The ride gets bumpier and hotter with Baden's story, The Darkest Torment. And because his story is just too delicious to keep to myself, I'm including a sneak peek here. Just turn the page. But, before you do, I hope you have room for a new book boyfriend. As I learned telling his story, Baden is an alpha determined to win a place in your heart.
Love,
Gena Showalter
New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter returns with her most explosive Lords of the Underworld tale to date with
The Darkest Torment
A tale about a fierce warrior on the brink of sanity who will stop at nothing to claim the exquisite human with the power to soothe the beast inside him...
For more spellbinding tales full of passion and peril, don't miss any of the irresistible titles in the Lords of the Underworld series:
The Darkest Fire (digital prequel)
The Darkest Night
The Darkest Kiss
The Darkest Pleasure
The Darkest Prison (novella)
The Darkest Whisper
The Darkest Angel (novella)
The Darkest Passion
The Darkest Lie
The Darkest Secret
The Darkest Surrender
The Darkest Seduction
The Darkest Craving
The Darkest Touch
Complete your collection today!
"Showalter...rocks me every time!"
-Sylvia Day, #1 New York Times bestselling author
And don't miss Gena Showalter's scorching Original Heartbreakers series, where these not-quite-reformed bad boys meet the women who will bring them to their knees!
The One You Want
The Closer You Come
The Hotter You Burn
The Harder You Fall
Collect all four titles in the Original Heartbreakers series!
"Showalter writes fun, sexy characters you fall in love with!"
-New York Times bestselling author Lori Foster
Available wherever ebooks are sold.
Connect with us on Harlequin.com for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers, free online reads and much more!
Other ways to keep in touch:
Harlequin.com/newsletters
Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks
Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks
HarlequinBlog.com
We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin ebook. Connect with us on Harlequin.com for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers, free online reads and much more!
Other ways to keep in touch:
Harlequin.com/newsletters
Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks
Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks
HarlequinBlog.com
The Darkest Torment
by Gena Showalter
GUILT COULD NOT change the past. Worry could not change the future. And yet, both followed Baden with relentless determination. One brandished a barbed whip, the other a serrated blade, and though he had no visible wounds, he bled buckets every-damned-day.
Pain had become his constant companion, provoking an already dangerous situation. Pain incited the beast that had moved into his mind-an animal resentful of the cage...a predator starved for prey.
Kill someone. Kill everyone!
The beast's war cry. The command Baden heard whenever someone approached him. Or looked at him. Or simply breathed. The urge to obey always followed...
I will not kill, he vowed. I am not the monster who lives inside me.
He prowled from one corner of his bedroom to the other and yanked at the collar of his shirt, ripping the soft cotton. His too-sensitive skin was in constant need of soothing. Another perk of returning from the dead.
The butterfly he'd tattooed on his chest hadn't helped-had quickly become an itch he couldn't scratch. But he didn't regret the image. The jagged wings and horned antennae were the mark of the demon he'd once carried. A reminder that he'd overcome death. That he now lived. That he had brothers and a sister who needed and loved him. That he wasn't an outsider...even though he felt like one.
Now he laughed without humor. He was just too different, no longer fitting within the family dynamic. It was the guilt he carried. Four thousand years ago, he'd allowed himself to be beheaded-suicide by proxy-leaving his friends to war against their horde of enemies without him. To suffer without him. But it was also the worry he coddled against his chest like a baby. The beast hated everyone he loved. Specifically the men and women Baden owed a blood debt. The beast would stop at nothing to destroy the lot of them.
If ever the urge to kill overshadowed Baden's desire to right the wrongs he'd committed...
I will right my wrongs.
As he continued to pace, sweat rolled down the knotted muscles in his back and chest, catching in the waist of his pants. I will-
Killlll.
He beat his fists into his temples, pulled at hanks of his hair. The metal bands circling his biceps pinched as he flexed. He would rather die-again-than harm his friends.
Upon his resurrection, all twelve warriors welcomed him with open arms. No, not twelve. Thirteen now. Galen, the keeper of Jealousy and False Hope-the one who'd orchestrated Baden's death-had moved in a few weeks before. Everyone believed the prick had changed his evil ways.
Please. Shit sprinkled with sugar was still shit.
Baden would love to hack Galen to pieces and perhaps dance in his coagulating blood, but his friends had issued a strict hacking moratorium.
Baden, no matter his own desires, would not break the rules. Not once had his friends ever castigated him for his terrible mistakes. Not once had they demanded answers. They'd given him food, weapons and a private room in their massive home. A fortress hidden in the mountains of Budapest, Hungary.
A knock sounded at the door, earning a growl from the beast. Enemy! Kill!
Calm. Steady. "Go away." His voice contained bits of smoke and gravel, as if every word had been shoved through rivers of smoldering glass.
"I'm here to stay." Bang, bang, bang. "Let me in." William the Ever Randy, youngest son of Hades. The savage bastard was obsessed with fine wine, finer women and, ridiculously enough, hair care.
In a snap, the beast stopped snarling and started purring. Like a tamed housecat. A startling change, but Baden didn't have to wonder at its source. Hades was the one who'd given Baden his new life. The king's family now had a Get Out of Torture Free card. Well, everyone except the eldest son, Lucifer; his sins were simply too great.
Perhaps Baden's were, too. But it didn't matter. He wouldn't squander his second chance.
"Now isn't a good time," he said.
"Don't care. Open up."
For all intents and purposes, his body was still dead. He had no need to breathe, but purposely inhaled deeply...exhaled sharply...searching for calm. I'm the Gentleman of Mount Olympus.
Or rather, Baden had been the Gentleman of Mount Olympus. Long, looong ago. Before he'd helped his friends steal and open Pandora's box, freeing the demons from within. As punishment, every immortal responsible was forced to play permanent host to one.
And so your body shall become the vessel of your own destruction. A house of evil. The warriors were also discharged from the Greek army by Zeus-the king of the Greek gods-and kicked out of the heavens, doomed to walk the earth until death did they part.
Baden had been given Distrust. As predicted, the demon utterly destroyed him. More and more, his ability to trust those around him-even himself-had eroded. He'd spent days...weeks...even months plotting ways to murder those he should only succor.
Them or me. The last thought to sweep through his mind as the human swung a sword at his head. He'd picked them-his brothers, his family-but in the end they'd suffered for it.
The moment Baden's head had been cleaved from his body, Distrust had emerged, free of him and his control. No longer had Baden been able to check the worst of the demon's impulses. Or even to influence the creature. Invisible chains had dragged his spirit into a prison realm created specifically for those who'd come into contact with the box. His only link to the land of the living had been a wall of smoke that revealed real-time happenings in the world he'd willingly abandoned.
He'd watched as his friends mourned him, spiraling into a pit of agony and despair.
Baden had been helpless, unable to do anything but lament from the sidelines. He'd spent his days and nights warring with Pandora, the realm's only other occupant-a woman who detested the very air he used to breathe.
Then, what seemed a lifetime ago but had been only a few months, Cronus and Rhea, former king and queen of the Titans, had arrived. Zeus's enemies. Baden's enemies. How many times had the pair hurt his friends?
He'd taken great pleasure in his escape with Pandora, leaving the other two behind.
Bang, bang, bang. "Yo! Baden!"
He jolted, pissed he'd gotten lost in his head.
"Do you want to keep your door? Last chance," William called.
Baden yanked so hard the handle came off in his hand. "What do you want?"
From urgent to casual in a blink, the black-haired, blue-eyed warrior leaned one shoulder against the frame and looked Baden up and down, only to grimace. "My corneas now need to be bleached. Thanks but no thanks for that."
He pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth. One punch. Pure bliss. Bone against bone. The intoxicating scent of blood would hit his senses, and the musical howl of someone else's agony would fill his ears.