The Mistress and the Hellhound by Mina Carter Page B

bright amber ring in his eyes, he was wolf-born for sure, and the whisper of power over the exposed skin of Archer’s forearms suggested he was more powerful than most.
    “Travis! When did you get back?” With a cry of delight, Reena wrapped her arms around him in a bear hug. Archer clenched his fists to stop himself from punching the guy as he hugged her, pleasure and emotion written all over his face.
    “Travis Mayweather.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.
    After surviving his conversion madness, he’d made it his business to know the major players in the city. He didn’t do politics, but he was ex-military, so he did do intel on knowing his enemy. Or rather, Reena’s enemy, so he had her back.
    But Travis Mayweather wasn’t an enemy. He was a friend. More than a friend. According to rumor, he was Reena’s best friend from childhood, the friend she’d killed her own father for…and the man who’d shared her bed every midwinter choosing before this one.
    Before Archer had taken his place.
     
    *
     
    Reena stepped back from Travis and cut a glance at Archer. Both men she knew, one better than herself, and the other intimately, although you could argue she knew both intimately but in entirely different ways.
    Travis, she could see, practically brimmed with happiness, and she didn’t blame him. He’d finally found the love of his life, Jennison, and the fact the man loved him in return obviously still amazed her lifelong friend. She looked around and spied the hulking alpha at the back of the room, eyes on his mate and no one else. She recognized the look: heat mixed with possessiveness. It was the way Archer looked at her.
    Well, when he wasn’t glaring at Travis as if he’d like to tear his spine out through his stomach. He was practically growling. She reached out a hand to the middle of his broad chest. Her touch and the electricity that always arched between them caught his attention and he looked at her.
    “I am.” Travis eyed Archer levelly, his gaze direct. Reena smiled in approval. It had taken a long time for Travis to come out of his shell after the abuse he’d suffered at the hands of her father. A natural beta, he struggled with confrontation.
    Usually.
    Right now though, he squared up to Archer like a born alpha, even though the other guy had at least fifty more pounds and a hell of a lot more experience fighting. Probably. Yeah…make that definitely. Archer had been a soldier; his human combat experience would outweigh anything Travis…who had never fought even as a wolf…had to offer.
    “You’re Archer Davis, former soldier, former human, and Reena’s paramour.”
    Oh. For. Fuck’s. Sake.
    Reena closed her eyes for a fraction of a second. Just like Travis to finally find an alpha streak and lay it all out like he’d slapped his dick on the counter for a pissing contest. Then she frowned, cutting a glance to Archer.
    “Your name is Davis? Not Griffin?”
    He gave the smallest of nods, his gaze still fixed on Travis. The kind of gaze that suggested should they ever meet in a dark alley, one of the guys wouldn’t fair so well.
    “Hey,” she slapped his arm. “Eyes on me. Answer the question.”
    He transferred his attention, and just for a moment, she thought she saw a glimmer of red in his eyes. Before she could say for sure, though, it disappeared as flecks of amber pushed through the human color.
    “Yeah. My mom married into the Griffin pack when I was a kid. We both started as plain ol’ human.”
    There was nothing plain about Archer, but she kept that to herself. How had she not known he wasn’t a Griffin? She, who prided herself on knowing everything about all those around her, had somehow let something about the guy in her bed pass her by. But then, they didn’t tend to do much talking once past the bedroom doors. Archer was a demanding lover and now he had the stamina of a wolf… Dayum. Heat hit her broadside at the memory, and she quickly transferred