Although, that control still slipped from time to time.
He looked up at his brother, his aching heart warming as he saw the concern in Keras’s green eyes and the need to support him, to be there for him.
Ares nodded, silently thanking his brother. He needed all the strength he could get right now, and was grateful that Keras had helped him with the hardest part of leaving Megan.
He was grateful to all his brothers and their women as they gathered around him. Marek helped him back onto his feet, and Aiko wrapped him in a tight hug that had Esher growling at him. Daimon came to him and gripped his shoulder, offered a smile that said he was there for him.
“I can probably put together a spell that would allow you to see each other, although I would need to enter the Underworld to set it up on that side too. Like a magic mirror.” Cassandra’s words were a balm to his heart, the thought of being able to see Megan whenever he needed to soothing some of the hurt.
“She’d like that,” he husked, struggling to deny another wave of tears.
“I can cast a portal so you can visit her,” Cal said.
Ares nodded. “I’d like that… but I don’t want you tapping yourself out.”
Using his favour mark to create a portal was draining for Cal, and he needed his brother strong, didn’t want to be responsible for anything that might happen to him because he had weakened himself by casting portals for him to visit Megan.
Cal shrugged, lifting the hem of his black T-shirt. “Whenever you want one, you’ve got one. Okay?”
He nodded again.
Noticed that Enyo had remained at a distance, near the end of one of the couches, and looked unsure what to do.
Megan had filled him in on what had happened when he had come around, and he couldn’t deny that he hadn’t been happy about what Enyo had done, or her timing, but as he looked at Keras, he could see a glimmer of the man he had been back in the Underworld.
So he wouldn’t hold it against her.
Keras’s gaze shifted to the goddess, a light entering his green eyes, warmth that Ares hadn’t seen in a long time, not since they had left the Underworld.
It felt good to see his brother happy again.
Now he just wished the two of them would quit dancing around shit and get together.
Maybe he could help a little there, could bring Enyo into the insanity that was his ever-growing family and make her feel at home.
And give his brothers a reason to stop ragging on her about what she had done.
“Enyo.” Ares jerked his chin, beckoning her.
It probably wasn’t wise to treat her like someone who should obey his commands, but he was too tired to go to her, didn’t trust his legs right now.
Her jade eyes widened.
She looked as if she wanted to point at herself to check it really was her that he was asking to come to him.
He arched an eyebrow at her.
She moved forwards, hesitantly at first, casting wary looks at his brothers.
Ares could only imagine how they had treated her while Keras had been away. One of them must have said something, because it wasn’t like the goddess to be this sheepish.
He had seen her kick Keras’s arse on numerous occasions in the Underworld.
His brothers were no match for her.
It dawned on him that she was holding back around them because she wanted them to accept her.
Well, that only made him want to do this even more.
When she reached him, he kept his focus on her, shutting out his brothers.
“I have a favour to ask.” He ran a hand around the back of his neck. “And I don’t want to hear a no from you.”
Her black eyebrows met hard. “Issuing me an order, Ares?”
He shrugged. “More like a request, but one that might appear to be an order if you don’t look at it from the right angle.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “I am listening.”
There was that haughty, take-no-prisoners female he had known growing up. The one who had smacked Keras around in the training ring more times than he could count, had laid him out flat half of those times, and had sent him home with a sparkle in his eyes and a grin plastered to his face every time.
Something Ares had always found disturbing.
Spending the evening with a grinning Keras always felt wrong, especially when his brother hadn’t seemed able to wipe it off his face.
His brother had been one sombre bastard before meeting Enyo, and had returned to being that way after they had come to the mortal world.
He glanced at Keras and caught a familiar twinkle in his green eyes as he watched Enyo. Although, it seemed Keras was slowly turning back into that grinning idiot again. Ares couldn’t blame him. Sometimes he found himself grinning from ear to ear too, smiling as he watched Megan, feeling lost in her and how much he loved her, and how blessed he was to have her.
He knew that when the baby came, the number of times he found himself smiling like a crazy person would only quadruple.
And he wanted that.
He wanted to be able to smile and not worry.
Which was why he needed to ask Enyo for this.
“My favour involves your favour.” And gods, a lot rested on her granting it, he felt that deep in his soul. “I want you to bestow it upon my kid. You’re strong, capable and brave, and no one can fight like you do, and I want to know she’ll be like you. I need to know she’ll have your protection.”
Her eyes widened again, a hint of rose climbing her cheeks. “You really want that?”
He nodded. “You have no idea how badly I want it. A little girl. Shit… I need to know she’ll be safe, able to handle whatever life throws at her.”
He had watched her train Keras. She had been dedicated and thorough, and he knew in his heart that she would take even greater pains in teaching his daughter how to fight, how to protect herself from anyone who meant her harm.
Enyo held her hand out to him. “It would be an honour.”
She smiled, one that lit up her eyes and wobbled a little, telling him how much this meant to her. Her brother had held her back for far too long. It was about time she got to shine, was treated like the powerful goddess she was, not forced to walk in her brother’s shadow as he stole all the glory.
Ares took her hand. “Might hire you as her personal trainer too. Don’t think Dad knows squat about training girls.”
The ground shook beneath his feet.
He wouldn’t take that one back, no matter how many earthquakes his father caused. Hades wanted to treat girls like they were precious and delicate, shielding them from the darker side of the world.
Ares wanted his daughter to be strong, a warrior in her own right. He wanted to know that no male would dare mess with her.
He also wanted her to never date, but that was something he would be discussing with her the second boys went from gross to great.
Which gave him plenty of time to get Hephaestus to forge an unbreakable chastity belt in her size.
“Deal,” Enyo said, her smile growing wider. “Anyone so much as looks at her in the wrong way, they will have to deal with me.”
Ares grinned as relief swept through him, lifting some of the weight from his shoulders, and couldn’t wait to tell Megan that he had secured them the best damned godmother the world had ever known. No one was going to mess with their daughter.
“Ah, and since no one has said it yet and my older brother still seems incapable of putting feelings into words, I’m just going to go ahead and say it.”