I looked up at the sky, then down at him like he was crazy, and he was.

  “I’m curious about Mandy’s project. She did purchase some things from me to complete it. Things she can’t get anywhere else, and I assume if she’s planning to mass produce this new widget, which I’m sure will be amazing, she’s going to need me as a business partner to do it. I was also invited. You still need to listen to your mate more, you’re really not thinking straight. All the evidence is there that I just did your family an enormous favor, even if it does benefit me and the pantheon as well.”

  I dug deeper with my power of knowledge. Past his plans and the trigger of jealousy that had him hating me despite not knowing a thing about me. Had he always been like this?

  Yes, and no. Usually when he felt jealous, he just pounded his mates into submission and quickly got it out of his system, and since they loved to be dominated and used it really worked for all of them. It was just… he saw me as a true rival, where the others that had caused jealousy hadn’t been his equal in power, looks, or influence. It was absurd, but that’s why he couldn’t let it go.

  The truth of course, was that I wasn’t a rival, not even a little bit. The idea of using one of my mates turned my stomach, even with awe in my heart, I couldn’t do that. Nor would my chosen mates like it. In short, I wasn’t at all compatible with what Natasha, Mandy, Vicki, Amelia, or Kaya needed in a man behind closed doors, even if intellectually we weren’t far off that way.

  I conjured a piece a paper as I asked myself a question, then jotted down three names. Then I reached toward Natasha, and she reluctantly took a half step forward and reached for the page. She frowned at the names.

  I also cast a quick illusion, to cover my words from the reporters, drones, and even the people nearby.

  I said, “I’m not compatible with your family, not an option, nor would I want to be. I’m quite lucky and thrilled to have the family I already have. Your jealousy is misplaced and foolish. Your mates have no interest in me that way, and I am quite taken myself.”

  Natasha held up the paper and asked, “What the hell is this?”

  I shrugged, “Give it to your father, he’ll tell you. Suffice it to say, yet another favor.”

  I wasn’t sure she’d see it that way, but it truly was. I was also sure the purpose of it would be better received from her father.

  “Gary, you’re sixty years old for goodness sake, you’re also on the edge. Master yourself, before you destroy all you love and hold dear. It won’t be my fault, it’s your jealousy driven hate that has almost destroyed your family already. If I hadn’t fled and hid, and you’d taken me down as you planned, what do you suppose Amelia would’ve done? Do you really think she’d still be here?”

  Gary snarled, “You’re trying to turn it all around. Everything was fine until you got here.”

  I snorted, “Steven’s no longer raping or controlling humans under your nose, Bruce’s lackadaisical and dangerous leadership was replaced by Mandy who has done a much better job at organizing and keeping our law enforcement well trained and safe, and there have been significantly less criminal deaths during operations. Natasha is now counseling to lower recidivism. I also won a war against another aggressive pantheon without a single life lost on our side. I’ve done all that and more to improve things, and I’ve done nothing wrong. The only thing that isn’t fine, is your family, and for that you need to look in the mirror. I’ve done nothing, it’s your jealous driven rage that has you hunting me like Nate used to hunt his political enemies. Get out of my face.”

  Gary smirked, “Or what?”

  Idiot thought I was threatening him with physical violence.

  “Or, your fired. Did you expect me to attack you for your insolent childish behavior? That your pitiful plan to goad me into violence so you could get away with murder would succeed?” Natasha turned white faced at that revelation, “I run a modern government, and don’t kill disrespectful annoyances. You serve at my pleasure, and your service is no longer pleasing. I’ll nominate Amelia to replace you, though if she turns it down that’s fine, we don’t really need three gods representing the justice branch on the council. Still, as it’s her full-time job, I expect she’ll warm your seat willingly.”

  I shrugged, and let that hang there a minute, then said, “Or, you could master yourself and start acting with civility and propriety. For the sake of everyone here, and just let it go. Walk away so I don’t have to fire you. Now. People are starting to notice we’re under a privacy spell, and I’m sure you don’t want to ruin your mate’s planned unveiling. After twenty years in a lab, I have to imagine it’s going to change the world even more than my inventions will.”

  He looked furious of course, like he was the misunderstood one and I had everyone else fooled. In his defense, his mantel really did have a potent dark side. Jealousy, dark possessiveness that made him extremely aggressive in bed, which worked for his mates so that was all good. But that dark side of his was spiraling, if he couldn’t pull it back, then his family was fucked. If he got himself jailed or recycled, then the family was done if they couldn’t replace him.

  They all needed cock way too much to survive without him, especially Vicki and Mandy. They wouldn’t hold it together long without him, in an all-women mating.

  He was also much more than that darkness, but his principles and beliefs were blurry right now because of the jealousy fueled rage and fear of losing his mates, which of course was a little ironic. It would be that very fear that would make it happen.

  I also didn’t want to lose his power for the pantheon for twenty-two years, so I really hoped he’d master himself. But there was only so much slack I could afford to give for his power block and the sake of the pantheon. If he truly crossed the line from thought into deed, there was no out for him. Technically he was already guilty of conspiracy to commit regicide and sedition.

  Thing was, our laws were simpler than the human ones. We punished for actions only, the attempted charges based on intent and thought weren’t in our books.

  Gary replied, “This isn’t finished, I still want that answer, at the next council meeting,” then wanting the last word he stalked off.

  Natasha gave me a worried look, then followed him like a whipped puppy.

  Lianne shook her head, “Did you see his face when you threatened to fire him and outed his plan? I thought he was going to pass out.”

  I snickered, and then dismissed the privacy spell around us.

  “I had no idea this party would be so much fun.”

  I wasn’t really enjoying the drama, but sometimes life needed to be laughed at, when it reached a level of absurdity. I wouldn’t let Gary poison me. As I’d said before, I didn’t need to be liked, I just needed to rule and protect my people. My mates and Misty had the softer sides of life fully covered and then some. It was truly an amazing thing, something no man would feel fully worthy of, my loving and loyal women were the best this world had to offer. That people could look at Lianne and only see a crazy person, or Faith and only see a screwed-up mantel, totally blew my mind.

  It wasn’t something any of my past lives had enjoyed, either. I mean, that’s why Zeus had that reputation of seducing and knocking up human women, because that was his only real outlet from politics and the demands of tyrannical rule.

  Nate had been even worse that way, choosing to rape Aria while compelling her to like it and to stay at his side. It was nothing to do with me, my past lives weren’t my responsibility, yet I still felt guilty enough holding the same soul that I’d been avoiding the goddess of victory assiduously. Even more so than I had Amber, Nate’s crimes against her hadn’t included the physical.

  We finished up our snack and Champagne, then got up to make the rounds. Seeing all who was here. I mean, the ladies went to a lot of work to look as jaw dropping gorgeous as they did, it would’ve been an inexcusable crime to not show them off to everyone there…

  Chapter Eleven

  It was close to five when I felt it approach, from a long way up in the sky. I tended to be aware of anything up in the air due to that mantel, sky god. The strange part, was it came out of nowhere, from above. In other words, from outer space.

  Color me intrigued.

  Mandy was at a podium, “Good evening, and thank you for all coming. I’ve been working hard the last twenty years pushing the edges of scientific knowledge further back, trying to unveil the mysteries of our universe. The project I’ve been working on is a combination of several breakthroughs in that area, from anti-gravity, artificial gravity, gravity reaction drives, material sciences, scanning techniques, and even some weapons development. Perhaps the most significant of all, faster than light communications and travel.”

  Oh, was that all? Sarcasm, of course, she’d been a very busy girl. I’d already guessed the gravity manipulation parts from our short conversation last week, but even I was stunned by the rest. The silence of the yard was profound when she paused for a moment, as if to absorb all she’d said.

  “The prototype you’re about to see is an all-in-one explorer, capable of doing a whole lot of things, if none of them profoundly well, and it will serve for a tour and as a proof of concept for all the various types of uses. Of course, there will be many different models on offer for mass production and sale, spaceships tuned to one particular purpose, though the explorer model will be available as well, for those with eclectic needs.”

  She looked up, and right on cue one of the white clouds parted and swirled, as a large ship appeared to be coming in for a landing. Except, it didn’t, land that is. It just stopped dead in the air at about five hundred feet. It was at least a hundred and fifty yards long and fifty wide at its widest, and thirty or so at its smallest. There were no visible drives, vents, or rockets, it just floated there.

  It was just too huge to be new, she must’ve had it already built, but had some power system issues with her fusion reactor, which was why she’d come to me. I’d noticed she’d made no mention of a fusion power system in her discoveries.

  She asked, “Would anyone like a tour?”

  And as if that was another cue, two large doors opened up on the side of it, and five smaller shuttles floated sedately out of each, ten in total, and started for the lawn.

  Aubrey said, “Holy crap.”

  I laughed, “I know, right?”

  I shrugged and led the charge with a casual pace toward the lawn, which seemed to break the rest out of their shocked and frozen tableau. I had to admit, it’d been years since I’d felt boyish delight, but I did that day.

  Mandy continued, “The explorer vessel is capable of interstellar travel, for the purpose of exploration and surveying worlds for possible colonization or just for the science of it. The downside for that function is it only has room for a crew of twelve, which is a bit anemic for exploring our galaxy.

  “It’s also capable of low-capacity mining, search and rescue, and it has minor defensive and offensive capability.

  “As I said earlier, all of those functions are compromised to accommodate them all in one proof of concept ship, including crew sizes. The specialized scout and survey ship will be much more capable for that purpose, and it’ll have enough crew quarters for over a hundred people and more complete scanners and laboratories.

  “While the mining vessel will have the same twelve-person crew complement, but far more cargo space with everything else removed, and larger ore processing machines. A search and rescue vessel will be almost all medical bays, a crew of thirty, with three times as many shuttles and landing bays. A military or interdiction vessel will be more heavily armed, once there are a lot of ships up there, a criminal element is bound to become a part of things, so it’s a real concern.

  “So keep that specialization in mind as I give you a tour of the explorer version and proof of concept. I figured seeing is believing. I’ll see you all up there.”

  She disappeared in a flashing sphere, while the rest of us got on the shuttles, which hadn’t truly landed, but were floating about two inches over the lawn with their rear hatches open.

  I immediately recognized just one of my house sized magic to electrical power devices was powering the shuttle. Which meant… there was one in each shuttle, and just twenty of them were powering the ship above us. I could also tell the charging piece was onboard ship as well.

  The doors closed, and I didn’t feel movement of any kind, but about half a minute later the rear hatch was opening to reveal the landing bay.

  It was impressive, as she walked us through the bridge, explained the energy based weapons and shields, as well as what speeds it was capable of, and how we wouldn’t all die or be turned into paste against the bulkhead when it went to light speed. Even dumbing it down, most of it was over my head.

  Maybe I was biased, but it was the stop at engineering that was most impressive to me. It was essentially a small forest. Literally, a forest.

  Mandy said, “Our power systems are the only thing on the ship not using my proprietary IP. This room is the power generation room as well as our life support system. Not only does this room convert CO2 back to oxygen in a way that keeps the air fresh like outdoors, instead of stale with faint chemicals, it’s modified by a fae to be all one lifeform. This entire room, all the bushes, plants, and even the grass is interconnected with the large tree in the center. Providing one huge lifeform that generates a lot of magic potential.

  “There’s a sphere inside the tree that converts that magic potential into electricity in a shocking efficient way, that powers this ship and all ten shuttles. No need to stop for gas, but don’t forget to water the plants!”

  A few people laughed nervously at that.

  She winked, “My fae engineer made sure the life in this room was extremely hardy, and the room is overengineered to maintain it. The flora in this room will far outlive the rated expectancy of the entire vessel, which is fifty years of service, by the way, before needing an overhaul.

  “Food and water will be the only limits as far as mission length, that must be restocked on a regular basis. Power and life support are self-sustaining without fuel of any kind to maintain. Next stop, ore processing.”

  It was an impressive ship, as was the demonstration. Though almost half those present left when given the offer, before she took us into space, and used FTL to get us to the asteroid belt in less than a second, instead of close to a day that it would’ve taken with the gravity reaction drive alone. With rockets, that same trip would take over a year.

  She tested both the weapons and mining equipment, which was impressive.

  It also told me I’d be selling a lot of house sized magic to electricity converters earlier than expected. It was also an entirely new niche, so allowing that to happen wouldn’t negatively affect anyone’s jobs or livelihood earlier than projected, nor overly effect industries on the ground.

  The price tag for a spaceship was between six to seven billion dollars, depending on the model chosen. Quite a price tag at first blush, but given the mining ship could earn that back in a couple of months of mining and hauling ore, it was probably too cheap.

  Either way, it was a hell of a day, if slightly annoying because of Gary’s shit at the same time.

  Misty said, “So, tell us, what was that list?”

  I grinned at my impudent vixen, “Curious?”

  Cerise said, “I think we all are.”

  The six of us were relaxing after breakfast to finish our coffee before starting our day. It’d be our first normal day in quite a while, Faith and Cerise would be going to their offices soon while Lianne and I got into trouble, and Aubrey read up on magic for her education. She’d decided to focus on that part of it to fill in the time until the next semester started up for online classes.

  Peeling them out of their dresses last night had been a lot of fun too. Despite the tense atmosphere at the party and all the drama, we’d all been a little worked up by the time we got back, and the small champagne buzz probably hadn’t hurt things any. It’d been a wild night.

  “Umm, three gods that would be compatible with Gary’s mates, cerebrally, emotionally, and physically. Mark will see that right away of course, when he uses his power on the names. The ladies are really kinky, but there are a few gods that are into that sort of thing, while still being able to respect their women in the morning. Three to be exact, which lines up, about two percent of our male population.”

  Faith frowned, “You don’t think she’ll replace him, do you?”

  I shook my head, “Not in a breakup, probably not. I’m not trying to screw Gary out of revenge, I’m trying to minimize the damage if he screws himself by offering options. The way things are going he’s either going to be put in jail or recycled. She won’t want to replace him even then, there’ll be a lot of painful fallout, they truly love each other. But she’ll have to, without Gary to tame their physical needs and mantels they’ll fall apart. Vicki is like Faith that way, without a good pounding at least once a day she’d have no choice but to stray, and Mandy isn’t far from that either, not by mantel but by appetite. Natasha too, if a little less so. Only Amelia and Kaya could quit cock sex cold turkey in that family, and make it work for more than a few days. But even they have needs to be owned and used by a man that they can’t put off too long.

  “Anyway, I owed her one, so at least she’d get to keep her whole family, the women I mean. It’s also a little selfish, because if her whole family blew up then I doubt Kaya and Natasha would be much help to me at all. She’ll probably hate me for giving her the option, but at the same time she’ll owe me for it.”

  Faith kissed me softly, “You’re just trying to justify being a softy.”

  Aubrey giggled, “I agree. It’s all over your scent. Not that you’re lying, that it’s partial self-interest is true, but that’s not your main driver by a longshot.”

  I pulled Aubrey into a kiss, then Cerise and Lianne. Lianne last, because I pulled her into my lap, while the others headed to their daily tasks. They were right of course, but I wasn’t one to wear my empathy on my sleeve.