“This is nice.”

  I grinned and kissed the top of her head, “It really is. When I go to meet Aubrey I’m going to shift, and we’re going to hunt. It’s a shifter thing since she’s already in wolf form. So you can keep an eye on us through far seeing, by focusing on her, if you want.”

  Lianne wiggled back against me, “As long as I can do that, I’m good.”

  I teasingly stroked her sides and sniffed her hair. I couldn’t get enough of her scent, or her wild and positive energy. The way she looked out for me so loyally, and with love and caring in her heart. She was breathtaking, all of her, not just her exquisite eastern beauty and killer body.

  I was so content in that moment that I almost forgot what we were about. Almost.

  Misty said, “I’m finished. It’ll take a little time to track down all these IPs and figure out what e-mails to send the notifications to. The CIOs or correct government agency heads. I’ll let you know when it’s finished, there are thousands of them.”

  “Thanks Misty, you’re a miracle.”

  Misty giggled, “Said the god. You’re welcome, sir. All part of the service,” she winked.

  I asked, “You only offered that alternative because I ordered you to do something related, correct?”

  Misty nodded, “That is true. I can’t offer unsolicited advice. However, involving me in the issue counts for that even if you didn’t ask me a question directly. Offering alternatives is one of my functions, and you have it all turned on.”

  I said, “Yet, you seem to be a lot more creative in finding solutions than I expected. I want you to assume involvement, when I have internal strategy sessions with family at our homes, not during council sessions. Feel free to speak up, if you think I’m missing an unintended consequence or have an idea you believe better.”

  Misty blinked, “Yes, sir. Between us, we can rule the world.”

  I snorted a laugh, “I’ll settle for keeping my gods safe and in line.”

  Misty pouted, and let out a put upon sigh, as if I’d just stolen her favorite toy, “Yes, sir.”

  I was fairly sure she was joking. Banter was also new, thought I hadn’t really held extended conversations with her before now. Normally I just gave her commands about simple things, there was no real alternative to turning on a channel I asked for, or bringing up a document. This issue had been the most complicated one I’d tasked her with, so from that angle it made sense.

  But clearly, I needed to involve the A.I. more in things. While I arguably had access to more information than she did, she could exhaustively look at every possible turnout and consequence of an action in microseconds. While I missed things at times, which was very human, even if I was a god.

  Clearly, I also needed to use my ruling mantle more as well, run my ruling solutions through it first, that probably would’ve picked up the consequences as well. I did use it of course, since the moment I’d quickened, but not consistently. At least, on all my decisions related to ruling and protecting the pantheon, and maybe in business. I tended to make my decisions from a shifter’s outlook, and while I didn’t want that to change it should be enhanced.

  Not using all the resources at my disposal was foolish, even if I had been doing an excellent job up to now, I could always be better.

  I kissed Lianne softly, then said, “We’re going straight there.”

  Lianne smiled, “Can’t wait to meet her.”

  We disappeared in a flashing and rising sphere of golden light.

  Chapter Nine

  The scents of the forest inundated me. It was still early morning, the sun low on the eastern horizon casting long shadows, and there was a crispness to the air that was invigorating.

  Aubrey was a beautiful shiny black wolf, not all that different than the color of her hair in human form, which tended to be the rule for shifters. Her human eye color was a dark blue, but when in wolf form a bright golden-brown color. Even in human form they could shift slightly toward golden brown, especially when the animal inside of us grew restless or angry, or high emotions were in play.

  She growled lightly, but by her scent she was very glad to see me, even if I did stink of sex with the goddess at my side. It was a greeting of sorts, nothing more. Of course I’d cleaned up from the morning tryst, but soap and hot water didn’t really remove embedded scents completely, so she’d be picking up Cerise’s and Faith’s as well.

  It also wouldn’t have gotten her angry, I was currently an unmated wolf, and didn’t owe her anything that way. Nor would it make the polyamory conversation unneeded by implication, since shifters were a randy group as a rule before mating, with a large circle of friends with benefits. But that was for later.

  I stripped down quickly, and they both watched me do it, then I shimmered and shifted into wolf form. I growled in greeting myself, howled, and dashed off into the woods. Aubrey followed after a howl of her own. At first it was just a run for the pure enjoyment and freedom of it, and I felt close to Aubrey, who technically wasn’t pack but felt like pack, we’d grown up together.

  We had a bit of fun with it, racing, playful tackles, and such. It was a part of my life I’d missed.

  At least, we did until we picked up the scent of deer.

  It was instinct, to shift into hunter mode, and our wolves communicated effortlessly over the pack link, as we hunted down the deer and took it down in a cooperative way, as pack hunters did.

  The hunt and food was important in the shifter world, a lot of our customs and traditions revolved around it. She submitted by allowing me the first bite, and I told her I was here to protect her, provide for her, and that she was part of my pack by allowing her to join me.

  In a very real way, in that moment we formed a pack of two. Sure, the gods were my pack now, extended pack, but they couldn’t take part in the deeper connections the pack link and magic provided for shifter to shifter connections.

  She was absolutely ecstatic about it, which had been my hope. She saw me as her alpha, and her hopeful future mate, and she didn’t give a whit for the fact I was also a god, or the king of the gods. The only question was if she’d still feel that way, when I told her she’d only be one of my mates, and that I’d only be one of hers as well.

  As for our wolves, they were totally on board already.

  After we finished eating, we found a creek to clean our muzzles and paws, and finished the job by licking each other clean the rest of the way. Then we laid close to each other, touching, and shifted.

  Aubrey was a beautiful woman. Long and straight shiny black hair, dark blue eyes, and light golden-brown skin. She was actually three years older than me, twenty-four, but by appearance and because of her slow aging, we both looked to be about nineteen. I’d never age, and she’d age at three to one to humans, if I let her. Her face was classical in beauty with full lips, and strong cheekbones.

  She was petite at five foot three, but her hourglass was slightly lush on top with generous C cups which were almost lewdly large at that height. It made her a little top heavy, but no guy would complain about that. Her hips and ass were more proportional to her petite height, and she had a tight and sexy heart shaped ass.

  We didn’t speak at first, she just cuddled into me, snuggled, and I held her tight and played with her long silky hair. The fact we were naked didn’t make it at all sexual, we were two wolves of the pack renewing our intimacy and the connection between us. Not that her naked beauty and body didn’t stir my libido, of course it did, but it wasn’t hard to put aside. It was hard to explain, that implied it took an act of will to ignore, it didn’t.

  She started to speak in her lovely voice, tell me about the pack, and what had happened. I won’t reiterate it here, since I’d already covered it. I let her, because it would be rude not to, and being a know it all would eventually piss people off. Plus, it’d help her deal with it, getting it off her chest so to speak. It was in fact, one of the reasons I didn’t use my power for personal relationships, but this time it’d been unavoidable.

  “I’m sorry to hear about the pack, but not at all sorry that Pablo lost his authority and the territory.”

  Aubrey chuckled, “I’m not surprised by that, he was a fool.”

  I smiled, “I know you don’t care about me being more than shifter, but it will make a difference to how I live, in ways you’re not aware of yet. You’re more than welcome, you’re my best friend, and I love you. But you deserve to know the… oddities, before you commit to coming home with me, to being my mate.”

  She smirked, “I don’t care, I love you too, you know I do.”

  There was no point in hiding any of that, or in playing coy like humans did. It was all over our scent, and shifters tended to be even blunter among ourselves.

  She got up on her elbow and looked down into my eyes with her blue ones, “Unless your stooping a witch that is.”

  I snorted, “Nope. I am in business with a coven though. As far as stooping, just two goddesses and a vampire.”

  She wrinkled her nose, “Vampires aren’t too bad.”

  I nodded, “A loner, totally loyal and submissive to me, and she understands not to shade the truth at all for any reason. I run two businesses and I’m now in charge of the pantheon through a council. That takes up a lot of my time, so I won’t be home all the time like a normal alpha who only looks after the pack.

  “The biggest thing of course, is the vampire and goddess you just saw are committed to me in love and loyalty, pretty much my mates minus the shifter mating magic connection, and the other goddess is a recent addition I have no reason to believe won’t commit in time. So, you’d be sharing me, and I you, with three other mates. So, I wouldn’t really blame you for changing your mind or plans, given that. It’s not… natural for a shifter, but polyamory is very natural for gods.”

  She didn’t answer right away, and her scents went through several changes. Shock and surprise tinged with disappointment and anger, to dubiously thoughtful tinged with longing as she tried to internalize it.

  I just held her and gave her the time to make a decision. At least she was trying to accept it, I’d half expected her to get up and leave in disgust.

  She said, “But only we would have the bond.”

  “Yes, but that won’t make them any less yours, or you theirs. I’d take care of all of you, equally. Two of them would bear my children, and you’d help raise them right along with yours.”

  Blunt perhaps, but the truth was, there was one person a shifter could lie to. Themselves. I wanted to be sure she wouldn’t make up some self-rationalized bullshit to talk herself into it, like believing she was the only true mate in the mix, and she was merely giving me a hall pass for three others. That would only lead to regret and heartache, because once we were mated, she wouldn’t leave me for any reason or forsake those vows. She was far more honorable and true than that bitch Raelyn had been.

  I was also sure Lianne was watching, and probably soaked for me at that last statement.

  “If that’s true, I can’t decide without meeting them. The only thing that would make sharing you palatable is sharing them too, and it’s still… weird in my head. But I don’t want to give up on you without trying. I’ve already forsaken a real pack to be your mate, to join you in a pack of two.

  “While a part of me really doesn’t like the idea at all, another part of me thinks having a larger pack through mates, even non-shifters, would even be a good thing. Protection in numbers.”

  I nodded, “Even if you come to care for them and find them compatible, will that really calm that former part of you?”

  She smirked down at me, “No, it’s too much a part of my shifter nature, but you’re a god. With my agreement, I am very sure you can influence me to not only accept it, but to do so with joy. I will ask you to do that, if I like them and can see them as pack.”

  I blinked, not expecting that at all. It never would’ve occurred to me, but I suppose I wouldn’t be stealing her will if she asked me to do it and gave consent. Still, it was a bit shocking.

  She shrugged, “It’s not a new idea to me, which is how I came up with it so fast. I’d give up a pack life for you as my mate, but I’d already thought of the idea to ask you to influence me so I wouldn’t regret it even slightly as I missed a large number of shifters around me and in my life. I’d pick you and our love over a full pack any day. This is just… taking it a step further. Resolving that conflict in me, to accommodate the rest of me, what most of me, cries out for. To be yours.”

  She chuckled, no doubt picking up my amazement in my scent, “You thought I’d throw you to the curb, didn’t you.”

  “Kind of did, yeah. Hoped you wouldn’t, glad you’re not.”

  She bit her lip and pulled her elbow around to lay down fully against my side, her head on my chest. She started to trace circles on my lower stomach, and I started to tease her lower back.

  It still wasn’t a guarantee, but they were all loyal women fiercely protective of me and our family. I couldn’t imagine her not getting along with the others, but I supposed time would tell. Hate at first sight could be as inexplicable as love at first sight, after all. Until then, apparently she was going to jump in with both feet like the others, for a trial run.

  We snuggled for a bit more, but with a solution and at least a temporary decision reached, we didn’t speak again. It was enough to just exist together, we knew each other that well. Our scents started to shift, her light arousal prompting mine, which led into a bit of a lust spiral through scent. The more her arousal grew the more mine grew, and the more mine grew the more hers grew.

  I tilted my head down, her gorgeous cerulean eyes were wide with desire and her lips were slightly parted in invitation. The moment I teased my hand down onto her deliciously tight heart shaped ass, she teasingly wrapped her fingers around my growing cock.

  It’d been a long time since we’d had the pleasure of each other. Almost two months now, since I’d mated to Raelyn and our years long casual affair had been ended. There was no point telling her how amazing her hand on me again felt, she could scent the thrill in me, just as I could scent her warm delight and quivering joy at my hand teasing and caressing her ass, as her breasts pressed against side and chest.

  The kiss when our heads moved together felt so natural, so sweet, so languid and loving. It was pure blinding joy and quickly building lust to feel her soft silken lips moving against mine again, and her hand teasing me down below in just the way I liked it most. She knew my body as well as I knew hers, which was to say, completely and profoundly.

  Of course, that loving and sweet kiss didn’t stay that way, not for very long. It was wonderful of course, but it also completed the transition from bonding as packmates to engendering a potent lust in us both that overwhelmed our senses and kicked in our wild shifter instincts.

  I bided my time however, as the kiss grew smoldering hot and we were both making sounds of needy lust and sweet pleasure. She was delicious, and so very beautiful to me. I teased her ass crack and squeezed her ass cheek hard, while up above I caressed her face, neck, and down to her breasts.

  She liked a rough touch on her tits, so I transitioned the dual sensations when my hand up above started to roughly knead her tits, the hand down below started to teasingly stroke her ass cheeks and crack, it had her squirming against me, and moaning against my mouth.

  It’s also what broke her, and she lunged on top of me to pin me down. As I’d alluded to earlier, she didn’t really want to be in control, but she’d make me earn it. She wanted to be tamed, forced to submit, and then taken with authority, but only if I could earn it.

  Of course, I’d been waiting for that first move, and as she moved to pin me down and mount me I growled into her sweet mouth as I used the last of her momentum to aid me in rolling. She bucked hard as soon as she realized what I was doing, but I’d been ready for it and was holding her in a vicelike grip in my arm, and I swatted her ass hard to shock her into freezing as she let out a sexy as hell gasp, while my tit mauling hand went back up and around her throat.

  The half roll ended with me on top, but the little minx had managed to close her legs, so I kept rolling, our kiss ended and her eyes lit with excitement as she glared down at me. I gave her another harsh swat when she was on top again and managed to interpose my knee as her legs loosened at the shock, while I continued the roll and was once again on top, looking down at her smugly as I pinned her down by her throat and forced her legs open.

  The glare mixed with a wild come fuck me look was hot, but her scent was all excited, thrilled, and joyous to once again be overpowered by me. She tilted her head in submission as she opened her legs wide for me, and I claimed her lips again in an aggressive and lustful kiss. When I checked her down below, she was more than ready for me, so I lined up and hissed in pleasure as I pushed into her heavenly passage.

  I crushed her body with half my body weight, trapping her while I held myself up slightly with one hand, the other one teasing her hair and caressing her face lightly, sweetly, while down below I was pounding into her mercilessly, quickly burying my cock one inch at a time. Her sex was hot, wet, and so wondrously tight for me, so much pleasure milking me, and the silken friction with each deepening thrust was exquisite ecstasy.

  When I was fully buried, I paused for a moment and kissed her, and her legs rose off the ground and wrapped around my middle tightly as she sighed in contentment and breathy excitement at once again having me buried balls deep in her hot and tight body.

  She was overwhelmed in that moment, her dark blue eyes filled with a sheen and her scent full of bubbling joy, lust, and a love so strong it overwhelmed me.

  She said, “Gods, I missed this, dreamed of it. I never thought I’d have it again, and I never want to give you up.”

  There was no need to explain the emotions she felt, but ascribing them to a cause clarified things. Just because shifters could smell the truth and emotions, didn’t mean we always knew what the exact cause was, or even if it was about the other person at all.