To be a general in Hell’s army?”

“That will only happen if you allow the demons to control you

again. They nearly succeeded tonight. I found you outside near a
farmhouse. If you had killed any of the innocent people inside, you
would have been damned and there wouldn’t be a thing I could do to
save you. You cannot kill yourself either, since that would also be
murder.”

Taylor put his head in his hands, hardly able to keep himself

upright. “It’s strange, knowing about all of this now when I had no
idea what it was before. But I…thank God for you.”

He felt that warm hand on his back again, and the skin-to-skin

touch brought on that pleasurable tingle once more. Taylor didn’t dare
pull away from it.

“You should not thank me,” Mathias said. “It was your own

strength of will that made you pull back. As a wolf, you could have
eaten me, but you stopped yourself, completely on your own. There is
still good in you, and it wants to be free of this. Do not doubt
yourself.”

Taylor laughed a little at those words, and he shook his head.
“What is it? What’s the matter?” Mathias asked.
Taylor had to face him for this. Mathias’s dark eyes were so

trusting, so sure of everything as he looked at him. Taylor didn’t want
to break any of that trust, but the man, angel, he deserved to know just
why Taylor attacked him like that out in the forest.

“It wasn’t any goodness in me that made me spare your life. My

wolf didn’t rip you to pieces because you’re my mate.”

The other man went stiff beside him. His deep-brown eyes, the

color of damp earth, went wide.

“You know what that is,” Taylor said. There was no way Mathias

32 Marcy

Jacks

couldn’t know. Everyone knew the definition of mate, even an angel.
He was sure, at least.

Mathias’s eyes went back to their normal size, and he nodded.

“That was what happened in the forest? Why you and I, uhm.”

The man blushed, unable to say it. It was cute, and it made him

want to kiss him again.

“For an angel, I’m surprised you’re so innocent. I won’t go to Hell

for destroying that innocence, will I?”

Mathias shook his head. “No.”
They both seemed to have the same idea, because they reached for

each other at precisely the same time.

Mathias’s hand cupped his cheek and was probably scratched by

the small beard Taylor was starting to grow. That didn’t stop the angel
from kissing him with all the enthusiasm and vigor of a teenager
kissing his first love.

He tasted so sweet, and the deep, breathy inhales and exhales that

came from him were like listening to an entire harem of horny virgins
singing in Taylor’s ears. His cock throbbed, and when he leaned over
the other man, he felt that Mathias was hard as well.

He laughed a little, pulling away from those pillow-soft lips. This

he could do and be all alpha with. He needed this.

“What is funny?” Mathias asked, sounding very much like he’d

just run a marathon.

“Was just thinking that maybe you and I shouldn’t have gotten

dressed.”

“Oh.” Mathias looked down between them. “Should we not do

this?”

Taylor grabbed the man by the hand and put it onto his stiff cock.

He had to bite back a groan at the shock of pleasure that produced.
“Trust me, I want this, but you’re an angel. Are you sure you’re
allowed to do this?”

“I would recommend it,” Mathias said, his eyes bright and lustful.

“This magic that passes between us during lovemaking, it is healing

The Half-Breed Werewolf

somehow without draining any more of my energy. And I like it.”

Taylor groaned when Mathias moved his hand, massaging his

balls and rubbing his cock through the jeans.

“So I see,” he said and then leaned down to kiss him again.

34 Marcy

Jacks

Chapter Five

John could hardly believe his eyes. They’d found the thing. After

days of traveling in Purgatory, the place most despised by angels and
demons alike, they’d finally discovered the pool of souls the demons
had been collecting.

It was well hidden, deep within the fog of the place, but so far as

he could tell, neither he nor any of the members of his team had gone
mad from being within this foul place for so long.

Purgatory was a hell all its own. The place sucked the hope out of

anyone who lingered that did not belong. Perhaps that was why the
demons had an easier time handling the effects of the place as they
kidnapped their souls and put them in the pool.

It glowed red, as did the pillars of light surrounding it, which, as

they drew closer, made it easier for them to see.

Kale was at his side. He could feel the man’s presence, even

though the other man was silent in his movements, and John was still
keeping his eyes firmly locked onto the pool and the fire knight
demons who guarded it.

“It looks like glass,” Kale whispered, also looking at the strange

pool the demons had built to house their captives. “We could shatter it
and free the souls, and then Hell would have no power to give to the
generals.”

“Easy, Kale,” John whispered, feeling a rumble in the ground

beneath his body where he crouched. “There’s more than fire knights
here.”

He and Kale were hidden behind one of the stone pillars of

Purgatory, and he knew the others would be similarly hidden.

The Half-Breed Werewolf

They would also see the thing that came out from the shadows.
It was three times the size of the fire knights, overly large with

muscle and fat, and had one bulbous eye smack in the middle where
two should be.

Kale gripped his shoulder. “Is that a…?”
John could have cursed, but he didn’t. If anything, he should have

seen this coming. “They have trolls to protect them as well.”

“We can still defeat them,” Kale said, ever the loyal soldier. “We

can defeat them and prove to the council that you were right. This
clears you of treason.”

Whether it did or not was not the point. Even if they walked out of

here with no proof that the demons were planning something, he
would have done this anyway.

Even with those thoughts in his head, he was warmed by Kale’s

belief in him and grateful to have him here in this dark hour.

He found the eyes of Luke, Daren, and Lana. They were not so far

away that he lost them in the gray, hazy fog. They looked back at him
and Kale, and all three nodded, readying their weapons but not their
swords.

The swords lit up when pulled from their sheaths, and it would not

do to give the enemy a warning that they were coming.

As one, the five angels crept out from their hiding places, and

silently they snuck up on their prey.

Before John could reach the back of one of the fire knights and

stick a dagger between the crease in the smoldering armor, he sent out
a prayer that Mathias’s mission was going well.

* * * *

Had Mathias known that his body could have such reactions, he

would have fallen from Heaven and sought out a lover long ago. How
had he never known that touching another, or himself, would bring
this sort of pleasure? It was better than ambrosia and the music of

36 Marcy

Jacks

Heaven that he had lived off of for his entire life.

Taylor had done something to him, bewitched him, and damn if he

wasn’t enjoying every second of it while the man thrust in and out of
his body. He was sure he looked ridiculous, on his back as he was,
knees up and ass thrust in the air, and it had been humiliating for a
time, especially when Taylor put an odd substance on his fingers and
then gently thrust them into Mathias’s hole.

Now he didn’t want it to stop. Taylor’s lips on his throat and

mouth and jaw were like a cleansing fire that he couldn’t get enough
of. It burned in a way that felt satisfying and good. That pleasure from
before had returned when Taylor touched his cock and stroked his
fingers teasingly along the inside of his ass, but then the man had
entered him and that pleasure burst like exploding stars behind his
eyes.

He’d reached that pinnacle of pleasure again, shooting fluids all

over his chest, but he’d remained hard and wanting, and Taylor was
not letting him off easy as he took his time.

Mathias didn’t mind. He enjoyed watching the other man’s face

twist as he moaned, and he adored the way Taylor held him close,
chest to chest with one arm behind Mathias’s neck and the other down
against the bed. It felt like they were hugging, like old friends or
comrades on the battlefield.

No friend or comrade had ever held him quite like this, and the

push and pull of Taylor’s hips between Mathias’s open thighs was
something he never wanted to feel with anyone else.

“You’re mine,” Taylor moaned. “Say it. Say that you’re mine.”
That was ridiculous. Of course he didn’t belong to Taylor, but he

thought it was best to say so anyway, and he felt better when he did,
and more of his energy passed into the other man’s body, which only
added to the strength of his thrusts.

“I am yours,” Mathias said. “To do with as you will.” So long as

he never stopped doing this.

Mathias threw his head back, but Taylor was quick to follow, and

The Half-Breed Werewolf

he was kissed along his neck and jaw and then his lips. Their mouths
captured each other’s moans, and Mathias’s hands reached around
and gripped Taylor’s back, pulling at the skin with his nails, as he felt
that body-tingling end come onto him again.

Taylor sped up, moving at a pace so impossibly fast that Mathias

didn’t know how a mortal was able to do it. The back of the bed
banged against the wall, but he didn’t care. The noise didn’t bother
him. Nothing did.

Taylor’s face twisted into an odd sort of snarl, but it did not have

Mathias worried, even when his eyes shifted back into those of the
wolf, and the man began biting and licking at Mathias’s neck.

“I’m gonna come in you. Then I’m gonna fuck you again. No

demon will ever take me away from you.”

Well, Mathias had certainly accomplished his mission to give

Taylor enough energy to resist the influence of the demons if he was
speaking like this.

Good. That was very good. Perhaps Mathias would continue to

administer this sort of magical aid a time or two more, just to be on
the safe side.

When his cock throbbed and swelled to the point where it hurt

him, Mathias reached down and grabbed himself to relieve the pain,
not understanding why that was happening at all.

The pain did vanish, and the pleasure returned as Mathias stroked

himself. He was coming again. He could feel it.

“We must do this more often,” he said, staring into Taylor’s

beautiful face as his testicles became tight and that sudden, lovely
rush surged through him once more. This time was far more intense
than the last times when Taylor had brought out this reaction in him.

He squeezed his eyes shut and threw his head back, shouting out

to the ceiling and the sky above it, singing Taylor’s praises with his
cries of pleasure.

He could never go back. Not after this. Now he knew why Jeremy

had not been saddened to lose his wings. Why would anyone wish to

38 Marcy

Jacks

return to Heaven when something better existed on Earth?

Their bodies were both damp now. Mathias could feel the sweat

building on Taylor’s back.

“You are panting,” he said. “And sweating. Are you well?”
Taylor chuckled against his shoulder. “That happens after

seriously satisfying sex,” he said. “You’re sweating, too.”

“I am?”
Taylor appeared most pleased with himself. “Yeah, shaking a

little, too. I think I’m gonna have to take another shower. You can
come with me, if you don’t want to use any more of your energy,” he
said.

It was an interesting idea, and again, Mathias found himself

curious about it. He’d never had a shower before. “What’s it like?”

Taylor’s lazy smile vanished as he blinked down at him. “The

shower?”

“Yes.”
“Oh, well.” Taylor looked away, thinking about it. “I guess you

could say it’s like standing in hot rain. Only with privacy. You’ll like
it.”

He believed him. Mathias knew that he would believe every word

that came from this man’s mouth from this day forward.

They walked naked back into the small bathroom, but Mathias

was pleased to note that the tub was large enough for the both of
them. The hot water was soothing on his skin, and he felt his lungs
clearing as he breathed in the steam.

Then Taylor gently turned him around, lifted one of Mathias’s

legs onto the ledge of the bathtub, and had him again.

Sweet Heaven.
“Angels don’t have sex, do they?” Taylor asked when they

stepped out, the both of them sharing his last clean towel.

Mathias tensed ever so slightly. He did not know the protocol here

but decided to be as honest as he possibly could. “No. You are the
first to show me these pleasures of the body.”

The Half-Breed Werewolf

Jeremy had told him that his lover, Dante, had been slightly

stricken and panicked to learn that he’d been the first, but Taylor’s
grin only revealed his more wolfish nature.

“Good,” he said and then reached his hand out and cupped the

back of Taylor’s neck, bringing him forward for another long, languid
kiss.

Mathias hadn’t been expecting the man to pull away, not with that

frown on his face. “How long did you say we have?”

The question yanked Mathias back into their present situation.

“Until you are free from the demons? On the hour of your thirtieth
birthday.”

“And after that, you won’t be staying with me, will you?”
Mathias winced, then he shook his head. It was all well and good

to imagine him staying here forever whilst Taylor had been pleasuring
him, but now was different. He was in the proper frame of mind, and
he would be forced back to Heaven eventually to at least help his
commander. John would eventually discover the proof they needed to
give to the council that the demons were acting on something sinister
on Earth and in Purgatory.

Taylor’s jaw clenched and his lips thinned. Mathias would have to

be a fool to not notice it. He could also not forget that there was still
some demon inside of the man, and after so many years of having
poison whispered at him, regardless of Mathias’s healing, he could
still go over the edge.

Before he could say anything, offer any words of comfort or

wisdom, of which he had none, Taylor spoke again. “It’ll be way too
easy if they just leave me alone until that happens. Doesn’t leave
much time for them to try and get me at all.”

Mathias shook his head. “No. You’re right about that. I believe we

are safe for the rest of the night. Annabel, the demon leading this
group, is likely being punished at this moment for failing to convert
another general, but she is too powerful to kill. She will come for us
when she is able, but I doubt that will happen until tomorrow, at

40 Marcy

Jacks

least.”

“So I get to actually have a good night’s sleep for once,” Taylor

said.

Mathias would much rather prefer aiding him with his body again,

but mortals did require their sleep. It was how they recharged their
energy, so he would not offer himself anymore if Taylor no longer
wished to have him.

“You’ll sleep with me,” Taylor said, his words hardly sounding

like a question.

Mathias smiled. “Angels rest, but I would hardly call it sleep.”

Did Jeremy sleep now that he was a human? Did he dream? Mathias
wondered what that was like.

“Well, okay, are you going to rest with me then?” Taylor asked.
A question this time. Much better.
“Of course.”
Taylor led him back to his bed, and Mathias happily climbed in

with him, surprised and pleased when the other man put his arms
around Mathias’s shoulders and held him close.

“I won’t let any demons hurt you,” Mathias said.
There was an unhappy grumble from Taylor, though his voice was

still sleepy. “I’m the alpha here. Supposed to protect you.”

He must have been lower on his energy than Mathias originally

thought he was, because the next sound that came from him was a soft
snore.

Mathias had promised to rest himself, but he couldn’t. He would

not allow his mind to wander while he had this man to protect.
Keeping Taylor away from the demons was the only thing of
importance to Mathias, and though he was still certain that nothing
would happen until tomorrow, well, he did not wish to take any
chances that he was wrong.

He spent the night allowing his warmth and energy to flow into

the other man, playing around with the idea that it somehow
connected them on an even deeper level than Taylor’s mating. The

The Half-Breed Werewolf

man would need all the strength he could get for when he was
tempted again.

Jeremy had been tortured in front of Dante until the man had

agreed to go into Hell just to make it stop. Mathias would have to
work under the impression that something or someone Taylor loved
could be taken and harmed in the exact same way in order to get him
to cross over to the darkness. Mathias would have to learn more about
the man in order to protect him.

He watched the clock, listening to Taylor breathe and planning

ahead for the challenges they might face. He’d just started to wonder
whether or not Taylor had anything in his icebox that Mathias could
prepare for him to eat in the morning when the house rumbled.

The clock rattled completely off of the nightstand, and the bed

trembled. The shaking woke Taylor in Mathias’s arms almost right
away.

“What is it?” he asked, looking around.
Mathias could hardly blame him for the wide-eyed look on his

face. This part of the world was hardly known for its earthquakes.

No. This could only mean one thing. Someone unwelcome had

just appeared in Taylor’s home.

“Annabel, I know you’re there,” Mathias said and then waited for

his answer.

42 Marcy

Jacks

Chapter Six

A woman Taylor had never seen before suddenly appeared in his

bedroom. Literally, she materialized from nothing at all and stood
there, looking around Taylor’s space like she was unimpressed with
what she saw.

Then her red eyes landed on him, and she suddenly looked a lot

more interested.

He’d never been attracted to women before, but looking at her,

there was just something about her that made him want to go over to
her and fall at her feet, which was ridiculous. Yes, she was beautiful,
even he could tell that just by looking at her long legs in that tight red
spandex suit of hers, and her blonde hair looked shining and healthy,
like she’d just spent the day at the salon or something.

Everything on her was red, oddly enough, all the way down to her

bloodred lipstick and sharp, red nails. The one-piece spandex suit she
wore looked like something from out of a Halloween store, and it
even had a red, rope-thin tail with the spike on the end and one of
those headbands that had the red horns on top.

His eyes quickly caught onto the way that tail started to sway back

and forth, and the breath got caught right in Taylor’s throat.

Not a fake tail. It was real. An actual devil’s tail. Taylor looked up

at the horns on her head.

She brought one of her fingernails up to scratch at the horn on the

left side of her head. “They’re real, honey, don’t you worry.”

Taylor hadn’t even realized he was caught in her spell until

Mathias stepped between them, blocking off his view of her as he
confronted the demon woman who wanted to turn Taylor into some

The Half-Breed Werewolf

kind of monster.

“Leave this place, Annabel. I have cleansed it to keep your filth

out of here.”

She looked around at the floor that needed to be swept, the

clothing discarded on top of Taylor’s dresser, and scrunched her nose
a little at the mess. “You would never keep a job as a janitor,” she told
him.

Mathias’s head jerked back a little. Clearly, he didn’t get what she

was telling him.

“Whoever you are,” Taylor said, trying to keep his eyes locked

onto her shoulder and not her eyes that sucked him in and made him
not want to think about anything at all. “I’m never going to become a
demon, so you might as well leave. This isn’t going to happen for
you.”

Annabel laughed, and he wished the sound was ugly, like he knew

her insides had to be. Instead, the laugh that came from her could
probably charm little birds from their nests, allowing her to eat them
or something.

“Sweetheart, you already belong to us. Don’t think I don’t know

about that farmhouse you went to last night. You really made a mess
of the people inside. I’m proud of you.”

Taylor’s body suddenly stopped producing heat. He looked over

at Mathias. “I thought you said you got me away from that place?”

“I did. She’d lying,” Mathias said, sparing him a quick glance

before turning his glare back to Annabel. “Get out of here with your
tricks. They will not save you when you fail again.”

“I’m not lying. It’s all over the radio. You should try coming to

our side, Taylor. You get all sorts of interesting powers. Not to
mention the fun you can have against that pack that threw you out.”

“That’s not a good enough reason,” Taylor said.
Annabel shrugged. “I guess I could also say that we have cookies,

too, but I think that one’s been floating around the Internet a little too
long.”

44 Marcy

Jacks

“I didn’t kill anyone last night,” Taylor said. Mathias had told him

that, and he believed the man.

“Are you sure? You can’t exactly remember what your wolf has

been up to lately, can you?”

“Annabel,” Mathias warned, his hand coming to rest on the sword

that suddenly appeared at his hip, almost like he’d never removed his
armor at all, but no. All he had on those slim hips of his were the
extra pair of jeans that Taylor had given him after they’d had their
shower and before bed.

Mathias was using his energy to make the sword appear for him.
Taylor was about to say something, to pull Mathias behind him

and protect him before he could get into a fight with a demon woman
who wanted to suck Taylor’s soul out of his body, but before either of
them could do anything, Annabel lifted her pale, slim hand, and
snapped her fingers together.

The clock radio that had fallen onto the ground in the little

miniearthquake blared to life. The station was set to one that Taylor
never listened to, but she must have done that as well.

The radio host was on the air, talking about the tragedy at the

Williams farmhouse. Taylor could barely focus on the man’s voice,
but all he heard was the words and what they meant. Three confirmed
dead, and one little girl in critical condition who’d needed a helicopter
to fly her to a children’s hospital on the other side of Haven.

Police suspected an animal attack, but which animal had yet to be

determined.

Taylor didn’t need to know which animal. He already knew what

they would find. They would call it a wolf attack.

He shook his head when Annabel snapped her fingers again,

shutting the radio off. “I didn’t do that,” he said.

“No, you didn’t,” Mathias said, pulling his sword from his hip, the

blade glowing a bright blue color as he pointed his weapon at the
demon standing barely three feet away from him. “Begone, Annabel,
or I will take your head off.”

The Half-Breed Werewolf

Annabel’s eyes actually glowed under the threat. Really, they

glowed a bright orange-red, as though there was a fire behind them.

“Do you really think you can take me?” she demanded, her voice

suddenly different.

“You have just been punished by Lucifer himself. I would not be

surprised if you had less energy to spare than you let on.”

Annabel’s red lips thinned, and her fiery eyes narrowed as she

stared at Mathias. She leaned over to the side just a little, and waved
at Taylor, wiggling her fingers and everything.

“When you finish pretending to be something you’re not, give me

a call. If anything, I can at least show you how to control yourself.
You could even come to my world and have some fun sending that
big bad wolf of yours after the evil souls who live in my realm. At
least you’d know they would deserve it, unlike that poor little orphan
girl.”

Mathias let out a loud roar, and he raised his weapon and swung

his blade in a downward motion.

Annabel blinked, having not expected the act. A slice appeared

across her nose, and she raised her hand to her face just as a heavy
drop of blood spilled down from the cut.

Her eyes widened and mouth fell open. Taylor thought she might

start to cry, but she didn’t. She clenched her fist around the drop of
blood, and she glared at Mathias.

“I’ll get you for that, you fucking do-gooding piece of shit.”
“I know,” Mathias said, shocking the hell out of Taylor since he

didn’t answer with something a little more confident, like I’ll be
waiting or bring it on. Anything but what he’d said.

Maybe it meant that Annabel really was stronger than he was.
Annabel vanished from Taylor’s bedroom, though not quite as

cleanly as she’d entered it. A smoggy black cloud was left in her
wake, and it filled his bedroom and set off the fire alarms as he and
Mathias coughed their way out of the bedroom.

The smog followed them, but Mathias, after coughing some more

46 Marcy

Jacks

and wiping the tears from his eyes, stood tall and raised his still-lit
sword.

His body seemed to glow, and his wings appeared from nowhere.

They were so real looking, and not at all transparent like before.
Taylor thought that he might be able to reach his hand out and touch
them.

He didn’t, not when Mathias was busy sucking that black smog

into himself. Into the sword, really. It was the oddest thing in the
world, watching the smoke just drift into that long blade while the fire
burned, almost like it had a mind of its own.

The smoke eventually twisted itself up to look like a minitornado

that moved sideways, tight into the tip of Mathias’s sword, and then
the smog vanished from the house when Mathias finished absorbing it
into his weapon.

The fire had gone out, and he looked down at the blade with a

frown on his face before sheathing it at his hip, and then it vanished.

“What the fucking hell was that?” Taylor demanded.
“A parting gift,” Mathias said with a sigh then looked out the

window to the sliver of pink and purple in the distant crack of the
horizon. “At least she had the decency to make her visit at dawn.”

“Yeah, not much up for sleeping anymore anyway,” Taylor said.

“Is it safe for me to go back into my bedroom?”

“Yes, of course,” Mathias said, as though it should have been

obvious.

Taylor moved past him and went inside. He went back through his

drawers and didn’t bother with looking for a new pair of pants. He
was just going to wear what he had on now, but he wanted socks and
a sweater at the very least.

“What are you doing?” Mathias asked, standing in his doorway

and watching him.

Taylor pulled a heavy pair of boots, his only pair, out from under

his bed. “I’m going out. I need to see that farmhouse she was talking
about.”

The Half-Breed Werewolf

“Taylor, it wasn’t you. You must know that.”
“So then it is destroyed.” Taylor looked up at the other man and

noted the sadness in his eyes. “How could you not protect them?”

Mathias’s dark eyes widened before his handsome face twisted

into something angry. “I did not know that demons would attack the
house after I led you away. I couldn’t have known.”

He was right, and Taylor was aware that it was stupid and childish

to blame the other man for something that wasn’t his fault, but he
couldn’t help but keep picking at the issue, like it was a scab or
something.

“You led me away from that house, so you knew the demons were

targeting it, and how do I know you’re not lying to me and that I
didn’t really attack it? I need to see the house.”

“It would be more than easy for some demons to make it look like

an animal attack,” Mathias said. Taylor caught the hint of ice in his
voice as the angel fought for patience with him and his accusations.

“I still need to see it.”
“Very well, then I will go with you.”
Taylor looked at him, fighting the urge to keep from glaring at his

mate. “I don’t need a babysitter. I’m an alpha.”

“An alpha who is being targeted by demons who want you to go

mad and join their army, as well as an alpha who can hardly recall
what he does when in animal form,” Mathias said, a little too casually.

Taylor wanted to strangle him.
“I’m sorry,” Mathias said, his face stricken as he realized what

he’d just said.

“I still want to strangle you,” Taylor said as he finished dressing

and marched past him. He should have known better than to think the
other man would give him any privacy, despite their little spat.

They’d known each other for less than twenty-four hours and they

were already having their first fight. This was off to a great start.

It wasn’t until Taylor got outside with his new angelic guardian

and locked the door that he realized he didn’t know the way to the

48 Marcy

Jacks

house and that Mathias had nothing to wear.

He turned to look at the man and saw that he’d spared some of his

energy to give himself some shoes and a sweater to ward off the
morning chill.

That was taken care of, at least.
“I don’t know which way to go,” Taylor admitted, trying not to

grumble too much about it.

Mathias sighed. “It’s this way. Perhaps we can pick up my

breastplate on the way.

Mathias did show him the way, and he did manage to get that

broken piece of armor from last night.

Taylor was hardly interested in that, however. He just wanted to

see the house. When they made it just outside the property, he wished
he wasn’t there at all.

There were police cars and vans and reporters all over the place.

The fence on the end of the property had been taped off where it had
been broken through by something powerful, and men in uniform
were all around, making sure the crowd of curious onlookers didn’t
get too close and mess up anything that the police might’ve missed.

Taylor wasn’t exactly new in Haven, but his pack, well, his

former pack, lived completely on the other side of the city, so he
knew no one who stood around in their morning slippers and
housecoats. There weren’t that many people, but for the early hour, it
was still a lot.

“We should go,” Mathias urged, his hand touching Taylor’s

shoulder.

He ignored his new guardian and moved toward an old man who

looked like he might have some kind of information to give. What
precisely it was that gave him that idea, he wasn’t sure, but he went
with his gut.

“Hey there,” Taylor said, sidling up to the guy. “Anyone know

what happened?”

The old guy shook his head, loosing gray-and-silver hairs that had

The Half-Breed Werewolf

yet to be groomed on a nearly bald head.

Taylor was about to take that as a negative response and walk

away when the man started talking.

“Been neighbors since before their first boy was born, he’s grown

up and moved on, to college, and now the kid’s gonna get a call that
his parents and brother are dead, and his little sister is in the hospital
and might not make it.” The man shook his head again. “Goddamn
shame.”

Taylor wished he wouldn’t feel like his stomach was trying to

split into two pieces and fall down his legs and into his feet. The fact
that there was another victim in this that he hadn’t known about only
made things worse.

“Do they know who did this?”
“Not who, what,” the man said. “Was out walking my dog last

night when I heard the wolf howl. Saw the biggest shape you ever
saw in your life running away from the house. It was dark and black
out last night, but you could still make out the silhouette of the wolf,
and it was a wolf. Son of a bitch ran right past me, but then stopped
and looked at me. The brightest gold eyes you ever saw in your life.
Zorro pissed himself at the sight of it and ran straight home. He won’t
even come out of the house now.”

“Zorro?” Taylor asked, his throat feeling incredibly dry.
“My dog,” the man clarified. “I had a flashlight with me, so I saw

the blood it was leaving behind. At first I thought it had killed another
animal, maybe one of the cows they keep. So I called their house to
let them know. You can’t wait for a decent hour for something like
that. No one answered, so I go on down to check on the animals
myself.”

He inhaled a deep, shaky breath. Taylor had no idea who this man

was, but it was more than obvious by now that he’d considered
himself to be a friend of the people who were attacked, especially
with the way he spoke about checking on their animals.

This man was another victim Taylor may or may not have created.

50 Marcy

Jacks

Hell, it was probably his shock that was the reason why he was telling
all of this to a virtual stranger.

“Saw that the door was busted in, some lights were on, and I went

in. Fucking terrible mess. Fucking terrible mess. Called the police,
and now I’m here.”

“Taylor.” It was Mathias’s voice again, and this time Taylor

didn’t want to ignore it.

“I’m so sorry for your loss, sir,” Taylor said, moving away from

the distraught man.

“Terrible mess,” he said again, his eyes appearing far away.
Taylor walked quickly away from the scene, practically dragging

Mathias behind him until they were back in the trees and well out of
sight of the shit storm that had happened at the farmhouse.

“I never should have brought you,” Mathias said.
“You sure it wasn’t me? You’re not lying to protect me or

anything, right?” Taylor’s voice came out a lot more desperate than
he intended it, but there was nothing he could do about that now.

“I swear on my Creator that it wasn’t you. I led you away. You

transformed with no blood on you. It was not you.” Mathias put his
hands on Taylor’s shoulders, looking him in the eyes with all the trust
in the world. “I was there, and I promise you that this is a trick. I am
only sorry that these people had to suffer so that Annabel could play
her game.”

Taylor looked back to the direction of the house. Mathias’s words

had convinced him, but he still felt responsible somehow. He couldn’t
think of anything that he could have done that would have saved the
people living in that house, but still…

“My wolf was sniffing around that house. It led the demons

there,” Taylor said. He squeezed his eyes shut and allowed Mathias to
pull him into his arms. He had to hold onto the man as tightly as he
could. He was afraid he would come apart at the seams if he let go.
He was practically falling apart already.

“Christ, Mathias, why not save them? Where was their guardian

The Half-Breed Werewolf

angel?”

Mathias didn’t answer. Taylor wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the

answer to a question like that anyway.

Mathias held him for a moment longer, and maybe it was the

effects of being held by his mate, but Taylor found himself growing
calm as he absorbed Mathias’s body heat and listened to his heartbeat.
Why would angels even have beating hearts? Weren’t they technically
dead?

He shouldn’t think like that. It reminded him of vampires, and that

only creeped him out.

“Let me take you home,” Mathias said. “I still need to protect you,

and we are out in the open here.”

“I don’t think it much matters if the demons can just appear in my

house whenever they want anyway,” Taylor said, but he still allowed
Mathias to lead him away.

52 Marcy

Jacks

Chapter Seven

When they arrived back at the little house, Mathias had to banish

some more of the tiny pestering demons who had tried to remake their
nests when the two of them had been away. Thankfully, there hadn’t
been nearly as many this time as there had been the first, so his energy
wasn’t quite as drained as before. He still had to eat something,
however. Otherwise he would pass out from the lack of energy.

“Do you have any food in your house? Should we go and get

supplies?”

“There’s food in the fridge. Why? Are we locking ourselves up?”

Taylor asked.

Mathias moved to the large white box in the kitchen where

mortals kept their food. There were food items inside, but he wasn’t
sure how they would fare as far as health was concerned.

“It would be best to stay here for a time and only leave when

necessary,” Mathias said, answering Taylor while still looking at the
jars and boxes inside of the fridge. Not very much smelled right. “For
safety reasons. Are you certain this is edible? It doesn’t look very
good,” he said, lifting the lid off of one of the long and flat boxes and
seeing something that appeared squished on the inside.

Taylor came to peer over his shoulder. “Leftover pizza. It’s only a

couple of days old.”

Mathias couldn’t help the disbelieving sound that came out of his

mouth as he shut the box with a disgusted sigh.

“I didn’t know angels ate food,” Taylor said. “I guess I don’t have

a lot to offer.”

“It’s not for me, it’s for you,” Mathias said and then began

The Half-Breed Werewolf

searching through Taylor’s cupboards. He wasn’t very knowledgeable
when it came to the foods humans ate. Most everything they had came
from large factories, but as an angel, he knew all about produce, fresh
fruits and vegetables that were grown in the gardens of Heaven, their
juices bursting with ambrosia.

There was nothing remotely fresh inside of this house. Everything

was packaged, old, or unrecognizable to Mathias’s eyes.

“What is this?” Mathias asked, pulling a red jar out of the

cupboard and opening the lid. Inside seemed to be red sand.

“That’s fruit juice mix,” Taylor said before Mathias could take a

sniff.

He frowned at the jar. “That is not fruit. How have you been

surviving off of these things?”

Taylor frowned at him, and it occurred to Mathias that most

people did not enjoy having their lives criticized.

“I apologize. I meant no offense,” Mathias said quickly. “But we

need to get you some real, decent food. Proper food will give you the
right energy to battle the demons.”

Taylor could only stare at him with a peculiar look on his face. “I

didn’t realize that angels were health experts.”

“It’s not a matter of being an expert. It’s common sense, even in

Heaven. Where do mortals get their food from? Is there a market near
here? We can get you the proper items you need to survive, but we’ll
have to be quick about it. I don’t think it’s best that you stay in public
for long stretches of time. At least until the hour of your birth
arrives.” Which wouldn’t be for another forty hours from now.

Taylor bit his lips together, looking anything but comfortable.

“That sounds all well and good and everything, but I don’t have any
money.”

Mathias tilted his head to the side. “No?”
“No,” Taylor said. “I work from home, and I won’t get paid for

another three days, so until then I’ll just have to work with what’s in
here.”

54 Marcy

Jacks

That would certainly never do, though Mathias really should have

thought about this. Mortals had been trading services and gold for
their meals almost since the very dawn of their existence, and if this
house was anything to go by, well, Taylor was not impoverished, but
he certainly would not have enough to spend whenever he wanted.

He certainly could not leave Taylor’s side to go back to Heaven

and bring more fruits or vegetables back here for them to eat, and
even if he were to give Taylor his apples, that certainly wouldn’t hold
the both of them over until his birthday.

Mathias looked at his breastplate on the kitchen counter, still with

the wolf slashes across it, and an idea came to him.

“We have money.”
Taylor lifted a brow at him, hardly sounding impressed. “We do?”
“Yes, this is made of silver,” Mathias said, lifting the broken bit of

armor. Then he frowned down at it. “Are you not…weakened by
silver? I thought werewolves could not be near it.”

Taylor looked down at the breastplate, specifically the marks

where his claws had torn through, and then reached his hand out to
gently touch the surface of the metal. He tapped it lightly at first and
then placed his whole hand over it. “Are you sure this is real silver?”

“Of course I’m sure,” Mathias said, affronted that Taylor could

doubt his holy armor. “I suppose, because I’m your guardian, that the
armor knew not to hurt you.”

Taylor’s eyes widened. “It has a mind of its own?”
“Not the way you’re thinking, but the armor does have a certain

power. I should make sure to keep a little for you.”

“What are you going to do with it?” Taylor’s voice was suspicious

as he asked.

“Melt it down into coins we can use to bring you some decent

food.”

He almost expected an argument from Taylor, for the man to be

affronted that Mathias would want to offer what he had to him.

Taylor surprised him by smiling at him and touching Mathias’s

The Half-Breed Werewolf

cheek. “That’s…actually very nice of you to offer, but this isn’t like
biblical times, and I’m not even sure how it was done then. People
won’t just take a direct trade of gold or silver for their products.
They’ll want paper money, or plastic.”

“Plastic?”
“Credit cards,” Taylor specified.
Mathias still didn’t understand.
Taylor sighed. “Come on, let me show you.”
They went back into Taylor’s bedroom where he turned on a

device that Mathias had learned was called a computer, and Taylor
proceeded to show him pictures of what money looked like, including
credit cards.

“We can still have those things,” Mathias said, pointing at the

pictures.

“How?”
It required the use of some more of his energy, which he was

supposed to be conserving, but he still had his apples, and Mathias
was making it part of his mission that Taylor be properly fed, so he
considered it to be a proper trade-off.

He held out the breastplate in front of him and concentrated. He

reminded himself that he wanted to keep just a little of it, and the rest
he melted down with his power. Mathias focused on the pictures of
money on the screen Taylor had shown him, and instead of having the
armor transform into coins, he made the armor dissolve and melt until
it was a small stack of the paper money he held in his hand.

That, and the last little nugget of silver that remained.
Taylor looked down at the money in Mathias’s hands with wide

eyes. “Holy God, you have the coolest power in the world.”

“I doubt I can make more. The armor only gave me what it

believed it was worth. Will this be enough?”

He handed the stack of bills to Taylor, who took them almost

hesitantly and began counting them. He stopped before he was even
half-done. “There’s several thousand dollars here. You have more

56 Marcy

Jacks

than enough.”

“We have more than enough,” Mathias clarified.
“Yeah, well.” Taylor practically pushed the money back into

Mathias’s hands. “I will pay you back for whatever you spend on me.
You should keep the rest in case you need it.”

Mathias had no idea what he could possibly need money for, but

he did not want to test the limits of how much Taylor was willing to
allow himself to be cared for, so he simply nodded.

Being that Taylor lived so close to so many farms, it was easy for

them to leave to purchase fresh goods without traveling very far or
going into heavily populated areas, which was better for Taylor, as he
didn’t seem much in the mood to speak with anyone.

Mathias was only grateful that the farmers were still selling their

wares on the stands along their properties, despite the growing cold
that was creeping into the mornings. He and Taylor made it back
within the hour, and Mathias began preparing his breakfast.

“This can’t really make that much of a difference,” Taylor said,

watching as Mathias worked.

He didn’t know how to use the human stove or any of the other

appliances, but he could create a fruit salad with the yogurt they’d
purchased for dip easily.

“It will, now sit down and eat,” Mathias said, handing Taylor the

bowl and pushing him onto the stool at the kitchen island.

Taylor sat but then took a couple of healthy bites of his food and

then seemed to notice how Mathias hadn’t prepared anything for
himself.

“What about you?”
Mathias pulled one of the small apples from his pouch.
Taylor stared at it and then at him. “You’ve got to be kidding me.

You complain to me about not eating right and you think that will fill
you up?”

“It will not fill me, but it will recharge my energy,” Mathias said,

taking a bite and tasting the ambrosia juice mixed in with the apple’s

The Half-Breed Werewolf

natural flavors wash over his tongue. The small rush of energy was
almost instant.

Taylor gave him that same long stare from before. “I can see your

wings again.”

Mathias took another bite of the small apple and now was more

than half-finished with it and looked over his shoulder. Yes, there
they were, in plain sight and faintly glowing with life. “That happens
when I take in energy. It will stop eventually,” he said, finishing off
his breakfast, eating everything, even the core.

Taylor would not stop staring at him. More specifically, he would

not stop staring at the side of Mathias’s mouth.

Mathias wiped his lips with the back of his hand, feeling a drop of

the ambrosia juice come off onto his fingers.

He had the most ridiculous thought, but he had to try it. Humans

weren’t supposed to be given ambrosia, but it was only one little drop.

“Would you like to try it?” Mathias asked, holding out his hand.
Without any hesitation, Taylor reached out for him, took him by

the wrist, and brought Mathias’s finger to his mouth. His eyes fell
shut as he put Mathias’s fingertips between his lips and sucked off the
juice.

Mathias nearly moaned at the sight. Why was his body acting like

this? Why was his cock hot and throbbing already, when Taylor
wasn’t even touching him there? This was another lesson for Mathias
to learn, that his fingers were also sensitive when he had Taylor’s
smooth tongue sliding over the digits.

Taylor pulled his mouth away and opened his eyes. They were

golden once more, and hungry for something that was not in a bowl,
but still in front of him.

They both rose up from their seats at the same time, and Mathias

allowed himself to be taken into Taylor’s arms and kissed wildly.

Taylor moaned obscenely when he slid his tongue inside of

Mathias’s mouth. Likely he was tasting more of the ambrosia that was
still on his lips.

58 Marcy

Jacks

Mathias felt the firm pressure of Taylor’s cock pressing against

his thigh, and he wanted the other man so badly, despite the dangers
they both faced and the fact that they had already done this so many
times last night.

Mathias’s lips were freed when Taylor began his loving attack on

his throat. He couldn’t help but moan under the sweet attention of the
man’s hands and lips. “Why do I want you so much?”

Taylor stopped and looked at him, a hint of confusion in those

wolfish eyes. “I told you, we’re mated.”

Mathias didn’t see how that should be doing this to him, but

perhaps that was only because he didn’t fully understand the way
mortal lust and matings worked as much as he thought he did.

Taylor pressed Mathias back against the kitchen island, rattling it

as he pressed their hips together.

Mathias gripped Taylor by the hair and moaned loudly, humping

back against that delicious friction and feeling the way his energy
bled into Taylor, strengthening him, making the both of them one.

He’d heard of something like this. Sexual energy was some of the

oldest and most powerful energy in the universe. Perhaps that was
why Mathias was acting this way when he should have been on guard
every waking moment. It wasn’t just affecting Taylor and helping to
strengthen him, but also bonding Mathias to him in ways that would
be beneficial to the both of them later. It built a sort of trust between
them, as well as gave Taylor the strength he would need to fight off
the coming temptations.

Perhaps Mathias was really just looking for an easy excuse to

forgive himself for the temptations that he was giving into. He wanted
this, and he would allow Taylor to take him regardless of whether it
helped or not, because it still felt so damned good.

He arched into the man when his hand slipped beneath the waist

of his jeans, finding his cock and stroking it and his balls with his
palm.

That was glorious.

The Half-Breed Werewolf

Mathias had to grip Taylor’s hair just a little tighter in order to

pull his face away from Mathias’s skin where he’d been kissing.
“Take me again, just like last night,” Mathias commanded, his voice
throaty and hoarse.

Taylor nodded, but he didn’t remove his hand. He continued

stroking Mathias like he was a cat that he wanted to make purr.

Mathias purred for him all right. His knees buckled, and he would

have fallen to his knees had it not been for the kitchen island behind
him.

“You’re so fucking beautiful, you know that?” Taylor whispered

into his ear. “You’re mine, too. Say how much you want this.”

More of that possessive speak. Mathias would agree with him

until his voice no longer worked if that would keep the man’s hand
moving in that circular motion around his cock, but he would
eventually have to speak with Taylor about the unfortunate end to
their tryst. Mathias wanted this, and he never wanted it to end, but he
was an angel, and he was not above admitting to being more than
afraid of having his wings torn out to become human. That, he would
never do.

“Say it,” Taylor growled, his eyes glowing all the brighter. “Tell

me you want this.”

“I do,” Mathias moaned, bushing back against that glorious hand

and bracing his fists on the island behind him.

That seemed to satisfy Taylor’s inner wolf somewhat. “Good,” he

said, removing his hand and dipping low just enough to wrap his arms
around Mathias’s knees. He lifted him up and over his shoulder, then
all but ran back into the bedroom they had shared the night before.

The sudden shock of having a shoulder in his gut, knocking the

wind out of him, nearly did away completely with his lust, but
Mathias was hard again, wanting the man desperately, when he was
dumped back onto the still-messy sheets and Taylor’s hands were
clawing at the button and zipper of the pants he wore.

With both of them working together, they managed to get the

60 Marcy

Jacks

things off of his legs without destroying them. Taylor pulled off his
own pants and kicked them away, and the sight of his cock, hard and
beautiful, held Mathias transfixed. Without thinking about it, he
reached his hand down to grasp at the organ.

The way Taylor’s golden eyes fell shut and his mouth dropped

open as he threw his head back was lovely.

Mathias gripped him just a little bit tighter, and then he circled his

fist around the shaft, drawing a moan out of the other man.

“You are evil,” Taylor said, his hips jerking as Mathias touched

him.

He didn’t think he was being evil. He thought he was being nice.
“Stop, stop,” Taylor said, and Mathias yanked his hand away as

though he’d been burned.

“Stop?”
Taylor grinned at him. “I want to do something to you. Been

wanting to do it since I first saw you with nothing on.”

Mathias had no idea what he was on about but understood just a

little better when Taylor dropped to his knees down on the side of the
bed, pulling on Mathias’s legs until his knees were bent over the side
and Taylor was leaning between them.

He propped himself onto his elbows, if only just to see what the

other man was doing.

Taylor put Mathias’s swollen cock in his hand, and now he was

looking at it like it was a special sort of treat. Like it was ambrosia.

Mathias suddenly recalled the way Taylor had been sucking on his

fingers, and his cock jumped at the thought.

“Surely not, you cannot mean to―”
His words were cut off when, yes, Taylor did indeed do it. He

opened his mouth and slid his tongue along the shaft of Mathias’s
cock. From the very bottom all the way to the top and dipping into the
slit where his pearly fluids were gathering.

Then he put his lips around the head, and Mathias thought he

would die with pleasure and embarrassment as he fell backward

The Half-Breed Werewolf

against the bed.

He was not looking at Taylor at this point, but he could still feel

the way the man dipped his head lower still, taking more and more of
Mathias’s dick into his mouth, and those wet lips travelled down until
almost all of Mathias’s cock was submerged.

Taylor tightened his lips and swirled his tongue, and then he

began to suck back on it.

No, now Mathias would die from pleasure, though he was hardly

embarrassed any longer, not when Taylor was doing that to him.

He put his hands over his eyes to ward off the stars that were

exploding behind them, and were those sounds coming from him?

He had to see, he could not look away any longer. Mathias forced

his hands away from his eyes and lifted himself to once more look
down on his lover.

The sight of his mouth, stretched around the base of Mathias’s

cock, was nearly his undoing. It was so…so…He did not have words
to describe it or the shivering thrill that jolted up his spine when
Taylor winked at him and continued to pull back and forth with his
mouth.

“You are beautiful like that. Oh! Do not stop doing that!”
Mathias would have to file away this information for later, that

putting a mouth over his dick would bring this sort of pleasure. It was
the worst sort of torture but the best kind of bliss. He wanted Taylor
to never stop, and he wanted to do it to Taylor.

He thrust into the man’s mouth, watching his cock vanish and

then reappear as he did so. Taylor brought his hand up and gently
squeezed and rolled his testicles, and Mathias could handle no more.

“I’m…I’m coming,” he gasped, hardly able to get the words out

that Taylor needed.

He spoke too late, apparently, since Taylor seemed to have a

difficult time swallowing down the cum that Mathias’s body couldn’t
stop producing.

His bones turned into slop when he finished, and his muscles

62 Marcy

Jacks

uncoiled from the tight ball they’d tried winding into as he collapsed
back onto the bed.

Taylor crawled up and over top of him, like a cat instead of a

wolf. When he kissed him, Mathias thought it was strange to be
tasting himself on Taylor’s lips.

“Lift your hips,” he said.
Mathias lazily opened his eyes and smiled, doing as he was told

and allowing Taylor to position him, spreading his thighs and settling
between them like he belonged there. Perhaps he did.

The warm touch of flesh on flesh made Mathias’s cock twitch

again, but he didn’t start to harden with need until Taylor pulled the
bottle they’d used the night before for lubrication and then put his
fingers back inside of Mathias’s hole.

He sighed and spread his legs farther apart. He’d nearly forgotten

about this part, and he couldn’t wait for it. “I love when you put your
cock inside of me.”

Taylor grinned at him. “Maybe next time you can return the favor,

and then you’ll know just what you do to me when I’m pushing in and
out of you.”

His words made the blood in Mathias’s veins boil with lust, and

he wrapped his arms around Taylor’s muscled back, pulling him
closer as the other man sank into him.

“That’s nice,” he moaned, tightening his thighs when Taylor

started to move, slowly at first, but then faster and faster.

Mathias held him close, loving the way their bodies connected and

how Taylor took in his energy as though it had always been a part of
him. Mostly, he loved the feeling of being held while the other man
was inside of him, taking his pleasure and giving it in return.

Taylor kissed his mouth, his jaw, his neck, and never once did he

lose his rhythm.

“Mine, never letting you go. You’re mine,” Taylor whispered

between thrusts and kisses.

Mathias pushed back against him, pressing his mouth to any

The Half-Breed Werewolf

available spot of skin that he could reach. While Taylor held him like
this, claimed him, and pleasured him, Mathias found it easy to pretend
that the other man was right.

* * * *

Annabel watched the two rut against each other like animals, and

admittedly, she had a difficult time containing her lust, and her
disgust.

It was easy for her to admit to the beauty of two men touching

each other like that, but all of her disgust settled with Mathias, that
worthless angel who’d ruined her plans when he’d taken Dante out of
Hell and brought the man back to Earth, right when she had nearly
had him entirely in her grasp.

It wouldn’t have taken much longer before the man had allowed

all of his inner demon out and had become the powerful general he
was meant to be.

But now those plans had been destroyed, and Annabel had been

punished in the worst sort of humiliating way by Lucifer himself.
That man did not like to be disappointed, and he did not enjoy hearing
that angels had been coming and going in and out of his realm, taking
what was meant to be a powerful weapon right out from under his
nose.

Annabel blamed Mathias entirely, and now, watching him getting

fucked by the man who was destined to become the next powerful
general in Hell, one of the generals who would take back Heaven for
the Morning Star, all she could feel was hate.

It wasn’t like she was taking much effort to cloak herself. She was

right above them, hovering, watching, with nothing more than an
invisibility spell to keep her hidden and safe, yet he was too busy
moaning and grasping at Taylor’s hair to notice that a powerful
demon such as herself was so close.

The trick was to come into the Earthly realm outside of the house

64 Marcy

Jacks

and then enter it to keep that shaking from occurring in the foundation
that would give away her presence. Perhaps that was the reason why
he had yet to notice her. It wasn’t like she’d given him the proper
signs that she’d arrived.

That, and the overconfidence the bastard likely felt after he’d

sliced her face with his sword.

Annabel resisted the urge to reach up and touch the wound

between her eyes and crossed over her nose. It was still throbbing
with pain from that angelic fire, and it would leave a scar. She would
scar Mathias in return for what he’d done.

She briefly thought about going down there while they were both

too transfixed with each other to notice. She could feel the way
Mathias gave Taylor his clean energy while they fucked like dirty
animals, but still, there was always the chance that, in this weakened
state, Taylor might not be able to resist her if she began whispering
into his ear. She could put a weapon on the bed, possess Taylor’s
body, and slice Mathias’s face with a smile. That would certainly
teach him a thing or two about sullying a woman’s features.

She was about to go down and do just that. Her hands were just

reaching for Taylor’s temples, her black energy aching to get inside of
him, to take control of his mind, to throw him over the edge.
Murdering an angel would surely be enough to damn him to Hell and
make him one of the generals that Lucifer desperately wanted.

Before the smoky tendrils of her energy could even touch him,

white light erupted from both Mathias’s and Taylor’s joined bodies,
blasting her backward and completely out of the little shit hole of a
house.

Annabel screamed as she whirled and twisted in the air, and she

couldn’t even stop herself until she was damn near over the clouds.
She seethed, settling the frizz that her hair had become and lowering
herself back down to ground level. She was still invisible, and
Mathias hadn’t rushed out of the house yet to confront her or demand
to know what she had been doing inside of the house.

The Half-Breed Werewolf

Carefully, she moved forward, toward the window that was only

slightly ajar. Within the room, she could still hear the sounds of sex
and smell it like a thick musk.

Whatever it was that happened, neither the angel nor the half

demon inside seemed to be aware of it. That was strange. She was
going to have to think of another way to get to Taylor if she could no
longer attempt to possess him. Would that same thing happen if the
smaller temptation demons tried whispering to him again? They
certainly weren’t here right now.

The last time she’d tortured that other angel until Dante agreed to

go into Hell with her. This time, with no other angels on Earth who
could follow her, would that same plan work? The angels did seem to
have some trouble keeping their hands away from their charges, and
Annabel could tell that there were already soft feelings building
between them, especially from Taylor’s end.

No, she would try the classic route, persuasion. She would

discover what Mathias had or had not told Taylor about his role to
play in the future war for Heaven, and then she would use it against
him. There was always something.

Taylor was a werewolf, and judging by the noises coming from

the inside of the fugly little house, she was willing to bet he’d mated
with Mathias. How it would break his heart into pieces if he knew that
Mathias could not stay. Annabel would have to make certain she did
not rip the wings out this time.

She smiled over her forming plan and had just decided to stick

around for a little while longer, perhaps watch and see if Mathias
would dirty his knees by getting down and putting Taylor’s cock in
his mouth, when a sharp ringing sounded in her ears, and the
sensation of falling entered her belly.

She knew that feeling. She’d designed it herself to warn her when

someone was tampering with her pool of souls.

She wanted to be angry but could not help but smile. That pool

was meant to feed the generals when they finally came into their

66 Marcy

Jacks

powers. It would be used to help them kill and defeat as many angels
as they could and keep them sustained when they finally crossed over
Purgatory to take the Golden Gates.

She should have known that John would find it. She couldn’t help

but be impressed, even though Lucifer would be pissed.

She might as well go and see if there was anything she could

salvage, perhaps gather up a few souls who’d escaped, though she
could never take them into Hell. Souls in Purgatory had to stay in
Purgatory, but they were the only ones who could be eaten.

Oh well.
Annabel smiled through the window and waved good-bye to the

pair who were too busy with each other to notice she was there, even
when she took off her invisibility spells and drifted into Purgatory to
meet her soon-to-be-lover.

The Half-Breed Werewolf

Chapter Eight

It was never as easy as just breaking something that looked like

glass. Kale huffed as he slammed his sword against the tub that held
the souls trapped one more time, and this time, he managed to put a
chink in it, finally, a hole small enough that the souls could leak out
of and escape.

One at a time.
“I got a hole over here!” Daren yelled from the other side of the

pool.

“Me, too!” Lana yelled back. He could hear the sounds of their

swords striking against the pool some more. At this rate, all of the
souls would eventually be freed to go back to their mindless
existences, but there would be no giant and glorious explosion as the
pool was destroyed and the thousands upon thousands of souls were
set free.

The poor bastards, but Kale decided not to feel any pity for them.

Their time would eventually come to be reincarnated back on Earth,
which was the only reason why these souls were still considered
important to both sides of the war.

Kale made several more chips into the glass that was as hard as

thick stone, creating several more small holes that would allow the
souls to slither out. He did that until he arms ached and he needed to
rest. He stepped away from the tub, watching as the souls slipped one
by one out of each of the dozen or so holes he’d managed to make in
the pool.

What in the name of all things was Annabel doing with something

like this, anyway? John had mentioned something about a power

68 Marcy

Jacks

source, but he didn’t understand how that could work.

He wanted to ask his commander about that, but he hadn’t seen

him since the end of the battle when John had cut off the head of the
last troll, the one that had stomped on Kale’s chest, held him down,
and nearly crushed him with his club.

He would be dead had John not been there, watching out for him.

Now that he could no longer see his commander and couldn’t
remember hearing his voice since his last order to free the souls, Kale
was worried.

He sheathed his blue-flame sword and went searching. John

would not have gone far, so he saw no need to use the fire to see
through the heavy fog.

Sure enough, there he was, and Kale breathed a sigh of relief.

“Commander.”

His commander was studying one of the glowing stone pillars that

surrounded the pool. It was a bright red, just like the others, but for
some reason, the man could not seem to look away from this one.

“John?” Kale asked, slowing to a halt. “Are you well?”
John did not answer. He did not even turn to look at Kale. That

was not right.

Kale felt like an idiot. John must be hurt, he had to be, but Kale

had been too quick to rush and do as his commander had told him that
he hadn’t so much as bothered to check John for wounds. Was he
injured, or even worse, possessed?

“John, let me help you,” Kale began to walk forward again, but

then was suddenly pushed back by a bright force that stemmed from
the pillar.

He fell onto his back, his armor clanking against the hard floor.

He looked up in time to see the pillar glowing a bright green this time
with a black center. A portal had formed, and John was being sucked
toward it, though he now seemed to be in the right frame of mind
since it appeared as though he was struggling against the invisible
hold that held onto him tightly.

The Half-Breed Werewolf

His teeth were clenched with the effort to get away, but slowly, he

continued to be pulled toward the portal.

Annabel was smiling on the other side.
“John!” Kale yelled, lurching to his feet and running toward his

friend.

John finally seemed to notice him, but he did not get the chance to

shout a reply before Kale flew out and latched his arms around his
commander’s chest, just before he could be pulled off of his feet and
sucked into the portal.

“Kale! What are you doing? Let me go or she’ll take us both!”
“No!” If anything, Kale gripped his commander tighter and dug

his heels into the flooring beneath him, putting all of his weight into
keeping John from being taken.

He yelled out for help but couldn’t take his eyes away from the

portal that loomed ever closer, with Annabel’s smiling face inside as
she reached out for them.

They were so close. This wasn’t going to work. Kale wasn’t going

to succeed.

He spun his body around, pulling John with him and throwing the

man in the other direction, and Kale was caught in whatever powerful
force that had been pulling at his friend, and it took him instead.

The last thing he heard, the last thing he saw, before the pain

grabbed hold of him and squeezed tight was the sight of more fire
knights appearing and of John’s panicked face as he rushed forward in
an attempt to save him from the darkness that surrounded him.

* * * *

Mathias stopped what he was doing and grabbed at his chest, at

the space just over his heart.

Taylor had been doing something or other at his computer,

working to earn his living whilst Mathias stayed in his bedroom,
observing him in action, but the man had still quickly noticed that

70 Marcy

Jacks

something was amiss, despite the fact that his eyes had been firmly
glued to his screen for the last several hours.

He was on his knees in front of Mathias from where he sat on the

bed in an instant, his hands on Mathias’s arms. “What is it? What
happened? Are the demons attacking you?”

Mathias felt a certain warmth over his charge being so fearful for

him when really it should be the other way around, but that inner
happiness was pushed away when Mathias’s heart throbbed again.

He shook his head. “Something…something is wrong. Something

happened with my friends.”

“Your friends?”
Mathias nodded. He and the others had not worked together very

many times. Indeed, most of the members of his team were barely
acquaintances, but he considered John and Kale to be very good
friends. There had definitely been a time when John had gone out into
danger to save Mathias’s life when he did not have to. Kale had
bandaged Mathias’s wounds more than once as well.

Something had happened, if not to one of them, then to both of

them. Something was wrong.

“Do you know what happened?” Taylor asked.
In his frustration over not knowing what was happening, Mathias

shrugged away from Taylor’s hold to pace around his bedroom.

“Is anyone hurt?” Taylor asked.
“I don’t know,” Mathias said, an edge in his voice that he

immediately regretted as he clenched and unclenched his fists.

Looking over at Taylor, he could see that the man was not taking

it personally. If anything, he appeared thoughtful. “I remember being
like that when someone in my pack was hurt. Do you need to go back
and check on them?”

It was thoughtful for him to ask, but it also made Mathias’s

insides freeze up. If something had happened to Mathias’s friends
while they were in Purgatory, hunting down whatever pool of souls
they’d been tracking to begin with, then yes, going to them to aid

The Half-Breed Werewolf

them in their struggles would have otherwise been the first thing he
would have done.

Not now. Not when he had a mission as important as this.
“I cannot leave your side. This could be a trick from Annabel,” he

said. “And even if it’s not and she has done something, she could very
well be hoping for me to leave to have a better chance of getting to
you.”

Taylor bit his lips together, looking anything but pleased as he

frowned, but he still nodded. Mathias liked that the man, the alpha,
was still able to accept when Mathias spoke of protecting him, even if
his acceptance was reluctantly given.

“What can we do?” Taylor asked.
Mathias sighed and rubbed his face with the heel of his palms.

“There is nothing that can be done. I must wait for word to come from
them. I cannot go to Heaven at the moment anyway, even for a few
minutes.”

“Would it really be that dangerous?” Taylor asked.
“Yes, but I could also be arrested.”
That seemed to throw the other man off. “Arrested? For what?”
Mathias deeply wished he hadn’t said anything. It was his worry

that had caused him to slip like that. He had to come clean with this
part of the tale now.

“The council in Heaven, they are still undecided on whether or not

they believe there is a danger from the generals I told you about. They
still do not fully believe that such creatures could exist without their
knowing of it.”

“Me? They don’t think I exist?” Taylor asked, his voice

incredulous.

“They know you do, in a way, but they do not know of your

potential danger. John gathered us together after he learned of the
existence of the powerful demon generals who could bring down the
gates of Heaven, and we were sent out, without the permission of the
council or their approval. We are traitors now. I suspect that the only

72 Marcy

Jacks

reason I have not been brought back for questioning, since I already
told you of the secret of angels, is because either something is
shielding me from their view or they have become curious since the
incident with Dante.

“I would rather not find out which for certain that it is,” Mathias

finished, looking up into Taylor’s face and waiting.

His flesh was a shade paler than it had been before Mathias had

started speaking.

“Are you…well?” Mathias asked, not knowing what else to ask

since everything he said seemed to be making it worse.

Taylor shook his head. He almost looked to be in a daze of sorts.

“I guess I always thought of Heaven, whatever it was made up of, I
don’t know…I guess I always figured the people in charge would be
more vigilant.”

Mathias told himself to not be insulted by that. “Vigilant?”
“Well, if someone came to the people in charge and said there was

a threat, I guess my first thought would be, okay, what should we do
about it? That’s what I would’ve said if I was still in charge of my
pack.”

Mathias hadn’t been aware that Taylor had been the alpha of his

pack. “I suppose the only explanation for their actions that I could
give is that we are more human in our emotions than the mortals give
us credit for.”

Taylor looked at him, and while he didn’t blush, Mathias could

sense the sudden sharpness in the beating of his heart as well as hear
how his breath seemed to catch in his lungs.

“Have I said something?” Mathias asked.
Taylor shook his head, smiling almost mischievously at him now.

“No. What you said makes perfect sense, actually. Yeah, otherwise I
don’t think I would’ve been able to get you in bed so easily.”

Mathias bristled. “I did not give in that easily!”
“Yes, you did. You thought I was so handsome that you couldn’t

wait to jump my bones.”

The Half-Breed Werewolf

Mathias was chasing him around the room now, thinking of the

many ways he could hit Taylor without actually hurting the man. He
was torn between fury and good cheer with the way Taylor continued
to avoid him, laughing all the while.

“Admit it!” Taylor said as he dodged another punch that would

have landed on his chest. He was faster than he looked. Likely due to
being an alpha werewolf. “I’m irresistible.”

“You are certainly drawing me to you now!” Mathias shouted, and

then he leaped clear over the bed where Taylor had taken refuge.

The other man didn’t duck out of the way this time. He caught

Mathias with open arms, and they both tumbled to the floor.

Now Mathias could not contain his laughter, not when Taylor

smiled like that, his eyes so bright and his mouth so close.

Taylor kissed him, happiness resonating from his body and

pouring into Mathias when it should have been the other way around.
Mathias was the one who was supposed to be protecting Taylor from
his inner demons until his curse could be broken, but somehow,
Taylor was giving his energy to Mathias, even though he had no
curse.

He touched the other man’s face when they pulled away to

breathe. Taylor’s smile melted away. Likely he wondered what had
made Mathias so suddenly serious once more.

“Are you okay? No, sorry, that’s dumb. Your friends…Shit, I’m

sorry.”

Sorry? Did he think he’d done something inappropriate by making

Mathias laugh when his friends could be in danger? He pushed away
a lock of that dark-brown hair that had fallen into Taylor’s amber eyes
before pressing a gentle kiss to his soft lips.

“Do not be sorry. My comrades and I are all soldiers, and I was

not close with them all. We know the dangers of what we do and the
mission we took. I was merely thinking, but I suppose this is hardly
the time to be caught up in these sorts of activities.”

He pressed his forehead against Taylor’s, enjoying the other

74 Marcy

Jacks

man’s warmth. How was he expected to leave his side when
everything was said and done? Mathias’s heart squeezed merely
thinking about it, and he knew right then and there that it would break
his heart entirely once it was time for him to go.

“What should we do?” Taylor asked.
The truth was that there was not much of anything they could do

except wait, but Mathias feared something like that would drive him
mad, and Taylor was an alpha. He was ready to be put to use. If he
was not working on his computer, then he needed to be doing
something.

“We will remain vigilant, and now that everything is calm, before

it all has a chance to go to hell, I will need your promise on
something.”

Taylor tilted his head a little, waiting for Mathias to explain

himself. “Okay.”

“I have already told you that Annabel attempted to force Dante’s

hand by torturing his lover.”

Taylor stiffened.
“I know we have not known each other for very long, but I need

your word that, should she attempt to use me somehow, whether in a
similar fashion, or with her lies, that you will never give in to her.
You must always walk away.”

Taylor’s lips thinned. “It’s not going to be that easy. I can’t even

really remember what happened after I wolfed out and went to that
farmhouse. I believe you when you say that I didn’t do anything, but
what am I supposed to do if she uses my wolf against me?”

Mathias could not allow that to happen. Not if he wanted to keep

Taylor safe. “I will prevent you from harming anyone. You have my
word on that. Now I simply need yours. Promise me that, no matter
what she tells you and no matter what she does, you will not follow
her or listen to her.”

Mathias was no longer receiving any of that warm energy from

Taylor, and his body was not giving it to Taylor either. Something

The Half-Breed Werewolf

between them had just shut off, and Taylor’s eyes were hard.

Mathias could not have that. He gripped the man’s shoulders as

tightly as he could, staring into the depths of his eyes. “You must
promise me,” he said.

Taylor bit his bottom lip, but he was still partly glaring at Mathias,

which was something he did not completely understand.

Finally, he gave the slightest of nods. “I promise.”
Mathias sighed with relief, and he wrapped his arms around

Taylor’s shoulders, allowing his light and his warmth to flow through
the other man. He tried to take away some of the darkness that had
come into him when he forced Taylor’s hand to make his promise, but
it was still there, the tiniest of little seeds that he could not dig out.

Stubborn, that’s what the man was. He was stubborn, and there

was nothing Mathias could do about it.

“I know what you’re doing. Stop it,” Taylor said, squeezing him

just a little tighter. “I should be angry once in a while. That’s a normal
emotion.”

Perhaps it was, but Mathias didn’t like risking that any anger or

bitterness existed within Taylor when there were demons out there
who would use those emotions against him.

“Hey.” Taylor nudged him, attempting to gain some sort of

response, and then pulled away just enough to face him. “I’m okay.
Don’t worry.”

More of that stubborn nature of his. Mathias could not help his

smile. “I suppose that being bullheaded will not hurt anything. I find
myself liking it in you.”

Taylor gave him a look, something that twisted his lips and made

his eyes narrow ever so slightly. Now it seemed he was the one
struggling between laughter and annoyance.

That roughness was smoothed away, however, and Taylor was

gazing at him with an eager expression that Mathias had never seen
before. “Tell me you love me.”

Mathias blinked. “What?”

76 Marcy

Jacks

Taylor looked away from him for only a couple of seconds to

stare at his carpet, but as he spoke, he seemed to gain more
confidence to meet Mathias’s eyes once more. “I know we haven’t
known each other for very long, and I don’t want you to think I’m
weird or clingy, but we are mated, and if you say it, even if you don’t
mean it, I think I’ll have an easier time fighting off whatever comes
after me. More so than that happy juice you keep pumping into me.”

“It’s not a juice. It’s my energy.”
“Yeah, well, just tell me you love me, anyway. I could really use

hearing something like that right about now.”

Mathias did not have to think about it. “I love you,” he said.
Taylor smiled and rested his head on Mathias’s shoulder.
Mathias clutched the man to him in a similar fashion, not daring to

look at him but unable to let him go.

It was no lie, and not something he’d said to ease Taylor’s fears or

give him confidence. He did love the man, he loved him more than
what should have been possible, but it was there.

As was the horrible realization that neither of them would ever be

made happy by that love. Eventually, after the mission was done and
the council stopped humoring him, Mathias would have to return to
Heaven. If he attempted to stay, other angels would come for him and
force him back.

Or send him to Hell as punishment for defying the Creator’s law.

The thought made him shiver. Tearing his wings out was also
something he could not do. Before coming here, he’d asked Jeremy
what it had felt like to have them taken. The other angel, former
angel, had confessed that it was such a terrible pain that attacked both
his body and his mind, and that, if given the choice, he might not have
chosen to have them torn out again.

The idea that there was something so horrible as to make Jeremy

hesitate to decide between it or his lover was enough for Mathias. He
would not have his wings removed.

He supposed he could always go back to Heaven and wait for

The Half-Breed Werewolf

Taylor to live out his life and join him there. The idea held some
romantic appeal, but the reality was much more cruel. Taylor would
be by himself for the remainder of his life, and werewolves did live
long lives. Who was to say that those years would not be miserable,
filled with lonely days and unbearable nights for the both of them?
There was also no telling what Taylor would be when he died. An
angel or a spirit? If the latter, then Mathias was in trouble. Angels
were forbidden to socialize with spirits without good cause, and
Taylor might even leave the memory of Mathias behind and find
himself another lover.

Mathias did not think he could bear such a thing, but at least

Taylor would be happy, and he would not feel as though his time after
Mathias left him was as horrible and miserable as when the demons
had been haunting him.

“Taylor?”
Taylor’s reply was a quiet one. Perhaps they were both lost in

their thoughts. “Yeah?”

“You keep saying that we are mated. What does that mean?”
Taylor pulled back to look at him, frowning a little. “Well, it

means we’re connected. Spiritually, that is.”

Mathias thought it over. “I am spiritually connected to Heaven

and my friends. Is it similar to that?”

Taylor pursed his lips together, and his eyes still had that look of

confusion, as though he were struggling with explaining himself.
“Yes, and no, I guess. What it means is…” He sighed and threw his
hand into his hair, gripping it tightly before looking back at Mathias.
“You really don’t get it?”

He appeared hurt that Mathias didn’t, and Mathias desperately

wished he understood. “What does it mean? This connection of ours,
can it be broken?”

Taylor turned away from him and suddenly looked like he’d put

something foul tasting into his mouth. “Only death can do that.”

“Oh, well, when I return to Heaven, perhaps that will sever the

78 Marcy

Jacks

connection. I am not dead, but I am not alive either. Going home
should be enough.”

When the connection was severed, Taylor would be able to move

on. He could live his long life, find another person to mate with, and
forget that Mathias ever came into his life.

The idea hurt his heart in ways that no demon blade against his

skin ever could, but this was by far better. It was the better option, and
Mathias would do his best to be glad that he was not going to leave
Taylor regretting forever.

“Yeah, great,” Taylor said, pulling himself out of Mathias’s arms

and getting up off of the floor.

Mathias was suddenly cold without him, but he couldn’t quite

understand the despair that came over the other man.

“This saddens you. Let me take it,” he said and reached out for

Taylor’s shoulder.

Taylor shrugged him away and glared at him as he kept on

walking. “Leave me alone.”

“The demons could feed from the emotions you are sending out

right now. You are practically calling to them.”

“I don’t care.”
Not good. This was not good, and Mathias had clearly put him in

this foul mood. Of course he had, he’d spoken of severing their
connection after Taylor had desperately asked him to tell him that he
loved him.

Mathias could never tell him that he loved him again. Not if it

would break his heart even more so than he was doing now when it
came time to leave, but neither could he allow Taylor to wallow in
this misery.

“I said come here,” Mathias said, shooting his hands out to take

hold of Taylor’s shoulders and wrapping his arms around the man’s
back. Taylor struggled, but he had no choice in the matter. Mathias’s
angelic strength was more powerful than Taylor’s werewolf power,
and he was not calling on his inner demon, not yet, so Mathias was

The Half-Breed Werewolf

able to pin him to the wall, holding him and forcing his light energy
inside of Taylor’s body.

Taylor growled and snarled, and Mathias felt the sharp pain of

teeth on his neck, piercing the flesh and drawing blood, but he didn’t
release the other man. He couldn’t.

He relaxed his strong grip, but did not pull away, when Taylor’s

muscles were no longer quite so bunched up and he had stopped
snarling and biting at him. Taylor’s hands came up, and they were
gentle on the small of Mathias’s back as he returned the embrace.

“Can’t even let me be angry, can you?”
Mathias stroked the back of Taylor’s neck, feeling the soft hairs

there and the warm skin. “No, I’m sorry.”

“Me, too,” Taylor said, sounding defeated, which Mathias realized

was just as bad as if he’d been angry and about to lose control of
himself.

80 Marcy

Jacks

Chapter Nine

Now Annabel had something to work with. She had that one

angel, Kale, in a nice position, if she did say so herself. She would
rather have been able to take John, but injuring the other angel who
had been stupid enough to interfere was almost as good.

John, that beautiful fool with all of his integrity and stubbornness,

could not bring himself to leave behind an injured comrade, and
wasn’t that just the reason why Annabel loved him so much?

She hadn’t much enjoyed the look in his eyes when he’d struggled

to pull the other angel out of her black field or when he stared down at
Kale’s face, saying his name with the kind of fear that Annabel
worked diligently to instill into the souls she kept firmly under her
boot.

Her jealousy had risen, but so had her imagination. No matter

what John felt for the other angel, she had them both now that she
knew the commander’s secrets, and she would make him fall, and he
would be hers soon enough.

As though that new knowledge hadn’t been sweet enough, she’d

returned to Earth to check on her latest project in time to overhear that
lovely little heartbreaker of a conversation between Mathias and her
latest general.

Taylor loved the angel, the stupid idiot, and Mathias, being an

innocent angel, had no idea of how deeply connected he was to the
werewolf and was searching for a way to sever what he clearly
believed was something of little to no consequence.

Taylor had been hurt, Mathias had held him, and so on and so

forth, and now she was watching them fuck again on Taylor’s bed.

The Half-Breed Werewolf

Secrets, secrets, and many more secrets. Annabel pulled her eyes

away from the lovely scene of Mathias on his hands and knees with
Taylor behind him, his cock appearing and disappearing inside of the
other man’s perfectly shaped ass. She jumped up and sat on the roof,
watching the sunset as she contemplated how she would carry on after
all of these delicious discoveries, and all the while her pussy throbbed
at the sound of that angel moaning and keening below her.

She imagined it was John, and that he was doing those things to

Kale, or to her, but she didn’t touch herself. The longer she waited for
her own angel, the better the pleasure would be.

She smiled as plans came together neat as you please inside of her

mind. It would take John and the others some days to get back out of
Purgatory, especially with one of the angels dead, Kale injured and
slowing the lot of them down. The dark poison from Annabel’s portal,
which had been meant for another, would take its toll on the angel,
and by then John would be willing to do anything to keep his friend
alive.

Until then, she had more than enough time to set things in motion

here. She could still feel the energy, that powerful, sexual energy, the
same as before, surrounding the house while the men inside rutted in a
desperate attempt to hold onto each other. She wouldn’t attack, she
couldn’t while they made love, but she could still persuade, and now
that she knew about that love, she knew exactly what to use.

Annabel was a fan of true love. Mortals sold their souls all the

time for it. To rescue their loved one, to gain a loved one, they went
to war and killed each other for their love. That was why Annabel
adored the emotion and kept very good track of it throughout the
years. She saw clearly what was happening inside of that house. It
was as ridiculous as it was cliché and pathetic.

They loved each other, but one believed his love to be unrequited,

and the other only wished to save his lover from it. That was more
than enough. She could use that and destroy the both of them with just
that alone, and she would do just that, and Taylor would belong to

82 Marcy

Jacks

Hell in no time at all.

Then Annabel could go off and collect John, because if she had

seen it right, he would fall into the category of a man willing to sell
his soul to rescue the man he loved.

* * * *

Taylor collapsed on top of Mathias’s back with a breathy groan.

He pressed his cheek against Mathias’s back, which was slightly
damp with sweat, but he hardly minded that, and he pressed a kiss to
the perfect flesh anyway.

If he only had hours left with the other man before Mathias left

him for good, then he would take them and make the most out of
them.

Unfortunately, Mathias did not seem to have the stamina that

Taylor did, and he soon collapsed beneath Taylor’s weight and fell
asleep with Taylor still inside of him.

Well, he supposed holding the man into the night was just as well.

He would prefer making love until dawn, but there had to be love for
them to be able to make it, and Mathias clearly had none.

He was doing this to keep Taylor happy, to keep his will and his

spirit strong against any demon attacks. He did not love Taylor, and
considering the short amount of time they’d known each other, Taylor
couldn’t exactly bring himself to be angry. He didn’t have that right,
not when Mathias was a creature so far out of Taylor’s league that
they should never have met to begin with, and not when Mathias was
still so innocent in the ways of relationships that he still didn’t fully
understand what it was to be mated.

Taylor wouldn’t survive without him, but Mathias was already

dead, he supposed, so it wouldn’t matter to him after he went back to
Heaven or wherever it was that the angels lived.

He held onto Mathias the entire night. He hadn’t felt like he fell

asleep so much as it seemed like he’d closed his eyes and opened

The Half-Breed Werewolf

them again to see the sun pouring into his bedroom.

He didn’t want it to be the next day, because it was going to be his

last day with Mathias. The man was going to leave after Taylor’s
curse had been broken, and it wasn’t like they could spend the day
relaxing on Taylor’s couch, watching movies or anything. Mathias
was still concerned that the demons might make a play for him, and
considering the mood Taylor was in right now, he didn’t think they’d
have to try very hard in order to kidnap him, or convert him, or do
whatever it was they wanted to do to him to make him turn into one of
their evil minions.

No, the rest of the day would be spent in tense and awkward

silence between the both of them as they waited for Taylor’s birthday,
and all the while Taylor would be wondering how much longer after
that until Mathias gave him that bright smile, wished him well, and
then vanished from Taylor’s life forever.

They wouldn’t have tonight, or even today, but Taylor could

damn well tell that they had this morning, and if it turned out that
there was no more time, well, he was going to make time.

He pulled away from the other man and gently tugged the covers

off of them before sliding down Mathias’s perfect body. They were
both still naked from the night before, and their bodies and the sheets
still held that smell of sex that made Taylor hard and achy for the
other man.

Not man, angel, he reminded himself, knowing that there was a

difference.

The difference being that he could not keep an angel.
He shoved the thought out of his head. The one thing about

Mathias that was definitely the same as any man was the hard cock
between his legs. Well, maybe it wasn’t completely the same. It was
definitely bigger than usual, maybe even a little bigger than what
Taylor had, and he suddenly wanted to know what it would feel like
to have it inside of him.

One thing at a time. Mathias groaned in his sleep as Taylor took

84 Marcy

Jacks

his erect prick in hand, and he shifted and opened his legs, allowing
Taylor better access to his body.

He’d told Taylor before that angels didn’t sleep. Not really. They

rested, but Taylor would be damned if Mathias wasn’t sleeping right
now. Maybe some of the mortal world was rubbing off on him.
Maybe he was just faking it and seeing how far Taylor would take
this. Either way, Taylor wasn’t willing to stop.

It thrilled him to know that no one else had ever done this to

Mathias before, and when the angel left him to go back to Heaven, at
the very least he would have to remember Taylor with a blush on his
face, knowing that Taylor had woken him up with a blow job.

Taylor pulled away the skin that kept the head hidden, stroking

ever so lightly as he did and listening to the catch in Mathias’s breath.
Was he dreaming? Was he dreaming about Taylor?

Taylor reached his tongue out and licked the slit at the top, and

then trailed it all the way down the shaft, then played around with his
testicles.

Mathias’s body shifted, his legs coming up, and then a breathy

gasp escaped his throat. “Taylor,” he moaned in such a way that
Taylor knew he’d woken up. “That’s…that’s…”

Taylor lifted himself up enough to get a look into Mathias’s dark

eyes, clouded with both lust and sleep. “I know,” he said and then
dipped down to take as much of Mathias’s cock into his mouth as he
could.

Mathias moaned and gripped the sheets. Taylor heard the way he

threw his head back against his pillows, and from his reactions, it
would almost seem like this was the absolute best blow job he’d ever
gotten in his life. Taylor had already put Mathias’s cock into his
mouth a couple of times since they’d started sharing a bed, but he
knew better than to think he was any good at this, especially with the
sheer size of Mathias’s dick.

Taylor had never much liked doing this to other people, so it

wasn’t like he’d had a lot of practice in his life, but he loved doing it

The Half-Breed Werewolf

to Mathias, and he loved hearing the other man moaning for him. He
loved the smell of his lust and the way Mathias gently moved his hips,
humping back and forth while Taylor sucked him.

Taylor couldn’t even get his mouth down past the halfway point

of his dick. He had to use his hands for that part, but Mathias’s
gasping and the shuddering of his body almost made it seem like
Taylor was deep-throating him or something. The noises he made
were absolutely pornographic.

It didn’t take Mathias long before he came, but Taylor had been

preparing himself for it, so he didn’t choke when the man’s fluids
spurted into his mouth. He tightened his mouth and moved his tongue
until Mathias was completely spent, his chest rising and falling as
though he’d just finished a workout.

“What was that?” Mathias asked with a lazy smile when Taylor

climbed his body to kiss and hold him.

Our good-bye.
Taylor didn’t say that. He just smiled and pretended that he’d

accepted the idea of Mathias’s leaving and pulled him down for
another kiss. Mathias was still so new to the idea of having sex that it
took some coaxing before Taylor was able to get Mathias’s tongue
into his mouth.

“This is different,” Mathias said after they pulled away from each

other.

“Do you like it?”
Mathias didn’t hesitate before he grabbed Taylor by the back of

the head and pulled him back down. “Yes,” he said, pressing their
mouths together once more, this time boldly shoving his tongue inside
of Taylor’s mouth, and God, he tasted good.

As an alpha, Taylor usually didn’t prefer having other people

trying to dominate him, but something about this was different. It
didn’t feel like being dominated so much as it felt like he was
allowing Mathias to better explore his body.

He rolled the other man on top of him, and Taylor reached for the

86 Marcy

Jacks

lube that was still on the bed from last night. It had gotten lost in the
sheets, but he found it in what he believed to be a decent time, spread
his legs, and handed Mathias the bottle.

The look on his face when he realized what Taylor was asking

him to do was damn near comical.

“But, I don’t know what to do,” he said, looking at the bottle

before fearfully gazing down at Taylor.

“Sure you do, just do to me what I did to you. I’ll walk you

through it,” Taylor said. He wanted this so much, he would hold
Mathias’s hand the whole way through if that was what it would take
to get them doing this.

Luckily, while Mathias was no alpha, he was still determined, and

he pursed his lips, frowning in that way he did when he set his mind
to something, and squeezed some of the lube onto his fingers.

Damn it if he wasn’t a natural. He used his fingers, gently as can

be, to the point where it nearly killed Taylor to hold still, but Mathias
really had been paying attention to what Taylor had been doing to him
down there, because he did everything that Taylor had done,
searching for his prostate with his fingers and then stroking it
teasingly after it was found. He also did it so slowly.

By the time three of Mathias’s fingers were inside of him, Taylor

was pushing back against them and grasping his cock, trying to keep
himself from coming while he moaned. He kept his eyes down,
watching Mathias’s arm move back and forth, trying to see those
fingers disappear inside of him, but of course he couldn’t. He could
only feel.

“Come on,” Taylor said with a groan, and he hooked his leg

around Mathias’s hips, locking his ankle around the other man’s calf.

Mathias looked up at him, and his face was flushed so pink that

Taylor believed he would never see anyone more handsome than the
angel above him.

“I’m ready. Fuck me,” Taylor said. He could clearly see that

Mathias was hard again, but he didn’t dare call it lovemaking. He

The Half-Breed Werewolf

didn’t want the angel to think that he was clinging to something they
both knew he couldn’t have.

Mathias’s mouth was parted slightly, and Taylor could see his

tongue. The other man didn’t speak, but he nodded as he grasped
himself and lined up with Taylor’s asshole.

The stretch and the burn were something that Taylor had never

felt before, and he knew that from this day on it would be something
that he would need for the rest of his life. It was so absolutely and
unbelievably amazing that no matter who he was ever with, he would
always associate those feelings with Mathias.

Mathias was still so gentle with him that Taylor almost wanted to

hit him just to snap him out of it. He kept his hands tight around
Mathias’s arms instead, keeping him close.

His dick almost started to feel neglected between them, especially

when Mathias moaned and sped up, almost against his will. Taylor
reached his hand down to stroke himself and was stunned when he
and Mathias ended up grabbing hands instead.

It seemed the angel had the same thing in mind as Taylor did, and

they both grinned, releasing each other, and Taylor threw his head
back when Mathias’s still-slick fingers wrapped around his cock and
worked him.

“You are so fucking amazing,” Taylor said between clenched

teeth and then came so hard that his vision actually failed him.

Mathias thrust inside him a few more times before he moaned

loud and stopped, and Taylor felt the warmth of his cum spurting
inside of him, and only then did he feel as though he truly belonged to
the other man. Not only were they mated, but they had marked each
other. It was sentimental and stupid, but Taylor liked thinking about it
like that.

Mathias’s chest rose and fell quickly as he collapsed on top of

Taylor, and Taylor couldn’t help but enjoy the feel of the other man’s
hot breath against his skin.

“That was…very nice,” Mathias said.

88 Marcy

Jacks

Taylor chuckled, petting Mathias’s hair and running his fingers

over his scalp. He wanted to hold the other man forever, he wanted to
keep his mate close to him, but he couldn’t. This was meant to be just
another casual fuck, nothing to tie either of them down. Hell, Taylor
hadn’t even felt any of that sexual healing energy that Mathias was
such a fan of using on him when he’d been thrusting inside of him.

Maybe he’d forgotten to use it. Maybe Mathias was saying good-

bye as well, giving them a time together that was just about them and
had nothing to do with Mathias’s mission.

Taylor pressed a kiss to Mathias’s hair and then pushed the man

off of him. “I’m going to take a shower. You can have it after I’m
done,” he said, purposely not inviting Mathias in to join him.

The other man nodded and rolled over, not looking at him. For a

second, Taylor thought he might go back to sleep, but his eyes were
wide open.

Taylor had to look away and go into his bathroom before he said

or did anything to make this separation worse. Mathias cared, clearly
he did, if only a little, but he didn’t care enough to want to stay, and
that was what hurt Taylor the most.

* * * *

When he ended his shower and let Mathias in, it was the first time

that Taylor noticed they were avoiding each other. Before, showers
had been shared, and using the bathroom didn’t count because that
kind of separation didn’t exactly take a long time to finish up with.

Mathias was taking his time in there, however, and Taylor was

going on twenty minutes of being by himself. He was going to have to
get used to it again, he supposed. After tonight, when Mathias left
him, not dead but not alive, and definitely no longer on Earth, Taylor
was never going to have another relationship again.

It was so fucking depressing it made him want to smash his table

in half.

The Half-Breed Werewolf

He ate his breakfast over it instead, still listening to Mathias using

up his hot water.

He had to leave. He couldn’t be here, but he wasn’t stupid enough

to think that going on a run, no matter how badly his wolf wanted out,
was a good idea.

He would stay by the house, maybe pull some of the hundreds

upon hundreds of weeds out of his garden, just to have something to
do.

He went out and did just that. Maybe he could convince Mathias

to go running with him later, as a sort of good-bye birthday present.
The angel couldn’t transform into a wolf for a proper run, but Taylor
was fairly positive that the man would be able to keep up. He was an
angel after all.

A shadow fell over his work, and a dark presence entered his

heart. He thought he couldn’t breathe for a second, and then his heart
squeezed in a mild panic, but then the fist that had been clenching his
insides released, and he was left gasping.

A feminine chuckle sounded from behind him, familiar and

unwelcome. “You really should pay more attention to your
surroundings, sweet thing.”

Taylor shot to his feet and rounded on Annabel. “You―”
There was no one there. He was entirely alone.
A warm breath in his ear had him stumbling away. There she was

standing in his dead garden with a soft smile on her perfectly red lips.

Fuck. He hadn’t thought she would be able to come to him when

he was only just outside of his house.

Annabel laughed. “I can see what you’re thinking, and no, little

Mathias didn’t banish me from the house, or at all. I’ve been just
biding my time, watching and waiting, and you know, I’ve never
thought I would enjoy watching so much as I enjoyed watching the
two of you. Gives me all kinds of new fantasies to play with back
home.”

Taylor’s face went lava hot as a mix of rage and embarrassment

90 Marcy

Jacks

flooded him. “You’ve been watching us?”

“Very entertaining stuff.” She actually pulled out a little red

digital camera, and while he couldn’t see the screen because she kept
it facing herself, he could hear Mathias and himself moaning and
grunting through the little speakers as they fucked.

“Give me that!” Taylor didn’t know why he thought he would be

able to take it away from her, but he lurched forward, reaching his
hand out, and then was shot backward by some invisible power.

Annabel never bothered taking her eyes away from the screen.
It felt like a giant fist that shot at his face with the speed and

power of a tornado behind it. He crashed into one of the thicker trees
on his property, and he could’ve sworn that was a crack he’d heard
when his head made impact with the wood.

He groaned and reached behind his head. His fingers came away

wet and warm. He smelled blood. Fuck.

“Not enough to kill you, don’t worry,” Annabel said, shutting the

camera off and putting it away in some unseen pocket. Taylor didn’t
even know where she would keep a pocket on that costume she wore.

Her impossibly high heels didn’t so much as sink when she

walked on the soft grass and in the dirt, and she didn’t lose her
balance or anything either when she got down on her haunches to take
a look at him. She tried to put her palm over his forehead, like she
was going to check his temperature or something, when he jerked his
head away.

“Don’t touch me,” he snapped.
She recoiled as though hurt, but then that smile that he just wanted

to punch right off her face was back.

“You should be nicer to me. I can be so much nicer to you than he

can,” she said, jerking her head back to his house where Mathias was
still inside.

“Thanks, but you’re not my type,” Taylor said, curling his lips at

her.

She actually laughed, like they were having a pleasant

The Half-Breed Werewolf

conversation or something. “No, no, not like that. I already have
someone else. I wanted to introduce him to Dante, but well, that waste
of life is now a guardian of Heaven instead of one of my lovely
generals, so fuck him. When I get John, I can introduce the two of
you.”

“Wouldn’t be interested in fucking a guy named John either,”

Taylor said, purposely misunderstanding what Annabel was telling
him, if only to annoy her.

By her frown, he guessed he was at least managing that much.
Where the hell was Mathias? Wasn’t he supposed to be Taylor’s

guardian? It galled him to know that he was going to need someone
else to come and save him instead of being able to handle the situation
himself or fight alongside Mathias as an equal. Wasn’t he done with
his shower yet?

A terrible thought occurred to him. Perhaps it was the reason why

Mathias had been taking so long in his shower, and he looked at
Annabel and snarled. “What did you do to him?”

She blinked her lashes, practically fluttered them at Taylor, all

innocent-like. “I didn’t do a thing, sweet prince. He’s safe and sound
inside.”

There was no way Taylor would believe that Mathias wouldn’t be

aware this was happening if he was up and about.

“What did you do?” he demanded again. “I swear I’ll kill you if

you touched him.”

He tried to catch hold of her scent as she crouched next to him,

and he couldn’t get a thing on her. Nothing that she didn’t want him
to have, at any rate. If she’d been coming in and out of his house,
watching him whilst he’d been making love to Mathias, and he hadn’t
noticed, would he know it if she had done something to his mate?
Would he be able to sense Mathias if he was in danger like that? He
didn’t know, and that was what scared him the most.

“I didn’t touch him,” Annabel promised, but he didn’t believe her.
His look must’ve said as much, because finally she conceded. “All

92 Marcy

Jacks

right, all right. Fine. I may or may not have frozen him inside the
shower.”

“You what?” An image of Mathias, stuck in a giant rectangular

ice cube flashed through Taylor’s mind. He shot to his feet, and he
would’ve run back to the house to check on his lover had a clawed
hand not grabbed him around the chest and pulled him back down.

“What the hell are you doing?” Taylor yelled. He tried to get back

up, but the needlelike claws were now piercing the flesh of his chest,
and he grunted.

“Relax, he’s not that kind of frozen, and his life isn’t in any

danger, though he would deserve it after hurting my face.”

She snarled that last part, and her body actually glowed red with

the anger in her words. It made the scar, which he previously had
barely noticed, light up against her skin.

“You’re never getting me to join you. I don’t care what you do or

what you say,” Taylor seethed, rubbing at the sting in his chest when
Annabel finally pulled her claws out. They shrank back to normal
size, and his blood stayed on them. She blew on her fingernails like
she was trying to get nail polish to dry. Maybe that was what was
really on her red nails all along. Other people’s blood.

“Not anything I say either, hm? Are you sure about that?”
“I’m not stupid. You’re a demon. Everything that comes out of

your mouth will be a lie.”

Annabel narrowed her eyes at him. “No, you clearly are smarter

than the others, even if only a little. You certainly accepted the
existence of angels and demons rather quickly.”

“I’m a werewolf, and those little bastards have been following me

for years,” he said, thinking of the small, round, and ugly demons
who had been poisoning his mind and whispering horrific things into
his ear. “It’s not exactly that much further out there considering what
already lives on Earth.”

“I suppose that is true, but tell me, have you ever wondered why

you were given a guardian angel? After all this time of being alone

The Half-Breed Werewolf

and having my little babies whisper their little suggestions into your
ear?”

Taylor didn’t want to answer her, but he couldn’t help himself. He

felt the need to defy her, even in this small way, which wouldn’t help
him at all. “What does it matter? He’s here now and he’s going to
defend me if you try anything, and I’ll fight you to the death before I
let you brainwash me again.”

“I’m curious, just tell me.” Annabel put her hands behind her head

and leaned back like she was on a recliner or something. She pulled
her feet completely off the ground and just started to hover. “There
certainly wasn’t any angel to help protect that poor innocent family
that you killed when you wolfed out.”

Taylor’s blood pressure spiked. He could practically feel it in his

bones when he clenched his fists. “You’re lying. I didn’t do that.”

“Maybe, maybe not.” Annabel looked him in the eyes, and then

she laughed. “All right, all right. It was another werewolf. I had
several of my little friends find another werewolf, and he finished off
the job for you. Wasn’t all that hard to persuade, really. A shame, too,
since I like a challenge, but he got the job done.”

It was a weight off his shoulders, knowing he didn’t really do it.

Just the high sigh of relief he let off was proof that he hadn’t believed
Mathias a hundred percent when the man tried to tell him that he
hadn’t killed those people, but they were still dead, and some of that
responsibility would stay with Taylor for the rest of his life.

“You fucking bitch,” Taylor said, his voice coming out of his

throat in a gravelly snarl as his body began to change. His fingernails
grew into claws, and hair sprouted out from the pores in his skin. He
wanted to attack the woman in front of him, tear her into a thousand
tiny pieces and then use her as fertilizer for his dead garden.

She raised her hands but hardly looked worried. “What if I told

you I could bring them all back?”

His transformation abruptly stopped as his brain caught up with

what she just said. “Bullshit,” he spat, his voice normal again.

94 Marcy

Jacks

“You’re just trying to cut some bullshit deal with me to make me go
into Hell with you. What would I have to do to bring them back? Give
you my soul? Kill a thousand other people? You can fuck off.”

Annabel shrugged. “Well, that was worth a try, but I will tell you

something that isn’t a lie and isn’t a trick. It’s something you don’t
know about what you are capable of becoming and the reason why the
angels finally started paying attention to you after all your years of
suffering.”

She practically singsonged the last part, like it was a funny joke or

something. He wanted to strangle her, and knowing that he couldn’t
even touch her was the only thing that kept him in place.

“Everything you tell me will be a lie,” he said, not willing to allow

himself to be sucked into her game.

Her grin was downright evil, which only made sense, considering

what she was. “Not all demons have to use lies to get what they want
out of mortals. Sometimes the best ammunition we can use is the
truth.”

“Bullshit,” he said. He was using that word a lot lately.
“Ever hear of the phrase ‘the truth hurts’? It exists for a reason.”
Taylor eyed her levelly. He wasn’t going to believe what she said.

He wasn’t. He was smarter than that. He only wanted to hear what she
had to say in case there was something he could use. Getting her to
talk might even buy Mathias enough time to escape whatever little
spell Annabel had him under. He could come out here and banish the
bitch, just like he’d done the last time.

If that didn’t work, then at the very worst, she would say her

piece, Taylor wouldn’t believe any of it, and he would then tell her to
fuck off. That was all.

The Half-Breed Werewolf

Chapter Ten

Mathias could hardly believe the gall of that woman. The absolute

and utter nerve of her to do this to him!

Thinking that something as trivial as a freeze spell would hold

him. It was something similar to what she had used on Dante and
Jeremy, right before she’d attacked the both of them and tortured
Jeremy until Dante agreed to go into Hell with her to make it stop.

That time, she had pulled both Dante and Jeremy in between time.

They continued to move, but everything around them appeared at a
standstill. They were trapped in that world until Annabel left, not
caring if Jeremy died or not from having his wings ripped out.

This instance was different. Mathias was not trapped in the space

in between time, able to move about while everything else stayed still.
He was the one who could not move whilst everything around him
went on as usual. Even the water from the shower continued to run
until it was ice cold. His body was uncomfortable beneath the water,
but inside, he was hot with fury.

Taylor was now alone, likely with her, and he didn’t know that

Mathias was in this predicament. Mathias had to go to him before she
could turn him. He had to free himself before Annabel could force
Taylor’s hand in some way. He had to save him!

Mathias fought and struggled with all the effort and strength in his

body, as though he were still on the battlefield.

His allies were out there, and they were still fighting, regardless of

their injuries, and they would win. Mathias would do the same. He
was still an angel, and he would defeat this spell. He would overcome
it!

96 Marcy

Jacks

Taylor’s face remained at the forefront of Mathias’s mind as he

struggled. He used Taylor’s smile, his frown, and his happiness and
sadness to power him. Unless Mathias escaped, Taylor would never
feel those emotions again. Mathias might never feel the press of
Taylor’s body again.

A sound escaped his throat. It was only a small groan, but that was

something. At least his throat was working.

He struggled to make his toes wiggle and his fingers move away

from his face, but his body was numb from the cold water, and he
could not tell if he was accomplishing anything or not.

Annabel had managed to freeze his body whilst he’d had his eyes

closed, face pushed in to the formerly hot spray, and his hands
reaching for his hair to wash.

Thank Heaven that he’d not been stroking himself. He would hate

to be trapped, even for a short amount of time, in a position such as
that.

Then, yes, that was not his imagination, his toes were wiggling!

He moved his foot next, and his eyes cracked open, and he was able
to see the light of the bathroom through the clear plastic of the shower
curtain.

The more he moved, the more power he had over his body, and

within minutes Mathias stumbled out of the shower. His body
trembled, but he did not reach for any clothes beneath the sink. He
could feel Taylor. The man was outside, and there was a dark
presence with him.

He stumbled out of the house, nearly tripping over his still-

shaking legs on the way down the three steps immediately in front of
the door, fearful of what he might find.

They were simply standing in front of each other, having a

conversation. Annabel appeared sated and yet eager at the same time,
as though she’d just accomplished a mission of sorts.

Taylor’s fists were clenched, and his eyes were narrowed as he

looked down at the ground between them.

The Half-Breed Werewolf

Both of them turned their heads when Mathias made it outside and

fell to his knees in the dirt.

“Ah! Here he is. Broke through my spell in record time. I should

have known an angel would not be able to stay trapped for very long.”

Mathias thought of the harshest and rudest thing he’d ever heard

Taylor say, and he repeated it. “Fuck you, you demon cunt.”

Annabel tsked at him, but her eyes were back on Taylor, and she

was eager.

Mathias’s heart stopped. Had she managed to transform him? Was

he now a general just waiting to take shape?

“Well now, my sweet, why don’t you ask him yourself?”
Mathias struggled to his feet. He tried to summon his sword, but

using so much energy to break Annabel’s spell over him had left him
drained, and it would not come.

Taylor hesitated, but then went to him and took him by the hand,

hoisting Mathias’s arm over his shoulder and pulling him into a
proper standing position.

Mathias’s heart quickened. “You are well?” he asked, though he

knew he didn’t need to.

Taylor had resisted whatever spells or temptations that Annabel

had thrown at him. He would be fine. He was not a demon general.

Annabel frowned, though she hardly wore the look of defeat. “Are

you not curious about what I just told you? Will you not ask him
about it?”

“Ask me about what?” Mathias asked, sneering at her. “I have

been nothing but honest with him from the moment I met him, unlike
you who need lies and treachery.”

Annabel looked at Taylor, appearing very bored with Mathias’s

words.

Mathias looked up at his lover, and he saw the hesitation in the

man’s eyes. There was something on the tip of his tongue that he
clearly did not want to say but was going to because Annabel had
gotten to him. She’d whispered her poisonous lies to him, and now he

98 Marcy

Jacks

needed to have them rebuffed.

“Taylor? What has she told you?” Mathias asked.
Taylor clenched his jaw, looked away, and then stared hard into

his eyes once more. “Are you only sleeping with me because I can be
some kind of weapon for Heaven? If Hell doesn’t get their claws in
me then Heaven wants me, is that right?”

There was anger in Taylor’s voice. The accusation was clearly not

something he wanted to make, but Mathias had to own to some of
this.

“If Hell cannot transform you into a powerful general for their

army, then yes, you will become a knight in Heaven, and it’s very
likely they would one day call upon you to fight for them. When that
will be, I don’t know. It could be days, or it could be centuries later. It
would all depend on when Hell would wage their next war at the
gates.”

Which was exactly the reason why Taylor and Mathias would not

be able to be together once Mathias’s mission was complete. If he
managed to save Taylor’s soul, and he became a weapon for Heaven,
then it could be years before they had use for him. Taylor could very
well die of old age before they needed him, in which case the council
would summon his soul for the battlefield.

Neither option made it possible for Taylor to have any sort of life

or relationship with Mathias. No mortal could wait over a hundred
years for someone. No one.

Taylor inhaled a deep breath, and it sounded almost as though it

pained him. He looked between Annabel and Mathias, his eyes wide
and mouth slightly open in his shock. “It’s true then? She was actually
telling me the truth?”

His words were sharp and angry toward the end, but he didn’t

shove Mathias away. His face twisted in his anger, but he didn’t walk
over to Annabel and claim his devotion to the dark side.

Mathias held him tighter, just in case the man was thinking about

it. “I did not have relations with you for that. I did it because I wanted

The Half-Breed Werewolf

to heal you, and I liked it, and I care for you.”

“You only care if I become a weapon for that council you talked

about. You don’t care about me.” Taylor practically sneered those
words, and his hands shook as he continued to hold Mathias up.

Mathias no longer needed it. His legs were no longer shaking

from the aftereffects of Annabel’s spell, but Taylor certainly was. He
let Taylor hold him anyway, not wanting the man to throw him off if
he thought that Mathias was too weak to catch himself should he fall.

“I could give a damn about the supposed weapons of Heaven,”

Mathias said, his own anger and defensiveness getting the best of him.
“Had I believed there was no hope for you, I would have allowed you
to go into that farmhouse yourself. You didn’t. You followed me and
trusted me to care for you. I love you, and sharing my body with you
has only been for you and myself, never for the council. I am not their
whore and would not do such things because someone else ordered
it.”

Taylor’s mouth was still parted and his amber eyes were wider

than normal, but neither of these held any sort of anger that Mathias
could sense.

Taylor’s voice came out ragged and choked when he finally

managed to speak. “Say it again.”

Mathias blinked at him. “That I am not a whore?”
“No, idiot, that you love me.” Taylor’s voice held such a

desperation that Mathias’s heart broke a little for him.

Then he realized what Taylor had said, and he inwardly groaned.

He had not meant to say those words in earnest. They were true, but
he couldn’t…How could he…

“Please, just tell me. I know you mean it,” Taylor said, pulling

him closer so that their chests were pressed together and their noses
were bumping.

Mathias could not say no. “I do love you. I meant it the first time

you had me say it, but it will not make you happy when it comes time
for me to leave.”

100 Marcy

Jacks

“I don’t care. The fact that you mean it, and that you want me, you

have no idea how much that means to me.”

Clearly he did not. “Is this part of our mating?”
Taylor laughed a little. “Yes, of course it is. I can’t ever love

anyone but you. I’m yours until the day I die, whether you’re on Earth
or not, because I’ve heard your heart. I know you’re not dead.”

Well, this certainly complicated things, but that knowledge didn’t

hold back the wave of relief that Mathias felt as he hugged his lover
back.

“I think I am finally understanding what a mate is,” he said.
Taylor laughed.
A long and low, catlike growl sounded from somewhere to the

side of them.

Mathias’s body tensed up, and this time when he summoned his

sword, he managed to scrape together enough energy to make it
materialize in his hand, ready to defend the both of them should
Annabel attempt anything.

She certainly looked ready to attempt something. Her posture

reminded Mathias of a cat that wanted to spring. Her head was down,
fists clenched. If she had any fur, then it would probably be standing
on end right about now. As it was, that groaning hiss she made inside
her throat was catlike enough.

“I fucking hate mortals. Even when the angels themselves lie to

your face, you still forgive them and trust them, and only because
they’re angels!”

A burst of fire erupted from Annabel’s body, then her eyes

glowed as her fingernails grew out to become claws. She’d gone mad,
and she had her sights set on Taylor.

Mathias stepped around his lover. Taylor shouted at him and tried

to pull him back, but he would not be held in place as Annabel
charged.

He swiped at her, what should have been a killing blow, even

though the fire of his sword burned so pathetically low that the blue

The Half-Breed Werewolf

101

flame could hardly be seen at all.

She vanished just before his blade could make contact, and

Mathias was left standing there, wondering where she’d gone, like a
fool.

“Where is she?” Taylor asked from behind him.
Mathias searched around, but he could see nothing, and

everything was silent and still. “I don’t know,” he said, straightening
and turning.

“Mathias!”
Mathias didn’t get the chance to block as Annabel’s fist crashed

into his nose, smashing the bones inside and sending his body flying
backward.

“Mathias!” Taylor screamed again, and before he flew so far back

into the trees that he lost sight of both his lover and that evil demon
whore, he caught sight of the way Taylor’s eyes turned gold with rage
and how he flew at Annabel with long claws and sprouting fur.

No! He would be killed!
Mathias couldn’t get himself to stop, and only after he crashed

into the third heavy pine tree, breaking it into splinters, did his body
show signs of slowing.

He spun and rolled on the ground, trying to grasp at anything to

make himself stop, and he finally managed to catch his fingers into
the ground, clawing at it as he finally came to a halt.

Mathias shot to his feet, clumps of dirt and pine needles falling

from him as he ran back to Taylor. He was alone with her. Mathias
had to save him before she could force his hand!

His sword was gone, and he no longer had the energy to summon

it back to him. He used everything he had left to run back to the
house. He would kill her if she’d taken him. He. Would. Kill her!

What he found was much worse when he finally stumbled through

the clearing what seemed like an eternity later.

Annabel had Taylor by his throat, and he was lifted clear off of his

feet and was barely giving her a struggle. He was no longer in that in-

102 Marcy

Jacks

between state of part man and part wolf. His hands were normal male
hands, and his face was blue as Annabel strangled him with hardly
any effort on her part.

“Release him!” Mathias roared. He did not have the energy to call

to his weapon, but he still had his wings. He would do whatever he
could do to banish her back to Hell.

Annabel looked over her shoulder at him, her red eyes half-lidded

and appearing almost bored. She turned just enough to give Mathias a
glimpse of her long, needlelike claws embedded and bloody in
Taylor’s chest.

Suddenly the pale look on Taylor’s face took on a whole new

meaning. It certainly wasn’t from a lack of oxygen.

“No.”
“I tire of this,” Annabel said, ripping her claws from Taylor’s

flesh, ignoring his grunt of pain as she tossed him aside. He landed
heavily on the ground, and Mathias was at his side in an instant,
cradling his head and lifting his shirt to check the wound.

“If I can’t take him back with me, then Heaven will not have him

either. Lucifer cannot punish me so long as I’ve at least prevented
that.”

“He will go to Heaven anyway, you stupid whore!” Mathias

shouted, his rage taking command of him. He felt his body grow cold,
and he shook all over as he stared down at the blooming splotches of
red building into a pool on Taylor’s chest. “He is a good man.”

He was a good man, Mathias thought, reaffirming it to himself.

He certainly did not deserve this.

“Oh?” She looked down at Mathias, one of her delicate blonde

brows raised. “You will perform his last rites then? I did not know
you were capable of doing that. Otherwise his soul belongs to
Purgatory, and he will be useless to your council, and to you.”

She spoke that last part as though rubbing it into Mathias’s face

that he could not be reunited with Taylor, even in death, if his
destination was Purgatory.

The Half-Breed Werewolf

103

“I will kill you!” Mathias yelled. He would have charged at her,

and his body ached to do just that, but Taylor’s grip on his arm was
suddenly strong. His eyes were open, and they were pleading with
Mathias to not leave his side.

So he did not.
Annabel made a noise of disgust at them. “He would not have

made as fine a general anyway,” she said, and then, in another puff of
black smog and the stink of sulphur, she vanished from both of their
sights.

Mathias would not have dared to move his lover, not with his

injuries, but he could not banish the smoke, and he did not want
Taylor to breathe it in, not with the deep bruising on his neck, as well
as what could very well be blood filling his lungs. It was enough of a
struggle for the other man to breathe as it was, but the breathing
would become even more of a problem unless he pulled Taylor away
from the smoke.

He had no choice. He hooked his hands under Taylor’s arms and

dragged him out of the path of the billowing cloud. Taylor coughed
and cried out, but Mathias didn’t stop until they were back in the
house and the door was shut and locked behind him.

The smog billowed against the windows, like it had a mind of its

own and was trying to get inside, but of course, it didn’t make it past
the closed windows.

Taylor coughed and gasped, clutching at his bleeding chest.
Mathias cupped his hands over Taylor’s cheeks, feeling utterly

useless as the man gasped for air. “Dammit, Taylor, you’re a
werewolf! You should be able to heal from this.”

Taylor’s eyes were glassy as he opened and closed his mouth. He

made several attempts to speak before what he said finally came
through.

“B–burns.”
“It burns?” Mathias asked stupidly.
Taylor gritted his teeth and gurgled through the blood in his

104 Marcy

Jacks

mouth. He continued to clutch at his chest, his own fingernails
digging in now, as though he was trying to pull something out.

Then Mathias realized what it was. Annabel didn’t just injure,

she’d poisoned him with something. Whatever it was that she painted
her nails with was poison. Or maybe that was just part of her own
natural charm.

He was going to kill her if he ever got his hands on her after this.
Mathias reached over to the kitchen cupboards. The house was so

small that it was easy for him, and he pulled some clean dish towels
out from beneath the sink.

He would wet them in a moment. Now he was concerned about

simply stanching the flow of blood. Mortals were supposed to bleed
as much as any wounded angel, but at the moment, there seemed to be
so much blood that he didn’t know how it all managed to fit inside of
his body.

“Taylor, I need you to stay focused. I will help you. You will be

fine,” Mathias said and didn’t bother to wait for any sign that Taylor
had heard him as he sat back and concentrated.

He had one more apple with him. One more small and measly

apple that came from the garden in Heaven. The juice from the
ambrosia inside would heal him. He would be well again after he had
a bite.

So long as Mathias was able to summon it to him. He was still

naked, and though summoning an apple from the pouch he’d had with
him when he first landed on Earth should not have been any sort of
problem, it would not come to him.

It was almost as if it wasn’t there to begin with.
A female laugh sounded inside of his mind, and he wanted to

curse.

Annabel. She’d stolen his last apple.
“I really thought he would be dead by now, but he is managing to

hold on, the poor dear,” she said.

Mathias released an enraged roar, and clenching his fists, he

The Half-Breed Werewolf

105

pounded hard down on the tile of Taylor’s kitchen. The presence left
his mind, but he had no doubts now that the bitch was still here
somewhere, watching as Taylor lay dying and Mathias could do
nothing for him.

But he was still holding on. His eyes were open, if a little glassy,

and he was still breathing, even if it sounded pained and ragged.

He was alive. His werewolf healing was fighting against whatever

poison it was that Annabel had used on him, and that would buy
Mathias enough time to do what he needed to do.

He hurriedly reached up to one of the drawers and yanked it open,

the clanging of metal inside telling him he’d picked the right one. He
pulled out a kitchen knife, one of the ones he’d used to slice the fruit
to make Taylor’s breakfast with, and later his salad dinner, only
yesterday.

He wished they would’ve had more time, but if he didn’t act

quickly, Taylor would have no time left at all, with or without
Mathias.

“I will save you, Taylor. I promise.”
His mission had simply been to prevent Annabel from taking

Taylor’s soul, but now he had a new mission. He would make certain
that Taylor lived a long life on Earth. One way or another.

Mathias put the blade to his palm and cut down. He clenched his

neck, jaw, and teeth against the pain, but he moved the knife,
watching as his own blood pooled in his palm and dripped down onto
the formerly clean tile next to his lover.

“Thinking of selling your soul to save him?” Annabel teased.
Naturally, Mathias should have known she would not be able to

keep her opinions to herself whilst he was in this moment.

He did not answer her. If that was what she thought, then all the

better for him.

He raised his head and shouted past the ceiling.
“Come for me! I am a traitor to the crown! I surrender! Come for

me now before I give my soul to the devil!”

106 Marcy

Jacks

Taylor gasped at his knees and reached his hand out, grabbing at

him. Mathias dropped the knife and took the man’s hand, gripping it
tightly.

“I’m sorry, I do this for you,” he said, staring down into those

panicked eyes. He already knew what Taylor wanted to tell him, but
there was nothing for it now. He would not allow him to die.

Mathias felt the air around him rise in temperature. Heat seemed

to consume the whole house, as though there were multiple fire pits
burning around him. Whether that was Annabel’s anger or the rage of
the angels at listening to one of their own threaten to give himself
over to the devil he couldn’t say.

“Get down here or I will give him another soul to use!” Mathias

threatened. He meant it with every fiber of his being, too. He had to
mean it. Otherwise the angels would not come for him.

Mortal souls were powerful enough, providing the energy that

Hell needed in order to keep its army well fed, but the soul of an
angel was something else entirely. Heaven would not want another
angel to join with Lucifer. Lucifer himself was rumored to be so
powerful simply because he was an angel, and the first to fall.

Mathias would be punished for threatening something of this

nature. He didn’t care if they tore out his wings and locked him in
Purgatory forever. He would face the consequences, come what may.

The house rattled as a new force came down from above, close

enough to the house that the shockwave actually made the foundation
rumble.

The bright white light that formed in the middle of Taylor’s living

room told him that he’d done it right. He’d summoned some of the
guards from Heaven. No soldier could properly look the other way
whilst one of their own threatened to do something so hideously awful
as betray their own people.

There were four more angels standing in Taylor’s home now, all

of the same rank, judging by their armor, save for one.

He wore a red sash and had gold dusted at the tip of his wings. His

The Half-Breed Werewolf

107

midnight hair was tied back tightly, and his harsh expression was
entirely on Mathias, and he knew this was the man he would be
answering to for this added treachery.

Taking the orders of a rogue angel was bad enough, but what

Mathias had done…well, he would certainly pay for it.

He didn’t care. He glared at the lot of them as their leader stepped

forward and reached out, as though to grab Mathias and haul him
bodily back to Heaven himself before barking at his men.

“Heal him. Now.”

108 Marcy

Jacks

Chapter Eleven

Taylor couldn’t let him do this, but he couldn’t speak. He could

barely breathe, and all the while he struggled to stay alive, he saw that
Annabel bitch, the woman who’d put him on the ground to begin
with, whispering into Mathias’s ear, as well as the dark cloud that
surrounded him.

Taylor had to blink a few times to make sure he was seeing that

right. His focus was hazy at best, and sometimes his vision blanked
out on him completely, but she was definitely there.

She was doing that thing that Mathias had said was being done to

him for his entire life. She was whispering poison into him. She was
trying to corrupt him, to make him go through with his promise, even
though Mathias had only threatened it to get the angels here.

He was pretty sure that was the real reason, at any rate.
Though the dark mist surrounded Mathias, encased him, Mathias

didn’t seem to realize what Annabel was doing, even though he knew
she was in the room. He had to know. Why could the angels not at
least see what was happening?

“Heal him, or I will give my soul to the devil and fight against

Heaven until the end of time. I swear to the Creator I will.”

No. He couldn’t do that.
“Do it,” Annabel said, leaning in close until those bloodred lips of

hers nearly touched Mathias’s ear. Maybe they did. She looked down
at Taylor and smiled, all the while working her evil magic. “They will
let him die. They don’t care about him the way you do. He is only a
tool to them.”

“No…no,” Taylor said. He tried to, anyway. What came out of his

The Half-Breed Werewolf

109

throat was a gurgle that even he couldn’t make real words out of.

The angels spoke, completely oblivious to what the real danger in

the room was. They barely spared Taylor a second glance, and that
only seemed to make things worse for Mathias. “You are under arrest
and will follow us. The council will be having a word with you after
uttering words like that.”

Mathias clenched his wounded fist so hard that fresh blood began

dripping even more so, and faster, onto the floor. Soon there wouldn’t
be a place to walk on without stepping in blood.

“You can’t make me go anywhere. I can give my soul up long

before any of you can even touch me. Heal him right now. You have
ten seconds, or I will give my soul to the devil, and I’m sure he’ll be
more than happy to make a trade like the one I’m offering.”

The snarl on Mathias’s face as he said those words was downright

ugly. Taylor barely recognized his gentle lover, but he knew what was
causing it. The darkness surrounding him. It was taking hold. Taylor
suddenly didn’t care about being healed, but if it meant that the angels
would hurry up and make a decision so that they could get Mathias
away from here, then he would be glad for it.

The angels looked amongst each other, and then back at Mathias.

All of them wore similar frowns, but the leader with the black hair
sighed and stepped toward Taylor. “I will heal him. None of my men
would have the energy required for something like this anyway.”

“Hurry up,” Mathias snapped.
The angel knelt down by Taylor, but still threw a glare over his

shoulder before placing his hands over Taylor’s injured chest.

Annabel was becoming desperate. She continued to whisper to

Mathias, but now that he had the results he’d been seeking, the
darkness was leaving his body. “No, the angel will just give him his
last rites and then kill him. Don’t trust him.”

It was too late. Taylor could already feel the light and warmth,

more than he’d ever felt before in his life, more than what even
Mathias had been able to give him when they’d made love, enter his

110 Marcy

Jacks

body. The only difference was that there was no love mixed into what
was being put in his body. It was impersonal, and that alone made the
sensation feel strange and weird.

It travelled up and into his veins, touching every blood cell,

cooling every tired muscle. His whole body felt like he’d been bathed
in breath mints or something, and he felt sparkling clean and fresh by
the time he was able to open and close his lungs again properly.

He jerked and sat up, inhaling long and deep, like he was taking

the first breaths of his life.

He couldn’t believe how much his lungs could expand and

contract. Every breath felt like a miracle, and he couldn’t believe he’d
been going so long with so little air making it into his body.

“It is done,” said the angel in charge. He didn’t so much as look at

Taylor or check to see if he really was finished with the whole healing
process before he rose up to his feet and approached Mathias. “You
will come with us, now. That was our agreement.”

“Yeah, I guess it was.”
“No!” Taylor shot to his feet and ran around the angel who

blocked his view of Mathias. The guy actually reached out and
snatched him by the back of the neck, like he was some kind of unruly
pup, and yanked him back and away, pinning him against the kitchen
counter.

Taylor looked around the guy’s shoulder, since it didn’t seem like

he was planning on strangling him or anything. Mathias’s eyes were
defeated, and his crumpled face broke Taylor’s heart. He wasn’t
going to fight them. He was really going to go, and hell, he couldn’t
see Annabel around anywhere, so it wasn’t like she was planning on
doing anything to claim what would’ve been a nice prize either.

“You can’t take him. I need him. We’re mated,” Taylor said.
The angel with the dark hair frowned at him and then looked

behind him at Mathias, who was still naked and bloody.

“You had relations with this angel?” The man looked back at

Mathias. “Is this true?”

The Half-Breed Werewolf

111

Mathias’s dark eyes regained some of their previous fight. “Yes.”
The other angels in the room all looked amongst themselves.

“Relations with mortals is forbidden.”

“Indeed, it will be another thing you will be on trial for,” said the

man in charge.

Mathias didn’t so much as speak up to defend himself or explain

why he did it. “He did it to give me his energy, not because he was
betraying you. It didn’t mean anything like that. He wasn’t breaking
your rules on purpose.”

“Taylor.”
“Shut up, Mathias,” Taylor snapped, keeping his eyes on the angel

in front of him. He was an alpha wolf, and it killed him to not be able
to just lash out at the man, go into an epic battle for control over the
situation, but if his conflict with Annabel had taught him anything, it
was that he was no match for these sorts of beings. He had to talk to
them. He had to convince them.

“I seduced him anyway. I mated with him and forced the issue on

him. You can’t punish him for something that isn’t even his fault.”

“You forced him, you say? And yet he would throw away his soul

to the enemy to rescue you? I think not.” The angel turned his back on
Taylor, and this time he couldn’t keep it in. He lunged.

The angel was too fast. He stepped out of the way at a speed that

was faster than what Taylor could follow, and he found himself on the
floor with a sword at his throat. It glowed green in the hand of the
angel who held it. The man in charge. He didn’t look angry, but he
didn’t look very impressed with Taylor’s attempt to attack him either.

“Samael!” Mathias yelled, his voice sounding as panicked as

when Taylor had those holes in his chest. His pain ripped Taylor’s
heart into pieces. Something inside of him swelled up in outrage, but
he couldn’t think about that right now. All he knew was that these
men wanted to take Mathias away and lock him up.

“We are done here,” the angel called Samael said, putting his

weapon away and moving back to Mathias. “I am sorry, friend, but

112 Marcy

Jacks

you must come with me.”

No! It was not right! There was no…no…no justice in taking

Mathias away to be punished for doing what he thought was right.

“Let me have a moment with him. To explain myself. I cannot

leave him alone, not knowing what will happen.”

“That is out of your hands,” Samael said, and Taylor wanted to rip

the angel’s head clean off for making the decision for them. “I have
healed him as per our bargain and have cleansed the house of all
negative forces. It seemed there was one still lingering, but it is gone
now, and it won’t bother him after this. You have my word on that.
That is the best I will give you.”

“He’s not a criminal. You can’t lock him up,” Taylor said, getting

back to his feet to glare at the dark-haired angel. “Come on, you have
to know by now what’s going on. He said I was going to turn into
some kind of super demon if he didn’t help me. How can you lock
him up for preventing that?”

This time, Samael actually turned to look at him, giving him the

time of day now, though he hardly looked pleased by it. “The council
has still not received sufficient proof to the existence of these demons
that John has claimed exist. They have been watching the both of you
merely for their own curiosity. Nothing has been proven or denied
other than there is more demon activity on Earth. I will admit there
was a certain something different about you when I reached inside of
you with my energy, but that is not enough.”

“What do you mean, that’s not enough?” Taylor roared. “I was

nearly killed by a demon, and you’re saying you saw something
inside of me. Isn’t that proof enough for you?”

“No, it is not. Demons kill mortals all the time, and we are done

speaking with you.”

This time, when Samael turned around and reached for Mathias,

he didn’t hesitate before grabbing the man.

What killed him was the way Mathias didn’t even try to put up a

fight or to step away. He was just going to let them take him.

The Half-Breed Werewolf

113

Taylor lurched forward. He could already feel the energy of the

angels vanishing, and his house was rattling again as the light came
inside of his house and pulled the angels away.

“Mathias!”
He stumbled toward the light, reaching out blindly for Mathias’s

hand. He could’ve sworn he saw the outline of his lover reaching back
for him, but then the light vanished, and Taylor was left alone,
blinking stars and tears out of his eyes.

114 Marcy

Jacks

Chapter Twelve

Taylor would not allow himself to crumple to the ground. He

stood where he was. His fists were shaking with outrage, and his eyes
were still streaming uncontrollable tears, which only angered him
even more. He was an alpha, Goddammit. He’d just faced demons
and angels, and now he was apparently cured of his demonic
problems, and it wasn’t even his birthday yet.

Still wouldn’t be for another several hours, but that angel had

been powerful, and Taylor believed him when he said that he’d
cleansed the house. The little demons wouldn’t be able to bother him
before his birthday rolled around and he was cured for absolutely and
positively good, but that hardly seemed to matter now that Mathias
was forever ripped away from him.

Those cruel sons of bitches, looking down at Mathias for being

with Taylor and then taking him away for judgement or whatever.
Screw them. Taylor was no ordinary mortal. He was the one who was
supposed to be a powerful weapon for Heaven. That’s what Annabel
had told him and Mathias had confirmed.

That anger from before built inside of him once more, and this

time, he allowed it to balloon out. He didn’t want to keep it stamped
down. Whatever it was, it was growing along with his outrage and
need for justice. It felt just like that cooling sensation he got whenever
he and Mathias were making love. In fact, it was exactly like that, and
not at all like the impersonal and uncaring healing that Samael had
given him, only this was much stronger.

Taylor focused his mind inward, drawing out what was inside of

him. He was something so rare that even most of the people in

The Half-Breed Werewolf

115

Heaven didn’t believe he existed. He was going to become that
creature. He wasn’t going to let those demons take Mathias to some
coldhearted council to be sentenced like a criminal. He was not!

The light came over him, and he did not fear it. Something grew

out from his back, and it felt like he had new limbs, but then that new
feeling vanished, and the wings felt as natural back there as his inner
wolf. It was almost like they’d always been there.

He let this new consciousness he possessed take over. All he knew

was that he wanted to be where Mathias was, and that’s where he
went as he punched a hole in his roof and flew faster than any angel
could travel in some portal they had created.

He flew so quickly that he was in the stars in seconds, and

creating his own portal in less time than that. He could feel Mathias’s
heart beating, that familiar drum that Taylor had listened to whilst
resting his head on the man’s chest.

“I’m coming for you.”

* * * *

“You did not have to be so cruel,” Mathias said, not fighting as

the grunt soldiers placed heavy shackles on his wings, weighing them
down to prevent him from flying away. They connected the shackles
to chains that wound around his hips and cuffed his wrists, so that he
also couldn’t fight against them.

He wasn’t interested in fighting them. Now it was simply a matter

of getting his sentence and being taken to Purgatory as quickly as
possible so he could at least have the luxury of being in a place that
would make him forget all about Taylor Slade and the look on his
face as he reached for Mathias. “You could have allowed us to say
our good-byes. I would hardly have hurt anything, or him.”

“You know the law,” Samael said, though not unkindly. “Too

many angels have fallen to the pleasures of the mortal world. Had it
only been that, and you had not threatened such a thing with your

116 Marcy

Jacks

soul…” Samael shook his head. “Why I bother explaining, I know
not. There is nothing to be done for you. You put yourself in this
position.”

“I know.”
“Give me your sword, Mathias.” Samael put his hand on

Mathias’s shoulder, giving him just enough energy to do as he was
told.

Mathias briefly played with the idea of not doing as Samael asked,

but that would only make him look difficult and insane in the eyes of
the council. The last thing he wanted was to give them the satisfaction
of truly believing he’d wanted to break the law.

He focused, and his blade appeared. Samael had given him

enough energy to perform that task, but that was all. He felt drained
and empty once more when the sword was in physical form, and he
winced when Samael took away his weapon.

The other angel placed a comforting hand on Mathias’s shoulder,

a plain robe appeared for him to wear, and then they were moving
again.

The angels had to stop in order to put on Mathias’s new bracelets

and take his weapon, but that was it. They had to carry Mathias
between them using their energy, since Mathias was now incapable of
flight.

Portals to Heaven were different than the portals leading into Hell.

The trip to their destination was not instant. There was still a great
deal of flying and traveling required whilst in the world of the in-
between. Mathias could only guess that Samael and his men had
managed to come so quickly because they had already been nearby.

They were nearing the end of the portal. They were already in the

stars, and now, just through the darkness, a new light was growing.
The exit that would take them into Heaven.

Mathias felt his stomach drop more the closer they came.
An explosion of some kind went off to their far left, and the bang

in Mathias’s ears was damn near deafening, and the bright light

The Half-Breed Werewolf

117

momentarily blinded him. The other angels had the luxury of covering
their ears with their hands and turning away from the light, but
Mathias could do no such thing.

All he could do was shut his eyes, but the light still penetrated

through his lids, leaving him disoriented and confused as he tried to
find his jailers.

They may be bringing him to a sentencing, but Samael was still a

good soldier, even if he was a stickler for the rules, and Mathias
would not be able to forgive himself if these men were under attack
and he did nothing.

A gloved hand grabbed him by the arch of his wing and dragged

him away. Mathias sensed no malice from whoever had him, and the
five fingers let him know that it was at least not a monster that had
him in its claws, and he allowed himself to be led away. Could this be
Samael? No, he hadn’t been wearing gloves. The other angels had on
some form of gauntlet on their hands, but those had been armored.
What this creature wore was leather.

The knowledge that he was in enemy hands prompted Mathias to

act. He struggled against the man, for such a large hand and strong
grip could only belong to a male, but the hand tightened almost
painfully around his wing.

“Samael!” Mathias yelled.
Whoever this was who had him, if it was a lost soul or a fallen

angel, he did not want to have anything to do with them, regardless of
whether it would take him out of the path of Purgatory.

Taylor’s welcome voice growled in his ear. “Mathias, shut up.”
Mathias’s blood went cold. He struggled and twisted against his

captor all the harder, but the chains made it nearly impossible to
move. He could not punch or kick or flex his wings in an attempt to
escape.

A demon. He was in the hands of a demon. How the creature had

managed to get into a holy portal leading to the gates of Heaven, he
did not care.

118 Marcy

Jacks

He called for Samael, hoping the angel would hear his voice and

come for him before the creature behind him could drag him down to
Hell, but the demon’s second gloved hand clamped over his mouth.

“It’s me, you idiot. Stop that,” said the creature that sounded like

Taylor.

Mathias wanted to believe it, so badly, but there was still a part of

him that struggled with the idea that this was really his lover, in this
space where mortals could not travel.

The stars cleared from his vision, and he watched with bleary eyes

for a few small seconds as the other angels blinked blindly before
they too were able to take in the scene.

The look on Samael’s face was enough to let Mathias know there

was something more to this than a demon kidnapping an angelic
prisoner.

“You. How are you here? This is impossible!”
The hand fell away from Mathias’s mouth, and he was no longer

struggling to get away. He didn’t want to get away. If this was a trick,
then he no longer cared so long as it meant he could stay with Taylor.

The shackles and chains fell away from his wings, wrists, and

feet. He was almost afraid to turn around and look at the man who
held him, but his body turned anyway.

It was him, but it was not him. The being before him had Taylor’s

face, to be sure. The same dark-brown hair that fell into his amber
eyes. He even had the same high cheekbones and skin.

He also had wings. Large wings that Mathias had no doubt could

expand to be even taller and wider than his own, that were rimmed in
gold and almost appeared metallic. He wore a sort of armor that
Mathias had never seen before. Likely it protected him well enough,
but as Mathias’s back was pressed against his chest, it felt soft enough
that he could still make out Taylor’s body beneath.

There was something different about his energy as well. He was

powerful, that was for certain. He gave off more power than Mathias
had even when he was fully charged on ambrosia, and he could

The Half-Breed Werewolf

119

probably even take out the angels that were currently surrounding
them. Judging by the uncertain looks on their faces, they knew it, too.

Mathias looked back at his lover when that gloved hand cupped

his cheek. Taylor’s expression was both soft and relieved. “I was
afraid I wouldn’t catch them before they brought you back.”

“What happened to you? How could this have…” Mathias trailed

off, not knowing how to put into words what he wanted.

Taylor was destined to become a warrior for Heaven if he

managed to get past his thirtieth birthday, but that time had not yet
come, and no one had come to him to show him his new abilities. Did
anyone need to show him how to use his powers? Or would it be
instinctual, especially if someone was stealing away his mate?

He’d come to learn that werewolves were quite possessive of what

they believed to be theirs.

“Don’t really know, babe. I’m just going with it at this point.”
Samael eventually stopped glaring and stepped forward. He had

his sword in hand, and the green flame was hot on Mathias’s skin.
“You have one minute to explain yourself, mortal. If I am not
satisfied, expect a battle for the prisoner you stole.”

Taylor looked down at his gloved hand and flexed his fingers.

“Haven’t really had the chance to test out how much strength I have,
but I’ve got the feeling it’s more than what you’ve got.” Taylor glared
at Samael at this point. “I’m taking my mate back home with me, and
you’re not going to follow us. Tell that to your council.”

Again, the soldiers behind Samael looked hesitant behind their

leader. Of course, Samael couldn’t make this easy. He never could.
The stubborn fool.

“I will not return empty-handed after the crime he has committed.

You are powerful, I can sense it because you don’t have the wisdom
to hide yourself properly, but it is not for you to decide his fate. It is
only for the council.”

“Then they can come to me and discuss it. I’m not letting you take

him to where I might never see him again.”

120 Marcy

Jacks

A sword appeared in Taylor’s hand. It was longer than Samael’s,

thicker, and no doubt heavier as well. Mathias expected the red flame
to burn his flesh since he was still being held so close to Taylor, but
he felt nothing. There was no burn, and not even any heat. The sword
would not harm him.

He had no doubt in his mind that it would harm Samael. Taylor

would injure, and perhaps even kill, the man if Samael didn’t back
down, which he did not look ready to do.

Mathias pulled away from Taylor as Samael lifted his green blade,

ready to charge. “Stop! Don’t do this, Samael, please.”

“Mathias!”
He felt Taylor’s hand on him once more as the other man

attempted to pull him away from the perceived danger, but Mathias
would not look at him. He kept his eyes firmly on Samael. He needed
the man to back down, just this once.

“Will you come back quietly, Mathias?”
Mathias looked behind him to the fearful face of his lover. Taylor

was terrified that Mathias would go off and be the noble soldier he
was meant to be, separating them forever.

He couldn’t do it, not after Taylor had come for him, and had

somehow transformed himself into the very being that John had said
he would be.

The demons couldn’t change him, so he was for Heaven now.

Mathias would stay by his side if that was where Taylor wanted him.

“I won’t,” he said, angered by the way Samael’s face twisted into

a snarl. “Do not look at me like that. You know very well why I do
this,” he said, reaching behind him and taking hold of Taylor’s hand.

It pleased him immensely when Taylor squeezed back tightly, as

though he would never let Mathias go.

Samael cringed at Mathias’s words, and he feared he may have

gone too far, but of course, the angel had to remain strong. If only for
the sake of his men. “There is clearly nothing I can do to stop you.
With his power, he could kill some of my men if we attacked,

The Half-Breed Werewolf

121

although I am sure that if we fought diligently, we could bring the
both of you in.”

Mathias nodded. “You do not want any blood spilled, that is

understandable.”

“They couldn’t take me. I’d like to see them try it,” Taylor

muttered. Mathias sent him a sharp look and went back to speaking
with Samael.

“You would be doing yourself a service. I will not run. I will stay

with Taylor on Earth and you know how to find us. Let the council
see your memories, let them look at him, and they can decide if this is
still not proof enough to what John has been telling you all along.”

Samael narrowed his eyes. Mathias could sense his internal

struggle. To release a friend and go against his own beliefs, or to do
the opposite. He didn’t envy the man the position he was in.

Samael lowered his sword. “I will speak to the council, and I will

show them what has happened here, but if they command me to return
for you, Mathias, be warned that I will do just that, and I will not stop
either.”

Mathias nodded. “Understood.”
Samael looked behind him to his men, and he made a motion with

his head. “Move out. We return alone.”

Mathias took it as a sign of victory when none of the angels

argued against what was happening. They all followed their leader,
almost eagerly, though as they flew past, each one sent both Mathias
and Taylor curious and fearful glances.

He wondered what they were thinking. Did they know, or suspect,

what Taylor had become? Did that news even make it back to the
soldiers of Heaven? Or did each man and woman still consider John
and his men to be a lot of traitors?

“You know I can’t let them take you,” Taylor said. Mathias turned

to look at him and saw the pain in his eyes. “I would kill the lot of
them, and anyone who ever tried to take you away.”

“I know.” Mathias pressed his hand to Taylor’s cheek. Despite his

122 Marcy

Jacks

new grace and power, his skin was still rough with picky hair that
needed to be shaved away. “And I will do everything in my power to
make certain you do not have to do such a thing.”

It would become his new mission. The knowledge and purpose

filled him like water in an empty glass, and he knew that such a
mission would be enough to keep him on Earth for however long
Taylor stayed there. They would not have to be separated.

Taylor pulled him close and pressed their mouths together in a

long but chaste kiss. They took only a little time to hold each other
and savor the warmth of each other’s bodies before Mathias pulled
away, reminded that they were still so close to the gates of Heaven
and that he was not exactly comfortable being that close to what was
formerly his home.

Together, they both flew back.

The Half-Breed Werewolf

123

Chapter Thirteen

“When will you find out what happened to your friends?” Taylor

asked.

They had already managed to patch up the roof with some plastic

sheets from when Taylor had punched a hole through it, but he was
still working overtime now to bring in more funds that would fix it for
real, especially with the colder nights coming along.

He might now be some new super weapon for Heaven, but he

didn’t know how to magically make money appear, which was
depressing. But he was fine with it so long as he had Mathias to
snuggle and keep warm with during the long nights.

Turned out that Mathias had only been able to do that thing with

cash because he’d been holding something of value and had
technically exchanged his breastplate for human, spendable currency.

Taylor had taken one look at his gold-rimmed wings, made of an

odd metal and not at all feathery and soft like Mathias’s, but the other
angel had glared at him and told him to not even think about it. So he
hadn’t.

Tearing out all of his feathers didn’t seem like a wise option

anyway.

“I don’t know,” Mathias said, and his face took on a look of worry

and depression, and Taylor was sorry that he’d asked.

Mathias was a warrior, though, and emotions like this weren’t

something that Taylor could protect his mate from. Mathias would
probably skin him alive if he ever suspected that Taylor was babying
him or trying to protect him from something like his own emotions.

He’d already made it perfectly clear that, while Taylor was an

124 Marcy

Jacks

alpha and his need to protect and provide for Mathias was
appreciated, if he actually tried to take on any of those responsibilities
entirely on his own, Mathias would make him live to regret it.

He loved his mate all the more for that.
It was only two mornings after Taylor’s thirtieth birthday, and so

far, Samael hadn’t returned for them, which made Taylor think they
were both safe when it came to that. Taylor was even able to continue
shifting into his wolf, which he thought was neat because, according
to Mathias, that made him the only angelic, mortal, werewolf hybrid
in the universe.

He’d preened at that and promptly taken Mathias to bed, high off

the idea that he was that much extra special, but then they’d both
come back down to earth, figuratively speaking, and started talking.

The demons hadn’t taken Taylor, and they would be forced to

leave him alone for now, but they were still out there, searching for
people who could become their generals if they pushed just enough,
tortured their minds, and drove them over the edge.

“How many are there?” Taylor asked. “Of the generals that John

is looking for?”

Taylor had never met the angel, but considering he was apparently

the reason why Taylor now had Mathias, he hoped the man was alive.
He wanted to meet him and shake his hand. Tell him thank you.

“Three that we know of, but really, there could be others.

Considering the sizes of Hell’s and Heaven’s armies, it’s likely that
there are many more.”

Many more. Odds are some of them would be turned before a

guardian angel could rescue them. Not all of them would be as lucky
as Taylor had been, or the man called Dante.

He was looking forward to meeting him in particular. According

to Mathias, Dante had yet to make his transformation into an angelic
tank, and Mathias and another angel named Jeremy thought it would
be best to introduce the both of them, thinking that guidance from
Taylor might be just what Dante needed.

The Half-Breed Werewolf

125

Taylor still had no clue how he’d done it. He had his suspicions,

and sometimes thought he knew for sure during the night when he felt
Mathias snuggled up beside him, but that’s all they were. Suspicions.

Mathias also had suspicions of his own. He’d recalled the

ambrosia drop he’d fed to Taylor and believed that had something to
do with Taylor’s early transformation.

Taylor really didn’t care how it had happened, so long as no more

angels came to his door looking to take what didn’t belong to them.

“Will we be able to help find the others?” Taylor asked. He’d

already powered down his computer and now was kicking out of his
jeans, preparing for another cold night in his warm bed with his lover.

Mathias was already waiting for him. “Perhaps, but I think we will

be required to go about our business for the time being. I don’t think
we should draw any more attention to ourselves.”

That was exactly what Taylor was hoping to hear. He wanted to

go through the honeymoon stage of his mating with Mathias anyway.
If the angels came back here, not wanting to take Mathias away but
wanting their help, then he would offer it, but only because he knew
Mathias would be the first out the door if they called him back to
duty.

He was loyal like that.
“I’m glad,” Taylor said, confessing as much to his lover. “I don’t

want any distractions for the next little while.”

Mathias stretched his body out toward the nightstand, pulling

open a drawer and taking out the lube inside. “Can I be on top again?”

He was so open and eager about it that Taylor couldn’t help but

smile.

It was a position that Mathias found himself liking, and though it

wasn’t usually Taylor’s style, he never had the heart to say no
whenever Mathias requested it, which wasn’t very often to begin
with.

“You can have as much of me as you want,” he said, climbing

onto Mathias’s lap, cupping his jaw and kissing him soundly. The

126 Marcy

Jacks

pleasurable moan that Mathias gave off went straight to Taylor’s dick
and balls, which Mathias handled with excellent care as he prepped
him.

They both looked as human as could be. As they were, none of

their wings were present, and Mathias still didn’t have his sword back
from when Samael had taken his, but that was all right. For the first
time in his life, Taylor liked what he was, and he loved the way his
mate made him feel, and he would spend every hour of his life, and
afterlife, making sure that Mathias always felt this loved as well.

THE END

WWW.MARCYJACKS.COM

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marcy Jacks lives and works in Ontario, Canada, where she is

fervently pursuing the writer’s life while writing about lots of
gorgeous guys. She loves hearing from readers, and you can reach her
at authormarcyjacks@gmail.com.

For all titles by Marcy Jacks, please visit

www.bookstrand.com/marcy-jacks

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

Wyszukiwarka

Podobne podstrony:
Marcy Jacks Redemption 4 The Half Breed Angel (MM)
Marcy Jacks Redemption 3 The Half Breed Vampire
Jacks Marcy The Half Breed Demon121219 0145
Hyacinth Scarlet The Half Breed Who Found His Other Half120427 0834
Jacks Marcy DeWitt s Pack 02 The Hunters Omega Mate
Jacks Marcy DeWitt s Pack 06 The Werewolf Love Slave and the Vampire Prince
Jacks Marcy DeWitt s Pack 04 The Blind Werewolf Assassin
Marcy Jacks Held Hostage by the Vampire Lord (The Vampire District #6)
Jacks Marcy In Bed with the Vampire Assassin130228 0912
Jacks Marcy DeWitt s Pack 07 The Spirit Within
Jacks Marcy DeWitt s Pack 09 Taken by the Alpha Wolf
Jacks Marcy The Alpha Wolfs Convenient Mate
Fred Saberhagen Vlad Tepes 02 The Holmes Dracula File
Cinda Williams Chima Heir 02 The Wizard Heir
Forgotten Realms Rogues 02 The Black Bouquet # Richard Lee Byers
Arthur Conan Doyle Challenger 02 The Poison Belt
Dennis Wheatley [Roger Brook 02] The Shadow of Tyburn Tree(v1 5)(rtf)
Keyes, J Gregory Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone 02 The Charnel Prince
Elizabeth Boyer World of the Alfar 02 The Elves & The Otterskin

więcej podobnych podstron