Goddess Of The Underworld (Sheridan Hartin) novel Chapter 51

Chapter 51

The voice giggles in my head. Your hellhound. Here, let me show you.

My legs move on their own accord, and I realise I’m not in control of my body. It’s as if I’m sitting in the passenger seat, just watching. I…or we move over to a small pool over water. As we move over the broken and jagged stones and lean forward, I see my reflection in the water. I look…just like a fucking hellhound. My fur, the little sparks of fire within it, and my eyes are red. I definitely shifted, just not into a regular wolf. On top of my head, wrapping around my ears is a crown of thorns and vines, and right in the middle, is a little skull embedded into the vines.

Oh my…

Right?! We look fucking beautiful! Layah says back to me. And take a look at our sexy as fuck mates. She turns us around to look at the four hell hounds, and I internally gasp. On closer inspection, I see that in the middle of each of their foreheads are those little symbols that were on their crowns.

Guys? I try, reaching out in my mind to them. The hellhounds all look at each other and then back at me.

Little mate? Love? Luna? Doll?!

What the fuck is going on?!

“Well, I’m sure we could answer some of your questions”, a very deep, eerie voice booms from the distance as we all turn our heads to see two figures coming towards us. The man is tall and broad; I can make out a beard under his dark hooded cloak, and he holds some sort of sceptre in one hand. The other is a woman, a tall, slender woman in a long, black flowing gown. Her dark hair flows in waves around her as she walks barefoot across the stones. Her face is flawless; she is the picture of beauty, grace, and danger.

“Hades…Persephone.” I bow my hellhound head now that Layah has given me back control. My mates seem to follow my lead, bowing low.

“Rise, please, my children,” Persephone says sweetly. “Please, shift, and we can take this conversation

somewhere more comfortable.”

I’m a bit nervous to shift, not only is it my first time, but also…I’ll be naked. Noah shifts first, and I’m surprised to see he’s still in his clothes. The others follow him, also with their clothes, so I concentrate on my human form, as Layah tells me to, and I shift.

Hades’s sceptre booms as he slams it to the ground, and there’s a rush of black smoke that fills my vision; I close my eyes and that weird falling feeling again before I stumble back to my feet and open my eyes to find we’re now standing in some sort of grand hall. The floor is a black marble with red swirls in it. The walls are painted black with large windows that have intricate designs of black roses and vines swirling around them. There’s light coming in through the windows, but no actual vision of what is on the outside. Hades and Persephone sit upon two black thrones on an altar, while my mates and I stand in a line together in front of them.

Chapter 51

“Hades,” Persephone says softly, looking towards us.

“Right. We haven’t had guests in a long time. I forgot.” He raises his hand in our direction, and behind us from the ground, that familiar smoke swirls before it forms a long stone slab in the form of a bench chair.

“Sit.” He orders.

“Please,” Persephone adds in.

My mates look to me nervously, and I take a seat, which they then follow.

“I assume you have questions,” Hades says coldly.

“Uh, yes, a few.” I nod.

“Well?” He ushers with his hand. “Spit them out then.”

“You saved me.” I start.

“That’s not a question.”

“If you would let me finish.” He lifts his head enough that I can see a smirk beneath the darkness of his

hood.

“Go on then.” He says a little lighter.

“You saved me when I was but a pup. Why?”

“Well, that is certainly a good question.” Persephone smiles at me. “And definitely the best place to start.”

Hades nods to her. “Yes. We saved you. It is not every day that one with the bloodline of the Moon Goddess is sacrificed to the Underworld. We saw an opportunity and we took it by saving you.”

“And what would that opportunity be?”

“The opportunity to hand over the reins of hell, of course.”

“What exactly does that mean?”

“It means that you and your mates here will take over from us. You will rule the underworld and keep it in order as we have for such a long time. My wife and I have been ready for a long time to finally pass on to the next world, but we have not been able to do that until we found someone of the appropriate bloodline to do so.”

“And what if my mates and I do not want to rule the underworld?”

212

2:53 pm

Chapter 51

Hades shrugs and slouches back in his throne.

“You have no choice. When my wife and I saved you and sent you back to the mortal realm, we did so by infusing our lifeforce into you. Every year that you have lived, you have taken a little more lifeforce from us. When you officially took on the role of Luna for the Red Moon Pack, we may have tweaked the event to also include that your mates would take on the role of Kings of the underworld.”

“You tricked us.” I gasp.

“Tricked? I saved you!” He booms, ending on a cough as Persephone rubs his back and continues for him.

Verify captcha to read the contentVerify