Worth It - Lisa Oliver Page 0,17
about powers. He was happy enough stretching his legs. He wished his other half would calm down, but he could be patient. Tigers were good at that.
“I never dreamed… I… I’d never have believed it if I hadn’t seen it for myself,” Wes whispered, reaching out as though to touch the tiger. “That’s incredible.”
The thunder rumbled harder this time, rattling the window frames. Ra chuckled as he glanced up at the ceiling. “And ‘you know who’ would have known it too, if he’d been more respectful of the gift given to him.”
“You mean ‘you know who’ and Paulie are...?” Cass’s eyes widened.
Ra pointed at the ceiling. “Someone’s now having a hissy fit. But I’ll be the one to tell our lovely tiger what he should’ve been told at puberty. Paulie, babe. Are you in there?”
Where else would he be? Tilting his head to one side, the tiger eyed Ra steadily. He could listen for both of them. And it seemed Ra understood that.
“Paulie, you aren’t a freak, you’re a blessing. A blessing from the gods themselves. While you shift like your mother, your tiger is like nothing seen on this earth and there’s a reason for that. You, my dear Paulie, are a demigod. Your father was from the god line.”
The tiger opened his mouth and let out a roar – he knew it. He’d always known he was special and now it had been confirmed by one of the top gods themselves. His roar mingled with the crash of angry thunder coming from the skies. As the noise died down – from both the thunder and the tiger – a large ruby pendent appeared around the tiger’s neck. The tiger felt its presence, hooking it with his paw and rubbing it against his face. He chuffed contentedly as he took in the scent of his mate. I knew I was special. I will find you.
Chapter Six
“No!” Zeus looked at his empty hand in shock. He shouldn’t have listened in; he rarely had the audio activated when Paulie was interacting with others. But with Ra’s physical proximity to his mate, he just wasn’t thinking straight, and now the ruby pendant with the drop of his blood was gracing the neck of a tiger of Olympian stature, who was looking directly at him through the screens as though he knew Zeus was watching.
I will find you. Zeus almost fainted as the foreign words whispered through Zeus’s brain.
He knows. He knows who I am. No. No. No. This was not supposed to happen. Zeus forced his eyes away from the glowing tiger, his foot tapping angrily on the marble floors. A god, the tiger’s father is a fucking god. But who? Why?
Gods impregnating mortals was hugely frowned on and had been for the past thousand years or more. In modern times, with the advent of new technology, the tightening of societal rules and customs around marriage and heritage laws, gods could cause more trouble than a casual fuck was worth if they left their seed in a fertile female.
But in Paulie’s case the transgression was worse. The father, whoever it was, should have at least seen to Paulie’s welfare. The tiger had been homeless and on his own for twelve years, pretty much from when he first shifted. That was unheard of among most pantheons.
So, who? Who the hell could it be? Zeus ignored the fact just hearing one brief phrase from his mate in his head was enough to have his cock hardening to the point of pain. He could ignore it and he would, for as long as it took. Paulie’s mixed heritage had cancelled out many of Zeus’s concerns about mating with the tiger, but he couldn’t, he didn’t dare stake his claim until he found out who Paulie’s father was.
Zeus’s glance back at his screens was automatic, he couldn’t help himself, but then he whipped round as all he was staring at was an empty room. Paulie, Cass, Wes and Ra were gone. Waving his hands over the screens, Zeus waited, knowing his powers would show Paulie’s current location anywhere on earth. But there was nothing. Just static, and that could only mean one thing. Ra had taken Paulie to his own realm.
FUCKING RA! Zeus’s foot went through the marble as he stamped, his rage finding an outlet.
/~/~/~/~/
“Is there a reason we’re here?” Paulie shifted as Ra translocated them, patting his neck where the ruby pendant was still sitting. “Here” was a huge meadow with big trees providing