9. Dionysus

I wouldn't usually leave Medusa alone when she was upset, but I thought she was feeling better and I had the other guys now. I saw how Cas and Pax were with her. They were perfect. I had a feeling Benji, and I were going to be good friends. I could tell we had a lot in common from my research and spending time with him. That, and I wouldn't have been mated to a woman if I didn't get along with the men.

He was leading me back to his bedroom. Benji threw both arms out to point to two doors down the hall.

"These are the guest rooms. We each have our own bedroom, but we move to each other's rooms as the mood hits. Something told Cas to build two of them. One can be for you and one for her. You can pick which one you want. They stuck mine between everyone's because I'm kind of fucked in the head sometimes," he said, shooting me this vulnerable look.

"Girl, same. The Coalition fucked you up, but my stepmom did that to me. I'm not always in a good place. We have to be a team on this. If you're in a dark place, you come to me and I hope if I'm in a dark place, I can come to you."

"Swear it," Benji said, holding out his pinky.

"You know pinky swears are sacred to the gods?"

"I knew it!"

I hooked my pinky with his and we kissed our thumb knuckles. They really weren't. We operated in blood but I took my vows seriously. If Benji was ever in a dark place, I was going to be there for him. It took a lot to bring me back there, but something told me the Coalition was going to be a trigger for him. So, after we made a pinky swear, I pulled him into a hug.

"Gods give wonderful hugs," he whispered, nuzzling me with his cheek.

"So do shadow wolves."

"So, this is my room. Cas made sure I had a giant closet. Sometimes, I do my videos in there and sometimes, I do them in here."

I looked around. Deep-purple walls, black silk sheets, and a thick fleece blanket. Yeah, another hedonist lived here. I could tell the room was arranged for a polar bear when needed. It was spacious with a plush rug on the floor.

"Girl, your room is amazing. Let's do this on that amazing loveseat in front of that fantastic piece of art of Rainbow Bright as an Earth goddess."

"That's one of the few paintings I commissioned where the artist didn't up their price after I told them what I wanted. You should wear the fedora and I'll wear the fez."

"Excuse me, why are we wearing hats? You've seen how fabulous my hair is."

"It is pretty soft. If you're moving in and we're sharing a mate, you're legally obligated to share haircare tips and products. I don't make the sacred laws. That's older than you, Mister big sexy Party God. Okay, you don't have to wear a hat, but this is serious. I'm wearing the fez."

"I'm not going to tell you how to do your thing. Do you have a proper set up? I look better lit from the left."

Benji just snorted.

"What do you take me for, an amateur? I'm needy, Dionysus. I had my entire childhood taken by the Coalition. Sometimes, I don't want to put Cas and Pax out, so I amassed a massive social media following to tell me I'm pretty. I tried to learn the names of the people who interact the most, but they all insist on being called Jamina, which is the feminine form of my name. Sometimes, when the health bar on my neediness is full, I think that's weird, but then it gets low and I post again."

I shrugged because that wasn't weird. I got it. Gods did that too sometimes, just without cell phones.

"Everyone thinks I'm cosplaying as Dionysus and I'm not really me. They call themselves my Maenads. It pisses off my actual Maenads and pro tip since we're sharing a mate— never piss off the Maenads. They either want to kill or fuck and half the time, they are moody about which one so it's hard to predict which direction they are going to go. I'm the only thing stopping them from doing either."

"Noted. I'll get my shit. I know how to light Pax and Cas because I make them do videos with me sometimes. You'll have to light yourself until I learn."

"Oh, I'm going to have to learn to light you, too. Crossover episodes are terrible but guest starring on each other's social media is going to be lit."

Benji just nodded.

"I knew I liked you even when you were lying about your name."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I thought if we led with that, you'd say no, but we really couldn't have even seen the building until you destroyed that sigil. I don't even know how the angels found it. It was one of those things that got self-actualized to protect people from the monstrous gods they also self-actualized. Some of them were nasty business and a generic sigil that will hide someone from a god works on all of us."

"Everyone has a kryptonite. Mine is wolfsbane, too much light, and genuine poutine that I have to poof myself to Canada to buy. Here's my assortment of lights."

Yeah, Benji and me were going to get along just fine. Poutine was also my weakness.