Free Winter Born by Sherrilyn Kenyon Page A

from me. Now I’m here for blood.”
    Aristotle sputtered. “There was some misunderstanding. My men went after an Arcadian whor—”
    Dante slugged him before he could finish the insult. “Pandora Kouti-Pontis is my mate. If you speak of her with anything other than extreme reverence in your tone, you piss me off.”
    Aristotle turned pale. “I had no idea she belonged to you. Believe me.”
    â€œNow you do, and if I ever see any of you near her again, I’ll end all your problems. Permanently.”
    *   *   *
    Pandora was sitting in the Grandstand Lounge with Acheron, his daughter demon Simi, and two gods while they waited for Dante’s return.
    This had to be the oddest moment of her life. The demon was busy eating an extremely rare hamburger drenched in barbecue sauce while the gods and Acheron were telling Pandora stories about how they’d all met Dante.
    Apparently her mate had quite a rambunctious club that catered to all manner of bizarre clientele. The gods and Acheron made routine visits there.
    Zurvan, who went by the name Cas, was the ancient Persian god of time and space. He was the elegantly dressed man she had followed earlier toward the elevators, thinking he was Acheron.
    Ariman—not to be confused with the Persian god Ariman—had been an ancient Phoenician god who had had the misfortune of visiting Atlantis at the time the continent was destroyed. He’d been in human form, trying to seduce a young woman, and as a result, he was now trapped in human form with no god powers except immortality.
    He wasn’t happy about it either.
    â€œI really wish one of you would take mercy on me and fix me or kill me,” Ariman said for the fifth time since he had joined them at their table.
    Cas rolled his eyes, then turned toward Acheron. “I think we ought to banish him from our presence so we can’t hear him bitch anymore.”
    Ash laughed.
    â€œYou’re such—” Ariman’s words broke off as he spotted the women who weren’t wearing anything except warning tape. “Later.” He bolted after the women.
    Cas shook his head. “He is never going to learn, is he?”
    Ash took a drink of beer before he responded. “Be grateful he doesn’t. It gives us endless hours of amusement watching him screw his life up.”
    Cas snorted. “Considering how screwed up yours is, that says something.”
    â€œLet’s not go there,” Ash said, his eyes flashing red before they returned to their spooky swirling silver shade.
    Sometimes it was very scary to hang out with supernatural beings.
    â€œPandora?”
    She froze at the sound of a voice she never thought to hear again. Afraid she was hearing things, she turned to see her sister Sefia running up to her.
    Pandora shot to her feet to throw her arms around her sister. Oh, it was too good to be real! “What are you doing here, Sef?”
    â€œYour mate brought me,” she said as tears poured down her cheeks. “He made them let us all go. Now it’s up to us if we want to return to our mates or not.”
    Pandora was stunned as she looked past her sister to see Dante and his brothers approaching at a much more sedate pace.
    â€œDante?” she asked as he stopped by her side.
    He shrugged nonchalantly as if he hadn’t just given her the impossible. “It wasn’t right what they were doing to their females and I figured you’d rather travel with your own female kind than with mine.”
    She still couldn’t believe he’d done this. He had formed a new pack of female panthers for her to roam with. “What about the pact they made with our pack?”
    â€œIt’s dissolved,” Dante said. “If they pull any more of your kin out of their time period, I’m going to send them a special welcoming committee.”
    â€œDamn, Dante,” Cas said from behind her. “That’s