Free A Dangerous Demon King (The Sentinel Demons Book 4) by J. S. Scott Page A

know that. The balance was tilted too far. The Evils would have overrun the human realm,” Drew answered.
    “What happened?” Kristoff questioned abruptly.
    Hunter, Zach and Drew quickly caught him up on all that had occurred while Kristoff had been a prisoner of Goran’s, and how Athena had come to be free and a radiant to Hunter. They went on to explain that Hunter and Athena had given them what they needed to shift the balance back into place.
    Kristoff moved forward and slapped Hunter on the back. “So you can finally live a normal life.”
    Hunter grinned at his king without malice. “I don’t know how normal it is to be a Sentinel with a goddess as my mate, but yeah, I’m pretty damn happy.”
    “I wish I had known that your loss of control wasn’t your fault, that you were destined to help normalize the balance as an equalizer.”
    “Don’t be sorry,” Hunter requested huskily. “I’d do it all again to end up where I am right now—with Athena. If my actions helped her survive, I’d gladly take the punishment as many times as necessary.”
    “You’re happy?” Kristoff asked Athena bluntly.
    “Very happy,” she answered honestly.
    Sophie saw the goddess’s look of adoration as she watched and listened to Hunter. It was obvious that Athena felt the same way as Hunter did. What would it be like to love a man that much, to be so completely bonded to him?
    “I suppose I missed the wedding?” Kristoff asked gruffly.
    Hunter shrugged. “It was short and done at the courthouse after our men could establish a human identity for Athena. You didn’t miss a big celebration. We were too damn busy trying to save the world.”
    Kristoff nodded, as though he understood that there had been no time for anything but trying to keep the human realm safe.
    “It’s going to be difficult to do damage control in this realm. The Evils have exposed themselves to so damn many humans,” Kristoff observed solemnly. “Don’t get too comfortable. The Evils will always be a threat, and restoring the balance doesn’t lessen our responsibilities in the future.”
    Drew spoke up, “We’re working on it. Everything has calmed down some. There are still some memories that need to be erased, and we have Evils to slay in this dimension. We’ll get it under control again. But all of us know our job will be never-ending. But I have to admit that it will be nice to get back to business as usual instead of operating with looming world destruction in play.”
    “I’m going to need some time with Sophie to figure out our…situation,” Kristoff rumbled. “I’ll leave you all in charge of damage control. We need to get life back to normal as quickly as possible, and become an unknown fighting force to humans again.”
    Sophie wasn’t exactly happy with being Kristoff’s “situation.” He hadn’t said whether it was good or bad, but he certainly didn’t sound overjoyed about spending time with her.
    Honestly, she wasn’t quite sure how she felt about being his radiant either, so maybe they did need time to work things out.
    “I’m helping,” Athena added. “I still have most of my goddess powers, so I can reverse the mistakes here quickly. We’ll right things here, Kristoff.”
    “How are my men?”
    Zach replied, “The ones that were injured are healing. We haven’t lost any more.”
    “Good to hear,” Kristoff answered, sounding relieved. “Do your best to continue on until I return.”
    “Where are you going?” Zach asked, sounding concerned.
    “Your sister needs to see and experience the changes that have taken place while she was in the demon realm. We can’t ignore the fact that we’re mates. It has to be dealt with,” Kristoff explained.
    “I don’t like you leaving with her,” Zach said plainly.
    “I know,” the king replied solemnly as he took Sophie’s hand.
    Her heart pounded with anticipation. “Where are we going?”
    While she appreciated her brother’s concern, her heart ached to