bright blue sky. A huge man rolled across the ground, and then jumped up, lightening bolts in both hands, and a golden glow around his whole body.
“RA! You worm infected mummy carcass, get away from my mate!”
“Mate?” Paulie wished the ground would just open up and swallow him. He might not have had much schooling, but one, he knew how important mates were, and two, there was only one man in the clearing the god could be talking about. “Me?” His tiger pushing to get out should have been his first clue he was right.
Chapter Seven
Zeus was ready to smite down entire planets he was so damned angry. Initially, when he realized that Ra had taken his mate and their friends to his own realm, he reasoned with himself that Ra wouldn’t hurt a fly unless provoked, and at least Paulie was in a safe space.
He decided to have a meal. Everything tasted foul. Zeus couldn’t concentrate anyway because his blank screens kept mocking him. There were a million things he could be looking at, but Zeus had gotten used to watching out for Paulie.
And then he started thinking… Paulie was a demigod. He’d have powers. Zeus’s eyes narrowed. The power balance between the pantheons was a delicate thing. What if Ra tells Paulie not to worry about who his father is, and recruits him? Or worse…
It was really easy for Zeus to imagine what ‘worse’ would look like. Ra was unmated. He hadn’t had a partner in a hundred decades. Paulie was cute, young, his innocence was a beacon, and to top it all off, he was a cat shifter. Fucking hell. Egyptians love their cats.
Zeus tried to do something else to clear his mind of the images that were now haunting his imagination. He yelled at his staff who ran the call center. It didn’t make him feel any less angry – they were all doing an exemplary job. He thought about seeking out Hera and yelling at her just for the hell of it, but that would lead to discussions about why he was angry… and yep, he wasn’t going there.
By the time he’d convinced himself he’d just go and have a ‘talk’ to Ra, Zeus’s whole body was crackling with energy. A quick zap to Ra’s realm, and… “Fucking hell!” Zeus had bellowed when he saw the ‘do not disturb’ sign hanging cheekily on a shimmering ward. Of course, Seth, Ra’s rabid guard dog, had come running and even punching him hadn’t made Zeus feel any better. He was sure he could hear soft music coming from the secluded glade; he could imagine, oh so well, the seduction scene Ra would’ve planned. Battering down Ra’s wards seemed like the right thing to do at the time.
Until Ra suddenly dropped the wards, the bastard, sending Zeus falling head over ass into a field dominated by a mountain of pillows. That was it. Zeus snapped. Ra was sitting on the grass, his hand on Paulie’s back – is he stopping Paulie from leaving? He yelled the first thing that came into his head.
“RA! You worm infected mummy carcass, get away from my mate!”
Big mistake. Zeus thought about backing up, but that would’ve made him look weak. Paulie, his sweet innocent mate pointed at his own chest as though he couldn’t believe his ears. Ra had a smile so smug, Zeus wanted to slap it off him and even that damned Seth had the audacity to look amused. Two heads popped out of the pillow mountain – the wolf and demon – and yep, those bastards were smirking too.
I think I just outed myself. Shit. In Zeus’s head the only good defense was an offense, and he kept his wrath on Ra. “You knew Paulie was important to me. You didn’t have to know why, but you knew he was. You fucked off with him and now you’ve got him here, secluded away behind wards, with pillows and grass…” Okay, his offense sounded better in his head. “Get away from him!”
Nothing like being blunt and to the point. But maybe Zeus’s roar was too loud, or maybe Paulie was frightened by his anger – Perhaps I could have toned it down a bit in deference to his sweet ears – but then bam, Paulie wasn’t there any more, a bloody big glowing tiger was and the massive beast was running straight for him.
I’m a powerful god, I don’t run from anything. But Zeus saw the possessive gleam in that