SAVAGE SAINTS Read online

  Contents

  SAVAGE SAINTS

  DESCRIPTION

  CHAPTER ONE – PELL

  CHAPTER TWO - PIE

  CHAPTER THREE – TOMAS

  CHAPTER FOUR – PELL

  CHAPTER FIVE – PIE

  CHAPTER SIX –TOMAS

  CHAPTER SEVEN - PELL

  CHAPTER EIGHT - PIE

  CHAPTER NINE – TOMAS

  CHAPTER TEN – PELL

  CHAPTER ELEVEN – PIE

  CHAPTER TWELVE – PELL

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN – PIE

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN – TOMAS

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN - PELL

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN – TOMAS

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN – PIE

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN – PELL

  CHAPTER NINETEEN – PIE

  CHAPTER TWENTY – TOMAS

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - PELL

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO - PIE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE - PELL

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR – TOMAS

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE – PIE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX – PELL

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN – TOMAS

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT - PIE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE - PELL

  CHAPTER THIRTY – TOMAS

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE – PIE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO – PELL

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE – TOMAS

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR - PIE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE - PELL

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX – TOMAS

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN – PIE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT – PELL

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE – TOMAS

  CHAPTER FORTY – PIE

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE – PELL

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE – PIE

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR – PELL

  EPILOGUE - TOMAS

  END OF BOOK SHIT

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  SAVAGE SAINTS

  Edited by RJ Locksley

  Cover Design by JA Huss

  Copyright © 2022 by JA Huss

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-978-1-957277-54-7

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  DESCRIPTION

  Pell learns to love pants.

  Pie learns to love magic.

  And Tomas learns to love a woman.

  Pie and Pell are like two peas in a pod. Meant for each other, madly in love, and living their best lives as Mr. and Mrs. Monster of Saint Mark’s.

  Kind of.

  Pie is dreading her new job working for the tall, dark, and sleek Modern Minotaur. And the irony that just a few weeks ago she was demanding that Pell allow her to get a job to support the sanctuary, isn’t lost. It’s like the gods are playing with her on purpose.

  Pell is still his grumpy self but he’s got a new job as well—babysitting a bag of magic rings that seem to have a mind of their own. No matter where he hides them, they will not stay put. Add in a doorway he can suddenly see and a new power he forgot he had, and well… things are getting interesting.

  Tomas is a brand-new man. Literally. His new freedoms are just the beginning of his adventure into modern humanity. Not only can he leave the sanctuary, drive a truck, and spend time with the people in Granite Springs—he also learns how to cheat the rules.

  Everything has changed for the better. But when Pie discovers the secrets of magic, Pell uncovers the real purpose of the rings, and Tomas falls in love with a Townie… things change again.

  Only this time, they’re the ones with all the power.

  Savage Saints is a fun, romantic romp through an ancient curse. It is book two in the Monsters of Saint Mark’s series and must be read in order. Written by New York Times bestselling author, JA Huss, under her pen name, KC Cross.

  CHAPTER ONE – PELL

  “Good morning, sweet Pie.”

  Pie grunts and turns over in bed, pulling all the covers with her.

  “Sweetie Pie,” I sing.

  She pulls her pillow over her head. Groans again. “Go. Away.”

  “It’s time to get up, Pie. You can’t keep putting this off.”

  She lifts the pillow just enough to show me one eyeball. “I’m sick.” She holds her stomach, winces and moans. “I don’t—” She coughs. Cough. Cough. “I don’t feel good.” She makes her voice nice and shaky. “I-I-I think I’m gonna barf.”

  I sigh and lie back on the bed, covering my face with my forearm. “Pie. He’s been patient. But it’s been two weeks now. You said you would go in to work today—”

  “Work? Is this what we’re calling it?”

  “It is work. He has your debt. He offered you a job as his personal assistant to work it off. It’s not that bad.”

  She hits me with her pillow. “Not that bad!” Her eyes are wide and wild. She closes them for a moment. Takes a breath, holds it, lets it out slowly. “Pell.”

  “Pie?”

  “It is that bad. He’s a fucking… minotaur! And not like you’re a minotaur, either. You look like…” She sucks in a breath, pauses, stopping long enough for me to wonder what she was gonna say.

  “I look like what?”

  “You know.”

  “No. I don’t know. How are Tarq and I different?”

  “You’re all… shaggy, and soft, and blond, and considerate.”

  I’m picturing all this, wondering if these are good traits or bad traits. “OK.”

  “And he’s all”—she shakes her head, sighs—“all sleek, and polished, and dark, and… huge.”

  “Huge?”

  “Yes. He’s just… too much. I can’t do it, Pell. I can’t. Do it. I cannot go into that tomb every day with my eyes cast down and just pretend like…” Again, she pauses.

  “Like?” I prod her.

  “Like he doesn’t have that huge monster dick hanging between his legs!”

  I guffaw. This is truly funny.

  “It’s not funny! I’m not gonna be able to control myself! It’s too hard. Oh, my God.” She slaps her forehead. “And the puns, Pell! The puns!”

  I guffaw again.

  She slaps me. “Stop laughing at me!”

  “Sorry,” I manage between outbursts. “Sorry. But… all this—the past two weeks of you faking every illness under the sun trying to get out of going to this new job—was all about you not being able to handle looking at his giant cock?”

  She grabs the pillow she hit me with and pulls it back over her head, mumbling something I can’t understand.

  I scoot over to her side of the bed, slip my hands under the covers, and caress her velvety ass. Pie, in her human form, is cute. But Pie in her wood nymph form is sexy. And this velvety ass just makes me want to ravish her. “Pie.”

  “No.” She pushes my hand off her. “Don’t touch me. It’s not funny.” She lifts the pillow again so she can look me in the eyes. “I get it. You think I’m slow, or stupid—”

  I point at her. “Cute.”

  “Whatever. You think my aversion to random, hanging dicks is a joke.”

  “I don’t.”

  “You do! And it’s not a joke! I’m not a minotaur! I’m not even a real nymph! I’m a girl, OK? A human girl who got caught up in some stupid ancient curse, or past life, or magic castle-hallway thingy. One who is not used to bull men walking around with their dicks flopping between their legs!”

  My God. Why is she so damn cute? I almost can’t stand it. I want to ravish her right now.

  She points at me. “I can read your mind, ya know.”

  “What?” I ask, trying to sound innocent.

  “You’re thin
king about sex. No way, buddy. There is no way I’m having sex with you on a work day.” She smiles. Laughs. “Yeah. There. That’s the new deal. No sex on work days.”

  I don’t think she means it. We’ve been having sex at least twice a day since the whole… well, we’re calling it the Reckoning. Actually, Tomas is calling it the Reckoning. The rest of us—which is really just Pie and me, since the new monsters don’t speak Latin—we’re just going along with Tomas.

  “You think I’m kidding.”

  I make a serious face and tell her, “I’m taking you very seriously.”

  “Liar.” She narrows her eyes at me. “I don’t want to go work for Tarq. I’ve told you that a million times.”

  “A million, Pie?”

  “At least a million. And you refuse to do anything about it.”

  “Pie.” I smile at her, slip my hand back over her velvety ass. This time, when she tries to push me away, I don’t let her. I pin her hand to the bed, making her squirm, then pin the other hand to the bed too, making her struggle.

  “Stop. Let me go.”

  “No. Listen to me.” I roll over so I’m almost on top of her. She’s refusing to look me in the eye. “Tarq isn’t gonna hurt you.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “He told me. I made him promise.”

  Now she does look at me. But it’s not a good look. It might be an ‘I hate you’ look. “Promise? That’s so dumb. What did you say? ‘Hey, Tarq. I know you’re all sleek, dark, and polished and have all this big-dick energy—’”

  I guffaw again.

  “‘—but don’t hurt my nymph.’ And he what? Just said, ‘Cool, cool, cool?’”

  I smile at her, lean down and kiss her. She moves her head side to side, childishly trying to avoid my affection. But I just kiss her neck instead. Then let go of her hands and start playing with her breasts though her thin, white nightie.

  “That’s not going to work,” she insists.

  But I think it will, so I don’t stop. I take my mouth to her breasts. Sucking on her. Caressing her. Slowing her down and relaxing her.

  A few seconds later, she sighs and her fingers begin to tangle in my hair, treating me like I’m something precious.

  I look up at her and smile. “See. Worked.”

  “It’s nice, I have to admit that. But my rule has been made. No sex on work days.”

  “We’ll see.”

  Then we both laugh.

  “Pie,” I say, serious now, because she might really be scared of her new boss and that’s not funny. “He’s not a bad guy.”

  “You don’t know that! You haven’t seen him for two thousand years. You didn’t see that place. It’s… weird. Like… what is it? Another… time? Another world? Another planet? What the hell is it? I don’t want to go there every day. I didn’t even want to go there once.”

  I kiss her on the chin, then scoot up and kiss her on the lips. This time she does not wiggle away. She kisses me back. It’s a nice, long, slow, open-mouthed kiss. And we both enjoy making out for a couple minutes. Maybe, if I keep going, she might want me to ravish her before work. But just as I think that, she pushes me away and squirms out from under me. And before I know it, she’s out of bed. Frowning at me. Pointing at me.

  “It’s gonna be your fault.”

  “What is?”

  “When I come home tonight, damaged.”

  I decide to give in and own it. I think she’s being ridiculous, but she might be right. At least her fears on day one might be justified. I get it. I think. She has a new body, a new life, a new past, new magic, new monsters—and now she has a new job that lives in a new world.

  It’s kind of a lot.

  She’s scared. And fear is no fun.

  “Pie, if you come home damaged, I will force my way into that tomb, find Tarq and everyone else who dared to hurt you, and kick some monster ass.”

  She pouts. “No, you won’t.”

  I jump out of bed, grab her by the waist, and push her against the wall, pressing myself up against her, pinning her in place. “I get it. You see me and think… ‘He’s just my shaggy, soft, blond, considerate satyr chimera.’ But you don’t know me, Pie. I might be shaggy and blond—and sometimes considerate—but I am not soft.” I bare my teeth at her. She pulls away from me. “Tarq is not going to hurt you. But if he does, I will kill him.”

  “You don’t have to kill him.”

  “Oh, I will kill him. I don’t like to kill things, but if I have to, I don’t feel remorse about it when I’m done.”

  “But it’s not going to come to that, right?” Her blue eyes look up and meet my gaze. She’s asking me. This is a real question. She really is afraid. And now I feel terrible that I didn’t understand this sooner.

  “It’s not going to come to that, Pie. You’re mine. He’s borrowing you on a technicality.”

  She sighs. Gives in. Drops her head.

  “And hey,” I say, tipping her chin back up with one clawed finger, “if he found a way to walk through the tombs, he can find a way for me to walk through the tombs. Then I can go with you. Wouldn’t that be fun? I’d love to see the new world.”

  Her pouty frown almost tips upside down. “That would kinda be fun. I mean, there are humans there, Pell. But there are people like us there too.” Her smile grows. “And being there with you? That would be great. Do you think Tarq could get you inside?”

  I already asked him about this when he came through with Pie’s Book of Debt a couple weeks ago. But he said it was a special one-off spell that only worked from his side of the door and couldn’t be transferred to me. But I didn’t tell Pie that back then, and I don’t tell her now, either. She needs hope to get through this day. So that’s what I give her. “I’m sure he could.”

  And the lie pays off because now, instead of thinking about how afraid she is about starting this new job, in a new world, with a new monster boss, she’s thinking about the two of us going to that world and having fun together like normal people.

  It’s no longer a frightening place—it’s now, maybe, a world where we fit in.

  And I have to admit, it sounds a little bit nice. After two thousand years of being the only satyr chimera, I can’t even imagine what it would be like to be with my own kind again. Not only that, but be in a place where I didn’t have to hide or worry about the fucking curse.

  A new life. A brand-new life.

  It would be a dream come true.

  During my pause for inner reflection, Pie has been reflecting on her own. She’s thinking very hard about this day. “Listen,” I say. “You’ve turned this job into something much bigger than it is.”

  “Oh, have I?”

  “Yes. It’s not a big deal. It’s a paycheck, that’s it.”

  “I’m the personal assistant to the Modern Minotaur, Pell. It’s kind of a big deal.”

  “You think that because it’s new and you’ve never done it before. And the longer you put it off, the wilder your imagination gets. You just need to go in and get it over with. I promise. It will be…” I pause here. Because I want to tell her it’s gonna be great, but ‘great’ feels like a strong word.

  “It will be what?” Pie asks.

  “It’s going to be… interesting.”

  She actually laughs, one eyebrow raised. “Interesting?”

  “No. Fascinating.”

  She sighs. “I guess it could be. Both interesting and fascinating.”

  “It will be, Pie. How could it not? It’s a whole other world. And you won’t feel out of place. You have to be tired of being cooped up here at the sanctuary all day. In Tarq’s world, you can go out. And I can’t wait to hear all about it. Take lots of pics on your pocket phone.”

  “Hmm. Do you think my phone will work there? Will I get roaming charges? Holy shit.” She pauses to stare at me. “I didn’t pay my bill this month. I need to pay my phone bill. And my car insurance. Holy shit. I’m late for everything. My credit score—”

  I kiss he
r. Mostly to make her stop, but also just because she’s so damn cute.

  Her bills. That’s adorable.

  When we break apart, she sighs a little.

  “Good news.”

  “What good news? There’s no good news!”

  “There’s always good news, Pie. You just have to look for it. And in this case, it wasn’t that hard to find. You don’t need money to pay your phone bill.”

  She screws up her face. “I go into debt when I use the money.”

  “Yeah, but that’s ‘this world’ debt. Which means you erase that debt by making me happy.”

  She doesn’t want to grin, but she grins. “You’ve got a one-track mind this morning.”

  “I do. And I’m not going to apologize for it.”

  “We had sex last night.”

  “We did. But I want it in the mornings too.”

  She giggles, then reiterates her threat. “No sex on work days.”

  “How about this? How about… if you go to work every day I’ll be here waiting for you when you get home. And every evening I will pamper you like a goddess. That also pleases me, Pie. So you get to be spoiled and erase debt at the same time.”

  She sighs again. But this time she also smiles. “OK. Fine. I will go in to work today.”

  “You will?”

  She nods. “I mean…” Now she blushes. “I’m not gonna turn down being spoiled. Do you take requests?”

  I nod, grinning wildly.

  She points at me. “I will have demands, mister.”

  “I can’t wait.”

  But her plump mouth makes a little frown again. “Tell me I’m being dumb again.”

  “What?”

  “Just… tell me I’m being dumb. Convince me. This new job is gonna be fine and—”

  I put a finger over her lips to hush her up. “Pie. You are gonna kick this job’s ass. You are gonna kick it so hard that new world won’t see you coming. Won’t even know what to do with you. You’re gonna go in there, be the best damn… whatever your job title is… and when you come back to me, I will spoil you silly.”

  This does the trick. “OK.” She pouts a little. “I am kinda tired of being stuck inside the sanctuary. And you’re probably right. I’m making a bigger deal about this than it needs to be. If I get the first day over with, I can reevaluate things.”