Chapter Seventeen

Ares power rips from his body, shattering a vase on the side table, bursting a lamp and blowing out all the lights bulbs in the bedroom. Within seconds he is out of bed, roaring with anger, eyes glowing red, the whites consumed by a black so dark it seems endless, the red almost floating in an abyss.

"I will murder him. I will rip off his fucking gimp leg and shove it up his pompous entitled ass and Zeus? Oh, don't fucking get me started with him. I am going to pluck out his eyeballs, then I am going to cut off his most prized fucking possession and shove it down his damn throat, then I am going to take a whip and I am going to whip that stupid prick within an inch of his life." He speaks too fast for me to comprehend and my chest heaves with panic.

"Ares, please... shh. It's okay, lis...."

He whirls on me, glowing red eyes flaring even brighter, breaking the glass table in half. "It's okay?  Okay? You think this is okay? Men like them are fucking cowards, Aphrodite. No you know what? They aren't men. They are fucking leeches! Leeching off the power of others, taking advantage of those..." His hands curls into fists and he slams it into the marble kitchen counter.

The skin of his knuckles split, cuts tattering his hand in shreds, a couple fingers having cracked, ligament poking through the wounds. My heart lurches and I launch myself in front of him, taking his broken and tattered hand. "Stop," I breathe, unable to find the strength to push the word out.

Ares chest heaves with great breathes, moving rapidly up and down, nostrils flaring, hands still closed in his fist, his dark luminescent eyes not meeting mine. At least he stopped destroying things. "Let me explain," I whisper soothingly, pressing his hand flat against my chest so he can feel my heart.

"You don't need to explain, what could you add?" His words come out in a barely contained guttural growl, a frown marring his face, anger still coursing through his body. "Their lives are over, Aphrodite, from now until my hands rip their lives from their bodies is borrowed time."

"You can't kill them, you know that."

His eyes snap to mine, burning an intense red, replacing all of the amber brown and the black covering the whites. "You doubt me?" He leans in, so close that our noses touch. "You doubt that I can kill another God?" Rage saturates the air.

"No, but the consequences aren't worth it."

I clutch his bloody hand to my chest, holding his cheek with my free hand, caressing his cheek. "It's not worth it."

"You're worth it."

My heart clenches and I tilt my head the slightest to kiss his lips, sliding my hand to the back of his neck, keeping him rooted to me. "It was the wedding night. Zeus married me off because he didn't want the Gods to war over my hand in marriage, so he gave me to Hephaestus. The night we were married..."

"I don't want to hear it." He cuts me off, trying to pull away.

I grip him tighter. "I told him I didn't want to consummate the marriage, he told me I was to be a good wife and to obey him. After that I said nothing. I couldn't say anything. I spent all of a week at his side. I couldn't stand being near him, being his arm piece, whispering in his ear as he asked me to do before each party. It made me sick."

"Aphrodite, stop." His voice breaks and the fire in his eyes burns, but it stutters, the red becoming dull and the black becoming murky.

"For Zeus, it was during the trip to Kypros, the day we were going home. I wanted some solitude so I was relaxing on the beach when Zeus came and said he wanted me he tried to undress me but I kneed him and ran. I got away and I think it's partially why he gave me to Hephaestus, he didn't want a God to have what he couldn't, so he gave me to a gimp, someone I couldn't refuse to marry."

Ares is silent, breathing rapid and head dipping to his chest. His hands still hold their fist form, and I step closer, pressing my forehead against his.

"Why did you tell me?"

I circle his neck, kissing his unresponsive lips. "You needed to know, I am not weak." With this I put some strength into my voice, despite my earlier doubts, I know it's true.

I am strong. I fought off Zeus, I left my unhappy marriage and I made a new life for myself in a new world. I beat the nightmares and the fears and tomorrow, I will face them all as the woman I have become. Not just some toy for the immortals to pass around or an obedient wife. I am the Goddess of love and desire and I will own my sensuality.

"I never thought you were weak, dove." His eyes fall closed and I let go of his slowly healing hand and brush my fingertips over his face.

"Look at me, Ares." I keep my voice soft, but let the demand be obvious.

His eyes slowly flutter open and meet mine, their usual amber brown with the whites framing it. "They don't deserve to live, Aphrodite." His shoulders curve in with defeat.

"They don't," I agree. "But you're a better man than they are, Ares. If you kill not only Hephaestus, but Zeus there will be chaos on our hands. They will kill you. The other Gods wouldn't let you get away with that, no matter the reason."

"I don't care."

"I care," I plead. "I love you. I can't have you ripped away because revenge swept you under its wing. I don't want to lose you."

A muscle ticks in his jaw and he shakes his head, he lowers to kneel in front of me, one arm, reluctantly, wrapping around me, resting his cheek against my belly. "Then I will do nothing," he says.

"I promise, if an issue arises, I will handle it. And if you are humiliated, you may wreck havoc all you want, but not for this."

"This isn't nothing," he argues, hand twitching against my back as though he can barely keep his rage in check.

"I know." I guide him to his feet and back to our bed, laying down, waiting for him to join me.

For a long moment he stands at the edge of the bed, staring at me, gaze traveling over my body, until finally he lays beside me.

"I feel as though I have failed you, dove." His voice breaks and my heart shatters.

Immediately I curl myself around him. "It was much before you, Ares. There was nothing you could have done."

"But I should have known, I should have been there to protect you."

I push his hair back from his forehead, his eyes full of sorrow. If he had never known, this would have been much worse. "My fierce warrior, you've protected me whenever you could. Don't put this on yourself."

"I don't know how to."

"It will all be okay." I murmur, pressing a long kiss to his cracked lips, ignoring the coppery tang of blood.

He sighs. "I know. Everything is fine. I won't do anything."

"Love me," I whisper, tucking myself into the warmth of his chest.

Ares arms come around me, a comforting weight. "Always," his voice vibrates through his chest and into my body and he hums, soothing me into peaceful sleep.