She let out a breathy gasp as she clenched around me and rolled her hips up into me powerfully, using her legs around me as leverage, as her hands roamed by shoulders and hair. The pleasure it sent rolling through me was potent, and her eyes sparkled as an unconscious moan of pleasure escaped my lips.

  I started to work her with powerful grinds, churning her sex lightly with tight circles while putting far more forward pressure on her clit, along with very shallow thrusts.

  “I longed for you as well, Aubrey. In my heart and mind, you were always the one for me. I will never let you go now that you’re mine again, not willingly.”

  We were dangerously close to forming a mating bond with those statements, but I wouldn’t force that on her in a moment of heat. Not until she was ready.

  Her legs tightened around me like a vice, as she started a rhythmic counter grind that blew my mind. It wasn’t as subtly varied as my vampire and goddesses would be, who had far more experience in bed than either of us, but it was a perfect and overwhelming counterpoint to my movements, and it had us both racing toward the edge.

  We kept that up for a quite a while, until both of us started to get a little sloppy as we neared that precipice, so I started to lengthen my thrusts and make them more powerful. Soft to get them going, hard to bring them home, and of course dual sensations as well.

  “Sexy,” I said breathily, “Cum for me,” as I pounded into her sweet quivering sex like a man possessed, finally taking her with the full eight-inch length of my fat cock.

  Her eyes glazed over, her gorgeous blue eyes showing a golden-brown light, as she trembled on that edge and then went over with a loud cry.

  “Liam!”

  Fuck, too good, I could always give her multiples on our second round, but in that moment, I was hovering at the edge and losing that fight. When her pussy clenched powerfully around me and started to ripple and writhe around my sensitive length, I totally lost it.

  I roared, “Aubrey!” and followed her into ecstasy.

  She mewled wildly in delight, and tightened her legs around me like a vise, pulling me as deep into her body as possible as I gave her the bounty of pleasure. She looked totally transported, transcendent, as I pumped my seed into her sexy body.

  It was an eternity of overwhelming blissful rapture, and far too short before we both started to come down from our heights.

  She giggled in delight from our potent release and kissed me warmly as I claimed her lips.

  “I think I might already like your new playmates after all.”

  I laughed, “Why’s that?”

  She blushed, “You’ve always been generous in bed and a good fuck, but my god you’ve never blown my mind like that before.”

  I smirked, “I may have learned a few new tricks, from my two sixty-year-old goddesses and four-hundred-year-old vampire.”

  She giggled, “Sexy?”

  “Bedroom pet-name, because you’re so damned sexy.”

  She smirked but didn’t reply. She didn’t have to, the surge of warmth and delight in her scent was more than enough to tell me she liked it.

  Truth was truth after all, and I loved her petite and lushly top-heavy body.

  Our reunion tryst was hardly over either. I took her tits next, and blew all over her beautiful face which she really enjoyed. Not just on a submissive feminine level or kink, but me marking her skin with my virile scent like that was very shifter. Claiming her like that thrilled her.

  Then after a spell to clean us up a bit, she blew me while I devoured her sex giving her four more orgasms to my one more.

  Sixty-nine for shifters was more a contest than anything else, as we both pulled out all the stops to make the other cum first, and giving her multiples meant I totally won. Using my fuck stick wasn’t the only thing I’d improved at sleeping with older and more experienced women, after all. It was a pure blast to blow her mind.

  Then I took her one more time doggie style, giving her a harsh spanking and pulling her hair, while I totally wrecked her. It was the fourth round, and I could last forever despite how good it was, and I extracted eight more orgasms from my sexy shifter.

  Then I took her home, where she belonged.

  It was late morning as she met the rest of our lovers for the first time. I almost laughed at the look of manic need on Lianne’s face, as she took in Aubrey for the first time. I knew she wanted the cream-pie I’d just deposited, that she’d no doubt seen me deposit, but clearly she was fighting the impulse to jump my shifter.

  Cerise was giving off a sweet submissive scent, and clearly glad to meet Aubrey, so much so I think it overwhelmed my sexy wolf. My vampire was truly a wonder, she was just happy to be mine, to be cherished and treated right in her submission to me, that I don’t think anything would really faze her.

  Faith was welcoming as well, if a little more tentative. The goddess of seduction wanted the gold ring just like the rest of us, but newer to the relationship and a little nervous as a result, with yet another new lover walking in the door, I couldn’t blame her for her reserve.

  “Everyone, this is Aubrey. Aubrey, this is,” I continued the introduction, including the goddesses mantels in it.

  Cerise said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I can’t wait to chat, you can tell me all about our man when he was young, and I can get to know you as well.”

  I don’t know why, but that made me a little nervous as Aubrey chuckled in delight.

  “I’d love to.”

  Cerise added, “I’ll also give you one of the spare implants we had made up for the trial period.”

  Aubrey asked, “Implant?” with a raised eyebrow.

  That led to a question-and-answer session about my businesses, digging into all the details that have already been covered in this account. She didn’t seem too disturbed to find out I was a master of witchcraft, it was witches she distrusted, all shifters distrusted, not the magic itself.

  Aubrey said to me, “You’ve been busy since you left the pack.”

  I chuckled, “Yes.”

  Aubrey said to Cerise, “I’ll have to trade tales, I have a lot to catch up on.”

  Cerise smiled, “That sounds good, you can also help us finish planning the Portland mansion.”

  So far so good, but I felt a little reluctant to leave her with Faith and Cerise for the rest of the morning, but I had things I couldn’t cancel without causing waves best avoided.

  So I kissed her breathless, and she didn’t even seem to mind the fact that Lianne was hanging on me like a barnacle when it broke.

  I supposed I was nervous because she meant so much to me, we had a lot of love between us, a lot of history. But I could never forsake my vampire and goddesses, or my word. So it was her choice if she stayed or not, if she could deal with that or not.

  But like I said, so far so good.

  “I have a meeting I need to get to because of an incident this morning, Cerise and Faith can fill you in, I should be back for lunch.”

  I kissed all three of them, and then Lianne for good measure, before teleporting to Java’s.

  Chapter Ten

  Java’s wasn’t too packed at ten-thirty in the morning, so it wasn’t long before we had our coffees and were sitting at a semi-private table, just a few minutes before I expected Freda.

  Technically, I was not only king of the gods, but recognized as such now and truly ruling our pantheon. I could’ve told her to come to me, and she’d have done it, but I didn’t want to start using intimidation tactics when what I’d been doing had been working so well.

  It just made sense to meet her on neutral ground, rather than force the issue or change my style at this date. It was a new life, and with a council I didn’t have to use fear or other tactics of a despotic regime. So I was ruling like a pack, using positive reinforcement.

  The truth was they were all going in the same direction now, so if I started being a dick they could dethrone me. I didn’t want to besides, not when my current approach was yielding results and fruit. They didn’t like me still, and barely trusted me and only because of the fate’s backing, but I was confident in time that would change.

  Freda came in, and this time she didn’t have her buddies Famine or Pestilence with her. She even got on the line to get a coffee first, and I counted that as a major win. The goddess of hearth and home was the most paranoid one, after all. No doubt she’d taken some precautions, and when I checked with my power, I discovered she had Demeter on overwatch, far seeing the room.

  I could block it, but it’d be stupid to do so, and I was still taking it as a win.

  Freda came over and sat, “Liam, Lianne. What’s up?”

  “I could’ve just sent a message, but I thought you’d have questions for me, and it’s a bit sensitive and I wanted to avoid misunderstandings, since text can’t carry… the feel of spoken words.”

  I didn’t have to explain myself, but I wanted her to know I wasn’t just playing games to yank on her apron strings.

  Her lips twitched, “I see, what happened?”

  I went over the first part of my morning. Russia’s hacking attack, and what we’d done about it, including our retaliation. She was the interface to human governments, our ambassador to them in a real way outside the U.N.

  She sighed, “Russia is a pain in the ass, and my toes are feeling fine if you’re worried you stepped on them. They would’ve stonewalled me and are a bunch of racist assholes when it comes to the supernatural. I can even admit I’m impressed by your… restraint. Not that you need my approval, the one power you still retain is foreign policy, it’s only internal power you’re not supposed to exercise.”

  “Perhaps, but we share that power. You’re the carrot and I’m the stick.”

  She laughed, “Succinctly if accurately put, yes. Clearly this was a stick situation, they were threatening our entire pantheon of over three hundred gods, and not just some overzealous black ops director that went too far.”

  An obvious referral to the Germany situation, which she’d resolved peacefully.

  She paused for a moment, then changed the subject, “What do you think of Nadia? We all kind of know that it was Tatiana that killed your last incarnation, even if we can’t prove it. She’s the last power-hungry member of our council.”

  “Save the king?”

  Freda shook her head in bemusement, “You said it, not me.”

  I laughed, “She’s cleverly intelligent, driven, and cautious I’d say. A little arrogant, but not to the point of recklessness. She’s also well suited for spying. What exactly are you asking?”

  Freda shrugged, “You’re in charge again, but still checked by the council, so we don’t really expect any trouble out of you. At least, not until the harness starts to grate, you’re obviously relieved right now and happy enough to be ruling at all.”

  I nodded, “I don’t have a micromanaging mantle, at all. Just one to rule, so I don’t see that becoming a problem. Delegation is in my wheelhouse as a ruling style that doesn’t negatively impact my mantle to rule. Zeus’s mistake was ruling by human example, following in the footsteps of the human kings and tyrants of the age. At least he had an excuse, it was the only government setup that actually worked back then. Nate’s problem was he was an idiot who took Zeus’s ruling style as a guide. But I get your drift, Nadia isn’t ruling, but she is in charge of a major part of our government.

  “Honestly, I expect her to plot at some point, but if she does she won’t fool any of us. Not without Steven and Bruce as a foil acting as reasonable doubt. Without anyone to shift blame on, I suspect we have at least twenty years before she dares to make a major move, when Steven’s next incarnation joins us.

  “No one on the council would believe you were plotting for instance, if all the evidence pointed your way. That’s going to limit the mischief she can get up to, being the only ambitious one to rule in the room. She might be able to destabilize the council by setting me up, you all believe the worst there, right? But that won’t get her the throne, you all don’t trust her any more than you trust me, and she has no mantel to guide her in it.

  “I suspect most of our problems the next two decades will be from outside. The new pantheons and the handful of countries that truly despise us. Our government structure is… effective.”

  Freda studied me, then shook her head, “I wish I could believe that of you.”

  I shrugged, “Mistrust isn’t a problem, I’ll keep doing what I have been, and you’ll keep watching me. That’s the whole point of the council right, to exercise my authority and be a watchdog? That’s the beauty of it, trust isn’t required, only a desire to do right by our people and keep them safe, and I’m safe enough unless I step out of line.”

  She sipped her coffee and shook her head, then looked at Lianne as if trying to read my intentions through her.

  Lianne fidgeted.

  Freda asked, “Suppose we’re only going along with it because of the fates. What if we all change our minds about your rule, when Sara says its safe?”

  I laughed, “Will it ever be safe, with three active pantheons around us? Do you think the new Odin won’t see it as a golden opportunity if I am unseated? I came at the right time, this better version of me. Your past life put up with Zeus because of the threat of the other pantheons, how much more will you put up with a much better version for the same reason.

  “Also, this was Natasha’s intent when she originally came up with her plan to enforce the laws and reason on Nate. Her mates will support her, I doubt you’d get those three votes, and with mine that’s a lock on the council. Especially without Steven and Bruce around.

  “I have faith in twenty years I’ll have earned a small amount of trust. Plus, none of you want to rule, why would you ever change it if you were happy and satisfied I wasn’t abusing my power or our people?”

  Freda frowned, “You don’t think we’d unseat you if you went rogue against your own laws?”

  I shook my head, “No, I think you would punish me, as was Natasha’s intent. Leave me my rule, but have Amelia judge me and deliver punishment for whatever I did wrong. Which again, was the original plan, the one I’m accepting. Also, a pointless debate, because I won’t do that. I already rule, why would I give myself more work, when you’re already helping me as well as keeping me in check?”

  Freda snorted, “Are you trying to say you want this?”

  I said, “The limits on my authority to act in any situation as I see fit under the laws, hell no. But I can live with that part, because for the first time we’re all pushing in the same direction. And that I do want. I can admit it’s better this way, even if it does chafe in some ways. It also lets me have a life outside of rule, businesses, family. So… all things considered, it could be worse.”

  Normally laying all the cards on the table would be a foolish mistake. But Freda wasn’t a gossip, and with the fates backing me that changed the equation slightly. As long as she knew I wasn’t completely content with the solution, that would satisfy her desire to get one over on me. Freda wasn’t a vindictive person after all, quite the opposite, she was just very short on trust.

  She also wouldn’t quit her post just to spite me, she was loving her work, it fed into all of her mantels. As for Teresa watching, well she would follow Freda’s lead, every single time.

  “I know you can’t really trust it, but time will prove it out or not.”

  Freda sighed, “I can admit you are different. Nate never would’ve been able to take what we dished out that first week, and you haven’t even tried to get us back for it in petty ways, since the fates put you back on the throne. That… doesn’t sit well with me, the idea that I might be the petty one this time around I mean.”

  She took a long sip of her coffee, then nodded and got up and left.

  Lianne said, “Did that go well? I’m not sure.”

  I grinned, “As well as can be expected, I think. I wouldn’t have been so frank with Nadia, or the other two if they’d still been around, they’d have immediately quit the council out of spite. What’d you think of Aubrey?”

  Lianne grinned, “She loves you, is good for you, and is as loyal as I am. How could I not like her? She’s attractive too, and intense. A good addition to your harem of misfits.”

  I snorted. Misfits my ass.

  “You’re perfect, crazy and all.”

  She giggled, “Your exotic, sexy, and crazy Asian hottie?”

  “Exactly,” I teased, “But you forgot eye candy and advisor.”

  She winked, then blushed.

  I didn’t really have anything else scheduled for the day, really just waiting for the shit to hit the fan with the new pantheons. Internally the council and my directions had everything going well, our troublemakers were being watched and helped with their mantels if they needed it.

  I got up and took Lianne’s hand as she stood, and I teleported to the new mansion’s living room.

  Her eyes widened, then danced, as I pulled her tightly against me and claimed her lips gently, while my arms went around her body like a vice, and I squeezed her ass cheeks possessively. She let out a little shocked and turned-on whimper into my mouth.

  When the kiss broke, she looked turned on beyond belief, which was still heady to me, every single time.

  She said breathily, “Can’t resist me?”

  I nodded easily as I spanked her firmly, “Thought it was time we start breaking in the rooms of our new home, and you drive me crazy, love.”

  She giggled, then gasped as I spun her around, pinning her arm behind her back while reaching around and taking liberties with her breasts with my other hand, all while I pulled her to me and ground my bulge against her perfect pear-shaped ass. I loved her perfect and perky B cups, and she let out a breathy thrilled sigh as she ground back against me.

  I kissed the side of her neck softly, while teasing her breasts with authority but not hard, she was my sensitive one that way and only required the softest touch. Taking control of her was driving her crazy, but I still had to work her up a bit before claiming the prize.

  I nibbled her earlobe, and whispered, “You know I can’t resist you, baby.”