Why did I keep having all these conflicting emotions?
“You could have just asked me about my mates and trusted my good judgment.” I gave Mom a hard look. “You didn’t have to go to such extremes and order the succubi to molest my mates. They were naked in front of them! Did you think I liked seeing that? What were you thinking, Mom?!”
I paused a second to get my emotions back under control, drinking more fabulous coffee.
Mom only smiled at me.
“What if they had failed?” I couldn’t help but ask. I was curious.
“Things would have ended badly.” Mom sipped her wine. “They’d have been sent to the Eternal Realm of Emptiness and Misery, wandering, wailing, and repenting to no end. They would never escape, and never get a second chance.”
I shuddered. “That’s cruel! They don’t deserve that even if they had chosen others over me.”
Yet my mates didn’t even flinch at Mom’s words, as if they thought the punishment was just.
“No one can promise that life is easy and fair, my soft-hearted child,” Mom said, reaching to ruffle my hair. “Your mates agree with my methods to weed out the weak.”
I ducked. My hair was already wild. I didn’t need Mom to mess it up more. No matter the circumstances, I needed to maintain at least a passable appearance to keep my mates interested.
“Any dickhead who betrays you can rot in the Misery Realm,” Héctor said as he finger-picked a honeyed and spicy buffalo wing, ready to consume it. He gave Paxton, Zak, and Axel a glare to make his point before biting into the wing.
“See?” Mom grinned. “They all agree.” She twirled her fingers, and the used plates and half-consumed dishes disappeared. A second later, more food appeared to replace them.
I drained the coffee and gestured for Mom to refill the mug.
“I do not fully agree, Queen Lilith,” Zak said unhappily and put down a salad bowl. “You haven’t tested me. Why was I excluded?”
I blinked.
I wondered about that too, and a pang of guilt jabbed me. I often paid less attention to Zak than to my other mates, mostly because he didn’t demand my attention, not like Axel. And sometimes I felt that I didn’t get the Demigod of Sky, even though I loved and desired him as much as I did my other mates.
Mom rolled her eyes. “You were the unfeeling one for eons until you met my daughter. You don’t and won’t feel for anyone except for Marigold. No sense in wasting resources beating a dead horse.”
A wave of sadness washed over me at Mom’s opinions of Zak.
Zak was the bastard son of Zeus, the King of the Gods. Zak seldom talked about himself. Héctor once told me that Zak was one of the few demigods brought up in Olympus and was treated like second class.
Raised in the cold, brutal, and cut-throat environment, the sky demigod never thought he was good enough, and he couldn’t escape his fate as nothing but Zeus’s tool and weapon. When Ares came to Earth to rule and recruited him, Zak accepted the offer, but he still couldn’t feel anything. He was as cold as stone until he met me at Half-Blood Academy. I’d unlocked deep feelings in him, and I felt his profound love for me. But he was careful about showering me with his affections, not wanting to overwhelm me.
I needed to be a better mate for Zak. Once we put some distance between ourselves and all the dangers of the Void, I’d tell him that I accepted him unconditionally and would try to get him to open up more.
“I’m not a dead horse,” Zak grated. “I just wanted the same courtesy to prove my undying love and loyalty to my Rosebud! I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”
“Whatever,” Mom said.
“I don’t get it either, Lilith.” Axel grated at my mother. “Why was I tested? You thought those naked women in my bed could interest me? Not a damn chance. But you hurt my Cookie by throwing those unwelcome succubi at me. This is about my father, isn’t it? I’m nothing like Ares!”
His father’s betrayal had wounded Axel deeply. He’d looked up to the God of War as his hero all his life until Ares had tried to take me from his son’s bed and then tried to kill me after failing. That prick messed up my war demigod mate badly, and it would take time for Axel to bounce back.
If we crossed paths with Ares again, it would be a fight to the death.
Lilith narrowed her silver eyes at Axel. “Ares isn’t even in the equation of my consideration. The trial had nothing to do with your father, but everything to do with my daughter.”
“Really?” Axel’s voice dripped with disbelief.
“I’ll have a few words with you, too, Queen Lilith,” Paxton chimed in, also looking displeased. “What made you think I would choose any woman other than Buttercup? I shouldn’t have been put on the same level as Axel. He was a notorious playboy before he met my mate and then turned a new leaf. I am the only one who hasn’t completely, truly mated Buttercup. I’m still on probation in this relationship, to a degree. Do you even know how long it took her to warm up to me? Your suspicions toward me were unfounded. I know how to keep my dick in my pants. The only thing you achieved by sending your succubi after me was cause Buttercup untold amounts of anxiety and pain.”
And then all of my mates tossed harsh words at Lilith, expressing their exasperation and frustration.