Awakened Love

by Skyler Andra

  “What is it?” Autumn asked me, her mouth shaping into a tight line.

  Quickly I scanned her cord, immediately targeting the love still burning for Hades. But upon closer reflection, I realized she felt cheated into loving him and questioned the relationship’s legitimacy. I certainly didn’t blame her. All these stupid god myths.

  “He misses you,” I said to her, and her eyes brightened with understanding. “Please, go and see him.”

  The avatar of Persephone’s chest expanded as she took a deep breath. “Maybe someday,” she replied, ending the call.

  That was that then. Sure, I could have played naughty Cupid and tweaked her cord, but I didn’t want to do it if she was unsure. I’d only pushed along relationships that were meant to be. This one, while the love existed, teetered in a delicate balance of love and loathing that I didn’t want to mess with.

  “Thanks,” I said while handing Rane back his phone.

  “Come here,” he gently ordered, sweeping me up. I automatically wrapped my legs around him.

  “Leave some for us too,” Mads said, and I reached blindly behind Rane to grab Mads and pull him in as well.

  Being enclosed in a sandwich of bodies that I knew as well as my own was incredible, but there was someone missing.

  “Come on, Byron,” I yelled, turning my head until I caught him glance at me. Twisting Athena’s spear, he shook his head slightly and left.

  “What the hell?” I questioned, my heart beating faster. “Where’s he going?”

  “Leave him,” Rane dismissed. “This has been a lot to take in. Give him a day or two to clear his head.”

  “But I want to be with him too.” Despite my protests and wriggles to get Rane to let me go, he clutched me to him as the love of my life departed the room.

  Byron’s cord rippled after him. Feeling vulnerable, I broke my cardinal rule of not peering into his heart. Screw it. I was worried and wanted to know what was going on. Turned out his heart was a mess of uncertainty and self-deprecating unworthiness. I didn’t know when I’d see him again, if ever, and my heart was close to breaking.

  Blood rushed through my veins like a freight train as my stubbornness flared up. I was not going to let Byron walk away that easy—not without a fight. I’d slap him senseless if I had to!

  Maybe Mads shouldn’t be afraid of Rane’s temper; maybe he should be afraid of mine. I knew Rane and Mads detected my angry ripples through the bonds we shared. But still, Rane refused to let me go after Byron.

  ***

  After wrapping everything up, we left the military base in Tennessee and saw the other avatars off. Then Rane, Mads and I stopped at a hotel about an hour later, completely exhausted. Realistically, I hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in several days since my departure from the underworld. My body ached in all sorts of weird places despite having not even using half those muscles. I blamed the damn orb.

  Mads paid for the room somehow, and we all tumbled into the big bed together after our showers, skin to skin and as silent as only the truly fatigued could be. At various points I think we all made love, but it was a daze. What I did remember was holding back. It wasn’t right, not without Byron, which was a sore point I was still pretty cranky about. I managed to fall asleep while stewing over his absence.

  After sleeping almost twelve hours, we prepared to leave again. Rane twisted the gold wedding band he kept as a reminder of his wife and a good luck charm. He crossed the room and put it on the bedside table.

  “Let’s go,” he said, putting a hand on my lower back.

  My heart sighed, knowing he finally let go of the past he clung to. Now he could finally move on. With me.

  In minutes we were back on the road the next morning once we checked out. The boys promised to take me right to Boise to meet up with Byron. God knows how he got home, but they said he was already there.

  It was almost thirty hours of driving from Tennessee to Boise. Surely that was enough time for Byron to clear his head. Rane purposefully drove slowly, delaying us as the miles passed away underneath us. Throughout it, whether I was dozing off in the back, driving or keeping one of the other two company, I thought about Byron.

  I sort of understood his reasons for leaving. He was as wounded like the rest of us. After everything that happened, I just wanted to be together. I didn’t have the patience for being alone, so by the time we pulled up to his duplex I had a pretty good steam going.

  “Come on up,” I said when Mads and Rane hesitated on the stairs. “He’s going to need to speak to us one way or another.”

  When Byron answered the door his eyes were wide, his hair messy. And clearly, he was still wearing the same clothes from the bunker, which only made me angrier.

  I surged past him with Mads on my heels.

  “Hey, brother,” Rane greeted, the only polite one of us in the bunch.

  “Come in, I guess,” Byron said.

  I waited in the foyer, my arms crossed, ready to blow.

  “I’ve dreamed about this place,” Rane said, examining the entrance to the lounge room.

  “Nice place,” Mads complimented, stroking the white walls. “Very homely.”

  It was probably more than he ever had.

  “It was a short sale that I picked up a few years ago,” Byron filled in, his voice stilted.

  It was time to cut the chit chat and get to business. I waved my hands in the air. “Rane and Mads, get comfortable and grab a beer. Byron, bedroom, right now.”

  Byron’s eyes flash silver, but I stalked off before he objected. A few moments later he entered his bedroom, locking the door behind me with a scowl.

  “Locke, what are you doing here?”

  “No! Me first!” I paced along the side of his bed, trying to make sense of everything and to calm down. “What the hell were you doing, just leaving like that?”

  Believe it or not, the idea of being without him offended me. When he looked as if he still didn’t understand, I stepped closer.

  “Without me?” I added a little more calmly. “Without us?”

  He huffed. “After a quick fuck in a bunker?”

  “Are you serious?” I wanted to slap him, but I curled my fists to prevent myself from following through. “That’s all you thought it was? I told you I love you. ‘Love of my life’ I believe were my words. And you hightailed it, you pussy.”

  “Well–”

  “No. Don’t answer. Anything you say is going to piss me off. You’re mine, and you sure as hell didn’t think it was a quick fuck when it happened. So why don’t you tell me what’s really going on?”

  The flash of guilt on his face told me I was right. “Maybe you should rethink what you settle on as yours.”

  I frowned, wanting so desperately to sort this out. “Be more specific, please.”

  “I’m a fucking mess, Locke,” he admitted.

  “You’re a homeowner with a steady job. That puts you heads and shoulders above the other three people in this house.”

  “I’m serious. Do you know how I even got into my PhD program?”

  My memories were dredged up at the mention of past history. By that stage in our relationship we’d said our hard goodbyes and parted ways in what was one of the most painful experiences of my life. I didn’t plan on repeating that today.

  I looked at him blankly. “No.”

  He sighed, staring at the floor, then shoved his hands in his pockets. “Most people aren’t PhDs on the tenure track by age twenty-five.”

  “Okay, so what? You cheated on a test?” I probed, letting my frustration seep into my words. “Seduced a professor? Wait, oh my god, was it Professor Niralev? I knew there was something going on between you two!”

  “No! Dear God; I do have some taste.” That made Byron smile for a split second. “No, Locke. I blackmailed the dean.”

  I stared at him and he shrugged, looking down. “My financial aid was disappearing and I needed to get to the next thing fast. My professor gave me a bad reference which
screwed over my application. Luck fell into my lap in the form of a scandal. Turns out said professor happened to be bribing students for sex—even raped one girl—but I managed to get hold of the pictures and copies of text messages to prove it. I took this information to the dean and that’s how I got in.”

  Okay, who didn’t lie on their resume or embellish their credentials and skills to get a better job? Many men on the phone sex line confessed their deepest, darkest secrets to me and guess what was number two on the list of sins below cheating on their wife. Lying to get ahead for promotions, new jobs, even to screw over their jerk boss. Who cared? So Byron had a misdemeanor. Everyone else did.

  I stared at him because I’d known him long enough to know there was more to the story. “And then?”

  He walked over to the window where he propped his forearm above his head against the glass. “And then I sent the nudes to the professor’s wife anyway because she deserved to know.”

  “Okay, that’s my boy.” I had to admit I was kinda proud. “So, the problem is?”

  “The problem is I can’t turn this off!” Byron exclaimed in exasperation, his fist clenching. “I’d like to say this is a matter of the gray-eyed terror in my head, but it isn’t. I’ve always been this way and it doesn’t make me happy, all right? I was ready to kill all of those people in Tennessee to tie off loose ends. It never ends, and even if I feel like crap afterwards it doesn’t undo the blackmail or the ruined marriage, and it doesn’t bring people back from the dead.”

  We stared at each other for a moment and I realized he genuinely believed I would leave him for being himself. Wow. What a mess. Welcome to the club.

  “You know that I always knew you were like this, right?” I double checked.

  “What?” he asked.

  “The first time I met you. You were hinting to the professor that if he didn’t stop staring down the shirts of the girls’ in class you would make sure the dean heard about it. You’ve always seen the angles and went for the kill. It’s kind of your thing.”

  “Oh god.” He pressed his head to the window.

  “And what makes you think I care?”

  He turned to look at me, eyes blinking.

  “Because I don’t,” I said. “I love you. I have for years. Don’t ask me why because, seriously, by now it’s pretty offensive. I don’t love you because I’m an idiot or because you’ve tricked me. For God’s sake, give me some credit.”

  Silver flashed in his eyes as he tried to figure out what was true and what was real. Then to my immense relief, he crushed me in his arms and whispered, “I love you too.”

  This was the best news ever. The weight dangling from my heart dropped.

  Now all I needed to work on was hearing those words from Rane and Mads. Rane had promised that we wouldn’t ever part which I interpreted as an intermediary I love you, but I knew the both of them would take time to actually say those three words. Especially when their hearts still needed time to heal. If I hedged my bets, I’d say Rane would be the first to crack followed by Mads. But Byron was a brilliant start and I was happy with that.

  I started to laugh at this point, it was either that or cry with joy. Damn these Cupid powers making me so sappy. “Oh, thank God. I was afraid I was going to have to slap you senseless.”

  “What?” Byron asked.

  “Never mind just kiss me, okay?”

  It was like another first kiss. Soft and sweet with a hint of heat. We’d had so many and I had the idea that we would have many more in the future. When we broke apart, we couldn’t stop grinning. He started to say something but we heard a laugh from the door. It flung open as both Rane and Mads stepped through the doorway.

  “Well, thank God,” Mads drawled. “I was genuinely afraid that we’d have to let Rane out-sad you with another story about his ex.”

  Rane nodded. “Yeah, it’s pretty sad. Totally blows your story about cheating and blackmail out of the water.”

  Byron scowled. “I locked that door.”

  “Not from me.” Mads strolled in as if he owned the place.

  “You really do pick some strange men, Locke,” Rane said while following Mads as if his barging in was an invitation for all to enter. “I mean, it’s the whole fix the sad, broken boy thing or something like it? I get it, I just think we should draw the line at say assault and arson?”

  I couldn’t stop a giggle from welling up inside me. This was what I had been missing in the underworld and in Tennessee. If Byron had been with us in the hotel, I probably would have initiated an orgy on the floor. But now that we were here with an enormous bed to sleep on, I could kind of forgive him for running off.

  “No, it’s definitely not a broken thing,” I said. “Just my luck—and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  Mads made himself comfortable on the bed practically pawing at the sheets curiously like a cat. He offered Byron a lazy smile when he shot him a harsh look meant to say get off.

  “Good luck with us, then,” Mads said then reached over to grab my hand and tug me toward the bed. “Come here, love of my days. Aren’t you tired?”

  “That’s your idea of a pickup line?” I snarked while sitting on his lap. I gave him a brief kiss.

  “Hey, I’m not the god of love—you’re supposed to be.” He kissed me back. “But I’ll come up with something good soon.”

  “Rane, will you come here and keep Mads honest, please?” I said while staring into Mads’ eyes. “I’m feeling nervous… that he’s going to take advantage of me.”

  “Well, that sounds serious,” Rane agreed crawling onto the bed behind me and nuzzling at the back of my neck.

  Okay, just one more. Come on, am I the avatar of Cupid or not?

  I turned to Byron who was watching this development with a slightly confused and outraged look on his face. In our cord connection, he’d told me that he knew that Rane and Mads came with the deal. So why the offence at having his bedroom invaded?

  “Come on, Byron,” I said holding out my hand to him. “I don’t have the energy right now to seduce you into this… so if you could just come along that would be amazing.”

  Apparently, that was the best the avatar of Cupid could do at the moment.

  Mads dragged my shirt up and squeezed my breasts gently as he licked my neck.

  Whether it was me or Mads who had gotten to him, Byron came stumbling into bed. There was a flurry of clothes being removed. I got lost in how good all of that skin felt and how amazing it felt to have three pairs of hands touching me. In seconds my men had me naked and lying at the center of the bed. I had never felt more at peace. I realized that it had nothing to do with gods and everything to do with how much I loved these men. How much I knew them, and they knew me.

  I reached out to touch one or the other, grazing my hands along their own, but mostly I lay back and let them explore my body. Rane began nuzzling at my breasts, Mads was palming me between the legs, and Byron was kissing my calves.

  “Lazy,” Mads whispered in my ear. “Next time, we’ll make you work for it.”

  A full body shudder went through me. The idea of moving from one to the other… but that was for later. Right now, all I cared about was taking in all of this pleasure. Making sure that it was a part of me. Ensuring that I was really here and being loved by three amazing men who all took my breath away.

  I didn’t know who parted my legs and lapped sweetly at my pussy, but it wasn’t Rane as he kissed me and prevented me from looking down. All those hands, all of those mouths. They were making me dizzy and it was still something of a revelation that all I had to do was lie back and enjoy it.

  The pleasure was ramping up even more by the time Rane came to kneel between my legs, taking my hips in his hands.

  “God, your perfect,” he murmured. I would have replied if he hadn’t started thrusting into me with just enough restraint to stop me from running into the headboard. I groaned, and I wrapped my legs around his hips to pull him in deeper.

  He ca
me just as I was on the verge. Mads’ hand slid down between our two bodies and found my clit then stroked it with a firm and nearly mechanical precision. My eyes opened wide as I reached my climax—my first for the day—Rane held me tightly as I shook hard. Then he was gone. Byron was in his place tugging me up so I could straddle his lap.

  “You’re sure you want this?” he asked.

  I smacked him lightly on the shoulder. “Don’t you dare have doubts now.”

  “I wasn’t. I just wanted to make sure that you weren’t.”

  “I’m not, I’m just—aah!”

  He pushed up into me with a single smooth motion. Mads pushed me forward so I rested in Byron’s arms as he fucked me. Somehow, I felt that tension wind up tight in my body again. I sobbed as the pleasure washed over me.

  After that, I sort of lost the thread connecting me to reality for a while. I ended up on my side with Mads behind me. His arm was thrown over my hip. His semi-erect cock pressed against my rear. I must have dozed off for a while because he was whispering in my ear, telling me to wake up.

  I looked up in time to see Rane and Byron kissing. The kiss was gentle, almost nervous. I stifled a soft noise of delight. I wondered if this was something innate to both of them or if it was an outgrowth of what we had been through together. The three of us in the desert with only each other. Then I remembered Rane saying he’d been in a threesome before.

  “Magnificent, isn’t it?” whispered Mads. “Like an iceberg breaking in half or the Grand Canyon.”

  “Shut up and let them have this,” I said, turning to him.