And the emptiness in his head.
It seemed like every one of his brothers had some new purpose. But what did he have? Morning walks with Faust. Watching his brothers bicker. Fighting the urge to tear his ears off when he had to listen to Meph and Iris fucking through the wall between their rooms. Going to the gym to work himself to exhaustion. Stealing pointless shit he didn’t want just to scratch the itch a little.
Escaping Hell was supposed to have been a new beginning, and it was for everyone but him. Worse, he didn’t even have Meph to keep him distracted anymore. Meph spent every spare minute with Iris now, and—
The sound of barking snapped him out of it.
Seconds later, an enormous brown dog bolted past him, so fast he felt the wind gust on his leg. The dog headed straight for Faust, who was currently sniffing the hand of a woman who seemed to have appeared from nowhere.
“Faust!” Raum shouted, warning his dog away from her before the inevitable occurred.
Too late.
The brown dog barreled into Faust. The woman, who had the unfortunate luck to be behind them, took the weight of two large dog bodies as Faust was knocked into her from behind.
By the time she hit the ground, Raum was already running. The dogs ignored her, now fighting viciously, their snarling and snapping inches from her arms held protectively over her face, their paws stamping on her prone body.
Raum reached the chaos and didn’t even think about hiding his strength. He picked up both dogs and tossed them. He wasn’t worried about Faust, and maybe getting the wind knocked out of the other dog would calm him down.
Animals out of the way, Raum crouched beside the woman. She lowered her arms and their eyes met.
And the world disappeared.
A stunning pair of dark eyes met his. Big eyes. Almost too big for her face. Her skin was light brown, and her hair was sleek and black and straight, wound into a thick braid that lay on the dirt like twisted rope. Swooping dark brows matched her complexion, and her nose was prominent, with a bump at the bridge and a point at the end, but it offset the unusual size of her eyes.
She stared at him, and he stared right back at her, neither of them saying anything.
Until he suddenly remembered she was flat on her back in the mud.
Shaking himself, he offered a hand and helped her stand. She looked a little shaken but otherwise unharmed, and as soon as he noted that, he started noticing other things about her body.
Like curves.So many curves.She wore a skin-tight matching athletic outfit that was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen. Full breasts overfilled her long-sleeve crop top, and her voluptuous hips were accentuated by the cut of the high-waisted leggings. Both were a soft pink. Against her brown skin, it was hot as hell.
“You okay?”
She nodded mutely, still staring at him, her eyes wide and unblinking.
He stared back at her.
He wasn’t the smooth talker Meph was, but he sure as hell knew how to charm a woman. Except right now, he didn’t. He wanted to make sure she wasn’t hurt. He also wanted to know if her ass was anywhere near as fine as he was imagining.
As the awkward silence lingered, the distant sound of barking and snarling filtered through the static in his head.
He swung his head around and took in the scene. Faust and the brown dog were battling it out, and Faust was kicking ass. Not a surprise. Puppy or not, he was a hellhound and had the added strength of any supernatural being.
Raum put his fingers between his lips and whistled sharply. The sound pierced the commotion, and just like Raum had trained him, Faust stopped dead. He opened the jaws fixed around the other dog’s throat and trotted back like everything was a-okay.
But then there was the matter of the giant brown dog who knocked down helpless women on his way to attack other people’s pets.
Raum looked at Faust, pointed to the ground at his feet, and said, “Stay.”
Faust planted his butt on the dirt.
Then Raum ran towards the other dog who was already up and swinging his big head around as if looking for someone else to attack. Raum whistled again, getting the animal to look at him. It started to growl, so he growled right back. They approached each other like a face off.
Raum stared him down.
The dog dropped his gaze.
