I’d been approached hundreds of times over the last four years, and never once had I even considered taking them up on their offer to fight professionally. Sure, what I did was illegal, but it was also one and done. I arrived ten minutes before my scheduled fight, I beat the bitch to a pulp, I collected my cash and got out.
I had no interest in being paraded around and worshipped, celebrating my ability to knock someone unconscious. I wanted to use my odd strength to get the money I needed to get the fuck out of my shitty apartment. I’d been living there three years too long.
Once I got outside, the balmy summer night threatened to suffocate me. I needed water. Or vodka.
Either one would work.
Heading down the street, I maintained my head down posture and kept the music blaring on full blast. I knew it wasn’t particularly safe to not keep an eye on my surroundings, but I wasn’t worried for my safety.
I always wished someone would try and jump me, just for the adrenaline rush I always got when I put myself in danger. I craved it. The beast that raged within me craved it.
Fucked up, I know.
I turned down the familiar alleyway that served as a shortcut to my destination, but I didn’t get far before I slammed into a hard body.
“Fuck me,” I gritted out as my tits hit a solid chest. I yanked my headphones out of my ears and slammed my hands on the huge guy in front of me, throwing him back a few feet. “Get the fuck off me. ”
“You always walk around with fucking headphones in and your head down like that, Angel?” The voice came out as a snarl but didn’t hide the smooth undertone that still managed to bleed through.
I knew instantly what I would see when I looked up.
That voice only meant one thing: he was looking for trouble. He was probably hot as hell too. I could fucking feel it.
“I do, actually,” I said to the ground with a fair amount of inky sass.
There was that adrenaline I was talking about. I felt the beast shake off its slumber and prepare for an attack. This was what we craved.
This asshole had no idea what I was capable of.
So I steeled my shoulders and threw my phone in my back pocket.
And then I looked up.
Fuck. Me.
It wasn’t just one. No, three massive guys stood in front of me. Three sets of eyes: one blue mixed with hints of dark gray, one a strange red color like burning molten lava, and one—belonging to the voice who spoke—a seafoam green so bright I could see little golden flecks within them.
They were striking.
And something was wrong.
As I stared at them, my breath started coming out choppy and a little labored, my senses were going haywire, my beast began growling. She was pacing and shaking up my insides, warning me that this was more than just three guys jumping me in an alley.
What the fuck?
Oh, hell no, I needed to walk away from this mess before shit got crazy.
“Get out of my way,” I bit out as I tried to maintain my composure.
It wasn’t how they looked—I’d seen hot guys before. Hell, I’d fucked plenty of them. But these guys? They were…beautiful. The kind of beautiful that promised a sweet death. They were twisted and reeked of darkness as they stared at me. Pain and anger surrounded me in the alley, bouncing off the bricks and clashing with my own broken soul.
Especially the one in the middle, the one with the seafoam eyes. His soul burned almost as bright as mine. I could feel his flames reaching out to play with my own.
So instead of breaking into a run like I should have, I simply stepped forward. Challenging them to disobey my order.
“She’s got a death wish, man,” Lava Eyes chuckled, a low and sexy sound.
He was mocking me.
I whipped my head to him and watched as he ran a tattooed hand through his ash colored hair, a deep smirk gracing his lips. He was fucking hot. Like, deliciously hot. While his features were all light, his grin spoke of nothing but madness.
“Shut up, Quint,” the blue eyed one responded.
I turned to look at him and sighed.
For fuck’s sake, he was just as stunning. Messy blond hair with streaks of honey gold—the kind of hair that makes you want to run your fingers through it. Or pull on while his head is between your legs. He had high cheekbones, a straight nose, full pink lips, and tattoos that snaked down his muscular arms. Both Lava and Blue Eyes were tall as hell, probably six two?
“This is definitely her, but I doubt she is going to come willingly. She’s got no fucking idea what she is,” the one in the middle muttered with barely contained anger. I wanted to get a closer look at him, but I couldn’t take my eyes away from Blue yet. He was staring at me like he knew me, but I sure as shit had never seen him before. I would have remembered him.
I probably would have fucked him.
I tore my eyes away from his and took my time turning my head to view the one in the middle.
Somehow, I knew that once I looked at him, there was no going back. His flames would envelop me.
I blinked. A foot away from me stood the tallest of the three guys. He was like nothing I’d ever seen before.
I inhaled a small gasp when I noticed his glare. His seafoam eyes were hard and framed by silky dark eyelashes that fanned his pronounced cheekbones. His jawline was harsh as he gritted his teeth, a visible sign of his anger. His inky black hair was perfectly styled in the sexiest way. Shaved at the sides but long enough on top that when he reached up to push it out of his eyes, you could easily imagine it neatly organized with hair product if he ever chose to tame it.
He had the most tattoos out of the three of them. I couldn’t make out what any of them were due to the darkness of the alley, but the ink on his neck was unmistakable. He wore a black T-shirt and black skinny jeans tucked into Timberlands, with a white hoodie tied around his waist. The ink on his arms stretched as his muscles flexed from clenching and unclenching his fists at his sides.
He was a perfect vision of hell in the flesh.
“If she’d stop checking us out, maybe we’d find out just how much she knows,” Lava Eyes said. I think Blue Eyes called him Quint.
I looked to the other two again, noticing that they too wore dark skinny jeans tucked into Timberlands, but Blue’s were ripped at the knees. My stomach flipped at the sight. Fuck, they were gorgeous.
“I’m not checking you out, I’m sizing up the competition.” My voice sounded confident despite my warring feelings. They may be hot as hell, but I’ve lived in hell long enough to not let their looks mess with my head. If anything, I knew this hell well enough to know their weaknesses.
I felt my beast pacing restlessly inside me. I called on her. Gave her a mental nod, telling her to get ready. I warned them, and they didn’t listen, so now I had to teach them a lesson.
“I told you to get out of my way,” I warned, staring at the three guys in front of me.
I couldn’t physically see my beast, it was a mental connection we shared, something I had never understood or been able to figure out, but she never left. I had gotten used to her presence, and now she was simply a part of me.
Quint laughed. The other two didn’t. The devilish one in the middle snarled, and the one with golden hair and blue eyes looked…worried? He was still staring at me like he knew me. Like he was sad I didn’t remember him.
“What’s your name?” Blue Eyes asked.