Content Warning

This book is an adult romance, and is intended for 18+ audiences. In addition to multiple, explicit scenes of consensual sexual intimacy, it contains themes and scenes that may be confronting for some readers.

• Fictionalised and alternative interpretation of the Christian concepts of God, Satan, Heaven and Hell
• Murder (past event, referred to)
• Parental death (past event, referred to)
• Psychological torture
• Mild violence
• Mild gore
• Vomit and bowel movements
• Sex involving tails and horns …

A Note to Readers on my Choice of Language

This book is set in ‘a city’ … I never name the city, because I want you to be able to imagine it wherever and however you like, inside the parameters of the descriptions I use in the book.

This being said, I have used British/Australian English⁠, because I am an Australian author. So don’t come for me if the spelling doesn’t match your expectations. It’s not wrong … it’s just different.

* The one exception is the word ‘donut’ … because the British spelling (doughnut) totally icks me out.

Dedication

For all the contemporary romance girlies who are ready to dip a toe into the world of horns and tails in spicy scenes … consider this your gateway drug to monster smut!

And for ‘Jemma’. You know who you are … this book wouldn’t exist without our unhinged messages.

Prologue

SJ

“And now we wait.”

I sat back on my haunches, scraping my sweaty hair back off my forehead, tucking it behind a horn. We—myself and my two faithful Hounds, that is—watched the infernal flames as they grew higher and higher around the artefact I’d placed in them.

The heat, already oppressive (this was Hell, after all), became almost unbearable. The flames changed colour, from the usual merry orange, to blinding white. I squinted, leaning closer to see if the artefact was still intact.

The fire crackled violently, throwing sparks in all directions. I leapt backwards, but I was too late. One of the sparks collided with my breeches, searing a hole through the leather and scorching my skin.

“Fuck!” I patted the smoking hole, my thigh smarting.

Just as quickly as it had started, the flames completely died, collapsing in on themselves and leaving nothing in their wake but glowing coals.

“Is that supposed to happen, Boss?” Beezle, the older of my two Hounds, asked.

“I do not know.” I peered into the embers. Had the fire consumed the artefact? Had my experiment failed completely?

“Boss?” Bub, the younger (and sillier) of my Hounds, shoved me until I fell face first, almost into the scorching coals. “Did it work?”

“Careful!” I growled. With one tentative claw, I sifted through the fire remnants. My chest constricted with each passing moment when nothing appeared.

Ting!

I froze. Then, with the renewed vigour of someone who had the fate of an entire kingdom weighing on him, I scrabbled frantically, uncovering the metal that had made the chiming sound against my claw.