Chapter 10
WOLFE
We stood in silence with the weight of unspoken tension between us. My soul was weary and desperate to be near her after so many days apart, but the scene I had happened upon had opened my eyes, leaving my mind in an unsteady churn.
It didn't resolve my hatred for her, of that I was certain. She was still a monster, but a veil had lifted to show the woman beneath. Her own brother had vilified her—was vilifying her. Olympiara told the populace to love Zeus, but they taught us to fear Hades. That fear came with a healthy dose of respect, but textbooks described her as vindictive and hateful. Devout, goddess-fearing families went daily and donated gifts to Hades in a desperate attempt to win her fickle favor. She likely didn’t even receive them.
Was everything I knew about the immortal a lie?
My torture wasn't a lie. Her purchasing my soul wasn't either.
She was a wretched creature, but wasn't I as well?
Maybe that was why my stomach was doing backflips.
Because I deserved the punishment I received.
I was an evil man who had earned every minute of my suffering in the afterlife.
Despite her actions taking a vindictive edge, Hades had simply been doing her job in torturing the sinful.
Then there was the moment she had pinned me against the wall.
My dick was still aching from the contact.
In my line of work, it would have been unwise to get involved with a partner, but there had been a courtesan that I frequented.
Lacey had been particularly skilled in domination and degradation.
It was a secret I had taken to my grave and only shared with her under the threat of a slow death, but my profession of dominating others had left me wanting to give control to someone else.
The pain, the punishment, it had been a euphoria I crawled back to over and over.
Hades was stirring up those feelings, and I needed to destroy them before I did something I regretted.
I shut the iron doors behind us with a dull click. Filthy from days on the road, I shuffled toward the bathing chambers. Though before I could make it past the threshold, her sultry voice stopped me in my tracks.
"Wait, Wolfe."
I waited, ever the obedient pet. My eyes flickered shut at the idea, because it didn't disgust me like it had before I murdered the remnants of my cabal.
The truth was, I had always been a dog, my shifting of masters had changed nothing.
The pill was hard to swallow, but I accepted it despite the foul taste.
Regardless of how sick and twisted, I enjoyed killing for her.
There was familiarity and comfort in accepting orders and ending lives, and I was fucking good at it.
I'd never had friends or loved ones. My cabal had treated me as a useful freak of nature on a chain, but they hadn’t truly cared for me.
My job—my skills—were all I had. They gave me a sense of power and pride Hades had stripped from me.
If I could, I would do it again, and that said more about me than I wanted to admit.
There was a pause before she finally spoke. "I don't want to fight you either."
My eyes widened with surprise at her confession, and I turned to her. I wasn't sure what I expected from my earlier olive branch to the goddess, but her acceptance was not it. My lips were parted, ready to respond until I saw her.
Her black slip had fallen from her voluptuous curves and crumpled into a pile around her heels.
Hades was a beautiful woman, I had never denied myself that fact.
She was all legs and curves with breasts that wouldn't fit in my hands, and her skin was perfection.
There was no hiding the increasing stiffness in my cock at the vision that was her naked body.
She knew it, too, which was infuriating to a level I couldn’t comprehend.
She used her body as a weapon, allowing us both to bask in the discomfort of her statement as she writhed into a ridiculously indecent slip.
The skirt was silk, but the bodice was all lace that still showed the curve of her tits and the dark pink of her nipples.
I stifled my groan and berated myself. Poisonous insects were often beautiful.
She would kill me if I dared to take a bite, but my dick didn't care.
I cleared my throat and finally tore my gaze from her body. "Alright, what does that mean for us?"
Her fingers gripped my chin and forced me to return my attention to her. This close, her heat melted the layer of frost that had built over my skin. Her exotic scent settled over me like a toxic fog ready to pull me under.
"Rather than threats, let’s try positive reinforcement."
My brows furrowed. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
Her hand trailed from my chin to my throat, where she gripped over the gemstone fused there. "I know how you look at me, handsome. Do as you're told, and I may just reward your good behavior. Let's see how loyal you can be when," her lip quirked up, "properly motivated."
My words abandoned me. My throat was dry, and I gulped against the fuzzy mass that had blocked my airway.
I was a fucking disgusting, pathetic man.
She was using her body against me, and it was fucking working, though I’d never admit it.
We both knew, but uttering the words would be a betrayal to myself.
She let go of me, a sardonic smirk twisting her face into something evil.
"Well, in two days you're going to leave on your next mission.
Since you eavesdropped on my conversation with Hermes, you know Zeus is falsely accusing me of causing a blight.
We are going to squash those rumors, because you're going to terminate every single one of those affected.”
"You're going to kill innocents." My voice came out flat.
The horror that should have resonated through me at the acknowledgement of what she was asking me to do didn't come.
Maybe it was the night before, or maybe I was truly evil, but a pool of acceptance was settling within me.
This was my life, for an eternity. It was fitting, in a wretched way.
I had committed my life to murder, now my death was stained with it as well.
Her lip curled in disgust. "They're dying anyway. Give them a quick, respectable death instead. I am not the monster here."