Chapter Fourteen

"What's causing this sudden influx of custom orders?" Hephaestus snarled as he wiped the sweat from his brow with his forearm. He noticed as he raised his head that it was already dark – another day gone before he'd had a chance to blink.

"Your art style is popular," Steropes said. "Perhaps you've gone viral on one of the social media platforms people seem to spend all day looking at these days. Probably a customer making a post about how happy they are with their order."

"Yes, sire, that's probably what it is." Arges nodded. "It's not like it's a problem. You've never worried about hard work before. Do you remember how many times we just worked twenty-four hours straight? We'd forget what day of the week it was sometimes." He laughed loudly, his kin joining in.

Hephaestus didn't see anything funny about it. "We've had a lot of orders before, yes, but usually you were a lot better at setting the delivery times so we could have time to eat, drink, and shit. I've barely spent five minutes with Landyn for the past two weeks." Speaking of which, Hephaestus looked around, but most of the warehouse was in darkness. He limped over to the nearest wall and flicked on the lights. Landyn must be in the bathroom.

"Your work is important to you. Always has been," Bronte yelled over the noise of his hammer. He was still working. "It's a crucial part of your identity, sire. No one should ever pull you away from the core of who you are."

By "no one" Hephaestus knew the cyclops was referring to Landyn. The damn giant would never call him by name. "I have someone else in my life now, and you damn well know it." He frowned as he saw one of the automatons moving toward him. "What is it? Where's my mate?"

"The mate of Hephaestus has a message for you." The automaton bowed stiffly. "He wished for me to not disturb you while you worked. He worried you might be hurt by the flames or hot metal if you were interrupted. I was instructed to wait until you are finished. Are you finished working?"

Bronte snorted. "That fucking ferret doesn't know a thing about you, does he, sire? You're the master of volcanoes and metallurgy. You could walk through the flames, and it wouldn't hurt you."

"He cares about me." Stung, Hephaestus turned his focus back to the automaton. "I am finished working. What is the message?"

"The mate of Hephaestus was hungry, sire. He said he was going out for food…"

Hephaestus glanced at the window, again. It was fully dark out.

"He said he called a car to collect him and that he would be back in one hour from the instruction."

"How long ago was the instruction?" A car? Who's car?

"Forty-six minutes and twenty-seven seconds from this second right now."

Almost an hour. Fuck! "Thank you." Hephaestus dismissed the automaton with a wave of his hand.

"Stop that damn banging," he yelled at Bronte, the noise suddenly annoying him beyond measure. Or maybe it was just the smug look on the cyclops' face. "This is on you."

"Me? I'm working here. What did I do?" Bronte was still holding the hammer, but at least the banging had stopped.

"Not just you. I'm not that stupid that I think you orchestrated this all by yourself. The three of you are tighter than my automaton's asshole. All this." Hephaestus flicked his hand at the items they'd made just that day. "You did all this."

"The work, sire?" Steropes managed to look puzzled, even when his tone was slightly nervous. "All four of us have been working hard to meet the deadlines these past few weeks. Our clients have come to expect an exceptional level of service…"

"Who set the deadlines?" Hephaestus thundered. "Who gave the clients ridiculous expectations? Which one of you?"

The three men looked between each other as if pushing anyone else but them to answer.

"We're getting through the work," Arges said at last. "I mean, look at what we've gotten finished today."

"And look at how long it took. No lunch break, no dinner break. My mate has had to go out for fucking food, in an unsafe city, because I was busy working my ass off meeting deadlines you all set."

"You should just leave him at home," Steropes suggested. "It would probably be more comfortable for him there."

Hephaestus chuckled, but it wasn't a happy sound. "That's what you're waiting for, isn't it? You know I wouldn't leave him – Landyn is my fated mate forevermore - so you tried to bully him while he was here. When that didn't work, thanks to my mate making a clever use of the powers he gained when we claimed each other, you decided to just pile me up with so much work that I wouldn't have time for him. Did you think he'd leave me permanently? Or was leaving him at home enough for you?"

"You might claim that ferret is the center of your existence, but what does it say about you, when you're engrossed in your work and forget he's even in the room," Bronte sneered. "He left because you were ignoring him, not us."

"He left because he was hungry, and yes, that was on me. But do you want to tell me why I was so busy? Why there are still another dozen orders waiting to be fulfilled in the next twenty-four hours, when before Landyn came along, we'd only get a couple of orders a month? The only orders we ever get are word of mouth – there's no way this many orders can come from that. So why? How? Answer me. I command you!"

Pushing his power over his former friends, Hephaestus snarled, showing his teeth. "I'm waiting." They might be giants, but he was the only god in the room.

It was Arges who cracked first. He'd always had a sensitive soul. "Steropes made a social media account and shared some of the pictures we have of your pieces. There was a new customer offer on the posts, only for a week, but…"

"Bronte was the one flexing his muscles in front of the forge, creating pictures for the account for people to drool over," Steropes protested.

"And you were the one who told everyone they could have their order within a week of ordering," Bronte jumped in. "And we can meet the deadlines. We all just have to work…"

"It was all three of you in other words. I should've guessed. In fact, I did guess, didn't I? One of you can't shit without the other ones clenching their asses."

Hephaestus heard a car pull up outside and his worry dropped ten points when he heard Landyn's voice thanking the driver, followed by a car door slam. "Fine. You got the orders, you can fulfill them. I won't be coming in, so don't count on me doing anything."

"Sire, this work is the core of who you are," Arges protested. "We just wanted to remind you of that."

"All you reminded me of is that I clearly have shit judgment when it comes to friends." Hephaestus limped toward the door as Landyn came bustling through.

"Good timing. Have you finished for the day?" Smiling wide, Landyn held up a box, and then winced. "Oh, your poor leg. You've been standing on it too long again today. But never mind, we'll take you home and you can put your foot up. No cooking for us tonight, I got us dinner. Are you hungry?"

"I am. Thank you for caring, sweetling." Touching Landyn's shoulder, Hephaestus flicked an obscene gesture at the open-mouthed giants with his other hand as he translocated them back to the house. Landyn was right. His leg was sore, and so was his heart.