The King Reborn

  King of the Gods: Book One

  Author: D. R. Rosier

  Copyright 2024. This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Afterword:

  About the Author

  Other erotic fantasies by D. R. Rosier:

  Non-erotic Fantasy titles:

  Book Description

  Chapter One

  It was the lack of air that woke me that first morning, that first day of my twenty-first year. My body bucked and my eyes snapped open in shock. There was sunlight streaming into the bedroom window on the second floor of the pack mansion.

  The morning rays glistened on the golden-brown hair of my chosen for me mate, who was glaring down at me with fear and rage. Raelyn was the daughter and heir of the current pack master, Pablo. We’d never really gotten along all that well, outside of twisting up the sheets that is. She was an amazing lay, if nothing else, but she’d sworn oaths to me to obey and be faithful, and I’d sworn to protect and cherish her at Pablo’s direction. Just two weeks ago in fact, on her nineteenth birthday.

  The price I paid for being the strongest alpha in the pack, and because Pablo had no other children since his mate had died giving birth to his first. Pablo wanted to keep his bloodline the strongest to maintain the legacy and rule of his bloodline. I’d had no choice but to mate the entitled and bratty bitch for life. Pablo had spoiled his daughter and calling her an entitled bitch and temperamental was an understatement. Which was actually significant, most shifter women were not entitled at all, and respectful of their alphas and especially their mate. Dominance and submission were important to the social structure of the pack.

  Perhaps I’d rule the pack one day when he passed or retired, but it would be his blood and mine in my son or daughter that would rule after.

  Happy birthday to me.

  The lack of air of course, was because her hands were around my throat, and she was applying enough torque that my neck should’ve snapped. Yet, I hardly felt it, but the lack of air prevented me from asking questions, and I could also admit to some urgency as my lungs started to burn and twitch painfully in its struggle for air. Shifters were tough, but they did need oxygen, just like everyone else.

  Presented with little choice if I wished to live, I backhanded the bitch, and she went flying off me, off the bed, and across the room to slam into the wall. Literally, into it, as her sexy athletic body made an hourglass torso sized hole in the sheetrock wall only to be stopped by the framing two by fours.

  Perhaps I should introduce myself, since starting out this story with spousal abuse doesn’t make me look all that good, even if she’d been trying to kill me.

  Liam Jones, alpha wolf shifter. Twenty-one years of age, short golden blond hair and blue eyes, and I was in athletic shape at six foot three with a medium muscular build. Part of the Portland pack, the one in Oregon. The thick and deep forests full of game made it a prime spot for shifters, so I didn’t entirely blame Pablo for his decision. The strong ruled in our world, and only the strongest could keep the best territories. Pablo had fought off thirteen challenges to his position as pack master, and he’d dominated all his enemies.

  “So, what the hell, Raelyn? Forget to buy me a birthday present so you decided to kill me instead?”

  She sneered, “Your scent is wrong. What the hell are you? Who are you?”

  “Your mate, dumb bitch,” I growled out in disgust, even as I took a sniff and parsed all the scents in the room, my nose flaring at the unexpected scent. I didn’t smell wrong as in bad, but I did smell different. There was also the matter of her flying across the room and my neck not being broken. I mean, she was a shifter, she should’ve been able to kill me easily in my sleep, and I didn’t hit her all that hard. I mean, I didn’t mean to. I’d measured my blow to get her off me and break her hold, to my old strength, which meant I was quite a bit stronger. Which meant I was a lot stronger as well as tougher.

  I growled, “Get dressed and get out while I figure this out. Why the hell would your first response be to kill me, did you think you slept through a doppelganger taking my place? Or did you just figure it was a good excuse to get away with it, you ungrateful bitch.”

  She snorted haughtily, pulled on a robe, and left the room slamming the door on her way out. No doubt she’d go straight to Pablo with some wild tale.

  I really didn’t like my mate, most days, but that morning more than most as my mind raced. What the hell was going on?

  As soon as I focused on the need to understand and figure it out, I started to glow with a golden light. More than that, knowledge flowed into my mind, from… who knows? The sky? It was like remembering something I’d forgotten. Call it whatever you want, tapping into the akashic records, or the book of life as it’s sometimes called. Or the sky itself, since I was a god of the sky.

  The god of the sky, the rebirth of Zeus, and more lately, Nate. Huge dicks, both of them, from the information I was getting.

  Or perhaps the information came from some universal consciousness of every being on the planet, since I still couldn’t tell you where the gods came from, or anything about life after death, or why the gods were here again.

  A lot of useful information filled me in all about my powers and mantels, but I also failed to attain a lot of knowledge I looked for over that first half hour of being a god. So far from omniscient, but a whole lot closer to it than anyone else. It was also a secret power of sorts. Neither Zeus nor Nate had ever let on they could know pretty much anything they wanted to in relation to their mortal life and Earth, and all the beings living on it.

  They’d even used Nike and Aria as a cover for it, to explain how they knew when the other gods were getting up to shit they shouldn’t be doing. Which was really messed up, Nate had eagerly followed in Zeus’s footsteps that way, and went even farther by actually raping Aria. As if making them stand by his side all the time wasn’t bad enough? Damn, I hoped I wasn’t that much of an asshole.

  My mantels were ruling, justice, and the sky which included that knowledge power, as well as the storms and lightning powers. I could also shapeshift into pretty much anything now, not just a wolf, as well as disguise or completely hide my power.

  Zeus and Nate also had come to the conclusion that the ruling and justice mantels were separate. That ruling was not a thing that could be done with justice in mind, because all decisions made would have both a winner and loser. Justice had no place in rule, and they’d only used it when determining the fate of someone who had broken the laws. They believed justice was for that purpose, not to put a leash on their own options in rule.

  Which, wasn’t entirely wrong, sometimes rulers had to do shitty things, choosing the lesser of two evils for instance, in order to keep order among the gods and ensure the safety and health of the whole. It also wasn’t entirely right, because they’d used it as an excuse to do whatever they wanted, for their own egos and to quell any objections to their authority. Zeus because he was a tyrant, and Nate because he was a stupid hick that followed the path Zeus had set, because the man hadn’t had a clue how to rule outside of his mantel. Nate hadn’t stood for anything, so he’d adopted the previous style of rule, and had been an entitled small minded and dick-less wonder about it.

  I was an alpha wolf, I wasn’t letting some old dead versions of me determine my fate, or what I did. I suspected that’s why my spirit had chosen to be reincarnated as a shifter, no one was going to forge my future and fate but me, and I already had solid ideas on maintaining a structure of rule and that power and dominance meant both control and responsibility. Those two assholes weren’t the boss of me, and sure as hell not a guide to successful rule.

  I was also richer than god. I snorted at that hyperbole, considering what I was. Point being was Zeus had set apart a lot of riches in tombs and such, against his return to the world. Nate had already converted two of those tombs to modern currency, and I had the account numbers and passwords to claim them. That was cheating, but I wasn’t going to complain about waking up a billionaire in high triple digits.

  I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about the council yet. The truth is the lack of a king of the gods had accomplished what Zeus failed to do for centuries, and Nate for just a few weeks, get all the other tier one gods working in the same direction. That was food for thought. With the exception of the rebirth of the goddess Hemera. Brianna Vargas was in hiding and living a normal life as a housewife in Brazil with a mortal husband. She was even using shapeshifting to simulate aging, so her husband wouldn’t get suspicious.

  I had no intention of causing her an issue that way, that was one thing Nate did right, leave the harmless but very powerful goddess of ligh
t the hell alone. She was in love and happy with her simple life, best to just leave her to it and she wouldn’t get in my way either.

  The council was actually doing a pretty good job of things, and the truth was if I tried to wrest power from them, they’d probably just kill me. The best thing there might be to cooperate with their plans for the most part. Become a king of the gods that shared power and oversaw them. Steven would be a problem, the god was a jackass, but I bet if I made good suggestions the others would listen.

  That would also free me up for other things, and to explore the possibilities. Ruling a pack of thirty to forty wolves, cats, and bears could be a damned headache, ruling three hundred gods on my own would be insane. The council was already doing what I might have wished of them, so I wasn’t going to reject it just because it wasn’t my idea. Zeus and Nate had made my bed, and I was stuck lying in it, but I could also use it to my advantage.

  All I had to do was figure out how to play it when I took my place among them. Too eager might be even worse than too contrary, after all. I’d give it some thought.

  I had pack responsibilities too, although that might not be true for long, and having instant knowledge at my fingertips opened up all sorts of possibilities.

  I’d never met a witch, in this lifetime anyway. Shifters did not trust witches as a rule, never mind actually laying my eyes on a grimoire. Yet, just the desire to be clean had a spell flowing into my mind, and I muttered it as I rolled out of bed. Before my feet hit the floor, I was clean and groomed, so I threw on a pair of khaki shorts and a pullover collared shirt, then slipped on my shoes. It never paid to wear anything too hard to get off fast when you were a shifter.

  I’d also have to figure out a way to carry charms with me. There were a few spells I’d need, if I didn’t want a single sniper’s bullet ending my immortal life one day. The anti-projectile protection spell was just one of the ones that would be useful to have active at all times. There was also a spell to keep me comfortable in any temperature. My shifter nature made me adaptative to cold, but heat was even harder on a shifter than on a human, and it was mid-summer.

  Then there was a neat little spell that would heal me if I was hurt and couldn’t cast, as well as a spell that detected harmful intent toward me. So that was four spell charms. The best I could come up with was a necklace that would fit my larger wolf throat tight enough that it wouldn’t fall off, and in my human form it’d just be hidden under a shirt. Man jewelry wasn’t my thing, but that was a foolish reason to take a sniper bullet to the skull, wasn’t it?

  One of my stashes had a thick platinum twisting rope neckless with a hideous gold Egyptian Ankh hanging from it. I’d kept it, as a trophy. I mean, Zeus had, after one of Ra’s lackeys had dared to get into my business. Ra had been pissed, but he hadn’t been willing to go to war over the dumbass.

  Which led me to one of those unanswered questions. Where the hell were the gods of the Aztecs, India, Native Americans, Norse, Egyptian, Japan, China, and others. Why had only the Greek gods returned? No information came to me, so I dismissed it. No point worrying about something until it was a problem.

  Ooh, Hindu too, apparently Indranu was a blast at parties, and had gotten drunk with Zeus a number of times.

  I used farseeing and cast an object summoning spell, only summoning the platinum rope necklace. There was no way I’d wear that hideous ankh. I used another spell of earth to reshape the thing so that it’d fit my wolf neck perfectly, as well as have four hanging platinum charms in the shape of wolves. Then I cast the spells on it, put it over my head, and tucked it under my shirt.

  I supposed it was time for the unpleasantness then.

  As for Raelyn, she’d panicked while waking up next to me, and she’d attacked because of the strange scent. At first. But then when her mind caught up with what she was doing, the bitch actually thought it a good opportunity and excuse to end our mating oaths with my death, which is why she’d kept strangling me. That takes entitled bitch to a new level, doesn’t it? No love lost in our mating, at all.

  I mean, she’d be fertile any day now, and she really didn’t want to give me a kid either.

  Happy birthday to me.

  The information I got was also historical in nature, so I had no idea what was going to happen, only that my mate was arguing for my banishment right now. I couldn’t see the future, or even the exact present, but I could get an idea of what’d happened just a second ago. If that made sense.

  I left the room grim faced and headed downstairs to the dining room, where the whole pack was assembled for breakfast and were listening to their pack master’s daughter’s most recent tirade, a few of them nodding along but most of them were looking away in embarrassment. They should look away, the way she was acting was embarrassing and shameful for the entire pack. Pablo really had spoiled her. Ruined her without discipline.

  The whole room fell silent, and they all looked at me suspiciously, like I was an outsider and hadn’t grown up alongside them. I didn’t entirely blame them for that, scent was a powerful thing in the shifter world, and I smelled different. The only question was if they would adjust to it.

  “Pablo. I’m one of the gods, so yeah. I expect the scent change was my body becoming immortal and unageing. Oh, and Raelyn tried to murder me this morning.”

  Pablo waved, “That was a misunderstanding. So, you’ll be leaving the pack to be among your own kind?”

  I ignored the second question for now, and addressed his comment, “It started that way, I’ll grant you, but in the end, she knew exactly who she was strangling and chose to continue out of hatred and stupidity. As for your question, I don’t know, are you throwing me out? I’m still a shifter and this is my home,” I waved at the room, “they are my pack and family.”

  Pablo growled, “They are my pack.”

  I rolled my eyes, that signaled he’d made his decision. He didn’t want the competition of a much more powerful shifter around, so he’d chosen to take my simple words as a claim on his pack when he knows damn well that’s not what I meant at all.

  “Fine, I’ll leave. Raelyn, come along.”

  Raelyn spat, “I won’t come with you.”

  I nodded, expecting that, “So you would break your oaths as well as attempt to murder me, in the same hour?”

  Raelyn said, “You are not the shifter I swore to, our oaths are void.”

  I snorted, “You have the right to decide that? That must be special, to just explain away being an oath breaker with your entitled bullshit, while your worthless father let’s your soul and being rot even further from neglect and lack of discipline. I am your mate, whether you like it or not, so come along.”

  Pablo stood up and slammed his fist on the table, which had the pack ducking for cover.

  Raelyn spat, “Our child would not be shifter, but a demigod. I will not be the one to pollute my father’s blood with such a mongrel creature.”

  Pablo said, “You are banished, and my daughter stays to find a more suitable mate.”

  I snorted, then used my power of justice. I grimaced at my conclusion, but payback could be a bitch. The complicated spell rolled off my tongue in seconds, while the room stared in horror. A black inky shadow shot from my hands, and it struck Raelyn’s abdomen.

  She screamed, but it was just histrionics, she wasn’t experiencing pain, or even discomfort.

  Pablo screamed, “What did you do!”

  “I have judged Raelyn an oath breaker, and you are the bigger fool. Had you but asked me, I could’ve ensured her and my children were the strongest shifters to be born in the last thousand years. Your line would’ve ruled this territory forever. Now your line will end, because your daughter will never bear you a child. That is her punishment, and it is yours, your legacy will die with your last breath.”

  Pablo growled low, “How dare you hold that on me. I ask no one anything.”

  I shook my head, “Nor did you teach your daughter and bring her up correctly. If you had then you wouldn’t be in this position. It was her duty to bring her concerns to me, to give me a chance to address and solve her concerns or failing that to live by her word anyway. You not only allowed her to be an oath breaker, but you encouraged it, countenanced it, and you had me banished out of fear when I have done nothing to deserve it.