Palpable relief flowed around Keras and the air in the room instantly lightened.
Cassandra went to the doorway and leaned out into the hallway. “She’s here!”
There wasn’t a dry eye in the room as everyone rushed into it, pushing past him and Enyo, their murmured words of congratulations distant in Keras’s ears as he stared at the baby. Enyo squeezed his hand and he managed to drag his eyes away from the little girl, looked at her and smiled as all the fear rushed out of him.
Ares turned away from everyone and stepped back, revealing Megan where she sat on the large bed, her face pale and dark hair slick with sweat. She beamed, her tired chocolate eyes brightening as they landed on Ares and he went to her and held the baby out to her, gently placed their daughter in her waiting arms.
Megan cooed at her, stroked her face with one finger and smiled as tears slipped down her cheeks.
Ares sank onto the bed beside her and wrapped one arm around her and one around the baby she held. “You were amazing, sweetheart. Look at her.”
Megan lifted her eyes from the baby and beamed again, causing more tears to fall. “Look at what we made.”
He smiled. “Gods, you’re amazing. Wonderful. I can’t stop looking at her. Sweetheart… this is the most incredible gift… I love you both.”
He dropped a kiss on her sweat dotted brow.
Hades finally pushed away from the wall, drawing to a halt near the foot of the bed, his blue eyes fixed on the wriggling baby. Persephone went to him and took hold of his hand, stroked it lightly as he stood immobile, as frozen by the sight of the child as Keras was.
Enyo caressed the back of his hand too and he looked at her again, lifted her hand and kissed it.
Her eyes widened slightly. “Stay right there. I have something I have to do.”
She released his hand and he watched her as she went to Megan and Ares.
“May I?” she said.
Ares nodded and made room for her.
She kneeled on the bed, took hold of the baby’s hand, and looked at Megan. “Her name?”
“We went through a million… but the moment I saw her, I knew the right one.” Megan smiled softly. “Theodora.”
Ares grinned like an idiot.
“Adora.” He gazed at his daughter as he shortened her name. “My precious gift.”
“Our precious gift.” Megan turned her smile on his brother. “Our little Adora.”
Ares teared up again.
Enyo leaned over Theodora and pressed a kiss to her hand, whispered words against it and then withdrew. A small sword and shield appeared on her hand by her thumb. Enyo’s favour. A bond that would tie them together for the rest of their lives and give Theodora strength and courage.
His beautiful goddess returned to him and rather than taking hold of her hand, he slipped his arm around her shoulder.
Keras looked at his family.
He had felt as if their lives had been on hold for the last two centuries because they were away from home, but they hadn’t been. Everyone’s lives had been moving forwards, growing and changing.
Even his.
Enyo leaned into his side and he felt whole again for the first time in a long time, filled with emotion that he wasn’t afraid of or didn’t want to erase. He wanted to feel this moment in its entirety.
The joy. The fear. The hope.
The room overflowed with emotion as everyone took turns in meeting little Theodora, and for once he didn’t feel as if he was drowning. He looked at Enyo, aware he had her to thank for that.
She smiled at him, warmth in her jade eyes as she met his for only a moment before they returned to the baby. She tiptoed and kissed his cheek, and he released her, watched her as she broke away from him to fuss over the baby with everyone else.
Another feeling filled him as he watched her doting on Theodora.
A need that ran deep.
He wanted to see her holding their own child one day.
One day.
Right now, he had two centuries of being apart from her to make up for.
She slid him a look. One that said she wanted to get started right now. He looked at his brothers, at their women. From where he was standing, it looked as if Theodora might get a cousin before the year was out.
Enyo came to him again and shook her head as she whispered into his ear, “You have nothing to fear from me. I was only teasing you. My coin is on Cassandra.”
He glanced at the sorceress. She didn’t look particularly broody. Enyo gently took hold of his jaw and shifted his face to the right. To Daimon.
Keras pursed his lips and tilted his head slightly, conceding that she did have a point. His brother looked as if he was contemplating whisking Cassandra away right that second to make a baby of their own with her.
“Shoo, shoo. Give them some space now. I believe a celebration is in order.” Persephone waved her hands towards the door.
Hades grimaced. “Not a celebration.”
His father rubbed his chest through his tunic.
She fluttered her lashes. “Just a small one. Family only. It is not every day we have a grandchild.”
She almost squealed that word.
Keras froze as she looked at all his brothers and then him, could see in her eyes she was plotting ways to get more grandchildren already.
He grabbed Enyo and stepped, whisking her away to his palace.
He set her down on the terrace overlooking the garden and she blew out her breath and pretended to wipe her hand across her forehead.
“That was close,” she said.
He frowned at her. She was mocking him, but he didn’t see her leaping at the chance to have a baby to placate his mother.
“We should probably get cleaned up and dressed for the occasion.” She stepped back and looked him over, a wicked glint in her eyes that said they would be doing more than just dressing after they had washed.
When he didn’t say anything, she took hold of his hand and tugged on it.
He went with her and stilled again as he looked at his palace.
She stopped and turned back to him. “What is it?”
“It’s over,” he said, feeling a bit like a fool as it hit him.
She came back to him. “It really is… and now you’re really home.”
“Home.” He mulled that over as he looked at his palace, as he thought about his brothers and his parents.
And then Enyo.
He lowered his gaze to lock with hers. “This isn’t home.”
She frowned at him.
“Home was never a place. It’s taken me two centuries to see that. Home was a feeling… home is my family. No…”
He pressed his hand to her chest.
“Home is here. It’s wherever you are. I wasn’t fighting to get back here. I was fighting to get back to you.”
Tears lined her dark lashes.
She leaned into him, tiptoed and brushed her lips across his. “My home is with you too. I am sorry it took me so long to realise that.”
He wrapped her in his arms, that sensation of being home beating inside him as he kissed her, as she held him too.
She took hold of his hands and backed away from him, luring him towards the palace as their lips parted. He liked that wicked gleam in her eyes.
“Where are we going?” he murmured as he let her lead him.
She smiled saucily.
“To make up for lost time.”
That he could definitely go along with.
Keras pulled her into his arms.
Kissed her.
And stepped.
The End
* * *
The Guardians of Hades series will return with Thanatos!
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About the Author
Felicity Heaton is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author who writes passionate paranormal romance books. In her books, she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons!
If you're a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter, Larissa Ione, Kresley Cole, Donna Grant and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.
If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, her best-selling Her Angel romance series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm romance series or any of her stand alone vampire romance books. If you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful and passionate, then try her London Vampires romance series. Or if you like hot-blooded alpha heroes who will let nothing stand in the way of them claiming their destined woman then try her Eternal Mates series. It’s packed with sexy heroes in a world populated by elves, vampires, fae, demons, shifters, and more. If sexy Greek gods with incredible powers battling to save our world and their home in the Underworld are more your thing, then be sure to step into the world of Guardians of Hades.
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Also by Felicity Heaton
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Book 1: Kissed by a Dark Prince
Book 2: Claimed by a Demon King
Book 3: Tempted by a Rogue Prince
Book 4: Hunted by a Jaguar
Book 5: Craved by an Alpha
Book 6: Bitten by a Hellcat
Book 7: Taken by a Dragon
Book 8: Marked by an Assassin
Book 9: Possessed by a Dark Warrior
Book 10: Awakened by a Demoness
Book 11: Haunted by the King of Death
Book 12: Turned by a Tiger
Book 13: Tamed by a Tiger
Book 14: Treasured by a Tiger
Book 15: Unchained by a Forbidden Love
Book 16: Avenged by an Angel
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Book 2: Captured by her Cougar
Book 3: Courted by her Cougar
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Book 3: Seduce
Book 4: Enslave
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Book 2: Valen
Book 3: Esher
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Copyright © 2020 Felicity Heaton
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written consent of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
The right of Felicity Heaton to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First printed November 2020
First Edition
Layout and design by Felicity Heaton
All characters in this publication are purely fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Cover by Felicity Heaton
Keras: Guardians of Hades Series Book 7 Page 40