Chapter 27 Morpheus
Morpheus
A Few Minutes Earlier
I slam my fist into the nearest figment, the dreamlike creature one I manifested specifically for this purpose.
The problem is, since I created it, the being hits back.
Because I like a challenge.
And today, I need that challenge more than usual.
Which is also why my figment resembles Hades. Because fuck my cousin. And fuck his possessiveness.
Serapina is just as much mine as she is his.
Waking her up right when I’m about to make her come.
Fucking low blow.
I punch my version of his face, then swing around to hit him again as he appears behind me.
Only, the very harsh impact of my fist meeting bone sends pain up my arm. “Fuck,” I mutter. My mind has gotten too good at this.
“Okay. I deserved that. But hit me again and I will hit back,” Hades says, his cool tone far too real to be a creation of my mind.
I straighten, then strike him again for good measure.
He growls.
I growl.
And the world rumbles beneath us as our powers manifest, our inner beasts ready to battle for dominance.
“It wasn’t enough that you had to finish what I started? Help her get off after waking her so abruptly from her dream?” Because yeah, I felt that orgasm.
And the several that followed.
“You’ve come here to gloat?” I guess, not giving him the chance to answer before shoving a bolt of energy directly into his mind.
For just a second, I want him to experience my pain. My agony. The very real torment of once again feeling my mate’s need and not being allowed to answer her call.
“Morpheus,” Hades hisses.
I ignore him and yank him even deeper into the pit of despair I’ve crafted from my personal experience, forcing him to face the truth. The hurt. The torture.
His face contorts, the sight one I’ve yearned to see for so long that I give myself more than the promised second and instead allow it to go on for a handful of beats.
Then I release him with a sigh and turn to walk away. “Go gloat somewhere else, Hades.”
Because I’m not fucking interested.
His responding growl echoes in my wake as I mist back to my palace.
Not the one in the Morpheus Kingdom, but my true home in the Mythos Fae Realm.
Athena appears with me on the balcony, her starry eyes scanning for any threats. I acknowledge her with a nod and start toward my bedroom doors when she squawks out a loud warning.
I spin just as Hades appears in a wave of shadows and darkness. I gape at him, shocked that he dared to enter my domain.
A domain he rarely ever visited even millennia ago.
“Wow, I had no idea gloating meant this much to you,” I say, folding my arms. “By all means, then, Hades, brag to your heart’s content.”
I don’t bother holding back on my sarcasm. He has a lot of fucking nerve showing up in my palace to taunt me with words about my mate.
Maybe he craves death, I think. After all, he is the God of Death.
“Maliki pleasured her, not me,” he informs me. “And for the first time in my existence, I somewhat understand your plight.”
Athena walks over and pecks Hades on the head, earning her a warning snarl from the Alpha.
I ignore her antics, aware that she’s merely doing her job as my familiar and expressing my frustration. It’s not like she attacked him. Not really.
“Fuck off,” he says to my majestic owl.
She snaps her orange beak in response, her silver and gray feathers flaring as she flaps her massive wings.
“Morpheus.” Hades sounds exasperated. “Tell your bird to back off.”
“She’s an owl,” I reply. “And no.”
Athena can do whatever the fuck she wants. This is our home, not his.
“I came here to apologize,” he says through his teeth. “And to have a real conversation.”
“So just because you’re finally ready to discuss our mate, I have to be amenable and receptive?” I ask, purposely being difficult. Mostly because I’m shocked that he’s here. But also because he deserves my ire.
Maybe Maliki pleased our mate this time.
But he wasn’t around with Persephone. Hades was. And those years were hell for me to endure.
Yet I did. For her.
But our Omega wants me now. I’m sure of it. So I won’t be enduring this pain any longer.
“She’s mine, Hades,” I tell him. “End of discussion.” I step through the curtains framing my balcony and enter my rooms.
And Hades mists inside.
Athena releases a loud squawk, clearly disapproving of his antics. “She’s ours,” he tells me flatly.
I huff a laugh. “How many times have I said that?”
“Too many,” he returns. “And I’m still struggling to accept it. But I’m here, Morpheus. I’m trying to make this right.”
“For you or for Serapina?” I wonder aloud.
“Do you think I want to share her with you?”
“I know you don’t,” I reply.
“Then clearly this is for her,” he says, his hands slipping into the pockets of his slacks.
“She… she worried that it was wrong to play with Maliki after dreaming of you. And that sadness, that misunderstanding of her needs…” He looks away.
“I’m aware that I’ve failed as her Alpha, Morpheus. I’m here to correct a wrong.”
My eyebrow arches upward. But I don’t speak. I’ve said more than enough over the millennia. It’s his turn now.
Hades’s jaw clenches. “You’re not going to make this easy on me, are you?”
“Likely about as easy as you’ve made this for me,” I admit.
He studies me for a long moment. “What about Serapina?”
It’s a quiet question, one I understand instantly. He’s asking if I’ll forgive him for our Omega.
Or perhaps forgive is too strong a word.
He’s asking if I’ll reconsider my stance… for Serapina.
“I would suffer another eternity of loneliness if it pleased her,” I say, miffed that he even had to ask. “Forgiving you—or whatever you want to call this—would be a simple concession. If that’s her desire.”
“I think her desire is for me to let you into the labyrinth.” His response is soft, like he’s having a hard time accepting her wishes but is willing to set aside his discomfort if it means pleasing her.
Which is how an Alpha should respond.
And exactly how I’ll react, if that’s what my mate needs. “Did she ask for me?”
“She asked if I could manifest you and Maliki in the maze,” Hades tells me with a wince. “Then she asked if I would hold that request against her.”
“Are you truly surprised?” I wonder aloud. “You’ve made your possessive claim crystal clear, Hades.”
His jaw ticks. “I would never begrudge her for anything.”
“But she doesn’t know that.”
“Clearly,” he deadpans. “She’s completely misunderstood me.”
“Can—”
He holds up his hand, cutting me off. “Her misunderstanding me is my fault. As I said, I’ve failed her as an Alpha. But you haven’t. She seems to trust you. And while it pains me to say this, she’s going to need you during her heat.”
I stare at him. “If she asks me to knot her, I will.”
He stares right back at me. “I know.”
“I’ll claim her, too.”
“I know,” he repeats.
“And you expect me to believe that you’ll be okay with that?” I demand.
His expression tells me he won’t be okay at all. Yet, aloud, all he says is “Serapina’s needs are my priority. She wants you in the labyrinth. So I’ll grant you entry.”
I study him, noting the stiff lines of his shoulders and the not-so-subtle tic in his jaw.
He doesn’t want to accept me into his circle, let alone into the maze. But he’s putting Serapina’s comfort before his own.
As a good Alpha should.
“Will you come with me?” Hades asks, a note of exhaustion in his tone. “She needs to be properly cared for. And I trust you to succeed where I’ve failed.”
That’s not an apology. But for Hades, it’s pretty much the same thing.
“Where will you be while I ‘care’ for her?” I use his term, though we both know there’s another meaning behind the word.
“I’ll… I’ll either control my urges or lock myself up.”
A snort escapes me. “Control is impossible when your mate is in heat and releasing her mating call.” I take a step toward him, curious about whether he’s even thought this through. “Do you know what I had to do every time Persephone fell into an estrous cycle?”
The way he looks at me tells me he doesn’t know at all, that he probably hasn’t even considered that aspect of my plight.
“I felt the pain today watching her with Maliki,” he grits out. “I can handle it.”
I laugh humorlessly. “Oh, Cousin, that’s only a fraction of the agony you’ll experience. And you were able to watch, which would have taken out some of the sting as well.”
Fuck, I would have loved to observe Hades and Persephone during even just one of her cycles. It would have hurt, yes. But simply knowing my mate was taken care of properly would have soothed some of the burn.
“You’ll be a slave to her call when the time comes, Hades. Knowing someone else is there to care for her won’t be enough. Our beasts live to serve our mates. To not be allowed or accepted to do so is the most agonizing form of punishment you could ever imagine.”
He doesn’t respond right away, his gaze assessing. “If that’s true, then how did you keep yourself from misting to Persephone’s side?”
I smile, but it’s not a kind grin. It’s one born of exquisite pain. “Ares helped me.”
Hades’s nostrils flare.
It doesn’t take much thought to understand what I’m telling him.
Still, he utters the translation aloud by saying, “You spent time in Pandora’s Box.”
“Yes.” I don’t elaborate beyond adding, “It was the only place that could throttle my abilities.”
He has the grace to glance away, his throat working to swallow.
Whether that’s a response to his pending fate or a sign of guilt, I’m not sure. Something tells me it’s the former more than the latter.
Hades will never apologize for claiming Persephone. She was his.
But perhaps he’ll have more compassion in regard to Serapina. Or at least understand why I refuse to go through that agony again.
He clears his throat. “I suppose it’s my due.”
“Is it?” I wonder aloud. “Because of how you’ve treated Serapina?”
Rather than acknowledge my question, he says, “I need to rewrite the maze barrier, then you’ll be able to enter. It won’t take me long.” He starts to mist, but I grab his arm.
“I’m coming with you,” I tell him.
The look he gives me expresses extreme discomfort with that idea.
“Being a mate-circle means collaborating,” I tell him. “And collaboration requires forgiveness. If you want to please our mate, you’ll need to learn how to work as a team.”
He narrows his gaze, and I have no doubt he’s about to tell me that he doesn’t need a lecture on how to please “his” mate.
But he surprises me by shaking off my hold and grabbing my wrist. “Fine” is all he says, his misting ability wrapping around me as he takes me with him to the Netherworld Kingdom.
I glance around the Soul Yards, my eyebrow inching upward. Hades escorted us to the dead center, right next to one of the geyser-like holes.
He releases me to glance over the edge, then jerks back just as a swarm of deadly energy blasts into the sky. “I hate entering this way,” he mutters, shuddering as a chill swirls through the air in the wake of the explosion.
Then his black wings burst from his back and flare wide, his beast instantly present as he transitions into Alpha mode. He looks at me with equally dark eyes.
“You wanted to collaborate.” With those ominous words, he shrugs and jumps into the hole that the souls just shot up out of.
“Fuck.” I call upon my inner Alpha, my wings appearing in an instant with a flourish of wind. “This had better not be a trick, Hades.”
He doesn’t reply.
So I sigh.
And follow my cousin into the hole.