Epilogue

Three months later

"They're here. You stay sitting down, I'll get the door. I can't believe it, they're using the door." Landyn ran to the door and flung it open. "And you're wearing pants. Yes!" Ignoring the crowd, he gave Orin a hug. "It's so lovely to see you. Who are your friends?"

When Landyn had mentioned to Orin that he wanted Orin and Thor to come to dinner as a form of housewarming, Orin had asked if he could bring friends. Godly ones, because Hephaestus was indeed pregnant, and Landyn didn't want anyone around who might make Hephaestus feel bad about himself. It was why the housewarming dinner had to wait a bit until after Hephaestus had gotten over his morning sickness, but his friends had arrived.

"These are your Montana neighbors," Orin said, returning the grin and the hug. "From the left, we have Ra, the Egyptian God of the Sun and his two mates, Kirill and Arvyn. Then we have Seth, God of the Storms in the Egyptian pantheon and his mate Luka, and finally we have Zeus, and you know who he is, and his mate, Paulie. And Thor. Goodness, Landyn's already met you before."

"Hello, you're welcome here," Landyn said in a bit of a daze as he moved so his guests could come in. Zeus is in my house. Zeus is in my house! He looks… No, Landyn didn't know what Zeus looked like. None of his visitors could be considered ordinary.

Paulie gave him a smile and handed him a plate with delicious looking cookies on it. "A small gift from us, to say thank you for dinner."

"That is very sweet of you, thank you. Go on through, go on through." Landyn froze as they filed past. Ra's mate is a vampire. He's in my house!

"Hey, are you okay? You can tell me, I'm a doctor." Luka was the last to come in and stopped in front of him, taking the plate of cookies away from him and putting it on the key table. "You're looking a little pale. You're not pregnant, are you?" He'd lowered his voice, which was sweet, but totally unnecessary.

"No, that's Hephaestus." Landyn tried to catch his breath, which wasn't easy. "I really want this dinner to go well." He covered his face with his hands. "Come on, get it together, get it together."

"Have you met one of the mates before or something?" Landyn found himself being pulled into their little reading room. "Your heartbeat is going through the roof."

"It's so silly," Landyn confessed, his voice still shaky. "I had a bad experience over the past two years, lots of them actually, with vampires. Not Kirill, obviously. I never dreamed… I know Ra's mate must be a decent man… it was just…"

"Sit down, catch your breath." Luka cocked his head toward the door. "From the sounds of things, your mate is explaining the situation to the others. You've got nothing to be embarrassed about. Oh, my goodness, is that your dog?"

Landyn looked up, smiling at his dog's expression. "You can come in, Rose, but no sniffing guests. Yes, this is Rose, and somewhere, probably guarding Hephaestus, is her brother, Rufus. Hephaestus made them for me the night we moved into the house."

"She is just adorable, yes you are. Oh, you do like pats." Luka looked delighted as Rose wagged her golden tail. "They are so lifelike. Hephaestus is a true artist."

"They don't poop or shed hair either." Landyn inhaled and let his breath out slowly. "All right. Let's try this again. Hi, I'm Landyn, it's lovely to meet you. Let's go and join the others and then I'll check on dinner."

He got up, managing a smile, his smile widening as he saw Ra lurking by the door. The god wasn't any taller than he was.

"Hi Landyn, I was just popping in to make sure you're okay. If you want me and my mates to leave…"

"No, please, don't feel like that. Honestly, I'm fine. I'm embarrassed, if truth be known." Landyn could say that and mean it. "It's just, I've not come across a vampire in a while – what is it they say about muscle memory? I reacted badly. I will apologize."

"I think you'll find it will be better if we just forget the glitch at the door happened," Luka suggested. "Kirill is a great guy as you'll see for yourself."

"It would mean a lot," Ra added with his own smile. "We are neighbors of sorts, and now with Hephaestus expecting, you'll just have to meet our little girl. She's almost two now. And Paulie and Zeus have their son, Egan, and Luka and Seth's twins, Darius and Mal, so it will be nice to have somewhere else for our unusual children to visit. Makes a change from having to come up with creative excuses of how confetti appeared out of midair, which is what happened the last time I took Aziza to the mall for an outing. That was an experience none of us was ready for."

"My goodness, I hadn't even thought of things like that." Ra and Luka made it easier for Landyn to walk through to their main living area/kitchen, where Hephaestus was sitting with the other gods. Walking right up to Kirill, Landyn said, "Hello and welcome to our home. I'm Landyn, and I apologize if anything I did at the door made you feel you weren't wanted here. That was not my intention." He held out his hand.

"You're a brave young shifter," Kirill said gravely, holding his hand just long enough to register, before dropping it. "I apologize on behalf of any of my kind who weren't kind to you."

"That's not your apology to make, but it's appreciated all the same, thank you." Landyn nodded, and then looked at his mate. He could feel Hephaestus's concern through their bond. "Has everyone got drinks? Cleo can take your drink order for you." He waved to indicate the automaton waiting by the kitchen counter. "If you want snacks, then Sarah will tend to you. Bertie and Simon are tending the grill. Honestly, having automatons who can cook is such fun."

"They didn't get it right the first few times." Hephaestus chuckled. "And didn't I tell you the dogs weren't meant to be on the couch?" He pointed to Rufus, who was doing a good impression of a sleeping dog.

"Our guests are all inside now. There's no point in them guarding the front door." Skipping across the floor, Landyn moved Rufus far enough away so that he could perch next to his mate. "Ra tells me you all have children. Does anyone have pictures to share?"

Clearly that was the right thing to say as the guests all dug into their pockets to show off photos on phones or kept in wallets.

Crisis averted.

/~/~/~/~/

Hephaestus had to pinch himself more than once throughout the fun-filled evening. The first pinch was when Zeus turned up with his mate, looking and behaving like any other man out with his mate for a fun evening meal.

"You've got a good place, here," he said, nodding as he looked around. "We have something similar just over the hill. You and Landyn should come over soon and check out our outside stone fireplace. I think something like that would look lovely on your porch. We don't have a pool though. Hmm, Paulie's tiger might like something like that." He wandered off to inspect it.

It was more than just Zeus's behavior though. It was the mere fact that there were gods sitting around his table as though it was a regular thing. Everyone was having a great time, and the automatons, both two-footed and four, were a huge hit. Admittedly, Zeus was the only Greek god, but in his entire existence, Hephaestus had been largely ignored except for what he could make for people.

There was laughter, a lot of it coming from Landyn. But it seemed that all of the mates were like his own – not taking their godly mates too seriously, everyone just loving their partners and enjoying having a rare night away from their children.

"This is what happens when you find a mate," Thor leaned over his chair at one point. "They sweep us up and force us to be civilized. No worries about pantheons or rivalries. No posturing, or flaunting powers and being stupid. Just everyone getting along. Isn't it great?"

"Yes, yes it is." Hephaestus nodded. Landyn looked up at that moment and caught his eye. His smile was as warm as always. "Thank Orin for me, would you? I know the guest list was mostly on him."

"Next time, you can come to our place and meet the twins." Thor laughed. But then he lowered his tone and said, "Did you know it took me over four hours to put up that cat thingy Orin went gaga over? And I still had three screws over when I was done."

"That can happen. They were probably spare ones."

"Spares? Do those things come with spares? Odin's thunder." Thor banged his head on the table. "I spent ages, literally ages going over every joint, turning it upside down and right side up again, trying to work out where they went. Spares," he yelled across the table at his mate who was chatting with the other mates. "Those screws were damn spares."

"I did try and tell you." Orin burst out laughing. "You wouldn't listen to me." He bent his head back to his friends, probably telling them the story of the cat frame building exercise.

"You just have to love them, don't you?" Thor didn't seem to mind Orin was telling stories about him.

"I do that every day," Hephaestus agreed. "Every single day."

Later, when Landyn came over, perching on the edge of his chair, still chatting with everyone, his arm draped over Hephaestus's shoulder, for the first time in his life, Hephaestus finally felt like he belonged. Rubbing his belly, Hephaestus sighed a happy sigh. The future was looking bright, and the brightest part of all was Landyn.

The End