Chapter Three #2
A thick black plate sat with fluffy eggs with steam still rising. There was also bacon, a fruit salad, and a gorgeous buttery croissant. Leaning forward, he breathed in the amazing aroma. “Wow.”
“Please let me know if you’d like something else.” Bel removed the lid from his own plate before picking up his fork.
“This is great.” Atlas’s mouth was already watering.
“Please enjoy it. As we eat, I can tell you about the calls I’ve made.”
“You cooked all of this and made phone calls. How long have you been awake?” Atlas asked. He was grateful for Bel’s help, but he didn’t want the demon suffering because of him.
“I don’t sleep much these days,” Bel told him.
“You don’t sleep or you don’t need to sleep?” Atlas questioned.
Bel shrugged. He began to eat and Atlas dug into his own food. It would be a shame to let Bel’s hard work and all this yumminess go to waste or get cold.
That wasn’t an answer.
“I spoke to Luci this morning. He’ll be stopping by with his mates soon.”
“Luci?”
Bel nodded as he stared at his plate. “How religious are you?”
“I’m not,” Atlas answered even if the question seemed to come out of nowhere.
“You understand that you are technically in hell?” Bel asked.
“You said a plane in hell. Like part of it?”
“Yes. Luci…Lucifer is our king.” Bel cleared his throat. “He hates that title and some of us might use it to tease him but that is basically what he is. The first angel to come. Most of our realm was made from his magic.”
“Lucifer? You mean the devil? Satan?”
Bel shook his head. “That isn’t him.”
“Not the same person or not evil?” Atlas asked gently. He had a feeling that this was a very important conversation.
“Humans have labeled Luci as evil. Have made him out to be evil. He’s not. He is an angel. Luci wasn’t cast down from heaven or anything ridiculous like the stories you’ve probably heard. He is still close to his father and brothers. Lucifer is not the devil.”
“And demons are evil?”
“We aren’t. Most of us have been working jobs for centuries in a very difficult environment. Hell has left its mark on all of us. That doesn’t mean we haven’t chosen to be here. We do get a choice,” Bel explained.
“You chose to live in hell?” Who would do that?
“I chose to stay with my family. Demons, just like angels, shifters, other paranormal, and humans make decisions about their own lives. We are different…demonkind have always relied on a royalty anarchy. Things have been changing though. With paranormals finding their mates again, but demons are slow to adapt to change. Like most creatures, I believe.”
“Even though I’m not religious, I guess that I’ve still thought of heaven as good and hell bad. Angels good and demons evil.”
Bel snorted. “Angels are dicks. Just wait until you meet one of them.”
“You think I’ll meet angels?” That was a weird thought.
“I know you will. I mean Luci is an angel so…”
Atlas rolled his eyes. “Other than Lucifer.” He had never cared one way or another. Atlas thought there must be some kind of higher power but he didn’t know if he believed in God.
“Yes, we work closely with those in heaven. Some souls can’t find their peace until they’ve seen that the evil person in their life has suffered for their sins.”
“Okay.” Atlas was just filling his head with more questions at his point. He finished off his eggs and bacon and started on the fruit salad. Atlas loved fruit. It wasn’t something that he splurged on often. “I feel like I could spend my entire life here and still not know everything.”
“I’m overwhelming you,” Bel said as he set his fork down.
“No!” Atlas rushed to assure him. “I want to know everything! I’m just worried that you’ll kick me out before I get answers.”
“You are welcome here, Atlas,” Bel responded with a soft smile.
“Why?” Atlas couldn’t help his suspicions. “I doubt you all allow humans just to come and go all the time.”
“We do not,” Bel agreed.
“What makes me so special?” He demanded. “I’m just a nothing human. I have no ties to anyone. I work at shitty jobs and live in crappy motels. Why are you so willing to help me?”
* * * * *
Bel
He stared at his mate, unable to form the words that he needed to say. Bel should have expected the question from Atlas. His mate had proven to have a quick mind along with a depth of curiosity that Bel appreciated.
“Help me understand,” Atlas pleaded. “I want to trust you.”
“I want you to trust me too,” Bel confirmed. They were mates. It should be easy to say. Atlas didn’t know about Bel’s world though. Wouldn’t get the significance of what being mates meant.
“You’re sitting here telling me that demons are good when my entire life I’ve been told the opposite,” Atlas pointed out. “Can you see where I’m coming from?”
“I do.” And Bel could. He was a demon and to humans that meant he must be evil. “I am one of the seven princes of hell. We all have our specialty.”
“To corrupt humans?”
“No. To help punish the evil souls and help the innocent. Who else to better punish an evildoer than an expert in the field?” Bel offered.
“You…” Atlas sat back in his chair with his coffee in his hand.
Noticing that the mug was nearly empty, Bel used his magic to refill it.
Atlas grinned down at his coffee. “Was that you?”
Bel shrugged. He wanted to take care of his tiny mate. Atlas was missing that healthy glow that Bel had seen in some of the mated humans. He could use a few more meals. Luckily that was right up Bel’s alley.
“Thank you.” He sipped as he watched Bel.
“Each demon prince is in charge of a piece of making hell run smoothly,” Bel explained.
“What’s your piece?” Atlas asked.
“It is my department that keeps track of the evil souls. That they are receiving the rightful punishment.”
“Because of your team, the evildoers are getting what they deserve,” Atlas commented as he stared at Bel over the rim of his mug.
Bel tried his best to avoid squirming under those intense blue eyes. Atlas thinking about the words Bel had spoken pleased him. At least his mate was considering Bel’s side of things.
Slowly Atlas nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay?” Bel had to ask.
“I’m willing to adjust my way of thinking,” Atlas told him. “You’ve proven that you do want to help me. I ‘ worried about saying or doing something that might offend you. It won’t be easy to just change my thinking overnight.”
Bel released the tension in his shoulders.
“You won’t offend me. Us. Like I said, you won’t be the first human here.
” They would have help. And no one was ever going to rock the hell realm like Adam had done.
That had taken some getting used to even by Bel, who approved of the changes that Adam had put in place.
“Just how does that work?” Atlas asked.
Bel waved to his plate. “Would you like more?”
Atlas looked down like he was just now realizing he’d finished the fruit. “More fruit, please. I’m saving the croissant for last.”
Waving his hand, Bel had more of the delicious fruit salad materializing.
“Thank you.” Atlas didn’t waste time shoving a forkful into his mouth.
“You are very welcome. To answer your question, it all started with mates being found again.”
Atlas cocked his head. “Mates. I don’t think that you’re talking about mates as in the form of friend or buddy. So, soulmates like in books or movies?”
“For a very long time, paranormal creatures had stopped finding and claiming their fated mate,” Bel explained.
“Ha! Totally called that one!” Atlas crowed.
Bel smiled. Yes, Atlas was very smart. “I think the first from our realm to find their mate was the Alpha of the hellhounds.”
Atlas swallowed hard. “Hellhounds?”
“The cutest little things but watch out for their drool. It is pure acid for humans,” Bel advised. Everyone loved the hellhounds, especially the pups. One of the humans had even been adopted by one.
“I don’t think I’ll forget that” Atlas set down his fork before lifting the croissant and taking a big bite. He moaned as he started to chew.
Bel’s body couldn’t ignore the sexy sounds that his mate was making. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
“This is so good,” Atlas said.
Without asking, he added another croissant to Atlas’s plate.
Atlas cackled. “I am going to gain so much weight before I go home.”
Or he could just stay. Not that Bel was brave enough to say that yet. He still had more to explain.
“Now tell me more about this hellhound dude.”
Hellhound dude. Bo would laugh at that description. “He went to the human realm, your realm, and found his two mates there. A bear shifter and bobcat shifter.”
“Two mates?” Atlas repeated.
“Yes, they are a triad. Bo the hellhound Alpha brought his mates, Craig and Nate, to live here part-time. They lived most the time in the human realm with who we affectionally call the pack, even though that is not what they are.”
“We’re talking about shifters here then.” Atlas set what remained of his second croissant down and pushed his plate away.
“Not all shifters,” Bel corrected. “It’s more of a family made up of paranormals. All kinds of paranormals. Humans as well. We call them pack just to make it easier. They’ve grown in numbers as more mates have been found.”
“Humans and shifters living together?” Atlas asked.
This wasn’t the first time that Bel had noticed that Atlas seemed uncomfortable about the thoughts of shifters. Bel had attributed that to Atlas’s flickers but he had to wonder if there was more. “Yes, shifters have been living beside humans for centuries.”
Atlas grunted.
“As the pack started to grow and find their mates, they added a fae king and demons,” Bel told him.
“Fae.” Atlas nodded. “Is anything of myths not actually true? We’ve got fae and demons. Shifters. What about vampires?”
“Yes. The pack has a vampire. He’s a very accomplished chef and I enjoy spending time with him,” Bel shared.
“Okay,” Atlas drawled. “Vampires are real.”
“Should I slow down?” Bel asked. “I don’t want to overwhelm you again.”
“Nope!” Atlas rolled his hand. “Keep going.”
“Let me back up. The pack consists of a dragon shifter mated to a human.”
“Dragons!” Atlas slapped his hand on the table. “Are you fucking with me?”
“I…” Bel cleared his throat. “Would not do that.”
Atlas winked. “Of course not. Sorry. I got excited. I mean, dragons.”
Bel let Atlas’s word go. Everyone was always so excited about dragons.
In his opinion, demons were the most powerful creatures in existence.
They literally had magic at the tips of his fingers.
He continued, “We have the dragon shifter who is the Alpha of the family mated to a human. And Bo, Craig, and Nate.”
He had to tick the couple off on his fingers. “Then Drake, the vampire, and his human mate, Lawson. Next the fae king, Rainier, his human mate, River, who is Lawson’s brother, and Anton, who is Axel’s brother and a dragon shifter as well.”
“Okay. That’s a lot,” Atlas said.
“I’m not even halfway done.”
Atlas’s blue eyes widened. “What?”
“There were a couple of shifters that found their mates next. Shawn is a wolf shifter and Trevor a panther shifter and both are mated to humans.”
Atlas shuddered. “Those…must be huge shifters.”
Bel nodded. The shifters were the issue. He could see it now. “Now we come to my realm. Lawson and River’s brother, Seb, came to visit Nate and he met Ash, who is a reaper.”
“Reaper. Like the reaper of souls? You’ve mentioned souls a lot, making me lean toward that description,” Atlas said.
“Yes, very well done.” Bel made sure his voice held all the pride he felt.
“Okay, now I can see where you’re going with this, I think.”
“Probably so. At Ash and Seb’s mating ceremony, Adam, half dryad and half fae, met Mal, the master of punishment,” Bel continued.
“Master of punishment. Do I even want to know what that means?”
“What? Don’t you want to guess? You’ve done quite well so far,” Bel praised.
Rolling his shoulders and lifting his chin, Atlas preened. “Based on your descriptions of demons and your realm I’m going to say that the master of punishment is probably an important demon that…punishes the worst of the souls.”
Bel had known that Atlas would fit in perfectly with them. That he would be an amazing addition to the family. The boys would love the way he thought out every scenario. “Very good.”
“Yes!” Atlas pumped his arm. “Although I’m beginning to think I should have written all this down. That is a lot of names and…species?”
“Species works,” Bel assured him. And Atlas had been worried about offending one of them. As long as he didn’t call anyone a monster, they were going to get along fine. “And Seb has a chart.”
Atlas laughed. “He would need it. Now who?” the boy bounced as he asked.
Bel had to think for a moment. “After Adam and Mal was… Oh! Levi. The gargoyle of the pack mated to a human. Mason. Mason has a twin brother, Jason, who is mates to one of our demons, Tristan.”
“Yeah, this needs a chart.”
“Seb, Ash, Adam, Mal, Jason, and Tristan all live in our realm. Rainier, Anton, and River live in the fae realm, the others live in the human realm where you come from except Bo, and Craig and Nate come back and forth.”
“And now we’re talking about other realms,” Atlas groaned.
“But at least we are done with the pack?”
Bel smiled slowly.
“We’re not?” Atlas asked incredulously.
“No.”
“Keep going,” Atlas said. “I might need some Irish in my coffee though.”
Bel lifted a brow in offering.
Atlas sipped from his mug. “Not yet. Maybe soon though.”
“Back to the human realm. We have Logan, the lion shifter, and his mate, Dean, who is a powerful mage. I’ve called and left a message with Dean to see if he can help you.”
“Okay.”
“Dean has a feline shifter as a familiar named Noah.”
“A witch with a familiar. Got it.”
“Mage. There is a difference between mages, witches, and warlocks,” Bel explained patiently.”
“Of course there is.” Atlas even rolled his eyes.
“Next was Gavin, a thunderbird shifter, and his human mate, Stryker. And Leo is Gavin’s brother who is not currently mated.
We also have Aaron, an oracle, and Bastian, a margay shifter, and his human mate, Hudson.
Lucifer just informed me this morning that Aaron found his mate in Hudson’s brother, Carter, but the two have not completed their claiming. ”
Atlas blew out a breath.
“And that is the pack that will help us. The boys that live in our realm will be happy to speak with you. And they do love their research.”
“That’s it?” Atlas questioned.
“I think that just leaves Lucifer and his two mates, Cary and Gage. Cary is human and Gage is a feline shifter.”
“And they’re coming here?” Atlas questioned.
“Just say our name and we appear!”
Atlas leaped from his chair.
Bel cursed. Time was up.