Horus, p.1
Horus, page 1
HORUS
SPEED DATING WITH THE DENIZENS OF THE UNDERWORLD
BOOK THIRTY-TWO
LAURA GREENWOOD
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Epilogue
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Horus
Speed Dating with the Denizens of the Underworld
Book Thirty-Two
Copyright © 2023
Laura Greenwood
ISBNs: 978-1-77357-586-5
978-1-77357-583-4
978-1-77357-584-1
Edited by: Drowlgon Press
Published by Naughty Nights Press LLC
Cover Art By Silvana G. Sánchez
@ SelfPub Designs
Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.
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HORUS
The last thing this witch expected was to find out that her hot boss was a literal god.
Adelaide has always dreamt of working with animals in need of a safe place, making her new job at the Horus Sanctuary the perfect fit for her. The only complication is just how hot she thinks her boss is.
Horus is content living a life dedicated to the animals at his sanctuary, but when a gorgeous witch starts working there, everything changes, and he discovers there might be more to life than just work.
The workplace is heating up for them both, but will they give in to the temptation?
Horus is book thirty-one in the Speed Dating with the Denizens of the Underworld shared world, featuring a hot boss, a beautiful and passionate witch, adorable animals, and more.
CHAPTER 1
Adelaide
There was something surreal about walking down the path that led through the Horus Sanctuary and to where the veterinary building was. I wasn’t sure if it was the various animal calls that punctured the air, or the fact that it was still sinking in that this was my actual job, especially when I was only just out of veterinary school.
But I’d always wanted to work somewhere like this, with animals who needed care because they’d otherwise been treated badly, and I’d jumped on the job offer as soon as it had been made.
I swiped my ID card through the reader at the front of the building and let myself inside. The sharp sting of antiseptic filled the air, but I ignored it, more than used to it by this point. There was even something comforting in the familiarity.
I headed to the front office and poked my head around the door. “I’ll be five minutes, Gladys!”
“Five minutes for what?” a deep voice answered.
The world stopped spinning as I registered the man that definitely wasn’t Gladys sitting at one of the desks with a bundle of blankets in his arms.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured, trying not to get too flustered about my boss being in the room when he wasn’t supposed to be. “I thought you were Gladys.”
He chuckled and offered me a friendly smile. “I got that. She’s out on a call to the wild dog enclosure.”
“Oh.” I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. I stepped into the room. “Is that why you’re here?”
Horace shook his head. “We had a new arrival last night and I wanted to make sure he was doing okay.” He lifted up the bundle. “He seemed agitated, so I brought him in here away from the noise in the other room.”
“That’ll be Rose, she’s in for a thorn removed from her paw,” I said. The lioness was being a bit of a baby about the whole thing, which was probably why she’d never be able to be released into the wild. I was surprised a thorn even warranted coming here rather than being treated in her enclosure, but apparently, she had a habit of making it worse which meant she had to be monitored.
Horace chuckled. “Again?”
“Does it happen often?”
“At least once a month,” he responded. “You’ll get used to it.” His dark eyes met mine, making my heart skip a beat despite how inappropriate that was.
“I’m sure I will.”
“How are you getting on?” Horace asked.
“With Rose?”
“At the Sanctuary in general,” he responded. “This is your first job, isn’t it?”
I bit my lip and nodded. “Yeah, it’s good. Everyone’s great.”
“Good. You should come see me if there’s anything you need. My door is always open.” The way he said the words made it sound like an excellent invitation, even if I knew it was all in my head.
A small chitter came from the bundle of blankets in his arms.
“Can I see?” The urge to see whatever animal it was overrode all of my nervousness about being near my boss, and the thoughts that brought.
He nodded.
I headed over and looked over his shoulder, trying to ignore just how good he smelled. It went along with the chiselled jaw covered by a short beard, and the deep voice. It was hard to ignore him, especially when in such close proximity.
I gasped as I noticed the tiny black and white face looking up at me from the bundle. The lemur chittered again, my heart melting at the sound and at the sight. There really was nothing like animals.
“He’s a rescue,” Horace said by way of explanation. Not that I needed one, most of the animals here were rescues.
“Where did he come from?”
“He was part of an exotic pet collection.” His voice hardened as he said it, and I could tell from the set of his mouth how angry he was about it.
“Are the other animals he was with here too?” I asked, a combination of hope and horror flooding through me. It was good if they were here and safe, but I knew that the reality of what they probably had to face was far worse than I could probably imagine.
“No. We’ve only got this little guy because one of the maids at the estate where he was kept took him to the vet not realising that he was an illegal pet. But I suspect they’ll be launching an investigation and we’ll end up with the others too.”
“Is he in good health?”
“Relatively. I’ve certainly seen worse. He has an infection in his tail, I think he might have caught it on something,” Horace responded. “I think it might have to be amputated to stop him from getting blood poisoning.” A sad note entered his voice.
Feeling bold, I reached out and touched his shoulder, hoping it would convey the comfort I wanted it to. It was easy to see how hurt he was about the whole situation, and how much he cared. Then again, that was obvious by the fact he was sitting in the veterinary office at six in the morning just because he wanted to check up on the little guy.
Horace met my gaze, a myriad of emotions within them. To my surprise, he offered me a small smile in response, as if he appreciated the gesture.
The lemur reached out its hand from under the blankets, distracting us both.
Without thinking about it, I reached out a finger and he curled his around mine. A sniffle escaped me as I thought about the conditions this little guy had come from.
Horace gave me a strange look.
“Sorry, I...”
“You don’t have to explain,” Horace said, looking at me with a strange look in his eyes. For a moment, I thought he was even going to reach out and comfort me in return.
I extracted my finger and stepped back, wiping away my tears. “I should go get ready for work so my boss doesn’t get mad.”
He chuckled. “I wouldn’t do that,” he assured me.
“I know.” The words slipped out without me meaning them to. I hadn’t spent much time around him, other than our initial interview and the introduction he gave me to the Sanctuary, But I’d heard enough from the other vets and staff members to know what kind of boss he was.
He smiled at me, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he did and giving away more of his age than his face did. Not that I knew how old that was, but considering I was a witch and knew dozens of other paranormals, he really could be any age.
Including a god. Though that seemed unlikely.
“I’m going to go.” I gestured to the door with my thumb.
Horace smiled at me and nodded. “Good to see you again, Adelaide.”
The way he said my name sent a funny fluttery feeling through me, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. Maybe because he looked the way he did, and loved animals. There really was something extra hot about a handsome man with a cute little monkey in his arms.
I could feel my cheeks starting to flush fr om the embarrassment of my thoughts and took it as an indication that it was time to leave the room.
I hurried out of the office and into the changing rooms, my heart racing.
“Pull it together,” I muttered to myself.
This was my dream job. I was not going to ruin it by crushing on my hot boss.
CHAPTER 2
Adelaide
I left the zebra enclosure and bolted the gate, already running through everything I needed to put in my report. Normally, I’d wonder whether the boss would even bother reading something like that, but even in the limited interactions I’d had with Horace, I knew that he would.
I turned around, muttering under my breath so I didn’t forget anything, only to walk straight into someone. They reached out a hand to steady me, which was appreciated. Even with the sturdy steel-capped boots I was wearing, I almost lost my balance.
I jolted and looked up, though I didn’t need to in order to recognise the person I’d run into.
“I’m sorry,” I blurted, meeting Horace’s gaze.
“Are you all right?” he asked, genuine concern in his voice.
I nodded. “Are you? I didn’t mean to run into you.”
“I’m fine, you seemed lost in thought though.” His gaze slipped to where we were still touching and he dropped his hand.
I immediately felt the loss of connection and was more disappointed by it than I should be. “I was thinking about the zebras,” I admitted.
He chuckled. “Ah yeah, I’ve had that happen to me before.”
“You’ve run into yourself because you were thinking about zebras?”
“It was a mirror.”
I let out a small laugh, then covered my mouth with my hand. “Sorry, I was just imagining it.”
“In my defence, I’d just gotten out of the shower and it was all fogged up,” he said.
My mouth went dry as the picture in my head changed. I’d be distracted by something completely different to zebras if he’d just gotten out of the shower.
I cleared my throat. “I was just going to go write the report.”
He nodded. “I’ll walk with you, I was going to go see Richie anyway.” He gestured for the two of us to make our way down the path towards the veterinary building.
“Richie?”
“The new lemur. He had the operation on his tail yesterday and I want to check how he’s doing.”
My heart squeezed tightly at the thought. Not just because he wanted to check up on the tiny creature, but also because of what Richie the lemur had gone through in order to end here.
“Do you think he’ll be okay?” I asked.
Horace nodded. “I hire the best veterinary team I can with the budget the sanctuary has, he’ll be fine. And he’s young enough to adapt to life without a tail.”
“I guess that means he can’t ever be released into the wild, though.”
Horace looked at me, an intrigued expression on his face. “No.”
“That’s a shame.”
He waved to one of the keepers. The other man didn’t even pause before waving back, confirming that it was perfectly normal for Horace to be walking around the sanctuary at this time. He was just as hands-on at the sanctuary as everyone kept saying he was. It was nice to have a boss who actually cared as much as people said he did.
Maybe even more. He seemed to be at the sanctuary almost all day, every day, no matter how early or late it was.
“I knew when I opened the sanctuary that I wouldn’t be able to release as many of the animals into the wild as I wanted to,” Horace said.
It took me a moment to process the words. “Would you do it if you could?”
He nodded. “We arrange releases any time we’re able to.”
We approached the front of the veterinary building and he pushed open the door, gesturing for me to make my way through.
“Thanks,” I responded, brushing past him far more closely than should be truly appropriate.
Despite wearing the same uniform as the rest of us, and clearly having been out in one of the enclosures, he smelled amazing, and it was all I could do not to linger.
But that still wasn’t appropriate.
“Thanks,” I said, flashing him what I hoped was a grateful smile.
He returned it. “Do you want to come with me?” He gestured to the door that led to the animal holding bay.
I nodded before I had a chance to think about it. “So long as you’re okay with my report being a little late.”
He chuckled. “I think I can forgive you for that.”
We headed through into the large bay. Most of the enclosures were empty, which wasn’t a surprise. They’d been that way for the entire time I’d been here. I suspected that most of the time, treatment was attempted in the enclosure of the injured animal to minimise disruption.
Horace led me to the small enclosure at the far end and looked through the gate, a concerned look on his face.
I picked up the chart attached to the clipboard in front of the enclosure and scanned it. “Looks like he’s doing well,” I said, holding it out to Horace.
“How do you know I can read this?” he asked.
I raised an eyebrow. “Are you telling me you’re not a qualified vet? Because I’m not sure I’ll believe you if you say no.”
“Oh?”
I shrugged. “Just a feeling.”
“I hope you’re not going to tell me one of your witch gifts is being able to read minds.”
I froze. “You know I’m a witch?”
“You’re projecting the information,” he responded. “Anyone who knows how to sense paranormals will be able to read it on you.”
“And that’s you...” I could already sense that he wasn’t human himself, even if I didn’t recognise what he was, so I didn’t know why this was quite as much of a shock as it was.
“Yes.” He took the clipboard from me and scanned through it, making an appreciative noise as he took note of the important things on it. “Ah, you’re right. All good. Though I’d feel better if I could see him.”
“I think he’s in the nest at the back.” I leaned in and pointed to where I thought Richie was sleeping. “I might not be able to read minds, but I do have a spell that might be able to help. If that’s okay?” I had no idea what his policy on using magic around the animals was.
“Will it hurt him?” There was genuine concern in his voice.
“He won’t even know it’s there,” I assured him.
“Okay.”
I pulled magic through me so that sparks danced on the tip of my hand. I summoned a magical looking glass, sending one end over to where the lemur was sleeping peacefully, and making the other big enough that we could both look through it.
Richie’s chest moved in a steady rhythm as he slept, his tail much shorter than it had been before, but he was clearly peacefully asleep.
Horace let out a loud sigh. “Thank you.”
I dismissed the spell.
“I promise it’s not that I don’t trust the notes,” he said. “I trust all of my vets.”
“I get it. Reading about how an animal is doing just isn’t the same as being able to see for yourself,” I said.
“Exactly. This sanctuary is my life,” he admitted. “I want the best for every creature living here.”
I reached out and put a hand on his arm. He looked at it, and for a moment, I thought he was going to shrug me off. Instead, he placed his hand on top of mine.
I took a sharp breath, not expecting the result of the connection there. It was nothing to do with the fact that I found him attractive either. It was something much more than that, though I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it was.
He smiled at me. “Thank you, Adelaide. I knew you were going to be an asset to our team.”
