OF WAR Anthology Novels 1-3

by Lisa Beth Darling

  The pain was more than she’d ever imagined and Alena wondered why a woman would ever have a second child after having gone through this!

  With inches left to the door, another contraction hit and with it came the undeniable urge to push. Instinct rolled her over onto her back and planted her bare feet on the floor to raise her knees in the air. “Ra-Raven, wait.” The boy was not going to heed his mother’s plea; she watched her belly undulate as the outline of a little hand appeared on the other side of her skin, pushed against it, and then tried to use it to propel himself forward. With the normal road to birth blocked by her narrow hips, when the next contraction came and Alena pushed with it, Raven heaved upward, the little splayed hand turning into a closed fist trying to punch its way out of her stomach. “No, don’t, Raven.” Alena tried to push his little hand but the baby wasn’t having it and he pushed back.

  Working her way backward like a crab, Alena found the footboard and pressed her back up against it in a half-seated position. Her feet still planted on the floor and her legs spread wide, Alena grabbed her knees and pushed hard with the next contraction, hoping against hope that her hips weren’t too narrow after all. She felt him move partway down the birth canal but he was fighting her, it was as though Raven knew he couldn’t get out that way and instead would claw his way out. “Ares!” Screaming for the women was useless, but Ares once told her that if she ever needed him, all she had to do was whisper his name.

  He would hear her.

  He would come.

  No matter the distance between them.

  “Ares!”

  VI

  In the closet with his cock in his hand, Apollo heard Alena’s cry for her Husband just before it had the chance to reach Ares’ ears. Although he couldn’t stop Ares from hearing it, he could muffle it a great deal and make it less likely that it would attract Ares’ attention over what he was currently doing. If Zeus got his suitable heir and Ares lost his Wife and Son in the same instance, then that was just Fate. And Fate should be left to play out the way it wanted. What better payback was there for both of them if Alena and Raven should perish while Ares was deep in Aphrodite’s heated clutches? None that Apollo could see.

  The sight of the God of War harnessed to Aphrodite’s bed as her plump but firm ass pumped up and down in the air, riding Ares’ hot hard shaft was tantalizing, titillating, and downright hot. Not the scene he’d been hoping for to entertain him tonight, but it would do. As he jacked off, listening to her deep moans of delight, he thought her eyes must be closed. If they were open, she’d see what he did; Ares was getting pissed. Every time she let out a moan, Ares winced.

  VII

  Surrender, Aphrodite said to Ares. Surrender wasn’t a word often used in Ares’ vocabulary. The God of War surrendered to no man—or woman. While she made his body respond to her touch and his heart race, she did not make his soul soar above the clouds nor make the entire world melt away. Only Alena did that. Being inside Aphrodite, gratifying as any man would find it, was still just a wilted flower in comparison to being buried to the hilt inside his Wife. For all the temptations and forbidden pleasures she offered, he didn’t want Aphrodite, he didn’t want to be here. Lying there, trapped between her, the bed, and the bonds at his wrists while Aphrodite reveled at his expense pumping, grinding, and sliding on him harder as she started to climax.

  As the wet walls around his burgeoning cock began constricting and swelling like a boa with its prey deep in its clutches, Ares suddenly felt …

  …Violated…

  …Helpless…

  …Used…

  Those weren’t words used fluently in Ares’ vocabulary in reference to himself.

  Above him, Aphrodite smiled as she cooed and gyrated on his hard shaft. Two thousand years ago, he would have wanted nothing more than to watch—and feel—her cum on top of him like this. Tonight he wanted nothing more than to be far away some place where he could wash away the feeling of being Cheap and Disposable. There wasn’t enough water in the ocean to cleanse him of this. A horrible thought crossed his mind as he stared up at Aphrodite, trying to reconcile the need to vomit, the want to cry, and the underlying sensation of sheer disgust. He wondered how he would ever get rid of it and then a voice asked him if Alena ever had.

  After Cernunnos…

  After Aphrodite handed her over to him.

  To this day, did she carry this horrible burden when she lay so sweet and passionate in his arms?

  The thought was enough to drive the cold crashing wave of unwanted lust and desire away from his shore. Ares pulled on the bonds at his wrists until they cut off the circulation. “You bitch!” The sharpness of his voice was strong enough to shatter the spell of illicit ecstasy surrounding him.

  “You can’t stop it now, you know you can’t, I feel you cumming,” Aphrodite moaned and then cooed as her hips rocked hard against his. “Give it to me, Lover.”

  The circulation was gone in his hands and wrists; so was the feeling and it caused no pain when he struggled with all of the strength in those bulky biceps, and the magickal silk began to tear. “I’ll give it to you,” he snarled as the first bond ripped to shreds and his right arm was free, soon followed by the left.

  The little scene of sexual passion and desire Aphrodite had going for herself suddenly turned black when she found herself being tossed off him and then rudely flipped over on her stomach.

  Ares rolled off the bed, grabbed Aphrodite by the ankles and spun her around so she lay crosswise over the mattress while he rose to his full height. “You think I’m your little boy-toy? Huh?” Picking her up by her waist with both hands, he brought her to her knees. “I told you, you weren’t going to get your kicks from this.” One hand harshly clamped on her back of Aphrodite’s neck, and Ares pushed her down in front of him until her slender shoulders and buxom breasts pressed deep into the mattress with her firm ass high in the air. “Is that what you wanted? Take it, you whore.” His other hand planted on her waist, Ares yanked her backward as he thrust forward with increasing depth and speed. He didn’t let up when she began choking out his name and then pleading for mercy. “Where was your mercy when you stole my woman from me?” he whispered coldly. “I have none for you.”

  Ares

  Biting her lips and trying to hold back the shrieks gurgling in her throat, Aphrodite clutched wads of blankets trying to keep herself steady as she buried her face in them with her only solace being the fact that he couldn’t hold out much longer.

  That turned out to be a mixed blessing.

  The climax started at his toes with so much force it almost lifted him off his feet as it burned a path up his legs before turning his balls and gut into hellfire.

  Ares

  Looming over the bed, his cock buried hilt deep in her, one hand on Aphrodite’s hip commanding her movements below him as he stood with all of his weight forward, Ares’ head cocked to the right as his ears pricked up as though he heard something.

  Ares!

  “Alena.” The faint whisper fell from his horrorstruck lips as her pain-stricken voice echoed faintly in his head.

  Raven was coming.

  So was he, and he couldn’t stop it. Caught deep in the grip of sexual gratification, at this point Ares couldn’t stop if someone put a knife to his throat. Only one or two more strokes and this would end; until then he was helpless to do anything other than complete the task before him.

  Ares, please! I need you! Please?

  “I hate you!” he roared so loudly that Eros still perched on top of his tower heard him clear as day. The load of spunk exploded forward from the tip of his overly hard cock like lava from Vesuvius as she grabbed the blankets, trying to keep herself steady amid the force of his powerful thrusts, and guttural cries of pain resounded in her throat. His load drained, his brawny body covered in sweat and his heart racing, Ares pulled out of Aphrodite as he cast her fully to the bed to loom over her, his cock dripping spunk. “You bitch! This was your plan all along!”
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br />   “What is it?” Aphrodite asked through quivering lips as she pulled the blankets around her, hoping for some sense of safety.

  “Alena’s in labor, as if you didn’t know. That’s what this was about? Not an heir but a distraction?”

  “I didn’t know,” Aphrodite said in a quick soft whisper. “I swear it, Ares.”

  With a sincere loathing, he pointed an angry finger at her. “If anything happens to her or to Raven, I promise I’ll come back here and slit your throat.”

  Clutching the blankets closer, Aphrodite cried out, “I told you, I don’t want to hurt her and I would never harm a child!” If this was Zeus’ plan, she had no idea of it. Just because she was determined to enjoy the evening with Ares didn’t mean she would ever go along with something as foul as that. Children, even Raven, were innocent.

  In a flash of black smoke the God of War was dressed and running for the door, hoping he wasn’t too late to save his Wife and his Son.

  Chapter Twelve

  A God is Born

  I

  Alena wasn’t exactly new to the act of childbirth, she’d aided in the arrival of many babies in Ceres Agar and even before that, but it didn’t prepare her for this. Up until now she had a vague understanding of the agony involved in giving birth, or thought she did. This was like no pain she’d ever felt before; it was torturous yet it was also beautiful and filled with hopeful anticipation. Something deep within her seemed to take over her mind, telling her what to do. If he were here—where he should be—Ares would call it ‘instinct’.

  Certain help would never arrive in time, Alena allowed that instinct to take over. She began pushing as she gasped for breath and sweat ran into her eyes. With her knees up by her shoulders, she could nearly see between her splayed legs but as hard as she pushed, Raven’s head did not emerge. He didn’t even seem to move downward as she dug in with her heels and gave it all she had with the next contraction. Feeling as though her abdomen was caught in some wicked vice holding her in its unyielding grip Alena bore down, throwing her head back against the footboard as she held onto her knees, hoping for extra leverage. Blood and fluids ushered forth, but Raven did not. Instead of making his way down the birth canal, Raven continued his struggle to claw his way through his mother’s stomach as though he knew that was his only true way out.

  “A-Ares!” she screamed without any force of breath. “Where are you?” He picked a fine time to run down to the mortal world for a gallon of milk.

  Her Son was not going to wait for his Father or his Grandmother to come aid in his arrival. The contractions were so close together it felt like they never ended. Just one long burst of unending agony as she struggled to give birth and Raven fought her from inside. One hand on her knee, she tried to ease the baby downward with the other hand while she bore down again. “I know it’s t-t-tight but puh-lease.”

  Raven wasn’t having any of it. He punched upward with a force so brutal that it knocked her hand away from her belly. Then he continued on, stretching upward until her undulating stomach looked like the Gut-Buster scene in ‘Alien’, and she was certain he would just explode out of her the way the slimy little alien had done, leaving a gaping bloody hole where her innards had once been.

  “N-no! D-down!” Tears streaming down her ashen cheeks, Alena tried again to coax the baby downward as she pushed and prayed with all of her might. More blood and fluid expelled and then, under her hand, she felt Raven move downward. “G-good, good boy, good,” she stuttered as she tried to catch her breath. Wiping her silver hair away from her sweaty brow, she prepared to push again with the next contraction, but suddenly found her body rising into the air. Looking up with startled eyes she saw Ares, he was lifting her off the floor and putting her on the bed. “I th-ough-t you’d n-never…make it.”

  “I’m here. I’m here,” he soothed, looking at the bloody puddle on the floor. “Everything’s going to be all right now.”

  “This place is disgusting. Why would you ever bring her down here?” Hera openly complained as she gave her surroundings a quick glance.

  “I cleaned it, Mother!”

  Letting out a grunt, she gave Ares a shove. “Get out of my way.” Before she could maneuver between Alena’s open legs to get a bead on the situation, another contraction hit. Alena bore down hard. “Stop, stop, stop,” Hera commanded. “Don’t push, Alena.”

  “I have to…”

  “Stop, I know it’s hard, I know, but don’t push.” Hera looked up from between Alena’s legs where Raven was just beginning to crown, to Ares. “Why did you wait so long to come get me?” she hissed. “You knew how important this is!”

  Panic rising within him as he tried to stay calm and hold Alena close, he roared at her through lips thinner than a dime. “Do what you have to, Mother.”

  “It’s too late.” Alena had done what any woman in her position would do and she pushed with each contraction until the boy dropped just enough to get his head past those slender hips, but his shoulders were too wide to make the same squeeze and now Raven was stuck in her pelvis. Opening Alena’s womb would do them no good. Pulling the boy back through the narrow opening would only result in injury to him and her. On the verge of losing her Grandson, the only thing the grand Goddess of All the Olympian Gods could do was stand here and watch both of them pass into the Underworld.

  Not believing his Mother, Ares left Alena’s side to stand at the end of the bed and inspect the precarious situation. As they stood there watching Alena writhe in agony as she tried to hold back the urge to push, they saw Raven’s feet push upward. The little toes curled as though they were fists as he started slamming them against the inside of Alena’s womb. Listening to Alena’s near silent screams and seeing her face gnarl and twist in a way he never wanted to see again, his Warrior’s Mind hit upon a plan. For a split second he tried to talk himself out of it, but in his heart he knew it was the only way to save them. Reaching out cautiously with one hand, he held to it Alena’s cheek as he stared into her stormy eyes. “Do you love me?”

  What a question! Here she was in the deepest clutches of labor with his Son and Ares wanted to know if she loved him? If this wasn’t love, what was it? “Y-yes.”

  He leaned in further as his hand slid down to her hip where the other was waiting on the opposite site. “Do you trust me?”

  “Yes.”

  “I love you, Alena.” With that, Ares planted his lips over hers. In one brutal but mercifully swift motion, he pushed down on her hips with all of his strength and did the unthinkable. With a loud snap, her slender hips cracked open like a clamshell. His mouth over hers silenced the shriek of utter agony that went through her.

  The way to freedom suddenly open, Raven began making his way toward it with much haste. But he couldn’t do it alone.

  “You have to help,” Hera said as she stared down at the scene in disbelief. Alena was in far too much pain to push. “Hurry, put your hand on her stomach, gently guide him down. Gently.”

  With his hands shaking and his mind still in shock at what he’d just done, Ares put his big mitts on Alena’s stomach and gently but firmly as he could, pushed the baby toward the opening between her legs waiting for him. No longer feeling the harsh pain of the contractions or anything below her waist other than what felt like fire, Alena buried her face in Ares’ upper arm as she held onto him for comfort and strength. She was met with the sight of a nearly healed scar.

  “Keep going, keep going, he’s coming,” Hera said excitedly. “Alena, he’s almost here.” She reached between Alena’s spread legs to get a grip on the back of Raven’s neck. As she turned him slowly so that one shoulder at a time emerged from the enlarged hole, the baby’s face came into her view.

  Alena screamed uncontrollably at the sight.

  Raven had no face. No eyes. No nose. No mouth. Instead of features, there was only a sheet of skin.

  A moment later, his buttocks and feet were slipping through her as the boy fully emerged into the world.
r />   “It’s all right, it’s all right, Alena,” Ares soothed. “It’s just a membrane.”

  Hera’s upper lip curled as she gazed at Ares with doubt flickering in her peacock eyes. Yes, it was just a membrane. Just a bit of excess, soon it would be easily and painlessly cut away, revealing the baby’s face. It didn’t mean anything at all…did it? There were many in this world who believed that such a veil over a newborn’s face was the darkest of omens, foreshadowing a mark on the child’s soul. Wasn’t that what Zeus had been saying? Was it another sign that Zeus was actually right and this child would be a monster?

  “What are you waiting for? Cut the cord.”

  Drawn out of her daze, Hera looked down to see that she had the cord in one hand and the dagger in the other. “Don’t rush me.” Tying off and cutting the umbilical cord, Hera held the baby out to his Father, who already had a blade at the ready.

  Holding his bloody newborn Son in the crook of his left arm, Ares used to his dagger to very carefully cut the swath of skin away from Raven’s face. It peeled away easily, almost like a snake shedding its skin. The second it was gone, Raven cried loudly as his greasy body started squirming in his Father’s arms.

  Alena felt a wave of relief wash through her when Ares brought him to her. “Oh, look, look,” she whispered anxiously. Raven had Ares’ mass of dark wavy hair with a prominent silver streak, his dark skin and…

  “Look at that,” Ares remarked as the baby opened his eyes for the first time to reveal they were as gray as a stormy sea with pupils gold as amber.