our mate!” Zak shouted.
The Demigod of War flung his violent wind at his father as he zipped toward me. At the same time, Héctor, Zak, and Paxton blasted their energy at Ares.
Ares pulled up a shield as the room exploded in a flurry of motion.
“You’d fight me for a woman you met less than two weeks ago?” Ares scolded his son.
“She means the universe to me,” Axel snarled. “You should never have touched her.”
The demigods tossed their energy blasts at the god again and again, hellbent on blowing him up.
“Why is she like this?” Ares demanded as he shielded himself. “What’s wrong with her?”
“If she doesn’t come back to us in one piece,” Héctor said, “we’ll kill you, asshole.”
Axel scooped me up into his arms, but I slipped right through.
“No, no, Cookie,” Axel called, terror in his voice. He’d never seen me like this. “Don’t leave me. Don’t leave us. I’m sorry I let you get taken. We’re here now. We won’t let anyone take you away again.”
I struggled, gathering my strength to return to solidity.
I flickered once, twice, my form regaining shape.
A hot mouth found mine. Axel breathed his life force into me.
My shimmering form stabilized as his power flowed through me, nourishing me.
“Axel.” I sobbed against his lips, wrapping my arms around his neck so tightly I nearly choked him. But I was afraid if I loosened up a little, he would drop me and I’d disappear for good.
He carted me farther away from where the other demigods battled Ares.
Three energy beams locked on Ares, and the god countered with his energy blast.
Fire sparked off from the impact where the energy blasts crashed. The air crackled with ripples of electricity that could reduce a mortal to nothingness.
Axel fed me another stream of energy before he lifted his lips from mine. The empty ache in me no longer throbbed. I was no longer in danger of fading, but I was still so hungry. I needed to mate with Axel.
“Take everything you need, Cookie,” he said. “I’ll get you out of here as soon as you can stay substantial.”
“We can’t leave them,” I said stubbornly.
“They’ll be fine,” Axel said.
Zak and Héctor rammed their fists into Ares’s face, Héctor at the front, Zak from the back. Paxton charged from the side.
I didn’t know how long I’d been gone, but it must have been long enough for Paxton to recover. Though he didn’t seem as fast as Zak and Héctor at the moment, his ferocity and rage matched theirs.
“It is a joke that all my demigods are fighting me over one woman,” Ares spat.
“You shall never touch what’s ours,” Paxton snarled.
“Last I heard, she tried to torch you alive,” Ares said, knowing how to hurt the sea demigod.
“I deserved it,” Paxton said. “But it’s none of your business.”
The four of them blurred into a vortex they created, and I could barely see who was hitting whom. The sound of cracking bones and curses and shouts ricocheted off the wrecked castle walls.
“We need to aid them, Axel,” I said in his arms.
“They’ll handle him,” he said. “We took elixir before we came to you. Our strength is enhanced. Let’s get you out of here.”
His lips found mine again, tender, possessive, and stealing my protests.
I opened my mouth for him, and he thrust his tongue into me, sweeping it against my hard palate. Pleasure blasted through me, and a flame of lust licked the aching flesh between my thighs.
My tongue pressed to his, needing to mate. He pulled me against him, his heat and raw need radiating to me. I lifted my legs and wrapped them around his waist.
I knew I shouldn’t have been overtaken by lust while my other demigods combated the God of War, but the mating fever claimed me like a sweet agony.
A sweep of colorful wind swirled around me as I clung to Axel. When the explosion of colors faded from my eyes, I found that we’d alighted in Héctor’s secluded house at the edge of campus.
CHAPTER 6
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Axel carried me to the bedroom.
I’d napped here once after mating with the Demigod of Sky. I hadn’t expected Zak to be my first. I’d always thought it’d be Héctor.
But at that time, I was fading and Héctor wasn’t around. He’d been in Manhattan, fighting demons and searching for a fabled weapon. When he returned, I’d begged for his forgiveness. I’d felt so ashamed that I’d betrayed him, but Héctor had comforted me.
He’d accepted that I wasn’t his alone and that I belonged