Hunted: An Eternal Guardians Novella Read online

  Hunted

  An Eternal Guardians Novella

  By Elisabeth Naughton

  1001 Dark Nights

  Hunted

  An Eternal Guardians Novella

  By Elisabeth Naughton

  1001 Dark Nights

  Copyright 2017 Elisabeth Naughton

  ISBN: 978-1-945920-40-0

  Foreword: Copyright 2014 M. J. Rose

  Published by Evil Eye Concepts, Incorporated

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.

  Book Description

  Hunted

  An Eternal Guardians Novella

  By Elisabeth Naughton

  Erebus – Dark in every sense of the word, a skilled and lethal warrior, and sinfully sexy by design.

  Since the dawn of modern man, Erebus was Hades’ secret weapon in the war between the immortal realms. Until Hades lost the minor god in a bet to his older brother Zeus. For the last hundred years, Erebus has trained Zeus’s Siren warriors in warfare and the sexual arts. But he’s never stopped longing for freedom. For a life filled with choice. And lately, he also longs for one Siren who entranced him during their steamy seduction sessions. A nymph he quickly became obsessed with and who was ripped from his grasp when her seduction training was complete. One he’s just learned Zeus has marked for death because she failed the last Siren test.

  Before Erebus can intercede on the nymph’s behalf, she escapes Olympus and flees into the human realm. In a fit of rage, Zeus commands Erebus to hunt her down and kill her. Erebus sees his opportunity to finally go after what he wants, but he’s torn. Freedom means nothing if the Siren at the center of his fantasies doesn’t truly crave him back. Because defying the gods will unleash the fury of Olympus, and if he chooses her over his duty, whether she joins him in exile or not, the hunter will become the hunted.

  About Elisabeth Naughton

  Before topping multiple bestseller lists--including those of the New York Times, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal--Elisabeth Naughton taught middle school science. A voracious reader, she soon discovered she had a knack for creating stories with a chemistry of their own. The spark turned into a flame, and Naughton now writes full-time. Besides topping bestseller lists, her books have been nominated for some of the industry's most prestigious awards, such as the RITA® and Golden Heart Awards from Romance Writers of America, the Australian Romance Reader Awards, and the Golden Leaf Award. When not dreaming up new stories, Naughton can be found spending time with her husband and three children in their western Oregon home. Learn more at www.ElisabethNaughton.com.

  Also By Elisabeth Naughton

  Click to purchase.

  Eternal Guardians

  (paranormal romance)

  MARKED

  ENTWINED

  TEMPTED

  ENRAPTURED

  ENSLAVED

  BOUND

  TWISTED

  RAVAGED

  AWAKENED

  UNCHAINED

  Firebrand Series

  (paranormal romance)

  BOUND TO SEDUCTION

  SLAVE TO PASSION

  POSSESSED BY DESIRE

  Against All Odds Series

  (romantic suspense)

  WAIT FOR ME

  HOLD ON TO ME

  MELT FOR ME

  Aegis Series

  (romantic suspense)

  FIRST EXPOSURE

  SINFUL SURRENDER

  EXTREME MEASURES

  LETHAL CONSEQUENCES

  FATAL PURSUIT

  Deadly Secrets Series

  (romantic suspense)

  REPRESSED

  GONE

  Stolen Series

  (romantic suspense)

  STOLEN FURY

  STOLEN HEAT

  STOLEN SEDUCTION

  STOLEN CHANCES

  Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection One

  Click here to explore

  FOREVER WICKED by Shayla Black

  CRIMSON TWILIGHT by Heather Graham

  CAPTURED IN SURRENDER by Liliana Hart

  SILENT BITE: A SCANGUARDS WEDDING by Tina Folsom

  DUNGEON GAMES by Lexi Blake

  AZAGOTH by Larissa Ione

  NEED YOU NOW by Lisa Renee Jones

  SHOW ME, BABY by Cherise Sinclair

  ROPED IN by Lorelei James

  TEMPTED BY MIDNIGHT by Lara Adrian

  THE FLAME by Christopher Rice

  CARESS OF DARKNESS by Julie Kenner

  Also from 1001 Dark Nights

  TAME ME by J. Kenner

  Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection Two

  Click here to explore

  WICKED WOLF by Carrie Ann Ryan

  WHEN IRISH EYES ARE HAUNTING by Heather Graham

  EASY WITH YOU by Kristen Proby

  MASTER OF FREEDOM by Cherise Sinclair

  CARESS OF PLEASURE by Julie Kenner

  ADORED by Lexi Blake

  HADES by Larissa Ione

  RAVAGED by Elisabeth Naughton

  DREAM OF YOU by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  STRIPPED DOWN by Lorelei James

  RAGE/KILLIAN by Alexandra Ivy/Laura Wright

  DRAGON KING by Donna Grant

  PURE WICKED by Shayla Black

  HARD AS STEEL by Laura Kaye

  STROKE OF MIDNIGHT by Lara Adrian

  ALL HALLOWS EVE by Heather Graham

  KISS THE FLAME by Christopher Rice

  DARING HER LOVE by Melissa Foster

  TEASED by Rebecca Zanetti

  THE PROMISE OF SURRENDER by Liliana Hart

  Also from 1001 Dark Nights

  THE SURRENDER GATE By Christopher Rice

  SERVICING THE TARGET By Cherise Sinclair

  Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection Three

  Click here to explore

  HIDDEN INK by Carrie Ann Ryan

  BLOOD ON THE BAYOU by Heather Graham

  SEARCHING FOR MINE by Jennifer Probst

  DANCE OF DESIRE by Christopher Rice

  ROUGH RHYTHM by Tessa Bailey

  DEVOTED by Lexi Blake

  Z by Larissa Ione

  FALLING UNDER YOU by Laurelin Paige

  EASY FOR KEEPS by Kristen Proby

  UNCHAINED by Elisabeth Naughton

  HARD TO SERVE by Laura Kaye

  DRAGON FEVER by Donna Grant

  KAYDEN/SIMON by Alexandra Ivy/Laura Wright

  STRUNG UP by Lorelei James

  MIDNIGHT UNTAMED by Lara Adrian

  TRICKED by Rebecca Zanetti

  DIRTY WICKED by Shayla Black

  THE ONLY ONE by Lauren Blakely

  SWEET SURRENDER by Liliana Hart

  Sign up for the 1001 Dark Nights Newsletter

  and be entered to win a Tiffany Key necklace.

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  Click here to subscribe.

  As a bonus, all subscribers will receive a free

  1001 Dark Nights story

  The First Night

  by Lexi Blake & M.J. Rose

  Table of Contents

  Book Description

  About Elisabeth Naughton

  Also by Elisabeth Naughton

  Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection One

  Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection Two

  Discover 1001
Dark Nights Collection Three

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Eternal Guardians Lexicon

  Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection Four

  Discover the World of 1001 Dark Nights

  Discover More Elisabeth Naughton

  An excerpt from Gone by Elisabeth Naughton

  Special Thanks

  One Thousand and One Dark Nights

  Once upon a time, in the future…

  I was a student fascinated with stories and learning.

  I studied philosophy, poetry, history, the occult, and

  the art and science of love and magic. I had a vast

  library at my father’s home and collected thousands

  of volumes of fantastic tales.

  I learned all about ancient races and bygone

  times. About myths and legends and dreams of all

  people through the millennium. And the more I read

  the stronger my imagination grew until I discovered

  that I was able to travel into the stories... to actually

  become part of them.

  I wish I could say that I listened to my teacher

  and respected my gift, as I ought to have. If I had, I

  would not be telling you this tale now.

  But I was foolhardy and confused, showing off

  with bravery.

  One afternoon, curious about the myth of the

  Arabian Nights, I traveled back to ancient Persia to

  see for myself if it was true that every day Shahryar

  (Persian: شهريار, “king”) married a new virgin, and then

  sent yesterday's wife to be beheaded. It was written

  and I had read, that by the time he met Scheherazade,

  the vizier's daughter, he’d killed one thousand

  women.

  Something went wrong with my efforts. I arrived

  in the midst of the story and somehow exchanged

  places with Scheherazade – a phenomena that had

  never occurred before and that still to this day, I

  cannot explain.

  Now I am trapped in that ancient past. I have

  taken on Scheherazade’s life and the only way I can

  protect myself and stay alive is to do what she did to

  protect herself and stay alive.

  Every night the King calls for me and listens as I spin tales.

  And when the evening ends and dawn breaks, I stop at a

  point that leaves him breathless and yearning for more.

  And so the King spares my life for one more day, so that

  he might hear the rest of my dark tale.

  As soon as I finish a story... I begin a new

  one... like the one that you, dear reader, have before

  you now.

  “From the deepest desires often comes the deadliest hate.”

  —Socrates

  Chapter One

  One thing Erebus could say for the Sirens—they sure made their trainees feel special. So special they couldn’t even refer to them by name when they crashed and burned and Zeus decided it was time to hunt them down and snuff them out.

  Not that Erebus cared all that much. He knew his place. He was a minor god in service to Zeus only because Hades had lost him in a bet to the King of the Gods. He didn’t particularly enjoy serving, but it was better than the alternative: being decimated altogether like his kinsfolk or spending eternity suffering in the pits of Tartarus. While he’d been spared the same fate as his family thousands of years ago, his time in servitude to Hades in the Underworld had shown him just what happens to prisoners in Tartarus—at both the hands of Hades and Tartarus’s most famous prisoner: Krónos—and he had no desire to get stuck in that living hell as an inmate himself.

  A flash of blonde hair to his left caught his attention as he ran through the dark forest. His target—Trainee #429745—was close, but then he knew that already. His god powers were strongest in darkness, and his hearing, smell, even sight were amplified when night disadvantaged other hunters. He could hear her labored breaths echoing in his ears, could smell the lemony scent of her skin in his nostrils, but seeing the flash of long blonde hair had surprised him.

  He hadn’t looked at her picture before he’d left Olympus for this hunt. He’d memorized her trainee number, read through her file and made mental notes of her trainers’ mostly average comments about her hand-to-hand combat and warfare skills. Had questioned the stupid guards she’d overpowered at the gates of Olympus when she’d fled, and who were now suffering their own just fates. And he’d located the portal she’d used outside the gates to cross into this forest in the human realm. But he’d purposefully not looked at her image.

  Putting a face to a number gave his prey a human quality he didn’t need to concern himself with. His orders from Zeus were clear: “She failed her last Siren test and ran. Hunt her down and bring her back to me.” It was not Erebus’s place to question Zeus’s command. The King of the Gods could have ordered Erebus to kill the trainee—which he’d done in the past and would do again when called upon because it was his duty—but Zeus hadn’t. That made Erebus’s job this time a helluva lot easier, and for that he was thankful.

  But that flash of blonde...

  He’d seen it somewhere before. Or hair like it. Not a white blonde. Not a honey blonde. Not even a multicolored blonde like many of the Sirens sported on Olympus. This hair had been a golden blonde so bright it had looked like a gilded waterfall in the darkness of the forest when she’d whipped past him through the trees.

  Not important.

  What she looked like had no impact on his current assignment. Clearing his mind, he shifted direction and picked up his speed, heading toward the flash of blonde he’d seen. Her labored breaths grew louder. Her scent stronger. Ahead, that golden blonde flashed again, whipping behind her as she turned to look into the dark forest at her back then angled forward again and ran faster.

  Leaves and pine needles slapped him in the face. The forest floor was damp and soft beneath his boots. She wasn’t particularly fast for a nymph, but she zigzagged around trees and brush quite a bit, changing direction so much it was hard to anticipate her next move. He’d researched this forest in preparation for this hunt, though, and he had a good idea where she was headed. Instead of chasing her maze of steps, he shifted to his right and ran at an angle away from her.

  He calculated distance and speed in his mind. The ground rose and fell in the mountainous terrain. Somewhere above, an owl hooted and the whir of bat wings echoed like background music to his steps. When he’d run far enough, he cut back to his left. The terrain gave way to a small clearing between the mountains. Just as he predicted, she came tearing down the hillside to his left and emerged from the trees, that blonde hair a blur around her face as she repeatedly glanced over her shoulder to check his position.

  Victory flared hot in his veins. He increased his speed and shot into the clearing at her right. Her surprised gasp met his ears when she spotted him, but she didn’t have time to react. Lowering his shoulder, he slammed into her, knocking her off her feet to fly through the air ten yards before hitting the meadow grasses with a grunt.

  He slowed his steps as he approached and looked down. She groaned and rolled onto her side away from him in the grass. That oddly familiar golden hair covered her face, triggering a sense of déjà vu, but he ignored it. He ignored everything except what he was here to do.

  His pulse slowed now that he’d captured his prey. “Your fun’s over now, nymph.” Leaning forward, he reached for her arm. “On your feet.”

  His hand closed around her biceps. She still wore the typical training attire: knee-high kick-ass boots, slim black stretch pants that mold
ed to her muscular legs, and a fitted black tank that showcased her curves and plump breasts. Heat from her bare skin burned into his palm as he wrapped his hand around her upper arm, but she didn’t immediately climb to her feet, which irritated him. And something about her scent... It was warm and familiar, like a summer breeze blowing through a lemon grove at dusk.

  Like a lemon grove at dusk? He gave his head a swift shake, knowing the hours he’d spent hunting her were catching up with him. Fuck him. He was the god of darkness. It was in his DNA to be moody and short-tempered, not romantic and idealistic. The sooner he got this insolent nymph back to Olympus, the sooner he could catch a few hours of shut-eye to recharge his dwindling energy reserves. He might be a god, but he still had needs. And after he dumped Trainee #429745 in Zeus’s lap, he needed to gear himself up to instruct the newest class of Siren recruits. The ones who were even more inept than the last set Zeus had sent him.

  He was tired, grouchy, and in need of a little R and R before he had to deal with more bratty Siren trainees who thought they were all the shit. The fact this one was causing him so much trouble didn’t do a thing to ease his perpetual bad mood.

  “I said your fun is over, nymph.” He jerked on her arm.

  A blur of golden hair whipped in front of him, and he saw the briefest flash of silver in that blur. But he had no time to react. Hot metal pierced the flesh of his upper arm and stabbed deep before his brain clued in to what the silver meant.

  Pain ripped through his arm. His hand reflexively released her, and he jerked back. The recruit yanked the blade of a dagger free from his arm, lurched to her feet, and faced him with both malice and fury in her brilliant blue eyes. “Wrong, asshole. I say when it’s over.”