“You … know they’ll think you were in on it, too, if you tell,” I say, gasping for air.

The low laugh that he releases is anything but appeasing. In fact, it sends a bolt of fear and dread through me. “I haven’t told anyone yet, little thief, because I’m far too amused by you to get rid of you just yet.”

As his hands toy with me, his attention fixed on my breasts as he cups and plays with them like they’re his own personal entertainment, his words catch up with me. He hasn’t told anyone because he’s enjoying playing with me? Does he not realize the danger he puts himself in by keeping my secret? The danger he puts his brothers in? Or does he simply not care so long as he gets his rocks off? For some reason, that disappoints me. I thought he’d be more complex than that, perhaps a bit more loyal too.

“Moan,” Kalix demands harshly as his fingers bite down on my nipples and twist abruptly.

I cry out, a shocked scream ripping from my throat. My head snaps back and narrowly misses his as it slams into his shoulder and he grunts. I writhe beneath him, the pain of the sudden action making stars dance in front of my eyes. Dimly, I sense a fresh wave of heaviness settle over me, but I’m too lost in what Kalix is doing to me to grasp what it means until Kalix murmurs something in my ear.

“That wasn’t a moan, but that will do,” he says quietly.

The heaviness draws closer, and I recognize Dolos’ shadows hovering nearby. His head is dipped down as he stares down at the Terra that had pleasured him earlier. Fear wafts from the girl, but she doesn’t pull away as Dolos stands over her. The Mortal God at her cunt continues to thrust, sawing back and forth as he grunts with fervor.

“Thighs,” Kalix snaps, jerking his legs out even more, forcing me to do the same.

Humiliation burns through me as I feel a bead of wetness ooze down the crotch of my underwear. “Don’t try to close them,” Kalix warns as his hands suddenly leave my breasts and move down my stomach, slipping beneath the transparent dress. “Put your arms up and around my neck.”

Closing my eyes, I follow the order, reminding myself that this is all an act. We’re putting on a show and since Dolos is now in the room, it’s even more imperative that I don’t fuck this up.

The first stroke of Kalix’s fingers between my thighs has me biting back a pathetic noise. My nails scratch at the back of his neck and he groans, pushing his hips up into me as he lets me feel just how hard he is.

“Tell me the truth, Kiera,” he whispers in that too low voice of his, erotic and enticing. Like he’s not really there, but just a whisper on the wind. An old fairytale that mothers used to tell their daughters of great and powerful beings coming from another land to carry them away to be their brides in giant gilded castles. “Who are you? Who do you belong to?”

“I-I’m just…” It’s heady, intoxicating, the feeling of his fingers over the satin fabric between my legs. “Kiera,” I breathe out my name.

He makes a growling sound and then pushes his fingers beneath my underwear. A moan bubbles up out of my throat as two fingers slide right into my wetness, dipping into my hole and then retreating before thrusting even deeper. All the while, his other hand moves in circles around my clit. Those stars dart back and forth behind my closed eyelids, dancing faster and faster. I’m getting dizzy.

“Who is your God parent?” Kalix’s question sinks into my mind, but I can’t answer, I’m on the verge of something great and powerful. It sparks up in my belly and floods outward, growing larger and larger like a tidal wave until it comes crashing down all around me.

I cry out again, sobbing as I clutch on to him. The stars burst into a million little lights. No more dancing as they just all suddenly stop and erupt at once. Everything feels alive.

He says something, a massive rumble in his chest, but whatever it is, I don’t hear it. His cock burns against my backside, rocking into me in slow thrusting motions even as his fingers never stop their circling or thrusting.

“Stop.” My eyes pop open. I’m sweating, panting, and wet slick is dripping down my thighs onto his trousers. “Stop,” I say again. I release his neck and whimper as my clit becomes sensitive, but still, he keeps toying with me. “Stop, please!” I grab ahold of his forearms, nails sinking deep as tears crest at the edges of my eyes.

“Not until you come again for me, little thief,” Kalix says. “Let me feel your cunt clamp down on my fingers just like it’ll clamp onto my dick when I finally take you.”

I shake my head, those tears spilling forth. Dolos’ Terra and the Mortal God aren’t the only ones here with us. Neither is Dolos, for that matter. There are several couples in all states of undress and wantonness. My skin feels cold and pebbled, but at the same time, my breasts feel heavy and aching. There’s something wrong with me, I decide, as I’ve never felt this way—not even when I enjoyed sex. Not even with Theos. This scent in the air, it’s not natural. It’s messing with my head. With all of our heads.

A female Mortal God is lying back on one of the couches, her legs splayed as a female and male Terra both lick at her pussy while she cries out in utter ecstasy. A male Terra is on his hands and knees in a collection of pillows with his ass turned up and his head to the ground as a male … oh Gods, that’s Axlan, the God of Victory, driving his cock into the younger male as he whimpers and whines under him.

A flash of that same man holding the whip that streaked fire down my back hits me and I push back into Kalix’s chest, unintentionally seeking protection. As if he senses my vulnerability, Kalix’s fingers still beneath my underwear pinch down on my clit and those stars return in full force—slamming into me.

My body shakes and the fresh scream locks in my throat as my eyes roll back into my head. The sex. The scent in the room. The threat of sitting in this place so casually as something that should never have existed rolls through me all at once, the terror heightening the experience of my second orgasm of the night.

Kalix leans closer to me, finally withdrawing his fingers as he drags them up my body, painting a trail with my own juices over my stomach and breasts. He pauses to swipe both of my nipples, stroking them with the wetness before he finally lifts them to his lips and sucks them deep.

I turn my head and stare at him in a mixture of horror and arousal. His pupils have grown far thinner than I remember, turning into vertical slits that resemble the eyes of a snake as he gazes back at me, licking the taste of me from between his digits. When he’s done and appears somewhat satisfied that he’s gotten all my wetness off his hand and into his mouth, he drops his hands back to my hips and squeezes.

“This is what the Gods do to those that please them,” Kalix says, and despite the earlier teasing glint in his gaze, his eyes are very much serious now. No hint of taunt or amusement. I don’t have to look around to know what he means. I gulp down another breath.

“Despite what my brothers may think, you were not invited here as punishment,” he states, “but as a reward for surviving the Gods’ mercy.”

This was my reward? A fresh shudder works through me, this one coming from a very different place than before. If this was what the Gods saw as a prize for bending to their will … then Ophelia was wrong. They won’t just torture me to find out who kept and hid me for my entire life. They’ll rip me apart, put me back together, and do it all over again for the answers they seek. There will be no running and no hiding in my own mind to get away from them.

“If anyone finds out what you are, little liar,” his eyes drop to my cold lips and he leans forward, nipping them with incredibly sharp teeth. “Don’t expect your death to be quick.”

Chapter 23