Chapter 10

10

Nemea

O ur sunset stroll through the vineyards bears no resemblance to our clandestine infiltration under cover of darkness the night before. Alcides holds my hand this time, and the sounds of crickets and night birds is more comforting than foreboding.

“Tell me about your day,” I venture when we’re well out of earshot of the compound, shrouded in shadows between the rows of gnarled, twisty grapevines. The path is easy enough to find at least, and I realize I can see far in the distance without effort, tracking the trail up into the hills he indicated when we started walking.

He glances at me once, then shrugs. “It’s hard to describe. I am in awe of her. All day I kept kicking myself for never coming back. I could have known her all this time, but I missed every milestone that a girl’s father should be present for. But then I wonder if I would have only made her life harder had I stayed. If she would have been half as amazing had I been here.”

“She is pretty great,” I say. “But you are here now, even if it’s only for a short time. Just make sure she knows she’s valued and that you love her and you’re proud of her. That’s all a daughter really wants from her father.”

He gives me a sharp look, and I wince at the bitterness that threaded through my tone.

“You did not have this from your father, did you?”

I let out a derisive snort. “My dad gave me nothing. Neither of my parents did. They didn’t even raise me. And my grandparents were more like glorified babysitters than role models. All I’m saying is that Ele could do so much worse than having you as a dad. Just… let her take the lead. If she reaches out, answer. Be available. Listen. It can’t be that hard.”

“It shouldn’t be difficult for any father,” he grumbles. “And it wouldn’t have been for me, had I known. Hippolyta never told me of Ele’s birth. I left before I knew she was pregnant. I stayed away because I knew I couldn’t give her the escape from her role as queen that I thought she wanted. And the truth of it is, if I had known, I would not have trusted my presence not to do more harm than good. Drawing attention to my happiness would have only made Hera angry. Had I stayed, there is a non-zero chance Ele would not have survived.”

“Well, I guess that answers your burning question. You did the right thing. Unlike my dad who did absolutely everything wrong.”

He squeezes my hand, then releases it so we can move single-file up the narrowing path as it climbs into the hills.

“Do you think it will be different now? If your stepmother finds out about her, I mean,” I ask.

“I think Ele’s well-protected, and now with the girdle returned to Hippolyta, all of them are more than capable of defending themselves from any of the gods. But I won’t be staying; Hippolyta was clear on that point. If I spend more time with Ele, it won’t be here after this week.”

My stomach turns a flip, because I hadn’t considered much beyond the next few days. “What if I want to stay?”

The vegetation is thicker the higher we climb, with scrubby trees blocking out more of the moonlight, but I can see when Alcides glances back at me. “Then you should stay. I have a commitment to Tartarus and the other guards. I needed to see you through this. But until the Titans are put back in their cell, I must return to help the others.”

“I have a commitment too. But nobody’s given me a timeline, just vague insistence that I need to be ready. For what and when, I still have no clue. Is it happening as soon as the end of the week?”

My voice comes out brittle, my emotions churning enough to cause my tattoo to flex around my upper arm, waking for the first time since supper.

We reach a level ledge, and he turns to face me. “Vesh never told you the details, did he?”

I raise my hands in frustration. “No one did!”

He utters a curse under his breath, glancing at the ground and shaking his head. “Fucker has gotten too used to us all being in his head. He doesn’t typically hide information like this from the rest of us. If anything, it’s a testament to how much you’ve affected all of us, even Vesh.”

I grit my teeth. “I’m not aiming to forgive him yet. But if what I keep hearing is any indication, we have less than a week to get me trained, don’t we? So any hope I had of staying put here for the foreseeable future is just a fucking illusion.”

He reaches out a hand to cup my jaw and tilt my head back. “You can come back. You can stay once this is done. Our bond will keep us close, Nemea. Once it’s in place, we can’t be parted.”

“How are you so sure?” I ask in a small voice, even though I’m not even sure this is where I want to be. I only know that I feel safe here. Understood.

“Because I know you have a connection to the others already—the ones you’ve bonded. Erebus visited me last night and told me you’ve shut them out. He wanted to make sure you were okay, and to tell you that you don’t have to fear opening your sanctuary to them. Vesh will stay away if you lock him out, which is perfectly within your power to do. You get to choose who you let in.” He taps my temple gently with one fingertip.

“Is it okay if I want to be alone with you for a little longer?”

His gaze tracks over my face, landing on my mouth. With a low hum, he bends and presses his lips to mine. A charge jolts through me even though the kiss is soft, a gentle press that’s little more than a promise. He pulls back only slightly, pressing his forehead to mine.

“It is more than okay. In fact, I am grateful for it. The day I arrived and found you cradled by Typhon while Asterius fucked you, I wanted you so badly it hurt, but I didn’t want our first time making love to be in front of an audience. You are everything to me, Nemea. I accept that you are not only mine, but I need to show you how much I am yours the first time. And I need your full attention when I do.”

I slide my hands around his neck and gaze into his eyes, somehow faintly glowing in the darkness. “You have it now. How much farther do we have to walk?”

“As it happens, we’re here,” he says, taking my hand again and turning us toward a patch of utter darkness. He snaps his fingers once, and a spark lights the night, becoming a small orb of lightning floating above his fingertips. It illuminates an opening tucked between two large boulders canted against each other. Mounted into one is a bracket holding a lantern.

He lifts the globe of the lantern and touches the magical light to the wick. A small flame erupts, casting the end of the trail and the cave mouth in warm light and flickering shadow. The faint scent of minerals tickles my nostrils, and it grows stronger as Alcides leads me in, ducking his head to clear the low entrance.

The sound of trickling water grows louder, echoing off the stone walls when we pass through the low corridor into a larger cave. The main chamber is about half the size of the bunk house I slept in last night, the floor and walls worn smooth and flat, no doubt over centuries of use and alteration. The lantern light reflects off glistening condensation that covers the sandstone walls, as well as the dark, placid pool that takes up the center of the floor, faint tendrils of steam swirling up from the surface.

Alcides moves farther in, lighting other lanterns mounted on the walls from the one he carries. The bathing chamber, now awash in the soft glow of lantern light, looks like something out of a dream. It’s both wild and serene, untouched by the modern world. And with this handsome, broad-shouldered man in his fur cloak with the club at his belt, I can almost pretend I’ve walked into some medieval fantasy.

The surety with which he prepares the place is interrupted when he glances up midway through scattering lavender flowers across the water. He sees me watching him intently and his lashes flutter, gaze dropping to the water again as if I’ve caught him in some illicit thought. He clears his throat.

“The lavender is calming. We’ve both had a long day, but yours was no doubt more strenuous. The minerals in the water will help.”

“I hope you’re not trying to put me to sleep,” I joke, bending down to unlace my boots. I continue undressing and his focus fixes more deliberately on the water and his preparations for our bath.

“I only want you to be comfortable,” he says.

He turns away, checking the nearby shelf for fresh towels, which were there when we arrived and haven’t budged. Beside the shelves of linens is a large stone basin with several earthenware mugs lining a ledge above it, a ladle hanging off one end. He fills two with what I assume is fresh water, then sets them at the edge of the pool without looking at me.

My naked reflection catches his eye in the pool and he looks abruptly at the wall. I pad quietly around the edge to him and grip his wrist, making him turn to look at me.

“What are you afraid of?”

“Nothing.”

When I raise my eyebrows at this, he chuckles. “Really, it isn’t fear. Not exactly. It’s just been a very long time since I was with a woman. An eternity, really.”

“Since Hippolyta?”

He takes a deep breath, shaking his head. “There were others after her, women I sought out to dull the pain the way I did with drink. But I haven’t had a woman or a drink since my labors ended and I pledged to serve Tartarus.”

“I imagine it’s like riding a bike,” I say. He frowns at that, and I laugh. “’You’ve never ridden a bike before, have you?”

Smirking, he shakes his head. “No, but I grasp your meaning. I had not ridden a horse for centuries until today when Ele gave me a tour of the property, but it was easy to remember. Muscle memory, I think it’s called.”

I reach up and tug at the sturdy iron clasp that holds the fur cloak to his shoulders. It slides off and falls to the floor.

“Well, the steps here are easy, but I’m happy to help.”

His shirt is a simple linen tunic with laces across his chest. They’re already untied, so it makes it easy to simply pull the hem up. He takes over, pulling it off over his head. His bare chest beckons, and I rest my hands against the hard planes of his pecs, then slide them down his stomach. He’s smooth and hairless until I unfasten his pants to reveal a light line of hair extending from his navel down. The soft fringe above his cock tickles my knuckles when I push his open fly apart. He has nothing beneath but bare skin and his half-hard cock nestled in dark curls.

“I think you forgot something,” he says in a low voice tinged with humor. When his pants fall down to his ankles I drop my gaze, realizing his leather boots are still on his feet.

I glance up at his face with a smile. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“I enjoy everything about being with you.”

Lowering to my knees, I look up his torso, then at his hardening cock. My nipples tingle at this game, so different from the others, yet every bit as exciting. His cock is beautiful, thick and long with delicate veins patterning its surface and a pale pink foreskin only barely concealing a darkened tip. It curves like a bow toward the ceiling, the weight of it making it drop so it almost brushes my forehead as I move to finish undressing him.

I swiftly unlace his boots and help him step out of them and his pants. But I don’t rise right away.

“Can I touch you?” I ask, feeling oddly reverent toward this man, this demigod, standing above me. I gently place my hands on his hard thighs, sliding them up to his hips.

“It looks to me like you already are.” His voice is a low purr that seeps its way down deep, making my insides quiver.

With a tentative touch, I trace the heavy ridge of muscle that spans either hip, pointing down to his groin. I glide my fingers down into the curls that surround his cock. It kicks in front of me, a reflexive spasm in response to my touch.

Of all the cocks I’ve encountered this past week, his is the most human, but despite being nowhere near as massive as any of the others, it’s still intimidating to behold. I wrap my hand around his base, testing his girth, then cup his balls gently in my other hand. They’re heavy and cool compared to the heat of his shaft, which I begin to stroke lightly.

When he doesn’t object, I lean close and press my lips to his tip, darting my tongue out to tease at the slit.

He emits a shaky breath, and when I glance up to look at him, he’s staring intently at me, mouth open.

I slide my fist up his shaft then down, pulling his foreskin back, then open my mouth wider and wrap my lips around his tip. Sliding my tongue around the smooth skin of his tip elicits a rough groan from him. He lifts a hand and gently caresses my cheek.

“As much as I would relish spilling into your mouth, I want to look you in the eyes the first time you make me come. I want to be buried inside you, feeling your body wrapped tight around me.”

I release him and let him help me stand. He still looms over me, somehow seeming bigger despite being completely naked now. He’s the most breathtaking man I think I’ve ever seen, like this. The others were awe-inspiring in their own ways, all beautiful despite their unique monstrous traits. But Alcides is the only one with purely human features rendered to utter perfection.

“Are you okay, Nemea?” he asks when I can only stare at him, still dumbstruck.

“I just don’t feel worthy of you, I guess,” I say, then let out a soft laugh at how silly it sounds. I don’t really mean it, but it’s hard to find words to explain it fully.

His expression goes soft and he dips his head to my level, peering into my eyes. “It is I who am not worthy of you. The things I have done…”

“Don’t. You are not the actions forced on you by circumstance. What I mean is I’m nobody. You’re practically a god.”

“Do you not want me because of who I am?”

My eyes widen and I shake my head. “No! I mean, of course I do! Fuck. I don’t know why it was easier with the others. Probably because I wasn’t really alone with them, one-on-one, except for Chrysaor.”

He narrows his eyes and his mouth twists to one side. Then he seems to come to a decision. “Get in the water,” he commands. “Then turn with your back to me.”