by Meg Xuemei X
“Your demigods aren’t on Earth anymore,” Mom said. “Their absence created a power vacuum. The generals and commanders who used to serve Ares and your demigods are taking advantage of the opportunity to seize power for themselves.”
“Show me my friends, please,” I pleaded. I needed to see them safely tucked away on campus.
The scenes showed Nat, Yelena, Circe, Jasper and his wolf pack on the frontline fighting for the greedy politicians’ power war, which had nothing to do with protecting Earth. They looked exhausted and afraid and bloody.
My heart went out to them. I feared for their safety. I should have been there fighting with them, protecting them. And my mates should have been there correcting the course of history. The generals weren’t doing their jobs. Instead of fighting each other for territories, they should have fought the demons and pushed them back to Hell.
I thought of Loki. He hadn’t sent out the demons to the other Half-Earth. He was waiting for humans to finish off each other first, then he would sweep in and reap the reward.
We must return to Earth as soon as possible before any of my friends got themselves killed.
“Mom, I need to see my mates, all of them,” I said.
“Of course, little one,” Mom said. “They’re yours, but it’ll be your decision if you truly want to continue to mate them.”
And then Mom was gone and I was alone in the spyglass room.
The battles on Earth faded off the screen.
Through the clear glass, I saw two deluxe bedrooms in front of me. Paxton and Axel each occupied a large canopy bed in a romantic setting, surrounded by naked, beautiful females.
CHAPTER 8
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Five butt-naked females sprawled on the bed with Axel. A blonde hovered over the handsome war demigod, tracing her fingers along his cut chest. He was mostly naked, except for his red boxer underwear.
Had he already fucked them and then fallen asleep in afterglow and exhaustion? My heart bled. I clenched my fists and stalked forward, ready to shatter the glass that separated us and charge into his room to yank him up.
And then what?
“Don’t you want to see it through with your own eyes? Discover what kind of male he is when you aren’t around?” Lilith whispered in my ear with her silky, powerful voice, even though she wasn’t in the spyglass room.
I swallowed.
Part of me couldn’t bear to continue to watch, yet the other part demanded I see it through as Mom had suggested. I hated to admit that I was insecure, but I was, just like any other chick. I bit my lip. No one was completely secure and confident.
“I trust all my mates.” I tried to shout to psyche myself up, but my voice came out small.
I shut my eyes for a second as both pain and hope washed over me, as I prayed that Axel could hold his ground. If Lilith set this up for me to watch, that meant Axel hadn’t done anything regretful yet.
“Then you have nothing to worry about,” Mom said, watching the same scene somewhere.
“That doesn’t give you the right to interfere,” I snapped.
“No weak man is worthy of my little girl.”
Jitters and anger reeling in me, I turned my gaze to Paxton.
The sea demigod was bare from the waist up with a blanket covering his crotch. I’d dreamed of riding that perfect body, but now that body might not belong to me anymore. It was like the universe wanted to tear us apart and never allow us the chance to finish mating.
He had six gorgeous, nude females in his bed. A succubus rested her head on his broad chest, her thumb tracing his sensual lips. It took everything in me not to lunge at her through the glass and crush her skull.
Paxton half-opened his violet eyes and pulled the succubus closer to him, her large breasts bouncing against his side.
Agony tore through my every fiber.
Paxton had done it. He’d gone through with Lilith’s program and fucked other women when Zak, Héctor, and I were searching for him and Axel.
Tears flowed down my face.
“Short pain is better than a lifetime of pain,” Lilith commented.
“Shut up!” I screamed at her.
I staggered back, my hand pressing on my stomach to stop the twisted pain inside. I turned on my heel. I needed Zak and Héctor more than ever. But I was alone in the spyglass room.
“Where the fuck did you take my other mates?” I roared. “Where are my Héctor and Zak?”
Did Mom plan to deprive me of all of my mates?
“Have him,” Mom said, as if doing me a huge favor.
Zak swept into the spy room out of nowhere, confused and angry. Then he spotted me and his face brightened. I threw myself into his arms.
“I got you, Rosebud,” he said, grabbing me tightly against him and kissing me, searing me, as if he was so afraid that I’d slip from his grasp again. “I was looking for you everywhere. This place separated us. I won’t allow it to happen again.”
“Where’s Héctor?” I asked when we pulled away.
Then I saw my beloved.
Another of the glass walls showed him in the middle of an indoor pool that coalesced into an exotic garden, surrounded by a dozen naked nymphs, all of them lovely. He was stark naked. He looked down at his nudity, surprised and scandalized, then at the voluptuous females all around him.
No! Not my Héctor, too. Was I going to lose him to other women as well?
“What the bloody hell?” Zak asked, seeing Axel, Paxton, and Héctor with bare-assed women. He growled. “Scoundrels! How dare they!”
He rushed forward to kick through the glass to reach the other demigods and stop them from being unfaithful to me, but a force field flared, sending him flying back. He crashed onto the dragon chair.
“We’ll have to go through this, Zak,” I said, my heart breaking.
I wouldn’t know how to pick up all the pieces afterward.
Zak rolled to his feet, reached me in no time, pulled me against his chest, trying to shield me from what was going to happen.
I shut my eyes, then opened them. As Mom had said, I’d have to see my mates’ true nature. I had to know if they truly wanted me and also give them a chance to walk away.
At least, I had Zak with me here, solid as a rock, as usual.
“My Zak.” A sob tore out of my throat.
“I’ll always be with you, my Rosebud,” said the sky demigod with his heart in his blue eyes.
My gaze snagged on Paxton as he suddenly shoved away the succubus whom he’d pulled to him earlier and sat bolt upright in bed.
The temptress fell on the top of another succubus.
“What the fuck is going on?” Paxton snarled at them. “Who the fuck are you?”
“You wanted me a second ago, lover boy,” the succubus purred.
“I mistook you as my mate!” Paxton hissed. “Where’s Marigold? Your mistress promised to send my mate in right away before I somehow nodded off after the tea!”
“She’s screwing another man,” the succubus said in a saucy voice, “just how you fucked all of us and didn’t slow down before you knocked yourself out. You were insatiable, my demigod.” She spread her legs wider and ran her fingers along her slit. “No man has fucked me the way you did. I can’t get enough of your big cock. Fuck me again, tiger.”
A succubus to Paxton’s left crawled toward him, writhing and moaning wantonly.
“I want your cock inside me, too, demigod,” she said. “It felt so good. Yummy.”
“Stop!” Paxton roared, leaping across the succubi and jumping off the bed.
He was bare except his briefs. He darted his wild eyes around, probably looking for his sword, but everything inside the bedroom was soft and fluffy. He picked up a lamp and waved it in front of him as the gang of succubi advanced on him.
“I don’t recall sleeping with any of you,” he barked. “It’s a fucking trick. I would never betray my Buttercup. Did you put something in my drink? Even drugged, I wouldn’t have slept
with any woman except my one true mate.”
I sobbed at hearing his confession and declaration of fidelity.
“How do you know, lover?” another succubus said in a honey-dripped, seductive voice.
“Don’t call me that,” Paxton sneered. “I was wired that way. Once I found my mate, I’m incapable of being turned on by any other woman.”
“You’re mistaken, Demigod of Sea,” said the succubus who had laid her head on Paxton. “We can prove it to you. You want sex. Lust beats in your veins and pours out of your every pore. We can smell the arousal inside you miles away. Fuck us. We can pretend to be her. You can return to her later if you want, and she won’t know a thing about what happens here. Let us release your pressure and pleasure you to no end. We have more skills than your mate.”
The succubi moved toward him in waves, cupping their breasts, swaying their hips, one of them moving her finger inside her cunt, moaning like a whore.
My eyes burned with fire and my nostrils flared.
“You think you can replace my Buttercup?” Paxton retorted coldly. “Fuck off. Now. I have no issue hitting a woman. I was called an asshole for a reason.”
His declaration of being an asshole didn’t stop the succubi’s advance.
“No man has turned us down, tiger,” a succubus said.
They wouldn’t take no for an answer and swarmed him, ready to pull down his briefs.
“No one molests my man, twats!” I roared and lunged toward the glass wall again.
Before I could find a way to break through to his room, Paxton punched a couple of succubi, faster than lightning, and knocked them out cold with one strike each.
He’d meant what he said about hitting women, but I could forgive him for that after what they’d attempted to do to him. He was indeed an asshole to others, but he was my sweetheart.
He looked down at them at his feet for a second, then at himself.
“Where’re my clothes?” he demanded, looking around the room, before kicking down the wooden door.
“Marigold, where are you?” he roared. “Buttercup!”
The air shifted. The glass in front of me rippled and turned liquid, spitting out Paxton. He landed in a crouch, one hand planted on the ground, snarling, until he spied me.
My jaw dropped, I stared at him like an idiot, tears still glistening on my face, as if I had never seen him before.
“Buttercup, baby?” Paxton called, rushing to me.
I met him in the middle and jumped on him, my legs wrapping around his waist, my face buried against his solid shoulder and sobbed in joy.
“I thought I’d lost you.” I lifted my head and sniffed.
“You’ll never lose me, love,” he said, kissing my tears away. “But I have to confess. There were a bunch of naked women in my room. I had no idea how they got there and I lost my clothes, boots, and sword.”
“I know,” I cried.
His eyes widened. “What? How?”
“It’s Mom.” I thinned my lips and gestured at the glass walls. “We need to get to Axel and Héctor.”
I twisted my torso in Paxton’s embrace, trying to see what happened to Axel.
The air shifted again, electricity and magic sparking. One side of the glass walls had distorted out of shape. Axel was no longer in bed, and the glass spewed him out toward me.
He staggered, his eyes wild, but as soon as he saw me, he grinned.
“Cookie,” he called. “You won’t believe the adventure I had. There was an army of naked women on top of me. I vomited on them, though I didn’t mean to.”
I grinned back at him. “You’re forgiven.”
So he’d turned down the offer of those temptresses as well. Too bad that I missed the show while I focused on Paxton’s drama.
“Those women were insistent, but I am spoken for,” he said.
The war demigod stalked toward me and pulled me out of Paxton’s arms into his. Paxton growled at him, but he didn’t shove Axel, who glared back at him.
Everyone was still a bit unhinged.
“I was scandalized and traumatized by the harassment of those women,” Axel said. “I need Cookie’s comfort!”
“This place is toying with us. We need to get our mate out of here right now.” Zak clenched his fists.
“Let’s go, Cookie,” Axel said, steering me and trying to find the door.
“Let me carry her,” Paxton said.
“Wait! Héctor is still there,” I called, pointing in the direction of the pool.
Héctor waded in the water toward the brink while a dozen stunningly beautiful females trailed after him, giggling and calling to him with sultry voices.
“They’re nymphs,” Zak said coolly. “They love to pursue men.”
“They live for sex,” Paxton confirmed. “The old boy is going to have a handful.”
I glared at him.
“Sorry, Buttercup,” Paxton said, leaning in and kissing my lips. “I missed you so much.”
“Don’t block her view,” Zak said. “She needs to see if Héctor is worthy. He couldn’t touch any woman except Rosebud before. But now that he’s no longer a death demigod, he can touch any female.”
Thanks for reminding me, Zak!
But then, I’d learned that the demigods had never been the sensitive type. It was their true intention that mattered.
“The old boy has never been with any woman save for Cookie,” Axel said. “Now he’s got plenty of hot women in front of him, all available and eager and horny. That’s what I call temptation.”
I wanted to punch the war demigod in the jaw and smack the smirk off his face. He was most jealous of Héctor. Subconsciously he probably wanted to kick Héctor out of the game, so he could get more of me.
I bit my lip. “Even if he caves in, I’ll take him back. If he wants to come back to me.”
I felt deeply sorry for Héctor’s suffering eons of loneliness, and I could accept that he’d want to see what it felt like to touch another woman, though my heart would bleed all over again.
Black jealousy already gnawed my insides.
Despite my brave façade, tears stung my eyes. I’d forgive my Héctor for anything he did, but I also knew what he was going to do next would forever burn in my memories, reminding me time and time again that I wasn’t enough for him.
Héctor stepped up the stairs, grabbed a towel to wrap around his waist, and sat on the bench. He snatched a smaller towel and wrapped it around his hand. Meanwhile the leading nymph closed the distance, swaying her bare ass to get my Héctor’s attention and obviously planning to plop in his lap. He raised his covered hand and shoved her away.
The nymph staggered back and nearly fell into the pool.
Even as a mortal, Héctor’s strength was formidable. I learned just that when he fucked me in the wilderness.
“Serves you right, twat!” I snickered.
Héctor started laughing as he put his boots on.
“Haven’t you had enough, Lilith?” he said, his deep voice brimming with irony. “Stop playing the fucking games, because I ain’t playing. I am not wired like other men. There’s no one for me but my Lamb.” He sent a dismissive gesture toward the sexy nymphs who still pranced toward him in waves.
From the burning lust in their eyes, I could tell they wanted to ride him wildly. They wanted to have my man.
“Be gone, wenches,” he barked at them. “You’re a sore sight. Not in a million years would I desire to touch another save my mate. You’re going to kiss the fucking wall, getting bruises or a broken limb if you don’t take me to my woman the next second. Now, where’s my Lamb?”
“That’s no way to talk to ladies,” Lilith purred in her silvery, husky voice as she appeared at the door to the pool garden.
She’d changed to a strapless red gown that showed her every lovely, alluring curve. She didn’t wear a crown this time. Her silver horns radiated crimson, which had caused Lucifer to have a hard-on in my illusion. Her beauty was perfection, unmatchabl
e in any era and any corner of the universe. Even from here, I could detect my mother’s perfume—night rose and sex.
Was my mother going to seduce my mortal mate?
Bitch!
“Lilith, how kind of you to finally show up,” Héctor said.
“You’re a mortal now, Héctor.” Lilith strolled toward him in all her dark glory.
“So?” He arched an eyebrow, which I found very sexy. He didn’t seem to be taken by the beauty of the Queen of Hell.
The interest in Lilith’s eyes increased. Of course, he posed a challenge to her since no one had turned down the ringleader of the succubi before. “You’ll only get to spend a short ten or twenty years with Marigold,” she said.
“I’ll spend one lifetime with my Lamb, which is much greater than all the eons I spent without her. And that’ll be enough for me.”
“Will it be enough for her?”
“My brothers will take care of my mate. They’ll be with her to eternity, making sure she lacks nothing. My Lamb will be happy.”
Lilith sauntered closer, a smirk on her lips. “You underestimate the depth of my daughter’s love for you. Once you’re gone, she’ll never feel complete. What’s good for you isn’t good for her. You’ll break her heart forever and it’ll never mend.”
I shuddered in dread, thinking of the future years without Héctor.
Héctor was silent, pain etching his hard face.
“You didn’t see how she sought death when she thought you were gone,” Lilith said. “You can change things for her and you. I can make you an immortal.”
My heart stuttered. I’d vowed to find a way to make my Héctor an immortal again, and now Mom had just presented him the rare opportunity.
“Take the deal, Héctor,” I shouted, “no matter the cost.”
But he couldn’t hear me.
“How?” Héctor drawled.
Her eyes glittered. “Bed me, once.”
I shut my eyes as pain spread and soaked my every cell. I couldn’t bear for Héctor to touch any woman, let alone Mom, but I wanted him to live forever. It’d be extremely hard to see him and my mother tangled in the sheets, yet it was also the easiest way for him to become immortal again.
