“River? While you were gone, Hades was setting up a clinic for you to replace the one you had back on Earth. It’s not finished yet, but can you look at Lis?” Cerberus said.
“It’s still early, my love. River just got back, and her clinic isn’t finished. Let her get settled and have the proper tools. I’ll be fine,” Lis said.
I didn’t know Hades was building me my own vet clinic here, but it meant a lot to me. Being a vet was important to me, and I didn’t want to stop even if I had totally moved realms. I was totally against irresponsible animal breeding and had to bite my tongue while assisting with some C-sections. Multi-headed puppies were outside of my scope, but I was a little excited for Cerberus. He found his mate, and I was happy for him. Even if that meant I would have to figure out how to deliver three-headed puppies with Hellfire.
“When did the two of you mate?” I asked.
“Two days ago,” Cerberus said proudly. “Several times.”
I had no problems talking about his puppies, but I didn’t want to talk about his sex life. And lord help me, it was way too soon to tell, and he was already flipping out.
“It’s way too soon for me to tell if she’s pregnant, Cerberus.”
“We tied. She’s totally pregnant.”
Ew.
“I still can’t confirm it just yet, and nothing will show up on my ultrasound. For now, spoil her and make sure she gets more food.”
“I can do that. When can you look at her?”
I might have thought Hades would be an impatient parent, but he had nothing on his pet dog. I had a feeling I would see a lot of Cerberus and his puppies, but I knew he would make a fantastic daddy dog. He tried to nanny dog me several times when it came to monsters in my bed.
Lis rubbed up against Cerberus.
“Let her get settled. She’ll look at me when it’s time. Let’s go snuggle and leave them be.”
Lis and Cerberus left the room, and I was alone with my monsters and god.
“Those are going to be some adorably dangerous puppies,” Tryphon said. “I hope Lis can teach them to control that green fire, or they will destroy this entire castle.”
Demos just yawned.
“I don’t want to talk about puppies. We’re finally home. We won. Sure, Dionysus’s party was brilliant, but I think we all know we would have preferred a different kind of celebration.”
I cocked an eyebrow at Demos. That spoke directly to my very soul.
“Big ass orgy?”
Tryphon tossed his hair over his shoulder.
“I was a little disappointed to get invited to one of Dionysus’s parties, and we didn’t have one of his famous orgies.”
Hephaestus just laughed.
“No, you don’t. We can have a much saner orgy than anything Dionysus threw. His satyrs went wild, and his Bacchae egged them on. Trust me. You want no part of those orgies.”
I put my hand on my hip and struck a pose.
“I don’t want to think about horny satyrs. Let’s celebrate what we’ve accomplished back in my room. Now.”
I was so in for this. I didn’t want to deal with walking there. I could make portals, and I intended to abuse this power.
I opened a portal straight to my bedroom because we were doing this. They had kidnapped Hephaestus the last time we did this. It was time to do this with everyone here.
Chapter 32
Tryphon
I
f we were doing this, I might as well just say it. It wouldn’t hurt to ask. It was like everyone didn’t know, anyway. Hephaestus might not, but River could probably guess. I knew Demos and Kimon wouldn’t play, but I was hoping sexy Hephaestus would. If he wouldn’t, that was fine. River was indulging her bisexual side, and mine wanted to come out and play too. There were just so many possibilities with her dating all of us, and I wanted to explore all of them…if the other men were on board with that.
I struck a pose by her bed and flipped my hair back. I might as well just blurt it out and get it over with.
“I have a request, and if it’s denied, I’m okay with that. I just want to ask.”
River snuggled into my chest.
“I’m up for anything you want, Tryphon.”
I knew she was. She was up for fucking everything in this adorably insane way. She loved my tentacles, and she enjoyed fighting with a damned Minotaur in bed. I could have suggested the most deranged thing possible off the top of my head, and she would have tried it and probably enjoyed it. The rest of us were sick fucks too, but they cut Hephaestus from a different cloth than the rest of us. He was so much kinder, and I admired that about him.
I kissed the top of her head.
“It’s not up to you, River. I’m just as bisexual as you are. I want you to share me with someone else.”
I wasn’t looking at anyone else in the room, but Hephaestus. I already knew what Kimon and Demos’s answers would be. They were totally judgment-free, but they didn’t enjoy the company of other men as I did. Hephaestus knew I had zeroed in on him, and he just cocked an eyebrow at me.
“I will admit to being curious, and I like the way you are looking at me, but why? Most women don’t even want to bed me unless they want something.”
River let out this little growl, and I just smiled at him. I couldn’t change how people had treated him in the past, but I could help River in making him see that he was pretty fucking amazing. His small limp didn’t make him ugly like his people made him think. He was honestly one of the most beautiful men I’d ever seen, and I didn’t give a shit he had that limp.
If I was just blurting things out, I might as well keep doing it.
“Those people were fucking stupid. Honestly, you’re one of the most amazing men I’ve ever met. I’d still be trapped as my Kraken if it weren’t for you. You saved my queen and everyone else in the Underworld. Because of you, Olympus is a better place. I’ll bet your fucking family is regretting making you feel like shit about that injury because they’d still be under Zeus’s thumb. And I’m sorry, I know you don’t like to talk about this, but you have this whole sexy blacksmith thing going on that I dig. People who didn’t want to just jump on that train and ride it for fun have to be pretty fucking stupid.”
Did I offend him? Back when I was still on Earth, everyone talked about how horrifically disfigured he was. Everyone knew if you went to him to have something forged, you had to avoid staring or mentioning what he looked like, or he’d throw you in the fire. I didn’t care. I didn’t want him to think he was ugly any second longer. Luckily, he threw back his head and laughed.
“I have to say. No one has described me in that way before. I like it.”
Pavlina wasn’t a part of this conversation, but she always had to let her two cents be known.
“You totally have the whole sexy blacksmith thing going on. Combine that with how awesome you are, and it’s almost enough to turn me straight. Almost. Dick still grosses me out, even if you are pretty to look at.”
Hephaestus just grinned at her.
“I’m on board with this. What did you have in mind?”
“River got her monster sandwich. I want to be in a sandwich with a demon and a god.”