by Charlie Hart
My core tightens as the memories of my lovers treating me the same way envelop me. Tears flood my eyes once more.
Poseidon's fingertips brush against my own, and he clasps my hands to his. "I'm so sorry, Sephy."
His voice is gruff like he is upset, but when I look into his eyes, I see it's because his emotions have overtaken him. The same way they have overtaken mine. We step away from the crowd and he looks down at me.
"I forgive you," I tell him.
He shakes his head as if doubting my words. "You've always been too good for me. My emotions are like the waves," he says. "Always crashing in too hard and too fast and then pulling back before anyone is ready."
"No, Poseidon," I say, my hands resting on his taut chest. "Your emotions are nothing to apologize for. Being like the sea is a good thing. The ocean has depths, just like you. I wouldn't want you any other way."
He pulls my mouth to his and I sink into his kiss. My shoulders shake as my mouth opens, taking what I have been missing for so, so long. The kiss is timeless, and the sounds around me disappear. This moment is ours, and we both know it.
Just then, the door swings back open and Remedy's mates run in, shifting as they enter the house. Then Tennyson's immortals arrive, and then Lark's hawks fly into the room. The blurry of activity startles us, and yet Harlow continues to labor through it all. The idea of moving her somewhere else now seems impossible. This is where she is giving birth.
Gaia still lies motionless on the floor, and the hawks circle her, resting on the floor, dropping a crown of flowers in her hair, and silently admiring her.
"They love her," Zeus says, taking my hand in his. I leave Poseidon, knowing we will have a lifetime together. "Don't they?"
We watch the hawks adorning Mother Earth and my heart rejoices. She may not have a family, in flesh and blood, but she has so many creatures, great and small who love her.
"Smart birds," I say softly. Together, we move toward the hawks and Gaia, mesmerized by them.
"I'm so sorry," he tells me. "I have hurt you so much. Wronged you so deeply."
I swallow, looking up into his clear blue eyes. "I wronged Gaia, too. For the longest time, I thought Gaia was the one who took my girls from me. And of course, she was, but it's for different reasons than I assumed. She was trying to protect me. And I hated her for it."
"Still, I have no excuse for ruining your life," he says, his voice breaking.
"You didn't ruin my life. Just changed it."
"How can you say that?"
"Because I'm only forty-two years old. I have a lot of life to live. I don't want to spend another moment hating anyone or anything."
"You choose love," he says.
"I'll always choose love. From here on out."
"And what if love lets you down?" he asks, his voice trembling. His heart on his sleeve.
"Then we try again."
"I love you, Persephone," he says, wrapping his arms around me and I bury my face in his solid chest. His embrace feels so good and so right.
And I would stay in it forever, if Gaia wasn't beginning to stir on the floor.
22
Persephone
I run to her, dropping to my knees, and clasping her hand in my own. "Gaia?" I ask. "Are you there? Are you still here?"
She sits up, the flowers still in her hair and the hawks circling her. This run-down cottage suddenly seems like a magical place, pulled from the pages of a fairytale.
But this isn't make-believe.
It is real. It's our story.
It certainly isn't like anyone else's.
"Oh, my God," she says standing, disoriented, shaking her head, and steadying herself. "I was gone, and it was light, and it was dark, and I was dead." She laughs, her eyes scouring the room. "Where are the Fates?"
I explain what happened and her face breaks into the largest smile.
"Sephy," she exclaims, bursting into laughter. "Can you believe it? You're about to become a grandmother!"
"The timing is perfect," I say. "I think Harlow needs the Goddess of Fertility and Mother Earth at her side right now as she delivers." I take Gaia's hand, my best friend, and we walk toward my daughter, standing by her side.
Together, we assist Harlow as she brings four healthy boys into the world.
Making me a grandmother.
And making all of our hearts fuller.
Gaia and I spend a few hours after the babies are born helping them settle in as everyone else cleans up the cottage. Around us, our family begins to use their special talents to help make it cozy and comfortable for the new mama and her babies.
The cottage isn't the ideal setting for their first night as a family, but they're not ready to move anywhere tonight.
Harlow is exhausted. Her four healthy baby boys are swaddled and in the arms of their fathers and she looks like she could sleep for a few days straight.
She's not alone. It looks like everyone needs to rest after such long days.
"How long do you have?" I ask Remedy. When I carried my girls the pregnancies only lasted a few days, but the girls chose mortals to father children, and so their pregnancies last a more typical timeframe.
"A month or so," she says rubbing her belly. "But I'm hoping not to go into to labor earlier."
"Why not?" I ask, walking with her outside to get some fresh air. We will all be heading out soon, the plan is to let the new family rest here alone tonight.
"I've never had a family. No mom or dad growing up. I don't exactly know how to do this."
I rest my hand on my daughter's arm, squeezing it. "I understand. I don't have a lot of experience being a mother myself."
"That's not true," Remedy says fiercely.
I fight a small smile. I love that my girl carries the same fire inside her that her father does.
"What's not true?" I ask. "I lost you when you were a day old. I have no experience raising anyone."
"Maybe that's true," Remedy says, holding back tears. "But I think even when I was lost and felt so alone in the world, you've always been looking out for me. I felt you," she tells me. "I didn't know what it was, but now I see. It was you pushing me to keep fighting. Your voice told me to never give up. Even though I didn't know what real love was, it's like my soul did, because of you. It's why I waited for my mates the way I did. I felt your love for me before I even understood what it was."
Her words are a balm to my broken heart and I pull her close, my arms wrapping around my daughter. Now that love has softened her edges, I see that she has the kind of fire that will burn for a lifetime. She and her mates are lucky indeed.
"There you are," Ares says, joining us on the porch. "I was looking for you, Remedy."
He sits down on the other side of her and clears his throat.
"I have something I'd like to say to you, Rem. Mostly, I'm sorry for being such a crazy fucking lunatic out in the forest. I don't know what happened to me when I shifted. I truly became an animal. Now it makes a little bit more sense, considering the Fates had cast a spell over me."
"Do you love me?" she asks.
"Yes." Ares rakes a hand through his wild hair. "Of course, I do. I hate that I missed so much. I'm sorry for hurting you, for not giving you what you need. For scaring you. Threatening you. For all of it."
His eyes are filled with tears and I have never found him more handsome than I do at this moment. His vulnerability shines through, it burns brighter than any of his fires ever could.
"It was pretty fucking confusing to think my dad wanted me dead."
It's remarkable. Her ability to truly forgive Ares after what he did to her.
But true love has a way of helping us let go of the past and grab hold of the future.
"Persephone," Ares says. "Can I speak to you too?"
Remedy gives her father a quick hug before slipping away and as she walks away the smile on her face is breathtaking.
"Thank you," she whispers. "For coming back. I've waited so long to have a mom and
dad."
Tears blur all our faces then, and after she walks away, Ares takes my hands in his.
"I was a fool."
"Weren't we all?"
He laughs. "But I was a really big fucking fool," he says. "What if I had killed her?" He drops his head. "How can I live with myself now, knowing the truth, remembering the way I treated her?"
I set my hands on his shoulders, forcing him to look me in the eyes. "But you didn't kill her. We're all alive. We're here. Together."
"I don't deserve it."
"Does anyone? Does anyone deserve love like this? Love at all?"
"Maybe not," he says. "I just can't believe how much time we lost. I wish I had the words to tell you how much I love you. How glad I am to have you here with me now."
"I don't need your words."
I pull Ares into a kiss, pressing my lips against his and let my tired body sink into his arms. My skin missed him so much and my heart strains against my chest. I need him.
I need all of my husbands.
"I love you," I tell him.
Gasping for breath, he says, "I love you too, Sephy. So, fucking much." Our lips crash together once more and my eyes close, savoring the fact that we have forever.
Somehow, we ended up here, on the front steps of the Fates' cottage, together at last.
"Am I interrupting something?" Hades asks, joining us outside.
I look up at him. His long, lean body still captures my heart.
Maybe in some ways, I had never let him go.
"No," I say, smiling. "We were just making up."
"I see," he says. "Then maybe I didn't apologize as well as I should have. I didn't get a kiss."
Hades takes my hand and pulls me to stand, his firm hand on my waist, my body already melting into his.
"Oh, Hades," I say. "I think I'll give more than kisses tonight."
We go back to where we started. To the building where the beautiful ball was held the night I met my gods.
Anticipation grows in my belly as they lead me up the stairs.
The night is dark, the swollen moon high in the sky. Shimmering stars make the mood magical and I don't think anyone else could quite understand how amazing it is to stand outside.
Breathing in the night air.
I spent so long in the Underworld. Night and day or years and months... time meant nothing to me. The only thing that mattered while I was locked up, all alone, was finding my daughters again.
The crazy thing is that when I found them, I also found they don't need me in the way I always imagined.
And the unbelievable part is that I'm okay.
"The girls will be okay, I think," I tell the gods. "Don't you?"
Ares smirks. "Remedy certainly will be."
I smile, thinking about her fire, her spunk. "What is she going to do with a pack of wolves?" I ask laughing. "It's a good thing those boys will have a mother like her. She certainly takes after her dad."
"And Harlow?" Poseidon asks. "She's not the same as Remedy, she seems softer, more..."
I answer for him, "More like her mother."
"Yes," Poseidon says, looking at me with affection in his eyes. "That's it. She is like you."
We walk to the center of the rooftop, where pillows and blankets lie waiting. My mind goes back to the night so many years ago.
"Do you remember when I gave you the crown on our wedding day?" Poseidon asks. "It was fashioned from seashells and mermaid magic." He brushes a loose strand of hair from my face.
"I remember." Looking up at my god, I relish what, for so long, I was missing. My husbands. "I can't believe she's a siren. Here I am, just a regular old goddess and my daughters are shifters."
"Pretty amazing isn't it?" Zeus asks. His fingers find mine and they lace together. "It's pretty spectacular that when four gods came together with the Goddess of Fertility we made them. I mean, Lark is a force to be reckoned with."
"And Tennyson can move between the spirit land and the land of the living. No goddess can do that. Hell, I can't even go to Styx."
"It's spectacular that when we came together, we created such a life force," Ares says. "I mean, I knew I was pretty damn strong but this is a whole other level."
We all laugh, and Hades moves behind me, running his hand over my back. "Do you want to make more babies?" he asks, brushing my hair from the base of my neck, planting kisses on my skin.
I sigh, sinking against him. "I don't think I want more babies. I think I want to help my daughters raise theirs. I want to get back the land, tend to the fields, the farmers. I want to use my gifts in a different capacity."
"Does it make you sad,” Hades asks, his voice barely a whisper, "that you didn't get more children?"
I shake my head. "I don't think sad is the word."
"What is the word?" Ares asks. His eyes meet mine and I know he's asking from the truest, deepest part of himself.
"I don't think I can be sad over what I don't have. Today, in that house, there were three generations gathered. Somehow, despite everything we've all been through, we were all there healthy and whole. And that makes me think that no, I'm not sad. I'm grateful."
"I'm grateful too," Zeus says, his finger lifting my chin, his eyes meeting mine. "I'm grateful that you found it in your heart to forgive us."
"I do forgive you," I say, my voice catching. "All of you."
"I give you my heart," Ares tells me.
"And I give you my mind," Poseidon adds.
"I give you my strength," Zeus tells me.
Finally, Hades says, "And I give you my soul."
My heart is overflowing, tears fall down my cheeks. "And I give you my forever."
The gods pull me to the floor; my clothes are pushed off and tossed aside. My hands roam over their still-taut bodies, memorizing their muscles, relishing their absolute strength.
They are my four, beautiful, chiseled gods. As their bodies move against my own, as their fingers run up my thighs and over my skin, cupping my breasts and kissing my face, I know that our family is going to be okay.
More than okay.
Abundant.
Before I was the Goddess of Fertility, I was the Goddess of the Harvest.
Now I will sow the seeds my family needs.
Devotion. Faith. Honor.
Hades kisses me, sending shivers down my body. And Poseidon kisses my breasts, my nipples hardening under his warm breath. It's been so, so long since I've been touched.
Zeus runs his hands down my thighs and Ares pushes my knees apart. I close my eyes as my body opens to them as we begin to make love.
And I realize, with a start, that maybe this is the first, real time we are making love. Last time, I had a mission, a plan. So, did they. Our eyes were hungry, and we led with our hearts. But now, as we begin again, I know it is more than that. A different kind of love.
Now, this is true love. We know there are no guarantees. We've literally been through hell and back, yet here we are, choosing one another.
Over and over again.
As my body moves against my lovers, I look up into the sky. Bright stars shimmer down, too numerous to count.
Just like the blessings in my life.
AFTER
Remedy delivers her babies with screams that fill the forest.
I'm by her side. Gaia is there too.
Her mates howl at the moon as they welcome their new pack members into the world.
She says she wasn't prepared but is any woman?
For any of this?
Life and love and birth and death.
Maybe alone, it would be impossible.
And maybe that is why it was such a struggle for my girls, for so long.
They weren't in it together.
Now they have their tribe.
Their family.
Now they have one another.
Gaia's hands clasp mine.
Her story is different than mine, different than yours.
But beautiful and broken and
hers to own.
I thought there were no guarantees in life.
And even after I joined my gods after so long apart, I believed it.
But now I know I was wrong.
There are guarantees.
We get what we give.
And I choose to give with all that I am.
With all of my heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Now and forever.
Also by Charlie Hart
SIX MEN OF ALASKA
The Wife Lottery is book one of a six book series. Passion and suspense fill the pages of this dystopian romance. The world as we know it may be over, but Tia and her six men of Alaska aren’t giving up without a fight.
I wanted to taste freedom.
In a world where women are seen as a commodity to barter, Alaska promised a sanctuary. But to stay, I have to enter the wife lottery.
Six men, one wife. And I have no say in who those men will be. It's more than a game of chance—it's my life falling into the hands of strangers.
But the men who win my hand are ruggedly handsome and promise to protect me until death do us part.
Fallon and his strong will.
Giles and his protective streak.
Salinger and his easy smile.
Banks and his intellect.
Emerson and his faith.
Huxley and his charm.
I want them all, each for a different reason. My body is awake, my heart beats wild. But I’m also a woman running from a past that’s catching up. Fast. My father is coming for me and he'll make my husbands pay--and that’s not a gamble.
That’s a guarantee.
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