His throat grew thick, and desire seared all through his body. A desire he now knew was focused solely on her. “Thank you.”
She didn’t answer. He didn’t expect her to. But his body was hot and tight regardless. And as the cell door clanged shut in her wake, a bitter truth rang out.
He wanted her. He wanted her naked and spread before him, crying out in that sexy, dominatrix voice. He wanted her on her knees, driving him wild with her sinful mouth, wanted her bound and bent over, shaking from his deep thrusts. He wanted her even knowing it was twisted in every way imaginable and that she should be the one person he hated above all others. But he couldn’t stop himself from wanting. Because wanting her gave him something to focus on.
And because for the first time in he didn’t know how long, he wanted someone other than his soul mate.
CHAPTER FIVE
“That is not the answer I was hoping to hear.”
Standing across Zagreus’s palatial office, Hades, the god-king of the Underworld and Zagreus’s pain-in-the-ass father, turned from the underwater-glass view he’d been staring at and pinned his son with a scathing look.
Zagreus fought from rolling his eyes and kicked back in his chair. “These things take time. You brought him here for a reason. You can’t rush perfection.”
Hades turned fully to face him. “You’ve had six months. His strength is growing—I can feel it—but you’ve yet to break him. If you cannot do so soon, I’ll be forced to take him back.”
Zagreus huffed. Hades would never take Nick to the Underworld. The closer Nick was to Krónos, the more likely the elder god would find out and send one of his minions from Tartarus to abduct him. Then all hell—literally—would break loose. No, Hades wouldn’t risk losing his prize to his father, which meant Nick was Zagreus’s until the job was done.
“I don’t have to take him to the Underworld,” Hades said, reading his son’s mind. “I could let your mother finish what you started.”
Oh no. No way in hell. Zagreus sat forward and slapped his hand against the stone desk, hating more than anything that his father was reading his mind and conjuring powers so Zagreus couldn’t block him. He wasn’t handing Nick over to Persephone, the Queen of the Dead. She was as power hungry as Hades and would double-cross them all in a heartbeat to gain access to Krónos’s powers. “She’ll not touch him. He’s mine.”
Hades crossed the floor in a wisp of black and slammed his palms on the desk, towering over his son in a fury of darkness. “No, he is mine. And you’ll not soon forget that fact, or I will tear away from you the one thing you care most about in this world.”
Zagreus stared up at his father, a mixture of malice and hatred coursing through his veins. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Push me, and you’ll discover exactly what I dare.”
Zagreus wanted nothing but to push his fucking father right out of this world for good, but until he broke Nick and harnessed the demigod’s unused powers for himself, he would never be able to do that. Hades was too strong, and even though Zagreus was a god, he couldn’t beat his father. Not in ability, at least. In cunning, though, he’d learned from the master and was determined to win this game.
He relaxed back into his seat, feigning indifference. “I care not what happens to the demigod. I simply do not want to see Mother sink her claws into him. There’s no telling what she would unleash.”
“Nor do I,” Hades said, straightening. “Your mother is my last choice, which is why I brought him to you first. We have a deal, my son. Don’t make me remind you.”
A deal that was heavily weighted on Hades’s side. “Serve me or I will decimate everything you have built.” Who in their right mind would say no to that?
Zagreus drummed his fingers along the stone table, fighting back his contempt. “I’ve not forgotten the deal. And I’m living up to my end of it. He will break soon.”
“You have a month,” Hades announced. “A month to finish what I started, or I will come and claim him. I’ll know the moment his powers are unleashed, so do not try to screw me on this.”
Hades knew his son well, but Zagreus wasn’t planning to double-cross the god for the reasons his father expected. He didn’t give a shit about the human realm, the land Hades and his two brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, were each clamoring for. No, he wanted a kingdom more perfect. A world more enticing. A race way more responsive than those simpering humans the gods loved to toy with. He wanted Argolea all to himself.
Hades moved for the door, but stopped before he reached the threshold and looked back. “For you own good, son, you should rid yourself of the female.”
A fury Zagreus only barely held back whipped through him with the force of a tornado. “You’ll not touch her.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it. Unless you fuck with me. But mark my words. You’ve grown soft where she is concerned. If you keep her, she will be your undoing.”