that shot at Ares and had saved all of us. I was super fond of not dying, and none of my mates getting killed too. Now that things were settled, I would have to make Solron and Finn a nice care package for taking Ares out.
Before I knew, everyone from Hell had stepped into a portal and were gone. They didn’t say goodbye to Hades. I had a feeling he already knew. He joined us as soon as the portal closed. Cerberus and Lis came bounding into the room, and Cerberus was even more excited than usual. I thought it was just because we were back until he just blurted it out.
“Lis went into heat while you were gone, and I’m going to have puppies! Can you check her out?”
I inwardly groaned. I knew they would have some powerful, adorable puppies, but I’d already dealt with Cerberus when Lis was injured. I knew exactly what kind of neurotic, doting dad he was going to be. Still, Lis was a Hellhound, and Cerberus had three heads. Lis needed to be seen, and I would have to do an ultrasound to see exactly how many heads her puppies had. This could very well be a French Bulldog situation where she had to deliver via C-section, and I was already groaning about trying to have that conversation with a three-headed dog.
“Congratulations, both of you. Hades, you’re going to be a grandfather.”
“Excuse me?” he demanded.
“Cerberus and Lis are having puppies. I need to examine her because she might have difficulty delivering if the puppies have more than one head like their daddy.”
“You can be a daddy now if you want too,” Pavlina said. “Zeus is gone, and the new council doesn’t feel the same about new Olympians. Nemesis has already agreed to be a surrogate to Hermes and Eros. Dionysus and Apollo have mates, and I think they’ve already gotten started. Hestia has paired up with Erebus, and she’s said she has long wanted children. Phanes is a bit of a perv. I guess he pretended to be the God of Procreation for a reason. He’s offered to knock up anyone wanting children.”
The big, bad Hades just entirely lit up. He was this grumpy motherfucker when it came to me, but I knew he adored Persephone. And I just watched him visibly soften now that he knew he could have babies with no one invading the Underworld and sending them to the Pits of Tartarus. He had a soft side. It just didn’t involve me pissing him off.
“Do you hear that, my love? It’s finally happened. We can fill our castle with little Olympians.”
Hades got pissed off at me a lot. He didn’t like me questioning everything, and he loathed it when I challenged him. Did he think a bunch of children was going to be any different? I could be a childish adult, but I had nothing on a hormonal teenager or a hangry toddler. Still, I was happy for both of them. Maybe a baby would calm him the fuck down.
Persephone must have really wanted that baby. I wasn’t even remotely ready to have children, but I wasn’t nearly as old as she was. I couldn’t imagine being ready for as long as she had been and not being able to do it because your family is a bunch of psychos who would hurt a baby. Persephone was pretty much done waiting. As soon as she found out no one was coming to harm children, she dragged Hades away just as fast as he came into the room.
“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