Chapter One
The mountains of paperwork were starting to remind her of home.
Athena stared at the piles as she heaved out a sigh. When did some mere mortal decide that battle should be reports, statistics and forms to be filed in triplicate? Shouldn’t they have clued the goddess of war in on this one? Recreating Olympus on her desk wasn’t her idea of a productive afternoon.
She nudged her dress skirt up to her hip then slipped her favorite blade from the leather sheath strapped around her thigh. She balanced the knife between her index fingers as she pondered.
All of this? All her misery? It was her half-brother’s fault. Ares was so busy playing house with his vampire-turned-nymph lover, Juliet, that he failed to fuel hatred and aggression between warring factions. There were a few talking peace. She couldn’t very well incite her favorite generals into battle plans if there was no war to fight.
So instead of war, she was writing reports. She hated reports with the passion of a thousand burning suns.
She slumped back in her office chair as she gazed at the silver glint of the blade. If the fact that she was the most bored she’d ever been in the infinity she’d walked this planet wasn’t bad enough, she now had a houseguest.
She could thank her asshole brother for that too. Well, him and the naked ring girl Juliet found him lip locked with in his office. The poor nymph arrived on the doorstep of Athena’s loft in tears blubbering the news.
Athena was the one who saved Juliet moments before she was incinerated by the sunrise. Athena was the one who’d defied her father, Zeus’s, orders to kill Juliet and changed her into a nymph just like Ares wanted.
And it was Athena who promised to kick Ares’s ass if he hurt her. After a night of take out Chinese food and pints of expensive ice cream, Athena left a sleeping Juliet to go have it out with her sibling. She took a moment to sense Ares then took off on the warpath. He was at his temple, which doubled as his fight club. Maybe once Athena was done with him she could teach a lesson to the little slut involved with this mess.
Freddy, Ares’s high priest and club manager, met her in the doorway of the club. He escorted her inside personally and offered her a shot or two of her favorite rum.
She smiled. She’d always liked Freddy. She should have snapped up his family before Ares did. Had she known he was going to be born she certainly would have.
Freddy calmly explained what happened before Athena could demand Ares’s whereabouts. The ring girl and a waitress had plotted the whole thing. They seemed to be angry that Ares was off the market. The ring girl had forced herself on Ares when she got the signal from the waitress that Juliet was coming.
Ares wanted to destroy both of them. Freddy had never seen the god so furious in all his life. Freddy was able to talk Ares down to just firing them. Killing them would risk revealing who Ares really was and the modern world wasn’t ready for that.
Since then, the god of war ghosted to where he was now so he could be left alone.
Athena searched Freddy’s mind and heart for the truth. She was a goddess. She could do that. By the little grin he gave her, she could guess he knew she was doing just that.
Every word he spoke to her was true. There wasn’t the hint of deceit even when Freddy confessed that he had no idea where his boss was.
Athena hoped Ares would be pissed enough to create some kind of chaos. She would if she were set up like that, by someone she thought she trusted.
Nope. Nothing. Her brother must have been sulking in his cave instead, or lord knows where. He wasn’t at the club or at her place making things right with his lover.
Athena went home to an inconsolable Juliet and explained. She thought the nymph would be relieved by the news and get the hell out of her apartment so she could have some peace. Instead Juliet vomited all over her new, very expensive, maize corn colored rug.
Juliet’s condition didn’t change over the next few days. She was tired. She was irritable, and she couldn’t keep anything down. It baffled Juliet. Nymphs didn’t get sick. They were immortal. Was Athena’s work to change Juliet from a vampire unraveling?
It took a particularly nasty text from Athena’s step-mother, Hera, for the light bulb to go off in her head. Cursing out the goddess of home and hearth made her think briefly about family and how fucked up hers was. She hurried off to the drugstore to confirm her suspicions. How was her brother going to handle this news?
“Penny for your thoughts?”
The voice startled Athena. She jumped, accidentally flinging the knife into the nearest wall as she tried to steady herself in her chair.
She glared at Ares as he gave her an impish smile.
Athena glanced past him, out the door of her office. Those under her bustled around completely oblivious of her new visitor. She scowled at him as she willed the door shut with a bang.
“What the hell are you doing?” she demanded.
“Can’t I visit my favorite half-sister?” he countered.
“You haven’t before.” Her eyes raked over his slacks, suit coat, and linen shirt with the top two buttons undone. “Thanks for not dressing like a slob like you usually do.”
“It’s not for you.”
“Picking up another waitress, huh?”
Ares glared at her. “Don’t. Freddy already told me that he explained everything to you. I didn’t want her to kiss me. She’s fucking lucky I didn’t snuff her pathetic life out right there.”
“Such a charmer, Ares.” Athena snapped her fingers to summon her knife to her. It wiggled a couple of times before it was freed and flew through the air into her hand. She tucked it away in its sheath.
Ares plucked at a couple of pieces of lint on his jacket then smoothed the fabric. The god of war actually looked anxious. “How is Juliet? Is she okay?”
Athena cocked her head at him. “Is that who you’re dressed up for? I told you if you hurt her that I’d kick your ass.”
“I’m here to bring her home.”
“Good luck with that.”
“She’s mine, Athena.”
“She’s a strong-willed nymph. She’s going to tell you to fuck off.”
“Not with a dozen roses and this.” He slipped a box out of the inside pocket of his coat and opened it.
The beautiful heart shaped stone pendant on a chain twinkled with a mystical light.
“You should give her a ring,” Athena muttered as she studied the necklace.
“What the hell do you mean?” he questioned.
Athena shook her head. “It’s not my place, Ares.”
Ares set the box on her desk then sat back in his chair. “No, Athena. You opened the can of worms. Spill. What is going on with Juliet?”
Athena sighed as she mimicked her half-brother. “She came to me in tears. After I talked to Freddy, I told her the truth. How did she respond? She threw up all over my rug. Ever since all she does is vomit, sleep, and complain about being achy.”
Ares eyes widened in alarm. “Whatever you did to change her from a vampire to a nymph is failing.”
Athena wagged a finger at him. “I thought that at first, but no. There is a perfectly reasonable explanation.”
Ares just stared at her, his brow creased in confusion. Athena shook her head again and continued. “Come on, bro. Put the puzzle pieces together. It’s not that hard.”
“Athena, I’m not in the mood for games. Just spit it out.”
“You’re going to be a daddy. Again. Try not to fuck this one up like you did the others, okay?”
Ares gaped at her, his mouth dropping open at her news. She watched his jaw as he concentrated on closing it, only for it to fall back again. “Are you certain?”
“She’s peed on a stick. It came back positive. We haven’t gone from there.”
“Huh.”
Athena leaned over her desk towards him. “Ares, she is still my nymph. If you hurt her or that baby physically, or break her heart, I will rip you apart.”
He sat forward in his chair until he nearly met her nose to nose. “Athena, I have never loved anyone like I love Juliet. I wanted to get her pregnant while she was still a vampire, but she didn’t want to curse our child. Now to find out she is carrying my baby, I’m torn between stealing her away to a high-priced hotel room to celebrate or just taking her home and kissing her lips and her belly until my mouth is numb.”
Athena skewed her face up in disgust. “Yeah. Keep your plans to yourself. But you’re happy?”
“Ecstatic. Overjoyed. Beyond the moon. I love this little one more than my existence and I haven’t even met them yet.”
Athena slumped back in her chair and waved her hand towards the door. “Good. Go get your girlfriend out of my loft. And act surprised when she tells you, alright?”
Ares rose to his feet. “Of course, Sis. Thank you for watching out for her. I appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome. I’d appreciate it if you used the door…”
Before she could finish, Ares disappeared. The rest of her words fell on an empty room. “Like a normal human being. Which you’re not. You’re a god.”
Athena rubbed her brow as she sat up and shuffled the papers on her desk. On the upside, she more than likely would have her place to herself by the time she got off work. True, Juliet wouldn’t make it easy for Ares. The god of war would have to beg and grovel to win her back.
But that was the thing. He would win her back. They were so deep in love there was no doubt she’d go back to him. And now they would have a little one to share that love with.
And knowing the love they shared made her restless. Her brother was a grade-A asshole and found his happily ever after. Was she ever going to find hers?
She growled under her breath. It wasn’t going to happen within the walls of the Pentagon. She reached over and flipped off her computer. She stacked up the last few stray sheets of paper on her desk. Maybe she’d go get a drink while the lovebirds vacated her place.
She stopped as her gaze landed on a form. She studied the last checkoff form for the newest fighter jet the Air Force had purchased. Sleek, stealthy, and fast, it called out to the war goddess in her. She scanned the sheet to find where it was and smiled when she read the location. It was housed just a few miles away.
“Screw the bar. Let’s take this baby for a spin,” she muttered to herself as she dropped the form on the pile. Scooping up her keys and purse, she made a beeline for the door without so much as a goodbye to anyone in her department.
* * * *
There were a few perks to being a goddess. Believe it or not, living for eternity wasn’t one of them. However, tinkering with mortal things like the flight schedules for billion-dollar fighter jets was without a doubt worth it.
Athena zipped up her jumpsuit then picked up her helmet. She did teach herself to fly. She didn’t use her powers to navigate it. It fed the fire inside her when she gripped the controls and took flight. It was the closest she came to being back on Olympus.
She nodded to a passing pilot as she strode down the corridor towards the hanger. A grin slowly spread across her lips as the jet came into sight. Flight crews scrambled to prepare it for flight. She bet they were shocked they had to get it ready in the first place. Funny the things that happened when gods get involved.
She climbed up to the cockpit and settled into the seat. One by one she flipped the controls on as she felt the slow crawl of the plane being pushed to the runway.
“Alright, beautiful,” she murmured. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Athena drummed her fingers on the controls as she waited for the tower to give her clearance. She grinned when static was followed by a voice. “Lynch, ready for takeoff.”
“Roger.” Athena pressed forward on the throttle and the jet stormed down the tarmac with a roar of the engines. Moments later it was climbing through the air.
The land below streaked past as Athena found her altitude. She laughed to herself as she took in the sky around her. The engineers weren’t shitting anyone. This was one sweet ride. The power behind this beast was mind-blowing. This baby was going to do some serious damage especially when there was a fleet of them.
She sighed as she stared at the billowing clouds around them. This was the closest she could come to Olympus, other than being there. Ever since her father, Zeus, had moved them from their home to Washington DC to be closer to the mortal world and the technology he craved, she rarely got back to the mountain. She missed it. Granted, seeing her work in action was satisfying but…
The sound of alarms and frantic beeping pulled her from her thoughts. She studied the dials and display monitors looking for the source of the emergency. Systems shut down one by one as the plane fell from the sky.
“Shit, shit, fuck.” Athena swallowed back the sour bile rising in her throat as she held tight to the yoke. She raced through the options in her head. She could just set the plane back on the tarmac where they’d started. But how many mortal’s minds would she have to alter to make them forget? She did a quick count in her head. There were way too many to deal with.
She glanced out the window to see the earth rushing towards her. She closed her eyes to focus on the inner mechanisms of the jet. Maybe if she could find whatever was wrong she could stabilize it, fix it and keep it from crashing. Erasing random sightings and incident reports was far easier than figuring out who exactly saw her on the base that day.
She gasped as she found the shorting wire in the engine. A moment later her entire body was jolted by the impact of the jet colliding with the ground. The memory of that wire was the last she had before everything went black.
* * * *
Mack stared out through the skeletal trees as he sipped his bottle of beer. It had been a long day at the shop. Fuck, he hated humans. His co-workers were no exception. He was glad to be home so he could enjoy his beer, finish up that rabbit he’d roasted the other night then get some shut eye before he got any calls.
His gaze rested on his tow truck, the words Bradshaw Towing roughly scripted across the door. Being this far in the swamp he would have thought he’d get one or two a month. Instead it was one or two a night. It was astounding how many stupid people drove into the muck to find alligators. It interrupted Mack’s sleep. One of these nights he was going to just let one of the buggers eat them instead of towing them out.
The roar of an engine tore him from his thoughts. Sounds like that didn’t happen out here or at least not that loud. He stood up and stroked his full, chocolate brown beard as he searched for the noise. He looked up and caught the underbelly of a jet as it streaked past overhead.
He hadn’t set his bottle of beer down on the overturned milk crate before the boom shook the ground. A pillar of fire rolled through the air. He muttered a string of curses as he picked up the pace. There was no way in hell anyone could survive that crash. And soon the military would be invading his sanctuary looking for answers. Fucking peachy.
Mack wove through the trees and stomped through the standing water towards the burning wreckage. Even from this distance he could feel the heat on his skin. He hurried when his gaze fell on a delicate, pale hand.
He cringed as he crept closer to the blaze. As quick as he could manage, he reached for the wrist of the pale hand and tugged. His breath caught in his throat as a blonde woman dressed in a flight suit slid along the mud. He had a funny feeling it wasn’t from the smoke drifting over him. He didn’t get out much and it had been a very long time since he’d laid eyes on someone so beautiful.
He shook the thought out of his mind and scooped her over his shoulder. He stumbled his way through the muck to safety and dropped her on the first downed tree he came too. There sure as hell wasn’t any reason to haul a dead body everywhere and he didn’t need the feds hunting him down if she were. He’d leave the corpse behind.
He shivered as he touched her cheek. He could feel his boxers tent with his sudden erection. Then his heart leaped in his chest.
“Fuck, she’s alive. How did she survive that?” he muttered to himself. He glanced back at the engulfed jet glowing in the distance. He knew his true nature. He was used to bizarre things. But this was one hundred percent impossible.
He carefully lifted her in his arms and cradled her close to him. He took his porch steps two at a time then threw the door open with a bump of his hip. She moaned as he laid her on the couch.
He stared at her as he rubbed his chin. Something primal and ancient burned deep in his soul. It demanded that he claim her, that he not let her go free until she was bound to him for eternity. All he could imagine was her naked in her bed, and him buried deep inside her.
He growled then stormed to the kitchen. This unexplained urge was forcing him to do something he’d sworn he would never do. He picked up the phone book and shuffled through the brittle pages until he reached the listings for the United States government. He picked up the handset of the rotary phone and dialed. It was time to get this woman out of his house and as far away from him as possible.
His gaze flickered from the woman on his couch to the clock as time ticked away. One automated system kicked him to another. His finger couldn’t spin the dial fast enough before he was sent somewhere else. Not once did a human answer the phone.
If a live, breathing being did finally answer the phone he was going to have a bone to pick with them.
A low moan tore Mack’s attention from his phone call. The blonde tossed and turned on his couch as she rubbed her face. She opened her eyes and glanced around his cabin. They were a beautiful sapphire blue and did nothing to calm the urges burning in Mack. If anything they made it worse.
She glared at him. “Where am I? And who are you?”
Mack set the handset back on the receiver and strode from the kitchen until he was hovering over her. He expected her to shrink away from him. He was an overbearing presence. Instead her gaze narrowed as she snarled.
“My name is Mack Bradshaw. You’re in my cabin. You crashed your plane in my swamp. Trust me. I didn’t invite you,” he told her. “And who might you be?”
His eyes fixated on the little spitfire’s mouth. Her tongue skimmed her lower lip. Her pale cheeks flushed pink as she scanned him from foot to head. He fought his instincts to kiss her until she was breathless.
“My name is Anna Lynch and I work for the Pentagon,” she answered. “What happened to my jet?”
Mack’s brow creased in anger. The name Lynch pissed him off and it would until his fight. He huffed then sucked in a deep breath. He needed to keep his cool. Just because they had the same last name didn’t mean she was related to that son of a bitch Romeo Lynch even though she had to be from around DC. “Your plane is a flaming piece of shit. The fire trucks don’t get this far out into the swamp. Don’t know what to tell you, sweetheart.”
Anna sighed as she searched the cabin around her again. She seemed to be formulating some sort of plan. “I need to reach my supervisor. I just need to find my…”
She patted her flight suit then rolled her eyes. “I left it in my purse at the hanger. That’s right. Fuck.”
Mack gaped at her, then chuckled to himself. An attitude and a foul mouth? This might be his kind of woman after all. Even a better reason to get her out of here before he threw her over his shoulder and hauled her to his bedroom to get rid of the lust about to erupt inside him. “You’re welcome to use my phone.”
She rubbed at the bridge of her nose. “I’m a slave to modern technology. I don’t have his number memorized.”
“There’s a phone book beside it,” Mack offered.
“The number I need wouldn’t be in the phone book. Where am I, anyway?”
Mack grinned. “Well, Miss, you are in the great state of Georgia, somewhere in the godforsaken part of the Okefenokee Swamp.”
“It’s not godforsaken anymore,” she muttered as her face grew paler than it already was.
“Excuse me?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head. “I just, I have no one to call. The only person I know to call I wouldn’t right now.”
“And who might that be? I don’t want you to wilt here in the muck without your technology.”
He could hear this woman named Anna growl. “Trust me. I’m far from fragile. The only person I know with a connection to the state of Georgia is my father. He’s from Athens.”
Mack’s eyes grew to slits. “That’s where I recognize you from. You’re Senator Alastair Lynch’s kid. I’ve seen you in the newspaper ads posing with your ridiculous family.”
“Excuse me?” Her voice pitched three octaves higher as her fists flew to her hips. She was even sexier when she was downright pissed. Mack bit back a guttural moan. He needed to get rid of this woman.
“Don’t you have a boyfriend, or fiancé, or something to call? Probably a stockbroker or something?”
“Nope, sorry. Kind of married to my job.”
“Then call your dad.”
“My dad is going to be very pissed that I took off with a billion-dollar prototype and crashed it in the swamp, okay?”
The words slipped out before Mack could stop them, his voice catching a bit from the lust building in him. “Daddy’s girl.”
Her face screwed up with a scowl as she stumbled to her feet. “You know what? I’ll walk to the nearest town. Thanks for saving my life but I don’t need to take any more of your shit.”
She stalked to the door. This was the answer to all of Mack’s prayers. The little spitfire was about to be out of his life. Except some unknown force took control of his legs and sprinted him to the door, slamming him against it before she could reach the knob. She looked up and glared at him, her lips less than an inch from his. Her warm breath on his mouth nearly snapped his already weak resolve.
“You’ll be dead by the time you reach the end of the lane. If the swamp doesn’t get you, the gators will,” he told her, his voice a low rumble. “Why don’t you be a good girl and go take a shower. The bathroom is off my bedroom. I’ll find you some clothes.”
“Stop being condescending to me,” she warned. She leveled him one more furious look before she lifted herself on her toes enough to touch her lips to his. It wasn’t a kiss. It was a tease. She let go of the knob and sauntered into his bedroom, nudging the door closed a little behind her.
Mack blew out a huge sigh. What was he thinking? If a gator ate this woman, would he care? He didn’t give a shit before. But deep in his soul he knew he’d hate himself for the rest of his cursed existence if anything happened to her.
He glanced back and noticed something in the reflection of the cracked full-length mirror that hung on the wall of his bedroom. He should have pried the piece of junk off the wall and thrown it out a long time ago.
He stepped closer as he studied it. Anna was in the doorway between the bedroom and bathroom. Her long blonde hair flowed past her shoulders. She unzipped the flight suit and shouldered it off leaving her in only her baby pink bra. She shimmied it past her hips to reveal a matching pair of lace panties.
He knew he should tear himself away from the vision in the mirror. He at least grounded himself to the floor. Every fiber of his being wanted to shove the door and throw her on his bed. Instead he undid his jeans and slipped his hand in his briefs. Yup, he was hard as a rock. He felt his erection twitch with a subtle brush of his finger.
He pulled his hand free long enough to spit into it then plunged it back into his briefs again and stroked himself.
Anna reached behind herself and undid her bra. She let it slide down her arms until it landed on the floor.
Mack picked up his pace as he imagined feasting on the tight, pink nubs standing erect against her breasts. His balls clenched as he teetered on the edge.
She hooked her thumbs into her panties at her hipbones and nudged them down her legs leaving her completely naked. He groaned as his eyes raked over her. He needed her to turn the shower water on now. He wouldn’t last much longer and the roar he had harbored in his throat would betray what he was doing.
He could have sworn he saw her blue-eyed gaze before she stepped into the bathroom and closed the door. The sound of water rushing through the pipes was a relief. He muttered a string of curses as his release left him quaking where he stood.
He wiped his hand on his jeans as he sighed. He needed to drive her to town. That was final. If he didn’t, he was going to lose what scant amount of control he had left. Next time he wouldn’t be jacking off into his hand. Next time he’d be buried balls deep inside her. He pushed the bedroom door open and headed for his closet to find anything that might fit the poor girl.