Lasse hummed as he quickly flipped the taameya he was cooking. Fresh cooked pita bread was already on the table along with a green salad with tomatoes he’d had delivered that morning. In deference to his mate’s heritage, Lasse chose a mixture of Greek and Egyptian breakfast foods. Made with fava beans and coriander the taameya’s cooking smells overshadowed the scent of the spinach pie he’d made earlier. Slabs of cheese, freshly squeezed orange juice from the fruit trees outside and a small jug of yogurt completed the table.
“Hmm, my mate, you honor me with a repast worthy of a warrior,” Jason strode in wearing nothing but a pair of pants very similar to the ones he wore the night before, and boots. Big black boots. He hovered a moment by the table but then came over and rubbed his beard against the hair on Lasse’s cheek. “I find showing affection difficult as it’s been centuries since it was appropriate,” he murmured. “Don’t be afraid to call me out on it, if you feel I’m not treating you right. I missed you in the bed this morning.”
Lasse’s smile widened. Reaching over, he turned off the stove and rested his hands just above Jason’s hips. “We’ll adapt to each other,” he said as he rubbed their noses together. Sharing breath. Even that simple act made his heart sing. “We’ve both been alone for far too long. I confess I often get up early, especially when I am here. I watch Helios climb the sky and fancy I can see my father, Abraxas. When the sun meets the sea it’s easy to imagine the passion between him and Poseidon that led to Nereus’s and my existence.”
“You are a romantic,” but Jason was smiling and Lasse knew the tease was meant kindly. “Next time wake me, so I might wave at your father who pulls the chariot of the sun.”
“He will be pleased to see me so happy,” Lasse admitted as he grabbed the plate of taameya and nudged Jason towards the table. “It wasn’t easy for Abraxas to give us up the way he did. We were only knee high at the time. I fear Nereus took it a lot harder than I did. He and Abraxas met up for the first time in thousands of years only a few months back. Maybe it was because I was older, or just a different temperament, but I’d always made sure to be at Poseidon’s when Abraxas visited. Abraxas got permission from Zeus to visit the undersea realm once every five years and I never missed a chance to see him. Of course, things might be easier now Poseidon spends so much time with his mate in Tulsa. We might all be able to get together more often.”
“Why did you have to live with Poseidon when you were born to Abraxas? Especially, if Abraxas didn’t want to give you up.” Jason took a mouthful of the taameya and groaned. “Fuck, these are wonderful. They remind me of home.”
Lasse blushed. Used to cooking for himself, receiving compliments for his meals was something new for him. Cutting himself a slab of the spinach pie with its flaky pastry still warm and crisp, he addressed Jason’s question. “No one really knows why me and Nereus couldn’t live in the House of the Sun. Mind you, I think back when it happened, Abraxas wasn’t too impressed at being pregnant at all, although he loved us dearly since we were born. But it’s something to do with the sea in our veins. Being so far from water made me sick when I was seven and Abraxas was worried the same thing was happening to Nereus. So, we went to live with Poseidon.”
“That would have been tough for all concerned. So, does this mean you have a Mer form complete with a shiny tail?” Jason waggled his eyebrows as he shoveled more food into his mouth.
“A Mer form and a horse form,” Lasse agreed. “I can handle living on land most of the time, but I need to swim in my Mer form at least once a month. My horse, which tends to glow, is harder to hide and doesn’t blend that well so he rarely gets a workout.”
“I know the feeling,” Jason sighed while his fingers were busy adding taameya and salad to one of the pita slices. “The only chance I get to change forms is if I’m in the desert and even then I have to watch there’s no archeologists or scientists around. Those men are like ants. You find them in the strangest of places.”
“Are you like your sister in your shifted form?” Lasse didn’t want to raise an upsetting topic, but he was curious. “Why does your sister have the head of a male in her stone form? Is that common among your kind?”
“My sister’s beloved face was removed almost four thousand years ago,” Jason scowled. “Fucking Djedefre, a pharaoh at the time wanted the statue to resemble him or nothing at all. Once I saw what happened, I stole there in the dead of night and pleaded with her to shift and steal away with me. I don’t even know if she heard me. She certainly didn’t reply. The last recorded time she spoke to anyone was in 1400 BCE when she visited Tuthmosis the fourth in a dream. He built a wall to protect her, but the sand is like a shifting tide. In time she will flow with it.”
Once again Lasse felt an overwhelming sense of sadness. He’d read recent reports; the attempts of the antiquities division in Egypt to save the beloved icon from the power of erosion, but nothing seemed to work. Given she was paranormal, Lasse wasn’t surprised. “What was her name?” He asked quietly.
“Zosime,” Jason said sadly as he put down his food. Lasse reached over, clasping his hand. “It means the survivor. Unfortunately, after the death of her mate during the Great war among the gods, she lost that will to survive. Had it been possible for her to die, she would have taken her own life. She loved him with her whole heart. Alas, he was human and there was nothing I could do to save him.”
“But surely, if she’d claimed him then he’d be immortal just like she was.”
“He didn’t know who she was,” Jason shook his head. “I told her she was making a mistake. I told her she needed to claim him with a bite at the very least, so he’d be protected. But she laughed me off, told me they had plenty of time for him to love her first before she showed him her true form. After he was killed, I pleaded with Sebastian for an audience with Thanatos to ask for him back. Sebastian arranged the meeting and I explained everything to Thanatos, told him Zosime would tell her mate the truth of who she was if Thanatos would just let her mate come back. But there are some things even gods can’t do. Amun visited me finally and told me to let it go.”
“Why didn’t you plead the case with Anubis or Osiris?” While Lasse knew most of the gods from all sectors interacted in other realms, he thought it strange his mate would turn to Sebastian and Thanatos to plead for the human’s soul.
“Pah.” Jason’s scowl deepened. “Those two never cared for humans. They thought Zosime’s mating was nothing more than an infatuation and once the man was dead, she’d get over it. Besides, they never approved of our creation – said we were freaks; examples of what happens when gods can’t keep their dicks in their pants. If they had cared…there’s no point in talking about what if. I knew Sebastian; had saved his neck a time or two and hoped to call in a favor. It didn’t work.”
“Is that all Sebastian is to you? Someone who owes you a favor or two?” Lasse felt crass even bringing it up, but this was the second time in less than twenty four hours Jason had mentioned the son of death. “You’re exactly Sebastian’s type, or you were before he met his sweet young mate.”
Thankfully, Jason seemed to appreciate the diversion because his lips twisted in a wry grin. “Are we talking about past hookups now? Should I make a list? It could take some time. I’m as old as you are, if not older.”
Lasse’s cheeks heated and he ran his hand over his beard. “My list is probably equally long, but after working my way through the Mer guards when I was still a teen learning what my dick was all about, I tended to steer clear of sexual entanglements with men from any of the god lines. There were too many chances I was following Poseidon’s footsteps and I never liked the idea of being compared to him, especially in bed. From what I heard, I’d be found lacking.”
“Ouch, babe,” Jason shook his head. “There’s no way anyone could find someone as fine as you lacking. But yeah, finding out someone you stuck your cock into still remembered their fling with old Sei would be a downer for anyone’s dick. Your dad did get around.”
“Not anymore thank goodness. I think the ancient gods all sighed with relief when Claude caught my father’s eye.” Lasse noticed Jason hadn’t answered his question about Sebastian and tried to tell himself it didn’t matter. Sebastian was happily mated.
He reached for the plates, planning to clear the table, but Jason’s hand stopped him. “Hey, I’m not denying I’ve seen Sebastian’s dick once or twice. If it matters to you, yours is far nicer. But to my knowledge, he’s never bottomed and neither have I. When I do, it will be with you. Does that help?”
Lasse gulped, the thought of being Jason’s first blocking out any other thought of what Jason and Sebastian might have got up to. “When you’re ready,” he managed to say. “I’d be honored.”
Roaring with laughter, Jason shook his head. “You are so damned sweet. Now, I have a question. Spirit of fair play and all that. I know you’ve never had sex with Thor or the cosmos would know about it, but Mer guards. Wow. That has to mean you were in your Mer form when it happened. What happens to your dick when your bottom half turns into a fish? I’ve only seen pictures and none of them showed a dick or a pouch for one to be in.”
“Shall I show you?” Lasse waved his hand; who had time to do dishes when his mate was curious about his other form. “I promise, if you’re with me, you won’t drown.”
“We’re going to Poseidon’s lair?” Jason’s eyes lit up. “Fucking fantastic. That’s one place I haven’t been.”
Thank the Fates. One man who daddy dearest hasn’t fucked first. Holding out his hand, Lasse was thrilled when Jason took it without fear. Closing his eyes, he translocated them to Poseidon’s palace under the sea.