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
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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)
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
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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.”