Defenders_Sons of Olympus_Reverse Harem Romance

by Helen J Perry

  Zander tightened her arms around her. “Once upon a time, Man feared and revered the forest and the things that lived in it.” He paused the story to roll them over, so Lauren rested on top, chest to chest, his body keeping Lauren protected from the forest floor.

  “Once upon a time, people were aware of greater beings and lived in harmony with them. Beings of tremendous power. Gods. Myths. Legends.”

  Lauren cherished every word.

  “Man feared these beings as much as he respected them, and he sought to gain their favor and blessing by offering gifts.”

  “Like you offered me,” Lauren murmured. The corners of her lips turned upward, and she let her finger trail across Zander's chest. “Gifts.”

  “Yes,” Zander said. “To earn your favor. And to the gods we offer food and animal sacrifices. Some people went much further.”

  Lauren blushed. It burned across her cheeks and sank down her neck, and she buried her embarrassment by laying her head on Zander’s chest to listen to his heartbeat.

  He looked human, but it was nothing more than a thin facade. Vaguely, it became apparent Jade’s grandma hadn’t been far off the mark—if the woods weren’t a weak point between dimensions, they were magical in other ways Lauren couldn’t understand.

  “There came a time when women and men grew fearful, toward the end of the harmonious existence. The gifts they offered became larger, extreme in a way that pleased some, but worried others. Where the veil between worlds was weakest, humans made sacrifices. Harvests. Animals. Currency. And, themselves.”

  Lauren blinked. “Like, human sacrifices?”

  “Yes.” Zander ran his fingers through Lauren’s hair. “Sometimes their hearts. Sometimes their minds. Sometimes their empty bodies, split open and blood ruby red, like gems.”

  A bird sang in the distance, cheerful. The pup yawned and stretched, crinkling the leaves she laid on.

  “Like the Aztecs? Or… I don’t know, other indigenous races?” Lauren hoped they were talking about something happening a very long time ago. She didn’t want to imagine her neighbors doing something like that. Also, she wasn’t sure how their conversation had taken such a dark turn.

  “Yes. Many races. Lives lost. Destroyed. Woman and children and men purged in order to gain favor with the gods, or with a human plan, but it only attracted the wrong attention. Our gods rejected human sacrifice. That message had been delivered to Agamemnon long before we were born.” Zander spoke slowly, each word chosen with the same amount of care he'd extended toward Lauren’s body. “They called to the Gods with words—then, through their actions, they attracted those darker entities, who brought them down the path of destruction. Evil. Corruption. Disease. Despair. Those evils have passed from world to world and land to land. Three hundred Spartans were not enough to stop it.”

  At a loss for words, Lauren closed her eyes and listened to the story, at peace. No matter the evils summoned in history, she felt safe now, in Zander’s arms. He talked about something ancient, she was sure.

  “The old gods were forgotten. There was nothing to be done. Except Athena found us and asked us to watch over and defend this place and others like it. We agreed, of course. It's what we'd lived for.”

  The pup got up and crept closer to them, but Zander waved a hand at her, and she jumped back and circled the stump, peeping out to plot her next move.

  “Then, one day, Casper watched a young woman bound in preparation for the sacrifice. Lean and girlish, with wide eyes and a laugh that had once stirred the hearts of any who heard it. The laugh was stolen from her on that day. Shackled and weeping, they carried her to the spot where her life would be stolen. As he watched, they cut her open. As she screamed and cried and begged, and in the last seconds of her life, her eyes turned to his and bore into them, through the worlds, only to soften and grow dull as she died.”

  Horrified by such a story, Lauren lifted her head, which swam with confusion. What was the point of the story? She’d been asking why the new wasn’t necessary, only as idle chatter. This sad tale had jumped way off the mark.

  “Casper was distraught and he came to us, to Grēgorios and me. We trained to live and die in battle but nothing in our lives prepared us for the loss of life in that way. Nothing like that happened in Sparta when we were born. We wanted to do more than watch her die so we appealed to Artemis.”

  “Who is Artemis?” Lauren asked in the hope of understanding more about these men.

  “The protector of women.” He blinked with an expression that told her she should've known.

  "Just before the thousand ships set sail to Troy under King Agamemnon's command, Artemis the goddess of the hunt and of fertility, rescued Iphigenia. Since that day the gods haven't required such a sacrifice. As Spartans, we have always respectfully worshiped at her temple and she was the obvious goddess to ask for help.”

  “A goddess helped you?” The story began more incredible, but for the niggling suggestion made by Jade that these men themselves might be gods.

  “Yes. It didn't seem an unreasonable request as we did what the gods requested of us by protecting Olympus. As the girl’s soul passed between worlds, Artemis reached out for it. She took it. She made it ours. Marked it. When they left her body to the destructive forces, we three Spartans arrived there first. Artemis put her back together in the shape first crafted by the titan Prometheus. She particular attended her eyes because the woman would be with us. Her heart. Her mind. When she was done, her eyes bore a mark, and her body belonged to us. Together we lived in Sparta and defended the pathways through to other dimensions. And through the centuries we were lovers. I adored her, and she adored me with equal passion. We were one.”

  The bit about a titan shaping humans came as a great surprise, but Lauren didn't ask more as this revelation was overshadowed by the rest of the story. It started to make sense. Lauren’s chest tightened, and she fought back the tears. Zander didn’t want something new, nor someone new.

  Why did he tell Lauren about his timeless lover after what they’d just shared? If he so loved another why did he court Lauren’s favor?

  Lauren didn’t want to be the other lover, and she certainly didn’t want to share.

  She didn’t want to think she’d just been used as a substitute for Zander’s real love. Sure she’d thought he was Jasper at first and she'd have gone ahead with all that had he been Jasper. She didn't claim to be rational or fair.

  Lauren simply didn’t want to be with a guy who was thinking about someone else.

  Her heart felt too fragile.

  She’d not thought about Jasper for one moment since realizing she was with Zander.

  “We watched as the world changed. She wasn't a Spartan, and she wasn't as old as us. Her wishes and needs were mortal. There were times when she would leave our space to venture among those who’d betrayed her. Her heart was so full of love for them. Even after they’d stolen her life, she wished to be around them, if only from time to time. For hundreds of years, she’d wander back into the world. Eventually, she’d come back more full of love and light and happiness. We'd wait for her. Until one day, she never came home.” The sadness in his voice and on his face as Zander told this sorrowful story touched Lauren profoundly. The strength of his love and the power of his loss were both palpable.

  Lauren could only dream and hope to find a love like that one day.

  She slid off Zander’s body and dressed in silence; her clothes piled in a heap at their side. Her heart ached for the man, but at the same time, it twisted with bitter jealousy. The thought of him so in love with another was more than unpleasant. Lauren may have been inexperienced compared to the older men. Nevertheless, she couldn’t be used as the hollow substitute for the one true love. And yet, once dressed, she sat on the floor beside the man, ready to hear more.

  “Man, ruthless and terrified of what it couldn’t understand, took her again. We searched for her. Hermes and Ares helped. Her soul was marked. It should have been easy to find, b
ut it had gone. To where, I can’t tell. We searched without finding. Hades said she was not in Elysium. Her soul had gone and left us alone.”

  Lauren despaired in reaction to Zander’s explanation of his long-lost love. Anger tightened her shoulders and pinched along her spine. Just as she felt sorrow and compassion in response to the tale, she also felt words she didn’t want to apply to herself. Not just angry, but used, cheapened and soiled. Was that what this was, then? Was that what she amounted to? The god mourned a lover by finding and seducing easy replacements.

  “So now, I come to you,” Zander said. “There is no need for the new.”

  “No, there isn’t.” Lauren climbed to her feet. She expected more to this story and couldn't believe it ended there. She looked down at the gorgeous, otherworldly man who still lay on the pine needles. “There really isn’t.” Not if Lauren was a disposable fuck, someone who resembled somebody he used to know who could temporarily plug the hole in his heart.

  Lauren stormed from the area. The pup made a howling, snapping noise as it bound after Lauren. Clinging to her anger was the only way she could keep herself from bursting into tears. Pain pierced her chest and wrenched in her gut.

  She had a good mind to find Jasper and sleep with him, how would Zander like that. She'd show him how disposable he was too, if she fucked another guy so soon after.

  Rub his nose in it.

  Make him watch.

  He might regret ever believing it was all right to use women as sexual playthings

  He'd strung her along, and toyed with her emotions, all for the sake of sex. A quick, easy lay. Lauren felt sick, physically nauseous.

  What they’d shared might not have meant much to him, but it had meant more to Lauren.

  Zander hadn’t claimed he was a god, but Lauren didn’t doubt it for a second. The story fitted together. He’d partnered with divinity in rescuing that girl who became his one true love, and now no other woman would compare.

  It all made sense.

  “Lauren!” Zander called, but Lauren didn’t look back.

  She should’ve known better than to believe she could be special enough to attract anything more than the momentary attention of a man like that, let alone a magical god of the forest.

  Why would he want Lauren as anything other than a plaything?

  The tug at her soul returned as she fled, desperate, but she ignored it as best she could.

  She’d lived with it all her life, after all.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  The pup followed Lauren as she left the forest and headed across the football field, scampering in its efforts to keep pace. Lauren stewed, and for a dark moment, she wished the animal would disappear. As a gift from Alex Zander the Hunter god, like everything that had to do with their time together, it left a bitter taste in Lauren’s mouth.

  She hated that she could still detect the lingering remnants of the man’s touch. Now Zander had won what he wanted, Lauren doubted she’d ever see him again. Tears stung the corners of her eyes, and she blinked them away.

  She’d been a fool to think herself worthy of such a powerful being’s genuine affection. Lauren could be nothing more than a shallow replacement for the love who he'd lost.

  The pup didn’t give up the chase when Lauren made it to the sidewalk, and at last, she had to confront reality. The dog might’ve originally belonged to Alex, but it had been gifted to her. Lauren was responsible for the young creature’s well-being, whether or not she wanted to be.

  “Why don’t you go home to the forest?” Lauren demanded. The pup flattened her ears and dropped low to the ground. “Go back home to the Hunter. Go.”

  It didn’t move.

  “I can’t keep you,” Lauren said. “You need to go.”

  The pup whined, then dropped onto her side and rolled onto her back to expose her belly.

  What the hell was Lauren supposed to do with a dog? It was a ridiculous, impractical gift, which was why the pup didn’t have a name yet.

  Lauren puffed out her cheeks in frustration, knelt down, and picked up the animal. She relaxed in Lauren’s grip, almost oozing out from her hands. Lauren tucked it against her chest and continued down the street. If the animal wouldn’t go back to the woods, she’d need to figure out how to keep the dog’s existence a secret from Aunt Lori. No matter what memories it stirred in Lauren, she couldn’t let a living creature suffer.

  Aunt Lori worked night shifts, manning the front desk at the Beaumont Motel. Uncle Joe worked during the day. With the weather cozy and the days bright, Lauren figured she could get away with staying out during the day, only coming home once Aunt Lori had gone to work. Days off would be a little trickier, but she hoped that within the next week, she’d figure out a permanent solution to her new pet problem.

  The thought of parting with something the Hunter had given her hurt, but the reminder that she was second best and used, hurt more.

  She left the woods behind her, traveling to the other side of town to a small, peaceful clearing, where she let the dog play and tire herself out. Lauren spent the rest of the day outside, dodging foot traffic and staying off the beaten path. When the sun was only a line of red on the horizon, Lauren collected the pup and went home. She had a narrow window of time when both Aunt Lori and Uncle Joe were still at work, and she intended to use it to smuggle her pet up to her room.

  Just as she’d hoped, there were no cars in the driveway when Lauren arrived home. Being extra wary of coming face-to-face with her aunt or uncle, she rounded the house to head in through the back.

  The door gaped ajar.

  Lauren stood on the lawn and cocked her head to the side, squinting at it, wondering what it meant. It wasn’t like Aunt Lori or Uncle Joe to leave the door open, and she knew she hadn’t left it that way. Cautiously, Lauren headed for the door and pushed it open, finding the house quiet.

  She stepped into the kitchen and looked around.

  There was no sign of Aunt Lori’s favorite travel mug, one surefire indication she was at work. Uncle Joe’s lunchbox didn’t sit on the kitchen counter either, a sign he wasn’t home early.

  So what was going on?

  The floorboards in the hall upstairs groaned, and footsteps descended the stairs. With a gasp, she impulsively lunged toward the knife block and grabbed one of the butcher's knives. Jolted in her arms, the pup woke up and bared her teeth. She growled in warning, then squirmed against Lauren’s grasp and jumped to the floor.

  A man appeared in the kitchen doorway with Aunt Lori’s golden jewelry box tucked beneath his arm.

  Lauren blinked hard, trying to rationalize what she saw. The man wasn't particularly old. He had curly hair, a pointed chin, and his mischievous eyes sparkled in the twilight. He was handsome, and despite the evidence, he didn't look like a burglar.

  It was his dress sense that was most odd. He wore some sort of sheet, styled in a way that Lauren could only think of as being similar to a Roman toga.

  Complete with the stolen jewelry box, the man appeared set to head to a bizarre fancy dress party, not rob a house.

  The fellow in the funky attire stopped dead in his tracks, not expecting to run into anyone in the kitchen. At least Lauren had a few seconds’ notice of this encounter—she’d heard the man coming.

  For a moment, Lauren and the intruder stared at each other.

  Lauren kept a firm grip on the knife, ready to use it if need be. With fur puffed up, the pup growled at her side. The dog looked more like a cotton ball than a ferocious predator.

  The man in fancy dress looked down at the pup, then flicked his gaze back in Lauren’s direction. Lauren took a half step forward, holding the knife in front of her.

  “Drop the jewelry box!” Lauren demanded. Her voice shook with fear.

  The burglar took a long step to the side, sidling around the outskirts of the kitchen. Lauren followed from where she stood, knife held at the ready.

  “Put it down!” Lauren insisted. She waved the knife. “And then get o
ut of here!”

  The man stopped little more than an arm’s distance away from Lauren. Unsure she could wield a knife, Lauren wasn’t about to attempt to disarm a man if he confronted her with a weapon.

  The pup snarled and snapped at the air in warning.

  “Easy, easy.” The man took a step toward Lauren, and Lauren jabbed the knife out, ready to attack.

  The intruder stopped out of arm’s reach, and they locked eyes. The man looked poised to speak when his expression changed. His eyes narrowed and his brows knitted together. He snapped his mouth tightly shut, brows lifted in tremendous surprise, and shook his head as if he’d just rethought his whole life plan.

  “Nope. So much nope I can’t handle it. Here’s your music box, kid.” The man set it down on the kitchen counter. “You—you just have a great life, full of wonderful, terrific things. Is that new?” His eyes flicked toward the dog. “It’s a keeper.”

  Saying nothing, Lauren watched in total disbelief as the thief backed toward the open kitchen door. What the hell was going on?

  “I’ll, uh, I’ll be going now,” he said with a wink. “Totally love what you’ve done with your body. Definitely an improvement on the old. You’ve never looked better. So, uh, ta-ta for now.”

  The man darted out the door. Lauren scrambled after him, wanting to see him go. By the time he’d made it to the doorway, the man was already halfway across the backyard. He vaulted over the fence with near superhuman agility and was gone.

  Lauren stood there for a few moments longer, considering what she’d just witnessed. She'd gotten the impression that the empty-handed thief wasn’t exactly your everyday common or garden opportunist burglar in a toga.

  Nothing in her life seemed like it would be normal again.

  After closing the door, Lauren made double sure to lock it securely, and then returned the knife to the block. She picked up Aunt Lori’s jewelry box to return it to its proper place.

  “Come on, pup,” Lauren said as she made her way across the kitchen. “I think I’m done with today. Let’s go take this back to Aunt Lori’s room, and then let's go to bed.”