Vitus: #9 (Luna Lodge: Hunters of Atlas) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Title

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Thank You

  Also By

  Author Bio

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents depicted in this work are of the author’s imagination or have been used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, locations, or events is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright © 2018 Madison Stevens

  No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without the prior written permission of the author.

  Cover designed by Najla Qamber Designs

  Vitus (Luna Lodge: Hunters of Atlas #9)

  by

  Madison Stevens

  Hybrid Vitus never cared about love or finding a mate before. The easy-going man figured his people had enough to deal with between hiding from the vicious Horatius Group and trying to stop the insane Agatha and her army of bestial Glycons.

  When the rogue super-Glycon Thrax becomes obsessed with taking a mate, Vitus is forced to start taking things seriously, especially since Thrax is targeting Grace, a woman who is supposed to be destined for the hybrid.

  Now, Vitus will have to do whatever it takes, including pushing the shy woman out of her comfort zone.

  Grace has lived a simple and comfortable life of routine. She’s happy to run the store she inherited from her parents. Sure, it can be lonely, but she’s not about to change her life just because of some flirtatious playboy, even if he has ridiculous abs and looks like a Greek statue come to life.

  Her easy routine is shattered when Thrax comes for her and she learns the truth of the hybrids living in Eagle Ridge. She longs to return to her old life, but she’s drawn to Vitus in a way she can barely explain.

  As their love starts to blossom, Grace will have to decide what’s most important in life, and Vitus will have to decide what he’s willing to sacrifice for her safety before they both lose it all.

  Chapter One

  The quiet stillness of the grocery store always put Grace on edge late at night. The time was a dead zone when very few customers even bothered to come in. Not only that, but with all the recent troubles with animal attacks and strangeness from the Azilian cult, even fewer people were wandering town when the sun went down.

  As much as she hated to think it, Grace couldn’t help but wonder if those people had the right idea.

  Eagle Ridge and the store didn't always used to be this way. She used to enjoy this quiet time of night, even back when she was just a young teen working for her parents. But things had changed over the past few months. Things had grown darker in their small part of the world. She couldn't help but feel like some sort of ominous presence hung over them. Dark, angry, and threatening.

  Even Grace’s dreams had turned to nightmares. More often than not when she closed her eyes, she saw the Shadow Man there, the dark figure that lurked within the recesses of her mind.

  She’d never encountered such evil before. Never worried that it’d come at her.

  Of course she knew evil existed in the world, but in the small haven of Eagle Ridge, she had felt untouched and safe from such things. Her town was a place where teens keying a car was a serious thing, or if someone was hurt, it was because of a wild animal.

  Grace wanted to believe the Shadow Man was just a figment of her imagination. It’d be easier, more comforting to believe that, but she didn’t. She’d grown to believe he was far too real.

  It was hard not to since her friend Celine had confirmed he’d been showing up in her dreams as well.

  She let out a quiet sigh as she walked into the produce aisle.

  All her life, she’d worried only about handling what was right in front of her, dealing with whatever life tossed her way. When her parents had died, Grace did what needed to be done.

  She got up and went to the grocery store and opened the doors like she had nearly every day of her life. She was never like her sister Allison. Never had great ambition to be mayor of their small town. She was proud of what her sister had accomplished but was content where she was.

  Running the grocery store wasn’t glamorous, but it was useful, and that made it satisfying enough for her.

  Grace shook her head and reached up to the top of the rack to bring down the new produce.

  Lately though, everything felt different. More than that, it actually was different.

  Her sister and her friend had both shifted almost all their attention to their new husbands. She couldn’t blame them. That’s why people got married, to spend time with their other half, their soulmates.

  Grace let out a long sigh. She wasn’t jealous. All she ever wanted was for those she cared about to be happy. She just felt alone.

  She started rearranging heads of lettuce and let out another long sigh. She couldn't spend her time dwelling on what she didn't have. Instead, she needed to be focusing on what was in front of her and what would come tomorrow. The delivery truck would be coming in, and she needed to make sure that all the old inventory was shifted into position. Otherwise, she’d just end up having trouble and stress she could have avoided.

  Grace moved a box of red apples down onto the bottom shelf but couldn't stop her mind from wandering.

  Every day the man came in now, the strange man from the group outside of town, the same group whose men had impressed her sister and friend enough to marry. It wasn’t like she didn’t understand. They all were huge, fit, well-muscled men, like Greek statues come to life.

  She'd heard the man called Vitus before. It was a strange name for an even stranger man.

  Each time he came into the store, Grace would find him chatting with the employees in the store, but his eyes were always seeking her out, following her around until she felt them boring into her very soul. It made her feel exposed. Something she wasn't much used to feeling.

  A blush spread across her face. No one had given her that kind of attention in her entire life. Most times, she was able to pass through life without much disturbance, avoiding complications.

  Through much of high school, she'd gone mostly unnoticed. Her sister ran for whatever student council or club president position she could. Grace was happy just working and sitting in the corner with a good book.

  It’s not like she tried to attract much attention. She knew what boys said in school and what men said later. Nice face, but she didn’t do much with her wavy brown hair, and she was short. Her clothing choices could only be described as frumpy. About as far from sex kitten as one could imagine.

  It didn’t bother her. Too much attention meant she couldn’t just focus on the here and now. She’d have to start worrying about things she couldn’t control, like the future.

  Grace narrowed her eyes as she moved a box of oranges. She was running low. She’d ordered enough, but the last delivery included more than a few bad boxes. She didn’t want to have to worry about another supplier.

  Her mind drifted back to school and her life afterward. As time went on,
the woman found that she'd spent so much time not trying that most of the men around her had already been taken. Before she hadn’t cared so much. She’d always figured she’d had time. It’s just that her time had run out.

  Grace huffed loudly as she heaved another box to the bottom shelf.

  But that was before Vitus started coming to her store. It was obvious he was there for her. It’s not like one man needed that many sticks of beef jerky.

  She shook her head violently.

  No. She couldn’t think that way, especially about Vitus.

  Grace didn't need a man, especially not some playboy hotshot. Even if his muscles strained under his shirt and he filled out his pants like no one she'd ever seen.

  Her cheeks heated at the thought.

  A loud crash outside shook her from her thoughts. Goosebumps prickled her arms as she turned to stare at the back door.

  An animal? The animal?

  They had all heard the warnings. Some animals had been roaming the words, killing and maiming. Her sister had worked with a woman from the state to help install special sound devices to help protect the town. There very well could be some vicious wild animal wandering outside her store.

  Still, Grace couldn't leave it unchecked. This was her livelihood, and there was always a chance that stupid teens were out back causing trouble again. Crazed animals she couldn’t deal with. Punk teens were easy.

  Grace grabbed a nearby broom leaning against the wall.

  She crept toward the door and opened it slightly, peeking out the crack in the door. The outside motion light had already clicked on. So she wasn’t hearing things. Something had set it off.

  She opened the door a bit farther. The only sound was the creak from the hinges.

  Nothing waited outside.

  "Hello?"

  Silence greeted her. She stared off into the darkness that lay past the light, half expecting the monster from her nightmare to come bursting through.

  Still nothing.

  Grace jumped at the jingle of the front door of the store. If it were more the two-legged kind of animal, maybe they’d gone around front. The noise might have been a diversion to get her in back while they stole from her store.

  She took a deep breath and let the door close. She gripped the broom tightly and made her way to the front.

  The store was silent, as if wind somehow had pushed the door open and made the bells ring. Normally she could tell which aisle a person was in. It was hard to hide the sound of shuffling feet. All she could hear was the steady hum of the heater.

  Grace moved carefully down the aisle. Her eyes flicked back and forth as if she were in some horror movie and expecting some monster to jump out at any second.

  When she'd reached the end of the aisle near the front door, she frowned and glanced around.

  Nothing out of place. No registers overturned. Not even a candy bar misplaced.

  No teens. No animals. Maybe it had been the wind. It’d been exceptionally cold that year, shutting down the school and closing roads all around them. It would be just her luck if the road closed again on delivery day.

  "Oh, I'm glad I found you,” a man’s voice said behind her.

  Grace whipped around, bringing up her broom. She fumbled.

  Her eyes widened in surprise. Vitus stood behind her. He caught the broom in midair. She yelped and let go. Her feet still stumbled to find some footing. She failed and pitched forward directly toward the man now standing in front of her.

  Vitus dropped the broom and caught her in his arms. Her fingers slipped around his waist as she struggled to right herself. With his strong arms around her, she finally found her footing and froze.

  During her struggle to right herself, the man’s shirt had ridden up slightly on the left side of his body. She blinked and pressed her hand against the revealed bright blue tattoo.

  A slow warm hum filled her body, a tingle that shot straight to her very center.

  Grace pulled back quickly, panting as she stared at her fingers now, her body on fire in a way she'd never known before.

  She had no idea what was going on. She must have been more tired than she realized to start hallucinating something like that.

  Her gaze found its way to Vitus’s face. A strange expression covered his face, as if he had just felt the same thing.

  No, that wasn't how things worked. That sort of thing wasn’t possible.

  Grace took a step back from Vitus and hissed loudly, pain shooting up her leg from her ankle. She hadn’t even realized she’d rolled it.

  Vitus grabbed her again, his eyes now staring at her with worry.

  "You've twisted it," he said.

  Grace shook her head. "It will be fine."

  To prove her point, she pressed down slightly on it. Once again pain shot through her leg, but she tried to breathe through it.

  Vitus shook his head. From this angle, she could see how dark and soft his hair looked. Her fingers itched to test her theory.

  "You just wait here, and I'll make sure your store is all locked up," he said.

  She shook her head, her cheeks heating. "That's okay," she said. "My house is just down the road, and I'll be perfectly fine. Really."

  This whole thing was silly. She was letting herself get worked up by noises and flustered just because she’d tripped onto a man. A handsome, ridiculously good-looking man. But still just a man.

  Vitus leaned in and stared at her intently. She found herself leaning in slightly toward him.

  "I have no intention of leaving you here,” Vitus said. “I’ll lock up and walk you home."

  There was no question in his words. Grace did the only thing she could. She gave a small nod and handed over the keys in her pocket.

  Chapter Two

  Vitus made his way around the grocery store making sure the doors were locked. He needed to quickly get back to Grace. He couldn’t help the small bit of tension present in his body.

  It'd been a week since the incident at the Azilian compound. Thrax and the other Glycons had invaded and stolen the dangerous and powerful blue stone for Agatha.

  None of them understood what was going on. Anassa, the original controller of the stone and leader of the Azilians, didn’t seem to be allied with the Horatius Group, and based on what the Glycons had said, Agatha seemed independent as well. Maybe it was all some sort of trick and the Horatius Group was up to something that none of them understood.

  The only thing that was clear at the moment was that Agatha had the stone and seemed willing to use it for her own purposes outside the Group. It was hard to believe that would end up a good thing, even if the Group weren’t involved at all. Agatha was a dangerous, psychotic woman.

  Thrax was a whole different problem. The half-Glycon, half-hybrid was smarter than the others they had seen. He could think and make his own plans.

  He also seemed hell bent on taking a mate, and given how he’d targeted vulnerable Vestals, it was only a matter of time before he came after Grace.

  Vitus still didn’t even understand the point. A Vestal was the destined mate for a particular hybrid, not just some general mate that any hybrid-like creature could take. Even if Thrax captured a Vestal, she’d never be his. Maybe Thrax didn’t understand that.

  It didn’t matter. Vitus was going to make sure there was no way in hell the son of a bitch laid his filthy hands on any Vestal, let alone Grace, who Thrax seemed to especially be focused on.

  Vitus inhaled deeply. Grace’s sweet scent permeated the air. He’d known for a long time that she was his Vestal, but the time didn’t seem right. It wasn’t until the most recent threat that he felt compelled to spend a lot of time around her.

  The woman carried an innocence about her, one that he hadn’t wanted to destroy with tales of super-human hybrids and bestial Glycons. Now, though, he had no choice.

  Damn Thrax. A low growl escaped his mouth, and he slammed the window in the back office closed a little harder than he should.

  Vitus grunt
ed and checked to make sure he hadn’t broken anything. The window seemed fine.

  “Everything okay?” Grace called.

  “Fine,” Vitus shouted. “Just the wind.”

  The hybrid had spent much of his time since that night watching Grace, trying to keep an eye on her without alerting her of the dangers that lurked in the small town and the wilderness around it. The night was supposed to have been just like every other night, but something felt out of place.

  There was no one piece of evidence he could point to, no red glowing eyes in the darkness he spotted. It was more he could just sense Thrax out there, watching and waiting for his chance.

  Vitus had long since learned to trust his gut. The hybrids knew that Thrax was out there somewhere, and despite their best efforts, they hadn't been able to find him to finish him off.

  The whole area reeked of Glycon now, making them harder to track in a way. They seemed to be coming from everywhere.

  The enemy had been systematically trying to break through the sonic barrier the hybrids and their allies had set out. They knew it could be done because it had been been done before although that caused great pain to the Glycons.

  Thrax, however, had been different. The near-hybrid super-Glycon seemed only mildly affected, and that put everyone at risk, especially Grace.

  Thrax had made it perfectly clear what he wanted. Anassa had realized just whom he was talking about.

  Vitus didn't trust the woman, but she knew things he couldn't explain, including that Grace was his Vestal. The fact that Grace was his intended mate was something he hadn't shared even with the other hybrids.

  He clicked the lock on the back door and frowned. A faint Glycon scent drifted in. He unlocked the door and opened it. The light out back clicked on, and he stared into the empty back lot.

  He shook his head. The scent wasn't strong enough to mean anything. After all, the same smell was now all over the town.

  He closed the door again and clicked the lock behind him. He shut off the lights as he made his way toward the front.