Fate of the Gods: A Reverse Harem Romance

by Laura Wylde

  Fate of the Gods

  A Reverse Harem Romance

  Laura Wylde

  Contents

  From Laura

  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

  © Copyright 2018 by CWG Publishers - All rights reserved.

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  From Laura

  Thank you so much for picking up Protected by the Claws. I just wanted to let you know that if you haven’t already claimed your copy of my first book, Mated to the Claws, you can do so here:

  [Get Mated to the Claws]

  Chapter 1

  Rose didn't like to fly despite the fact that she had flown plenty in her lifetime and hadn't had any bad experiences. She still got butterflies in her stomach every time she boarded a plane. But, she did enjoy airports. She thought that there was probably no other place on earth where you could witness such a diverse collection of people all in one place. Every gender, race, religion and sexual preference seemed to be represented at the airport and for a person who enjoyed watching people, it was like a smorgasbord for foodies. She had been sitting near the terminal for about half an hour, waiting for her flight to board, flipping through a magazine and soaking up the life that was going on around her. There was a young couple sitting behind her, and from what she gathered from their conversation, they were on their way to New York for a wedding. The young woman seemed to be excited about it, but her partner, not so much. It sounded like the wedding was her sister's and the sister hadn't bothered to come to their wedding so the young man still held a grudge over that. Rose had to give the young woman credit. She seemed to be doing her best to be patient with her husband while remaining loyal to her sister at the same time. Rose didn't have any siblings. She often wished that she had a sister to confide in, or a big brother to look out for her, Lord knew she had needed that over the past year. But she had been lucky in other ways. She had parents who didn't share her DNA, but rather had chosen her to be their own. They were better parents than if she'd been given the opportunity to choose them herself and she realized just how blessed she was. She had never been interested in looking for her biological parents. As far as she knew, she'd been abandoned as a baby...found wrapped in a blanket, sitting in a basket in front of a bookstore. She didn't have any desire to know people that could do something like that, and she also felt like it would be an affront to the people she considered her real parents, the ones that had given her a fabulous life.

  Rose was a model, and recently, an actress. She wasn't a vain person, but she knew she was beautiful. Denying it would be false modesty, and she found that almost as distasteful as vanity. As far back as Rose could remember, people stared at her, or would just come right up to her and her parents and tell them how beautiful she was. When she was really young, it scared her sometimes. It was like people were drawn to her and they almost seemed compelled to approach her. She was used to it now that she was in her mid-twenties. She had been popular all through school, without even trying. She liked to think that none of that had gone to her head. Her parents had brought her up to be kind and humble and most of all, thankful for her blessings, of which she had many.

  Rose's hair was naturally blonde and in the summer, the sun streaked it with highlights that other women paid hundreds of dollars for. Her skin was naturally smooth and pale, but when she was in the sun, she didn't burn, she tanned. She kept her body fit and toned...but if she had to pick one feature that stood out, it would be her eyes. People commented on her eyes all the time and she couldn't count the times that she'd been asked if she was wearing contact lenses. Her eyes were violet and they attracted a lot of attention, both desired and unwanted. When Rose went into modeling, it was often like walking a tightrope between her desire to be successful in her chosen protection and her need for privacy. Rose had started modeling when she was sixteen. She started slow, posting pictures herself on Instagram, but her career blew up quickly and by the time she graduated high school she had offers from several top modeling agencies in New York and Los Angeles. Even at eighteen, she was getting a late start in the industry, but that hadn't held her back. She'd been modeling now for eight years and she still got offers daily. This trip had been special. She had come out to LA for an audition for a movie and she'd gone for two call backs while she was there. They hadn't made an offer yet, but her agent told her it was just a matter of them working out the numbers.

  Rose could have been famous much earlier in life. Even when she was a toddler, her parents received offers from modeling agencies. People would just come up to them in a restaurant, or a mall and leave their card. Her parents said that even then she was always outgoing and had an easy smile that people were attracted to. But they were protective, with good reason. The amount of attention she attracted would make any parent a little nervous and definitely more alert when they were out in public. Rose knew that had they wanted to, they could have accepted any one of those offers and made a fortune off of her. But she had the kind of parents that every kid should have. They were more concerned with what was best for her and they wanted Rose to experience a normal, happy childhood. They let her choose her path and when she was old enough to choose a career in modeling, they fully supported her. She had almost thrown it all away recently, for a man. If not for her mother and father's love and support, the opportunity to audition for the movie in Los Angeles would have never come to fruition.

  The overhead announcement that her flight was boarding brought her back to the present. She was in the first line for boarding thanks to her first class passage. She scanned her ticket and walked through the breez
eway, rolling her carry-on bag behind her. There was a female flight attendant greeting passengers at the door, smiling, saying hello and thanking everyone for flying Eastern Airlines. Rose smiled back and entered the plane. She turned to the right to head toward her seat and came face to face with another attendant. This one was male. He had short, dark hair and wore a crisp, white shirt and blue vest with blue trousers. Oddly, the trousers only went to his ankles and the shoes he wore were blue canvas with gold wings embroidered on the sides. Rose brought her eyes back up to his face. He was smiling brightly and looking at her like they were old friends.

  “Welcome! I'm so excited to see you! Our VIP made it!” Rose frowned at that. Was he talking to her? She looked back over her shoulder. The older man behind her was just looking at her like he wished she would move out of the way. The flight attendant was still talking, and she realized that he was indeed, talking to her when he deftly slipped the handle of her bag out of her hand and said, “Please, allow me to help you with that. I'm Henry, by the way.”

  “Thank you,” Rose followed him forward toward the flight deck to first class and watched as he stowed her bag in one of the overhead bins. He smiled at her again and said,

  “I do so hope you enjoy the flight. It won't be long. Keep that seat belt buckled.”

  “Um...thank you,” she mumbled again, still slightly taken aback by the way he had greeted her. Maybe he followed her career on social media. Sometimes people who followed her Facebook and Instagram pages did act a bit over familiar. She shrugged it off and took her seat, noticing once she was there that the attendant seemed to have disappeared and now another female attendant was there, helping the passengers. The female attendant did the safety spiel and then sat down and buckled her seat belt when the sign came on. Still, the male attendant was nowhere in sight. Really odd.

  Rose leaned back in her seat, ignoring the stares of the handsome man across the aisle from her and closed her eyes as the plane began its ascent. She was both happy, and slightly anxious about going home. The trip had been for business, but it had also put 3000 miles between her and her ex-lover and that space had only helped with the process of healing that she had struggled with over the past several months.

  Despite Rose's good looks, and what she believed to be a good heart and good head on her shoulders, she had been unlucky in love her entire life. She wasn't sure what it was about her, but she was like a magnet for narcissists. Rose had learned a lot about narcissism from the therapist she started seeing only a few months before. She had also learned that their bad behavior wasn't her fault, and that was the most freeing thing that had happened so far.

  Rose had taken on so much guilt and responsibility mainly because everyone else loved her boyfriend. He was a photographer, great at his job and even better with people...or so she had thought. What she didn't know then about narcissists, that she did know now, was that they were constantly changing masks to suit whatever they thought the situation called for. Sadly, those masks have to come off sometime and Rose found out just how frightening it could be when that happened. Rose's latest relationship had been her longest and most serious...and, it had almost killed her. She met Trevor on a photo shoot in the Bahamas. She was on an assignment for a sports magazine that catered to men, which meant it had beautiful women in bikini's posing on the beach next to the boats or surfboards...or whatever it was they were trying to sell, and Trevor was one of the photographers. Trevor wasn't the photographer taking pictures of her, but even so, Rose had noticed him right away. He was tall and he had broad shoulders and an athletic body. His hair was dark but had natural streaks from the sun running through it and deep brown eyes that made a woman want to drown in them. He had the sexiest smile and he seemed to be directing it toward her all day. That night, he found her in the hotel and asked her out for a drink. He was flirtatious and attentive, funny, smart and easy to talk to. When they finished the shoot and got back to New York, his courtship of her continued. After the first time they made love, he sent her flowers and a card that simply said, “Wow.” He took her out for lavish dinners, or sometimes they spent all afternoon at a beatnik coffee house in the village, just talking and listening to music. Rose found herself falling in love, quickly, and when he asked her to move in with him after only three months, she readily agreed.

  Again, at first, it was heaven. She loved waking up with him, going to sleep with him, sharing meals and sometimes just relaxing together and watching TV, and then it all changed. Trevor lost his job and became depressed. Rose hated to see him sad, and desperate to help him, she actually suggested that he help her, with her career. She was getting so many offers that it was hard for her to keep track. She had been considering hiring an assistant, but since Trevor needed a job, and it seemed, a purpose, she handed that job over to him. He was very organized and so good with people that at first it seemed almost perfect. But over the course of a month, Trevor morphed from a boyfriend/personal assistant, to some kind of tyrant. He over-booked her and then he would berate her for being late, or not looking her best as she went from one job to the next. He started monitoring what she ate and standing next to her when she got on the scale in the mornings. If she gained so much as a pound, he would chastise her and make her feel so guilty that she'd skip the next few meals. She was surviving on hardly any calories at all and working out twice as much as before.

  Rose's efforts to please Trevor backfired on them both. She was losing too much weight and her appearance was suffering for it. She started experiencing something she knew nothing about...rejection. She was turned down for three jobs in a row and although Trevor told her that it was because she'd gotten “fat and sloppy,” she knew deep down that it was just the opposite. Her insane dieting had caused her cheeks to sallow and dark circles to permanently encircle her violet eyes. It was only when she collapsed on the set of a commercial she had finally won and woke up in the ER that she realized how dire her situation had become. Her mother was in the chair beside the bed and she didn't say a word, she just wrapped her arms around her daughter and they cried together. Her father sat sentry at her door and refused to let Trevor in. Once she was discharged, they took her home, and only then did she begin to heal.

  Rose's reminiscing was interrupted by a violent jerk and a loud boom. She tore her eyes open to the sound of screams and people demanding to know what was happening. The female stewardess picked up the intercom and calmly said, “Ladies and Gentleman we are experiencing some turbulence. The captain has asked that you remain in your seats, in the upright position with your seat belts fastened securely.” Rose knew her seat belt was still on, but she looked down at it anyways and then her eyes went to the window next to her seat. The airplane was shaking harder now and she could see the wing actually bouncing up and down. There was a new noise as well, like a roar in the wind. She heard that, right before she saw the smoke. She couldn't see what was on fire, but smoke and flames shot up from somewhere near the outside of the cockpit.

  “The plane is on fire!” Someone yelled, just before another violent jerk and Rose's stomach rose up in her throat as she felt the plane begin to lose altitude. The chaos from behind her grew louder and almost drowned out the Captain's voice as it came over the loud-speaker. As he spoke, the oxygen masks began to drop from above them like spiders spinning webs from the ceiling. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain. We've run into some mechanical problems and will have to attempt an emergency landing. Please, stay as calm as you can and follow the flight attendants instructions. I'm going to do my best to get us on the ground safely.”

  His message only served to increase the chaos. Rose felt like she was going to throw up. She thought about her parents and how heartbroken they would be to lose her. With tears filling her eyes for all the life she had left to live and all of the love she had left to give...she reached for the oxygen mask hanging in front of her and slipped the elastic band over the back of her head, and then the nightmare really began. The top half of her body that w
asn't secured with the belt was thrown forward. Her lungs contracted with such force that she was afraid they were collapsing and her face slammed into the seat in front of her. She lost consciousness, for a minute, or maybe longer. When she woke up, the nightmare was still happening only now she felt like she was flailing in the wind and she was reaching out, trying to find something to hold onto...but there was nothing. The sounds of agonizing screams, crushing metal, glass and exploding engines filled her head to the point of it almost exploding and the flashing of bright lights alternated with complete darkness until her entire world once again faded to black.

  Chapter 2

  Rose woke up slowly, like she'd been sleeping heavily and for a long time. The first thing she was aware of was the smell of the ocean and the feel of something scratchy against her skin. She was lying on something lumpy, warm, and wet. She opened her eyes, half wondering if she was dreaming when she began to focus on her surroundings. She was on a beach. The lacy foam fingers of the ocean lapped up against her and there were palm trees in the distance. She didn't see any signs of life other than the seagulls that tottered across the warm sand, with curious glances in her direction, making her believe even more that it was a bizarre dream that she was trapped in, all alone.

  She sat up straight and every fiber in her body screamed with pain. Even her face hurt. She brought a hand up to her lips and flinched when she touched them. They felt swollen, maybe even split. Her right eye was throbbing and when she moved her hand around to the back of her head, it came back around covered in dark, scarlet blood. What the hell happened?