Of course, I could avoid the risk of a physical fight with power, which would skew those odds firmly in my direction. Not enough to be arrogant about it, but enough to give me confidence in the outcome with both caution and disciplined focus firmly in mind.

  “Before you do that, I should probably tell you while I’m the Champion of Hestia, I am the son of her brother, Poseidon. My power is not peaceful, nor will it make you feel at home.”

  Greg decided to get clever, and said in mock confusion, “Do what?” even as a concealed throwing dagger popped into his hand from his sleeve and he threw it at my face.

  I slid to the side as I drew my sword. It was easily dodged, because I’d been ready for it. Then I snorted as insultingly as possible as his back window shattered when the dagger hit it. Idiot broke his own car. Part of my training, mock and piss off the enemy to make them fight angry and off balance, though in Greg’s case he was already angry from being called out for his bad behavior.

  At the same time that I dodged the dagger, Hali lunged forward as she drew her sword in a split-second, and already had Steven desperately backpedaling as he defended from her fierce attack.

  Greg pulled his sword and came at me, his speed a match for mine. When it came to physical attributes and skills our disparate level of power was not a determinate, nor did speed and strength consume power. It was just our bodies. The level of power was more about mystical skills, like my control over storms and the wind. I learned after the first parry that he was slightly stronger than I was, but not nearly enough to matter. Skill would decide this contest.

  We exchanged a furious opening clash of sword movements. Clearly, he was trying to kill me, while I was taking a measure of his skills. It would be foolish to commit myself before I had the measure of him, and outside of underestimating me I didn’t take his incaution as an indication of his true prowess with a weapon. No doubt he thought I’d go down easily, and that I wouldn’t be trained in weapon arts since I’d chosen to follow a peaceful goddess.

  In short, I thought he was an arrogant idiot, but I didn’t assume that he wasn’t a deadly one.

  He was good, really good, but I was better, and his anger was making him a little sloppy.

  I smirked as insultingly as possible while parrying, blocking, and flowing out of the way of his sword. I wasn’t feeling arrogant at all, the smirk was merely another tactic to piss him off. Don’t get me wrong, I was confident, else I’d have brought the wind to bear on my enemy, but not incautiously so. Arrogance got you killed, something that Hali drummed into my brain long ago. Even an idiot could stick a sword in me, if I wasn’t focused and at my best.

  Regardless, he roared in anger and lunged when I gave him a false opening, a false weakness in my style that drew him in thanks to his anger and arrogance. He overextended, and his blade hit the ground with his hand still tightened around it as my blade whistled through his wrist and sheered it off. The loud crack of his knee followed, as I kicked it out in his shock, and he fell to the ground.

  I grimaced, he looked even angrier, and if looks could kill I’d be dead. Fortunately for me, his skills were unequal to the task and the rage in his gaze was quite harmless. I realized then he would never yield, and that he may even come back here after I left and take out his rage on someone who couldn’t fight back, Cathy. The blood had already stopped at his stump where his hand used to be attached, maybe his power gave him advanced healing of some kind.

  As for Steven, his ass was already knocked out. My Hali was so sexy. I don’t know why her ferocity and fierceness turned me on, but it really did.

  Point being, before I got off track because of Hali’s distracting hotness, was him coming after Cathy wasn’t something I could allow, but at the same time I really didn’t want to kill him.

  “Hali. Fix them so they do what I ask, and never come back here.”

  Hali said, “That could backfire if someone undoes it.”

  That was probably true. If she used her song then she could influence them to pay and never come back, but it could be undone later.

  I nodded with a sigh, and said coldly, “Swear it. Swear on your goddess and power you will never come back here, nor will you seek to send someone else to harm Cathy in your stead, and I will spare your life.”

  Based on the stump’s growth, which was a bit of a surprise, he’d have a new hand in a day or two. I also suspected that was the extent of his extra power save his strength and speed, or he’d have already tried to kill me with it.

  He growled, “I’ll kill you.”

  I shook my head, “I don’t think so. Last chance, swear it or you won’t leave here alive. Is your pride really worth your life, and petty revenge against someone helpless to resist?”

  It was his own arrogance and his own fault he was in this situation, but his anger was deluding him into seeing himself as the injured party here. That was actually pretty normal for humanity, and we were still half human, but that level of self-delusion was still disturbing to me.

  He growled, “I swear on my goddess I will never return or send someone in my stead to harm or abuse Cathy.”

  His eyes said he’d kill me if he could.

  “If you come after me for revenge, I will kill you. Now go get your shit and pay Cathy.”

  He got up, and I extracted a similar oath from Steven, who by then had woken up with Hali’s sword to his throat. Steven went a lot easier, like I said earlier, emotional cowardice.

  Hali and I followed them inside, to make sure they had no more mischief in mind.

  If I had no enemies before, I did now, in the children and champions of Athena. Although I doubt that I’d earned the enmity of their goddess, nor Hera or her children, but time would tell. Maybe it was foolish, and I should’ve just killed the pair of them, but I was giving them one more chance. I had no doubt they’d be able to hunt me down and figure out where I lived. If they did come, there’d be no third chance.

  It didn’t take long before the four of them were gone. Cathy was a cute leggy brunette in her thirties, and very thankful for the intercession, but we didn’t spend a lot of time there.

  She was far too busy keeping up with all her guests to entertain us long, so we headed back for the river and went home.

  Chapter Eleven

  It didn’t take much power to disperse the building storm in the area, and have it form farther south instead and pass south of the city. The sky was clear and sunny as we headed farther west toward Levi’s place for the barbeque early afternoon that same Saturday. My dark reddish-brown haired beauty looked incredible in a sweet yellow sundress, and her bright green eyes were back to their warm and submissive joyful twinkling with the danger behind us.

  We’d skipped the sparring with the fight, but we had worked off all the rest of that adrenaline surge between the sheets. My Hali was submissively wild, and so beautiful, as she brought me pleasure with her body in a passionately wanton devotion that never failed to make me breathless.

  In truth it wasn’t much of a fight in hindsight, but I didn’t let that make me cocky.

  I was looking forward to getting to know my allies better. Levi’s family lived farther out in the rural area, much farther than we were which was near the border of the suburbs. They had a large number of acres, and the main mansion was kind of huge, with a large extension to accommodate his seven mates and their children. There was also a couple of other buildings on the property, one looked like a dojo, and the other was a storage shed so large that I wasn’t sure if it shouldn’t be called a barn, even if a small one.

  At least, at the time I’d thought it was a storage shed.

  They were all setup on the right side of the house and in front of the dojo, in a large field. There was a strange circle of metal poles off to the side I couldn’t determine the purpose of, but I pushed it out of my mind. In addition to the barbeque which was already going there were a couple of outdoor tables set edge to edge to make a single larger table and chairs set up, as well as plenty of lawn chairs.

  There was only one adult I didn’t recognize, which had to be Claire their fourth monster mate, since I’d already met all of Levi’s other mates at the spa. She was about five foot five, with light dirty blonde hair and light blue eyes. She had a perfect hourglass body like my Hali, but not nearly as lush at around the same height with C cups instead of D’s, and her pear-shaped ass was a lot smaller than my Hali’s delightfully supple and juicily bubbled ass.

  Allison was there as well, so with us two, and Levi’s family being eight including him, there were eleven adults in total. There were also eight babies all of them but one under a year of age. Which is when my brain short-circuited. There was no way his three demigoddesses had put out that many kids at once, but I’d always thought it impossible for a monster and demigod to conceive.

  A strong surge of lust went through my body, at the idea of knocking up my Hali. Also a surge of possessiveness, love, and with that a little disbelief. It was like an instant obsession and desire, to give my Hali a family.

  Hali leaned closer, and she sniffed me while melting against my side with a contented sigh. She loved it when my scent was laced with those emotions, and in the moment they were particularly strong.

  “Not that I’m complaining, master. But what brought that on.”

  I explained my thought process.

  She smiled, “Aphrodite is the goddess of fertility, no doubt she made the impossible possible. It’s what gods do.”

  My mind spun at that. I’d never regret the choice of goddess I made, I belonged with Hestia, but it almost would’ve been worth going with the goddess of love to give Hali children and make her a true mate. It also occurred to me a moment later, that it was still more than possible, if Katerina mated with me Aphrodite would be present at our mating, and she would perhaps bless our whole family with fertility. It was a bit of a selfish thought, but at the same time it didn’t bother me overmuch, because I’d chosen to try for Katerina long before I’d come to that realization.

  Still, it’d hurt a lot more now, if that fell through and I failed to secure a champion of Aphrodite in my family. There were no guarantees in life, and circumstances and timing had as much to do with successful mating as compatibility did. That was even truer for the daughters of pleasure, who required a true sea change of outlook before transforming their life and considering being faithful to a single person or limited polyamory mating circle.

  “Let’s go, before they start wondering why we’re sitting in the car.”

  Hali chuckled sultrily, “Yes, master.”

  She slid over and got out, and I followed.

  Allison looked delightful in a red sundress that showed off her lovely long legs and showcased her B cup cleavage to advantage. The adorable and sexy Carmen looked even more adorable with a light pink dress on. Levi had his left arm around the latter as the three of them stood by the grill. The rest of his mates were playing with the babies at the moment. Janice, Ginny, Nicole, Dawn, Aurora, and Claire.

  “Hey, Levi, Allison, Carmen.”

  Levi grinned, “Sunny out, good job.”

  I laughed, “My pleasure, I’m great for parties.”

  Allison grinned, “Glad you could make it. Hali, you look fantastic in that dress.”

  I replied, “Thanks, good to see you too.”

  It was, and it was only a little tempting to hug her. I suspected that lessening of need was more about her than me or my blessing, and quite situational. It was clear enough why she was more content than usual, standing next to Levi. I wondered if she’d even admitted the truth to herself there yet, probably not, and I had no plans to ever bring it up. It wasn’t my business, and clearly Levi was willing to wait as long as it took for her to get through her partying days. Allison was still very young after all, barely nineteen.

  The blessing was a little easier to handle with just ten other people in the yard, eighteen with the babies. I’d gotten a lot of practice yesterday in just taking in the storm and letting it wash over me, rather than controlling it, and the storm of information was a lot smaller there. There were also less temptations with that many less needs as well. Plus, I was the guest in this case, which meant it wasn’t my place to fulfill those needs, which helped to a certain extent as well, remembering what the goddess said last night.

  Point being, I knew not to start catering to people, and the blessing itself wasn’t that large of a burden.

  Hali smiled, “I’m not the only one, red is definitely your color, though I suspect you’d look great in anything.”

  Allison beamed.

  Carmen asked, “Drink?” she waved a hand, “There’s beer, soda, or water in the coolers, help yourselves.”

  “Thanks,” I said to Carmen, “Water,” I added to Hali who walked off happily to get a couple.

  Levi chuckled, “The food should be about fifteen minutes. The ladies are trying to get them all napping by then, but we’ll see how well that goes.”

  I nodded, “Eight must be a handful.”

  Levi said, “Worth it though, and with seven mates it’s not nearly as overwhelming as it sounds.”

  Hali handed me a water and I thanked her.

  “It’s a nice place,” I waved my hand to take in everything.

  He said, “The barn’s a new addition. But thanks,” he waves his beer at everything, “this place is all Janice, I’m sure you get that.”

  I nodded, daughter of Hestia. Of course she’d be the one to decorate and warm the home like I planned to do for my mate and future mates, like I was. I could even feel the warm atmosphere of welcome weaved within her wards. It was effective, like a slight shadow of Hestia’s aura, and I made a mental note to ask her how it was done. I might not be able to do it, her mystical power included witchcraft, but some of her diverse skills that way would be formed from her raw power as a demigoddess.

  Yes, I had witchcraft too, but my demigod power wasn’t mystical and didn’t evoke it. It was a separate thing.

  Levi added, “As I suspected Jack’s not going to make it. Something came up for Caroline as well, so it’s just us this time. Don’t be too surprised if we have two unexpected guests. My father likes to soak up my beer, and Aphrodite visits our daughter Mila often.”

  I raised an eyebrow, “They come in the flesh?”

  Levi chuckled, “My father makes the rules, and he owed Aphrodite a favor, which she cashed in to be involved with Mila’s childhood. Normally they don’t, and while I like to believe I’m special to her she really does come to see our kid. That said they do have some small leeway to show themselves in the mortal world, but not reveal themselves, so they stay in Olympus most of the time. I suspect a lot of gods don’t, simply not to lead their enemies to what’s most important to them. They constantly spy on each other’s doings.”

  “Right, but you’re your father’s son, which lessens that risk in your case.”

  Levi shrugged, obviously uncomfortable with my implication of him being a badass, “I can’t say that’s not true. So far even our world hasn’t been contemptible enough to come after my kids, so it hasn’t been an insurmountable problem so far. My mates yes, but so far not the kids.”

  We stuck to small talk for a bit while he finished up the grilling. Nascent friendship kind of stuff, and nothing all that important. It was amusing to note Allison was slightly less flirty with me with Levi standing right there. Though I wasn’t sure if that was a subconscious thing and deference to him because of her feelings, or merely a social convention she’d adopted for times with two males near her.

  Still thinking to much, but the blessing made that necessary.

  When he finished up, we all moved to the joined tables. Janice set me at the foot while Levi took the head of the table. I had Allison to my left, and Hali to my right. The rest of the table was taken up by his mates with the guests being us at the end. Most of the babies had gone down for a nap, but Mila was older and obviously not interested. Instead of leaving her with the other kids and risk her waking them up, she sat in Nicole’s lap.

  There was a good spread on the table. Potato and macaroni salad, coleslaw, burgers and hot dogs, bratwurst, barbeque chicken legs, corn on the cob, with all the fixings including sauerkraut, ketchup, two kinds of mustard, and various sized rolls. Not to mention sliced onions, lettuce, and tomato for the burgers.

  We all dug in. A few conversations started up, the table splitting into groups as naturally happened at these kinds of things.

  Allison asked, “Ready for Monday?”

  I tilted my head.

  She giggled naughtily, “The job, not Katerina’s warm hands.”

  I snorted, “I hadn’t been confused about those two things. I think so, yes. Janice gave me a good overview of what’s going on. So what do you get up to outside of your warm hands at work and dates with very luck men at night.”

  Probably a little over the top, but I was playing back from her shot, and she had been pretty proud about sharing those things. Happy ending massages during the day and working as a very expensive and exclusive escort at night.

  She winked, “Is there more to life? Actually, I’m taking some online business courses. In a decade or two when I hopefully settle down and find a mate, I’ll have a whole lot of money and need a new business to invest it in, unless I follow Carmen’s path.”

  I almost choked on my burger at that, I thought she’d been clueless about her heart already being Levi’s.

  “What’s that?”

  Her next words dispelled my false assumption, and I managed not to chuckle.

  “Well I could still make pretty damned good money as a masseuse like she does now, there’d just be no more happy endings. It’s still an aspect of pleasure as well, if not on a sexual level, so although it’s hard to imagine for me now, it might very well be appealing by then. If that makes sense.”