Page 115 of Thanatos' Craving

Mariah stood from Ares' lap and pound her fist on the table. “Not if she’s soul bonded. She would be safe, powerful, and that bitch wouldn’t be able to do anything to her.”

Hera rolled her eyes. “Yes, but then there would be chance Juniper wouldn’t be able to see who thebitchis because she would be a goddess then.”

Mariah sat down and grunts. Ares plants a kiss on her cheek. “Nice try, baby.”

I wrapped my wings closer around my mate. She crossed her arms and her brow furrowed. My treasure continued to stare at the same strawberry on the table the entire time and has not said a word.

“What if,” I began, “we do a process of elimination? What gods have gifted deities, or even humans for that matter, to become deities? They are in their charge, aren’t they? Gods must check on them from time to time throughout their immortal lives?”

Hera pulled a scroll and feathered quill from thin air. She unrolled it and read the contents. “Juniper, I’m not sure how much you know about the gods before you arrived here, but slowly we are trying to right our wrongs.”

Juniper listened, and I rubbed my thumb over hers.

“We used to be nasty, trivial and believe it or not, I used to be a real witch sometimes.”

Ares snorted, and Hera snapped her head toward the god and gave an evil glare.

“I had my justifications, though. Zeus was a party animal, stuck his dick in places he shouldn’t. The women knew who Zeus was, knew he was married to me and still they did it. I was jealous, tired of the cheating, so I did things that was--harsh. I’ve cursed women and when I met Michael, the archangel, I righted my wrongs. I took their curses and flipped them into gifts andgave them immortality. We can start with mine since I have,” she sighed, “quite a few.”

Hera’s gaze met Uriel’s, and she blinked several times before she said anything. “I’m sorry Uriel, I’m sure you have read some of my history I’ve kept from you over the years. If you want to stay and know your mother’s temper, you may. Try not to look at me any differently.”

Uriel shook her head. “I won’t. I know you love me. So does dad.”

Hera nodded and glanced over at her scroll. “If you give me some time, I can go through the names and visit with you in an hour.”

With that, we all exited the conference room and left Hera to her vices.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Juniper

Idon’t like Hera.

I don’t like her one bit. I could understand how she was. She has lived a long time. Zeus was an ass to her at one point. At least some of the human mythology was true. I understand she got cheated on and humiliated when she was with Zeus, so of course she was bitter.

However, I didn’t like how she kept a hand off approach to humans who were suffering. She could obviously help, and she didn’t want to.

Hades and Ember did want to help. Thanatos and I spent a long time talking about Ember and Hades, how they met and how it was her dream to help other women like her that were in situations like mine. But the gods--these have had these stupidlaws in place for centuries. They weren’t to intervene in human business.

They could haverelationswith them, I guess?

If that was the case, then why not help when humans needed it?

I wasn’t philosophic; I didn’t take any classes like that in college to figure out why the gods were the way they were and what decisions they have made. I just knew at least some of them will help.

But waiting on Hera to look through her burn book would not get rid of the ants in my pants. I couldn’t sit and wait for Hera to look through all the deities she created from revenge to see if one of themcould bethis match make/Fuzzy Bunnies owner.

We had to act and just because I was human wasn’t an excuse. I would not sit by and let life pass me by—just like before my near death.

Right now we have the large, big screen tv on. The men were watching football, because what else would men be watching? A bunch of male gods just eating grapes and drinking wine? That would have been way too mainstream for them.

I gritted my teeth again for the hundredth time. Thanatos rubbed his thumb up my arm. He knew I was angry; we hadn’t gotten away and talked about what transpired in the conference room, but he very well knew I was not of fan of Hera. That will be hard to break to Uriel if she ever asks me if I like her mom, which, come to think of it, I think their relationship is strained, anyway.

“Touch down!” Ares jumped up from the chair across the room and yells. “Did you see that?!” He pointed to the screen and hoots.

“I don’t understand why they have to wear so much armor,” Hypnos yawned. “Doesn’t look like they can run very well.”

“Because humans are weak, their heads can’t take much of a beating. It will knock ‘em out, sometimes they can die from it. Even with their helmets, they are subject to brain damage.”

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