Hades

by Crystal Dawn

“I want everyone to know that Ares will be home tomorrow. I’m sure everyone wants to know more about the children that he, Apollo, and the other gods discovered on the mission. There were twenty-nine young gods found at the facility. Three were five year olds, two were seven, three were nine, five were eleven, ten were thirteen, and seven were fifteen. I’m hoping the thirteen boys under twelve will be put with a family of their choice and that everyone will take our younger brothers under their wings to help them settle in.”

  “What are you considering a family?” Hermes asked.

  “I feel they need a mother at that age. Not that I turned out badly, but if I had had a mother I’d probably be perfect,” Zeus joked. A chorus of rude remarks rose from around the table.

  “Okay, guys enough. We have a few more facilities to hit, but I want to wait for Ares before we select our next one. If no one has anything else, this meeting is over.” Most of the gods and demons left, but those on the council and their mates remained.

  “Now that everyone else has left, Poseidon wants to share his problem with us. He’s been a little embarrassed which is why he didn’t tell us sooner, so no teasing.”

  That grabbed everyone’s attention and all eyes were on him as he started speaking. “When Sierra’s team first rescued us, I met Zippy and I was confused before I decided she was my mate. She’s been gone often and made it hard for me to pursue her and impossible for a bond to form. I still have strong feelings for her, but Zeus had me interview Lizzie since he had concerns about her loyalty. I felt something for her too and I kissed her. I find I’m not sure which one is my mate.”

  “Doc, what are your thoughts on this?” Zeus wondered.

  “There are a few possibilities and we may be able to run some tests to find out. The first possibility, “ Doc fought hard not to smile, “is that Poseidon is very horny and is sexually drawn to both these women and because he wants very badly to find that one woman that can be his alone, he’s confusing desire for the need to mate. Another possibility is that one is a near match as a mate. Both Zippy and Lizzy tested as possible mates and I can test to see compatibility but it may not be conclusive. The last possibility I see is that he desired Zippy, but then found his soul mate in Lizzy. I know Zippy was attracted to you before you pissed her off, what about Lizzy?”

  “She responded too.”

  Apollo noticed Eres didn’t seem too surprised about the Lizzy thing. Had he already known and if he had, how? He wondered if more than one potential mate might exist but he couldn’t imagine wanting someone more than he wanted Way. Since she had brought her son, Charlie, here to live with her, she used him as a shield to hide behind. Apollo had only known the boy for a couple weeks, but he liked him and knew he could grow to love him.

  The boy could have almost been a god, but Apollo knew he wasn’t. Even though fully human, he was cute, smart, athletic, and had some serious fighting skills for his size. He was funny too and never failed to make Apollo laugh when he was around. They could make a great family, her stalling was costing them time they could be living life to the fullest. He knew he would have to take things in hand soon, but first he had to figure out what to do. At least he wasn’t stuck where Poseidon was, between two women.

  Zeus covered some financial things which Apollo had to pay particular attention to since Zeus planned to eventually let him deal with those types of things. He asked Dione about plans for the New Year’s Ball that they were setting up. They all listened as Dione excitedly went into more detail than his brothers could stand though the mates seemed to want to hear it.

  “It’s going to be the event of the decade,” Dione finished with a scary laugh that all the females joined in.

  “Alright, it seems like we are done for now,” Zeus said with obvious relief.

  “Aren’t you going to tell them about the hotline?” Cherish asked.

  “Oh, yeah. We now have a hotline set up with a reward for information leading to the recovery of one or more gods. We originally hired a company to set it up, but it crashed constantly and they couldn’t or wouldn’t fix it properly. That caused a delay on our schedule since we planned to have it running right after Halloween. Cherish got it running this week and the leads are already coming in. We have two gods on each of three shifts and so far, it has been nonstop. We have a rotation set up so no one is stuck working the hotline too long because some of these humans who call, can be very aggravating. We have a team based out of Olympus security running down the leads. We have one human teamed up with one god on each of four teams. They start tracking down today’s leads, tomorrow. I feel really positive about the chances of finding our brothers now. If anyone has work they need to get to, they can leave now. Darius, you stay.”

  Several gods left but Apollo was caught up on his work, besides he was nosy when it came to mated gods. He wanted to know everything he could in case it would help him draw his mate to him.

  “Darius, you’ve been quarantining your mate to the point everyone is talking about it.”

  He turned bright red. “I’m just taking the time to get to know her before I share her with everyone.”

  Doc laughed. “You mean you want her barefoot and pregnant so she won’t leave and no one will try to lure her away.”

  Darius turned even redder and dropped his eyes to the floor. Apollo understood what is was like to be insecure with a mate, from what he had seen, every god had gone through it. Only Darius had been in a position to act on it or maybe his mate just wasn’t as forceful as the rest had been.

  Zeus said gently, “I’d like you to bring her to the table tonight at supper so the other mates can meet her. Women need the company of other women especially if they are newly mated and planning to raise children soon.”

  Darius nodded and fled the room. Apollo planned to have his butt at Zeus’s table at supper time. Everyone was dying to see the hidden mate. He didn’t envy Darius all the grief he had coming his way for waiting so long.

  Apollo remembered he had checked out her file and thought Zeus had a hidden agenda in meeting this particular mate. She was a nursery school teacher with a degree in early childhood education that had she chosen, could have seen her teaching up to third grade level. It was something they needed now more than ever with the young gods they had found. Fabian homeschooled as did Charlie, the gods over ten years old would too. That still left a need for the ones under ten and a need was being created by the babies that were recently or soon would be born.

  Zeus planned to bring in a teacher for grades six and up, but he also needed one for up to grade six. At the rate things were going, one of each wouldn’t be enough. He was looking forward to supper and he had just found a reason to speak to Way. She would be interested in a new teacher among them. A wicked smile crossed his face. As soon as Zeus was finished, he left the room. He was a male on a mission and she couldn’t hide from him.

  He thought about how to manage it and decided to use those gods he could connect with mentally. She wouldn’t be concerned if she ran into one of them, but if she saw him before he saw her, well he’d just say, she would make sure he didn’t find her at all. Yes, Ophelos found her heading back to her office. If he headed there right now he could cut off her escape. Happiness bubbled up inside him as he headed her way. One day soon, he would find a way to get her to accept what was between them. It was too good to give up on.

  “What’s a beautiful female like you doing out in the hallway where a male like me might get the wrong idea?” he whispered against her neck as she paused, her hand on the doorknob. He breathed in deeply, her scent rolled through him, a hint of cherry blossoms on a hot summer night. He had managed to press his body up against her while her back was turned before she even knew it. It was good to have a few advantages over his human mate. Stealth and speed had just served him well.

  She made a serious mistake, he knew she would eventually. He felt her shiver as she turned to face him pressing the front of her body firmly up against his when he refused to allow
her more room. Aw, fuck he could feel the heat flow through his body and the sweet smell of her involuntary arousal ramped him up more.

  He slid his fingers to her chin, lightly holding her in place as his lips descended upon hers hungrily feeding on her blatantly sensual flavor. Better than the finest wine or the most gourmet chocolate, and everyone knows a god loves his chocolate, he feasted aggressively on her mouth until a groan was torn from her lips and she seemed to grow too weak to stand. He held her with one arm, opening the door with the other. He moved her into the room and kicked the door closed behind them. He leaned her back on the desk but couldn’t make himself stop pushing the passion they had too long denied. She had allowed him to take advantage and he couldn’t stop, didn’t even want to stop.

  His hand slowly stroked down her neck to the hint of cleavage that her shirt had exposed. His fingers nimbly undid the buttons until her shirt fell open exposing a lacy pink bra. He stopped the heated kisses just a moment to appreciate the view before he claimed her lips again to still any protests she might try to speak. He knew he needed to keep his lips on hers as much as possible. His hands massaged her breasts through the silky material, tweaking her nipples until they were hard firm peaks begging for his mouth. He unsnapped her bra peeling it from her breasts just before his mouth latched on sucking her nipples one at a time in hard strong tugs.

  She moaned, squirming with the arousal he could smell so it would do her no good to deny. His hands slid up under the skirt she wore, working their way under the tiny satin scrap and sliding into her slick channel. His cock was so hard he had to move one hand to unsnap his pants and free his staff before it ripped through the material. He pushed, not giving her time to think because then she would stop him and it would all be over. He moved his fingers up to her clit as he sucked on one nipple then the other, before he worked back to the first again.

  He worried her clit as she arched and bucked beneath him, her legs spread apart inviting him in. When he tugged her clit, she could take it no more and came with a scream. He didn’t hesitate, he lined up his cock with her wet entrance and sank deep inside her. He kissed her and rained kisses all over her face and neck as he slammed into her hard and fast. He nibbled her neck and scratched it with his teeth just breaking the skin to allow her to absorb some of his venom.

  He felt her clutching at his rigid cock as her orgasm began. Her muscles milked him and he yelled as his release rocked him like never before. He held her gently as their sweat soaked bodies remained tangled with remnants of their clothing and each other. He sensed the moment what they had done hit her because her body stiffened and she began to push him away. How could something so incredible, end in such a disaster. Her angry look made his heart stop for a moment as he became aware that one step forward would mean two steps back.

  He pulled himself off her and stepped back while he pulled himself into his pants before carefully zipping and snapping his them. She redressed and straightened her clothing trying not to even acknowledge that he was still there. She stood up, straight and stiff making it clear she was angry.

  “I didn’t intend for that to happen, but I’m not sorry that it did,” he said his voice still dep and rough from passion.

  “That’s one of us.” The cold coming off her was enough to freeze a male to death.

  “I’m sorry you feel that way, because that was the best sex I’ve ever had.”

  Way blushed bright red, but refused to answer him. He couldn’t just stand there looking at her so he left. Maybe Doc would give him some advice since she had to keep secrets, right? Wasn’t that what doctors did?

  Chapter 8

  The Right Way

  Doc tried to concentrate on what Apollo was telling her but it was hard to believe her sister, Way, had allowed herself to get carried away like that. She wasn’t impulsive, at least not since she had become a single parent. It was like the fun side of her personality, except where Charlie was concerned, had died with Gus. She saw that Apollo thought she would be able to keep this a secret from Sierra which showed he didn’t know either of them well enough. Sierra could smell a secret a mile away and Doc knew she couldn’t keep one unless it was a professional secret which this one just wasn’t. She could try to avoid Sierra until the secret was out some other way, which if she was a betting girl, she would bet money on it not being a secret long regardless of her own personal actions. It was just too big not to get out soon.

  Way might not be the impulsive type anymore but she had been with Gus. Those two had been so in love anyone could see it that came near them. Doc thought that even though Gus and Apollo were very different, Way might find a love that equaled the one she had before. Just looking at Apollo when way was near made it clear how he felt about her and even though Way tried to hide it, there was something in her eye when she looked back at Apollo. She wanted that love for her sister, for all her sisters even more so, now that she had it for herself. She was turning into a mushy love struck woman, but she didn’t care. Hades was so worth everything she had gone through and everything she would go through. She was too much of a realist to think that everything would be smooth sailing just because they were now mated.

  Apollo left and Doc would swear it wasn’t five minutes before snoopy Sierra showed up. “Hey Doc, are you busy today?”

  “He just came by to talk, no particular reason really,” she said quickly, maybe too quickly.

  “Who might that be?” Sierra asked looking innocent. Doc wondered if she knew Apollo had been there just minutes before or not. Now that she had made her comment, Sierra could always investigate to find out. The cat was out of the bag.

  “Apollo, he’s taken an interest in the young gods they found on the last mission.”

  “Hm, I never pegged him as the paternal type.”

  “He’s not, but all the gods are brotherly. That’s just the way they were raised.”

  “Something’s got you as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof.”

  Doc giggled anxiously. There were sure a lot of cat references today. It wasn’t hard to see where they might come from since they were surrounded with all the sleek predatory males. They reminded her of big jungle cats, her Hades was one of the biggest and baddest, certainly the most ferocious.

  “I’m newly mated and I’m responsible for researching how a mating works with little information to help me. Isn’t that enough reason to be tense?” She couldn’t say why, but she wanted to help Apollo keep his secrets and she feared Way would hold it against him if others found out about her moment of weakness. Weakness was how Way would view it even though Doc viewed it as love.

  “Okay, keep your secrets. I’m not pushy and I know when to let things alone.” Doc snorted in a less than ladylike fashion. When it came to family or close friends, Sierra was as pushy and nosy as anyone could get and she never let things alone. She must think it was job related because that was the only time she would let it be.

  Sierra left, probably to have a quickie with Zeus before supper. Those two couldn’t keep their hands off each other and they got so loud at times that everyone knew it. Alone, Doc thought about the problem Poseidon and his mating confusion presented. He was the first god that she knew of that hadn’t had a clear and certain reaction to his mate if he had indeed met his mate and wasn’t just dealing with a case of extreme lust with two women. While the tests might not be conclusive, she would see what the reactions were when she combined Poseidon’s samples that had been taken recently, with Zippy’s and Lizzy’s samples that had been taken when they first came here.

  Even though these weren’t the best of circumstances, for Poseidon anyway, she had to admit pursuing the facts and adding to their knowledge of the god’s biology, was exciting. It was her love of research and her desire for knowledge to improve life for all people, that had driven her into genetic research. She had an affinity for the field, a grasp of all it entailed that few ever had. She could look at the results of an experiment and sometimes know what it meant without h
ours of studying the data. Her professors had called her a natural and predicted she would move the field of genetics ahead by leaps and bounds someday. She hoped they were right, she was certainly in the right place to do so.

  She planned to meet Hades for supper in an hour. There would be a big turnout since everyone wanted to meet Darius’s mate. Doc felt for the female since she would no doubt be overwhelmed by all the attention. Darius hadn’t handle her blending into their group well, he should have eased her in gently letting her meet a few gods and mates at a time.

  Cherish had been lucky because that was the way she had become part of their community. Doc could handle being presented to a large group, but Darius seemed to be protecting his mate so Doc thought she must be shy. Whatever the situation was, it would be resolved soon.

  Doc looked closely at the sample where she had combined Zippy’s and Poseidon’s biological material. There was definitely a reaction so she couldn’t rule out the possibility that they could be mates. She pulled out Lizzy’s and Poseidon’s samples and the reaction was similar. All that really showed was that both women could be his mate or the mate of another god. Maybe Poseidon’s desire to mate was overruling his need to find the female that was best matched to him. All the conjecture in the world wasn’t going to help her find answers. She needed more material to test and observations of their interaction to reinforce her conclusions. Fat chance getting any of that.

  She rubbed her temples trying to massage the hurt away. She put up all the samples carefully, cleaning up her work area. She glanced at her watch, nearly time to go. She wished she had more answers on the mating phenomenon but as more gods claimed mates, she would have more information to study. For now, she would just enjoy supper with her family, both the old and the new members.

  The cafeteria was packed with a line all the way out to the hallway. She moved around those waiting to claim her seat next to Hades. He was already there waiting for her with a plate fixed for each of them. What a guy! He smiled when he looked up and saw her approaching. He stood to pull her into his arms and give her a kiss even though several of the unmated gods nearby made gagging noises. Some of them really were just overgrown children.