Once I entered the castle, I blinked at its interior. It was… pink? Long windows stretched over the walls, and garish curtains hung over them. A carpet trailed across the floor of the castle, leading up to a flight of stairs with railings too grand to deserve such gaudy decorations.
“I like pink,” Aphrodite said. “The color of love. Don’t you think that it’s sweet? Pretty?”
“It doesn’t really fit the ominous image the castle has on the outside.”
“Isn’t that what’s so beautiful about it, though?” Aphrodite asked. “Unpredictability.”
My mother was perhaps just as random as me. More so, even. I’d met my match. I narrowed my eyes at her, left at a loss for words. She returned my questioning look with a light smile and a careless shrug.
Deimos set the crates down. With a flick of his hand, the cages flew open. My vassals sprawled out as quickly as they could. They squealed. One of them ran up to me and stopped next to my leg. How it searched for attention almost killed me, because it was so adorable. I knelt to the ground and scooped it into my arms, before hugging it to my chest. Laughing, I cocked my head at the creature. “I don’t know which one of the guys you’re supposed to be.”
The pig snorted, as if dissatisfied by my admission.
Aphrodite continued, “Your father should be—”
“Aphrodite!” someone with a coarse voice shouted. It sounded like he had rocks stuck in his throat. “What is the meaning of this!”
My mother continued wearing her smile. “Darling, I was just fetching our daughter from—”
“How many times must I tell you this!” A large silhouette stumbled out of the door to the right of the entrance hall. “Do not change the house when I’m inside!” The rage coming from this man unsettled me somewhat. I stood my ground, however. Ares was the god of war. Of course he’d sound pissed all the time.
Aphrodite did not show any of the concern I felt. “I was just demonstrating to our pretty little daughter here the wonders of our powers. I thought you might be bored of the red-brick house. Shouldn’t she deserve a grander abode? She’s our little princess, and she deserves a castle.”
“Princess?” I asked. “I’m really nothing of the sort.”
“Nonsense,” Aphrodite said. “I’ve always wanted a daughter to spoil.”
Little flutters of warmth spread through my chest. Oh crap. Was I beginning to feel sentimental? How was I supposed to be badass, awesome, and uncaring when my mother’s words pierced my heart so much?
“What is this daughter?” Ares asked. I had a clearer view of him now that he was closer. “Is she here?” The first thought that came to me when I saw Ares was…
Eyebrows.
He had eyebrows that deserved to be crowned. Bushy. Sticking out at the ends. Hot and red and full of character. They made him look constantly angry due to how they were pointed downward. They couldn’t be real, reminding me accessories that one got at a costume store. Subconsciously, I reached up and smoothed my hands over my own brows. Why weren’t mine as amazing? Weren’t we supposed to be related? They’d give me something to talk about.
Other than his magnificent brows, Ares looked middle-aged—the handsome kind. He had a symmetrical face, an armored body, and a white cape that flowed down his back. He wore his hair in a braid hanging down the side of his torso. I bore little resemblance to him.
Half his face was covered in ash.
“Why is your face black, my dear?” Aphrodite asked. She let go of me to close the distance between her and her lover. Ares swept Aphrodite into his arms. She tiptoed and planted a kiss on his lips. Ares sucked in a deep breath, reveling in the taste of his partner.
“Because you changed the house while I was preparing dinner. The bird caught on fire and exploded.”
“That sounds fun.” Kiss.
“Yes, but now we have one less bird to eat, and I’m famished.” Another kiss.
“You’re always famished.”
I raised a brow. They really couldn’t stop kissing, could they?
“When you’re as big and strong as I am, you need a lot of energy to fuel your muscles.”
Aphrodite laughed. She pinched her lover’s nose. “You know that’s a lie. We don’t actually need sustenance.”
“I do because I believe so, my sugarplum.”
Sugarplum?
I should be squealing and feeling more disgusted. They were my parents, after all. Shouldn’t I be like one of those kids that rolled their eyes every time they saw their parents being too loving?
I felt like an awkward bystander. I hugged the pig closer to my chest before shifting my weight from one foot to the other. “Hi, Dad?” I said. I wanted to mentally smack myself after that. It was such a lame-ass greeting.
Ares released Aphrodite and turned his attention to me. I still couldn’t get over those eyebrows. “And you are Caramel?”
Sheepishly, I replied, “Yep. That’s me.”
“My daughter.”
“Mhm.”
“The result of my seed impregnating your mother’s womb.”
“There’s no need for that kind of elaboration.”
“The babe that came from your mother’s—”
“Caramel Valencia,” I said. “Your daughter.” No need for more emphasis on how I was created.
Ares went silent. He looked at me with a question burning in his eyes. Unease crawled its way through my stomach. Why was he studying me like that? I felt smaller than usual, so I tried summoning my courage, but the pressure and tension the god of war inflicted on others weighed too heavily.
I blinked, and Ares broke into a guffaw. He tossed his head back. His chest shook, rumbling from his laughter, the tune both chilling and warm. “My daughter! Come now, give your father a hug.” Aphrodite moved aside, giving Ares a clear path toward me.
I took an awkward step forward. Aphrodite and Ares seemed like they were out of their minds. That was probably where my crazy came from. It was genetic.
Ares grabbed my hand and pulled me to his chest. I was swept into a large bear hug. Ares was tall. Huge. I thought I might be crushed, and his hug knocked air out from my lungs.
“There is so much I must learn about you,” Ares said. “What do you like to eat? I hope you enjoy seagull.”
I lifted my fork and poked the seagull. The taste of ash and burned meat coated the insides of my mouth. I’d taken a few bites of it.
We were seated in a grand dining hall. The chairs here were so tall that they stretched far over my head. The table was made of gold. It didn’t match the pink curtains at all.
“Is there something wrong with the food?” Ares asked.
“It’s great,” I lied. I tried cutting another piece, but the meat was so tough that the knife refused to pierce it. Gingerly, I picked up a small wing and tried biting it. I had to finish my meal to not be rude. Hunger helped season the mess Ares had served up, but even that wasn’t enough.
Aphrodite didn’t seem to mind the horrible taste. She’d finished her first seagull and grabbed seconds. Somehow, despite eating food that was so messy, she did it elegantly. My vassals were allowed to roam freely. I felt them sitting next to me, beneath the table, all huddled around my legs. They acted as if they could protect me, even though they were stuck in pig form.
I probably shouldn’t find their desperation this adorable.
I dined with gods and a goddess, and here we were, exchanging pleasantries. “Uh, how long did you cook this for?” I asked.
Deimos didn’t even use a fork to eat. He tore his food apart with his magic and levitated the pieces to his mouth.
“I wanted to roast it for thirty minutes,” Ares said. “And then it caught on fire.”
“And we’re still eating it?”
“Better not waste food. Seagulls aren’t easy to catch.”
I nodded despite not seeing his point, then tapped my fork on the hard, half-finished piece of bird. “And—”
“Enough with the small t
alk,” Aphrodite said, sounding a little too excited. “Aren’t you interested in hearing how you were conceived, Caramel?”
I cringed. “No. Please, I really don’t think that it’s something I need to—”
“I made you from our essences. I did not carry you through the nine months, but it was love at first sight,” Aphrodite said. She chuckled to herself. “Then again, I’m responsible for inciting that in too many people. It’s different when making others fall in love, and doing it yourself. As funny as it sounds, as a goddess, I don’t fall in love quickly. There were only a few instances in my life. One was your father, then Deimos.” She gave Deimos a forlorn look. Deimos, the dreadful creature, didn’t return it, however, instead waving another piece of seagull into his mouth. I wondered if his heart was as cold as his physical appearance.
Aphrodite turned to me. Honey-colored eyes bearing a mother’s warmth settled on me, and it felt like liquid pouring over my skin. “You were a mixture of both my essence and your father’s. We plucked some of the chiasma and put it in you because we needed you to escape. But when you came to existence. When you appeared”—Aphrodite looked ahead, her mind reaching for a distant memory—“I fell in love with you, Caramel.” She sighed. “You smiled at me then. An innocent grin spreading across the face of an angel. I thought I didn’t deserve you.”
“Why send me away, then?” I asked. “All I remember from my childhood is my time in the orphanage.” I doubted her words. Her actions simply didn’t match. But the sincerity that emanated from her when she spoke touched my heart nevertheless. I wanted to break down in tears.
This.
A mother’s love.
I’d been craving this ever since my childhood.
Now I had it.
But I couldn’t trust it.
“It was the most painful thing I had to do,” Aphrodite said. “To put you on Earth. I wanted to keep you here, in the Otherside, with me. I loved you with so much intensity that it’s probably difficult to fathom. I wanted you to be happy, Caramel, and I knew you wouldn’t be if you stayed here for the rest of eternity with us. For both your sake and ours, you had to be sent away. We needed you to create the bridge for us. Sending you away was the single most painful thing I’d ever had to carry out.”
That made sense.
I hoped that she was telling the truth.
I searched Aphrodite’s eyes for signs of a lie. Growing up, I’d hated my mother for abandoning me. She’d caused me so much grief.
Was her reasoning enough for me to forgive all the pain she’d caused me in my childhood? The isolation. The bullying.
“Your mother loved you,” Ares said, driving the point home.
“I still do,” Aphrodite said. She pushed herself up from her seat, then moved toward me, her movements like that of a graceful swan. “Don’t ever doubt that.” With adoration in her eyes, Aphrodite looked at me, then swept a tender hand down the back of my skull. “I just want the best for you. For you to be happy. I know it might be too late, but can you find it in you to love your mother?”
She must have noticed the puzzlement on my face. “I’ll try.”
Aphrodite bent down and placed a kiss on my temple. “And that is enough.”
The pigs at my feet squealed. I wasn’t sure whether it was due to joy or distress.
I wondered if my vassals sensed my unease.
Three
They’d given me a room in the castle for me to rest.
The bed here was huge. Enough for five or more. I lay there staring up at the ceiling. The windows to my balcony were open, and the rhythmic sound of the waves coming from outside danced into the room. I placed my hands on my belly and tried to relax.
The pink curtains weren’t helping.
Too striking.
I’d been lying on my bed, tossing and turning, for a good hour now. I willed for sleep to take me away. To let me rest. I didn’t want to think about what Aphrodite had told me. My thoughts swirled at her admissions and promises. Were they lies?
My doubt circled through my thoughts like a ghost I couldn’t get rid of.
“What am I supposed to think?” I said, scratching the back of one of the pigs’ ears. I still couldn’t figure out which was which. “You’re Theo, right?” The pig turned to me with almost a scowling expression.
I raised a shoulder. “I figured it wouldn’t hurt to take a guess. Whoever you’re are, you’re adorable.”
The pig stood, brushing my hand aside, then moved to the edge of the bed.
“Throwing a tantrum?” I asked. I knew that the boys hated being called “cute,” “adorable,” or anything that took away from their masculinity.
It raised its snout before turning its head aside, avoiding looking at me.
“You know I love all of you equally,” I said. “Even if you do look like barbecue.” I missed them being human, however. I couldn’t get turned on with all of them looking like this.
I snuggled deeper into my pillow, reaching for my blanket and pulling it closer to my body, and heard a loud “poof” sound. I blinked.
A second later, my vassals were next to me in their human forms. My eyes reached Hansel’s first. He was just as beautiful as I remembered him, with his medium-length blond hair that framed his oceanic eyes. A teasing smile curved the sides of his lips. He grabbed my forearm, the palm of his hand hot. “Missed me?” he asked, then softly grazing his lips across my skin. My stomach immediately began somersaulting. I spotted the little specks of green that danced in his enrapturing pupils. How ethereal yet careless he looked drew me in.
Yep, I much preferred my vassals when they weren’t pigs. Call me shallow, but my ovaries drew me to looks.
I felt a sensation on my thigh. Looking down, I realized that Liam was grabbing me there. His head was right next to my hip, too. He ran his thin, slender nose across the side of my thigh before gently nipping my flesh there. A spark shot up my belly from that mixture of pain and pleasure. Wetness ran toward my thighs. I immediately began thinking of having Liam buried in me and pressing against my walls with his length.
Damn it.
How did things go from zero to a hundred so quickly?
The vassals had that effect.
With all of them back in human form, the large bed suddenly felt too small, like there wasn’t enough space for all of us. The temperature of the room began to rise.
“Not so cocky now, are you?” Devon said from the edge of the bed. So that pig was Devon? No wonder he’d seemed grumpier than the rest of them. His yellow eyes settled on me, his expression a mixture of anger and teasing. I shrank back into Hansel’s arms.
Theo dragged an arm around my waist and nuzzled the side of my neck. His coarse hands grazed the skin of my belly. He action seemed tender. Intimate. Almost innocent.
But the thoughts that whirled in my mind were anything but.
I was laughing at them for turning into pigs, and now they wanted me to pay.
Why did that thrill me so?
Devon’s tan skin glistened even though it was so dark. My eyes trailed across his high cheekbones and landed on his set of kissable lips. I imagined him taking my mouth, pressing my tongue against mine. A surge of lust spread across me like an intoxicating wave of heat.
My four vassals surrounded me.
And they were all naked.
Moonlight filtered in from the balcony and danced across their chiseled forms. They seemed more than godlike when displayed like that, in their primal states. I felt the sensation of four heated gazes searing my skin. I could almost smell my own arousal gathering between my thighs.
Hansel took my hand, twining my fingers in his, and pressed it against the bed. “We just wanted to protect you, Cara,” he said. His words came from his lips in a low, lustful murmur. The tension between us rose from the way he spoke. I could almost taste his desire. “And yet you tease us for it.”
“I’m… sorry?” I said. Was my belly flopping because I was nervous, or was it filled wit
h the uncontrollable need to be taken? “You guys were just so—”
Hansel captured my lips before I could finish that sentence. Our tongues fought for dominance. My mind numbed, but I had to remind myself to breathe through my nose, because he kissed me so possessively and aggressively that my lungs tightened from the lack of air.
Hansel released me, but not before biting the bottom of my mouth. “You feel so… needy.”
Because I needed them. With every inch of my being.
Liam positioned himself between my legs. He grabbed my knees and forced me to spread for him. He raked a hooded gaze across my shirt. Theo reached for the hem, then tugged it up. I didn’t wear a bra to sleep, and so he exposed my breasts, tender and aching to be touched. Liam’s eyes widened. He took in the sight of me laid bare for him, soaking it in. A blush crept to my cheeks. Should I be feeling this vulnerable and exposed? He took his time with his appraisal and parted his lips. I watched as the rate of his breathing increased, signaling his arousal.
I sat up, intent on raking my hands through his hair. He was mine. They all were, and the desire to stake my claim on my men made me want more of their touch.
“You were asking to be punished, Cara,” Devon said, coming closer. His citrusy scent surrounded me. He grabbed a handful of my hair and forced my neck to arch, leaving me weakened. I reached for him and came across the hardness of his abdomen. Devon planted kisses across the curve of my neck. That was enough to drive me wild, but he didn’t stop there. He bit my collarbone as Liam ground his hips against my core. Hansel reached for the hem of my pants and pulled it down.
My vassals moved together, undressing me in movements so sudden and swift that I found them difficult to follow. Moments later, I found myself on all fours.
One of them ran a hand down my back. He rested his palm on the curve of my ass, then slapped me there. Sharp pain raced up my spine. I shouldn’t want more, but the slap ignited a primal desire to be handled.
“Please,” I said. My weakness was apparent in my plea. They had turned me into a malleable, jellylike version of myself. Hot fire burned beneath my exterior, threatening to combust.
Goddess Academy: The Complete Reverse Harem Collection Page 44
