Villains Are Made

Villains Are Made GODS AMONG MEN SERIES ALTA HENSLEY Copyright © 2023 by Alta Hensley All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Dedication For every reader of fairytales who wanted the Villain to get their happily ever after. Contents Newsletter Warning Intro Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Epilogue About the Author Also by Alta Hensley Newsletter ALTA HENSLEY’S HOT, DARK & DIRTY NEWS Do you want to hear about all my upcoming releases? Get free books? Get gifts and swag from all my author friends as well as from me? If so, then sign up for my newsletter! Alta’s Newsletter Warning Enter this tale at your own risk. It’s dark. It’s dirty. It’s the love story of a villain. I know how villains are made. I’ve watched their secrets rise from the ashes and emerge from the shadows. As part of a family tree with roots so twisted, I’m strangled by their vine. Imprisoned in a world of decadence and sin, I’ve seen Gods among men. And he is one of them. He is the villain. He is the enemy who demands to be the lover. He is the monster who has shown me pleasure but gives so much pain. But something has changed… He’s different. Darker. Wildly possessive as his obsession with me grows to an inferno that can’t be controlled. Yes… he is the villain. And he is the end of my beginning. Chapter One Apollo Godwin “You shouldn’t have come,” my brother says as I approach, not trying to hide the sound of my boots mucking their way across the rain-soaked ground. Ares Godwin stands where I expect to find him. He’s stoically planted with his hands in his pockets on the edge of the cliff overlooking the Salish Sea. Olympus Manor—our family estate—to his left, and the tree of forgiveness to his right. He doesn’t turn to face me, but keeps his eyes focused on the water crashing into and over the rocks below. “Does the family think I’m going to skip out on bail and leave the country? Is that why they sent you?” I huff as I stand next to him, mimicking his stance. “Hardly. And they didn’t send me. You should know better than that.” Through the corner of my eye, I see the side of Ares’s mouth lift in a smirk. “Scared I’d jump to my death then?” “I wouldn’t blame you.” “But you knew I wouldn’t.” He’s right. I know he won’t. He’s a Godwin. Godwins don’t give up. We are gods who walk the earth. We are the monsters, the beasts, the villains in the story. We are the vipers who strike our enemies when they least expect it. The Godwin family wields the mighty thunderbolt like Zeus, and yet…somehow the powerful have fallen. There is a chip in our shield. A crack in our protection. We are vulnerable now, and for the first time in my life, I see my family is human. Flawed. Even weak. Everything has changed. My brother—my identical twin brother—is going to jail for the rest of his life for murder. “But you were an asshole for taking the helicopter by yourself. I had to travel here by boat like a true savage,” I say, trying to cut through the thickness of our air with jest. The island of Heathens Hollow, hidden in the fog of the Puget Sound, beckoned to my brother in his last hours of freedom, and I can completely understand the pull. I knew he’d come, and regardless of how I had to travel, I’d be here by his side. He sighs. “Part of me wishes they’d insist on the death penalty. I think that’s far less severe than having to live in a cage for the rest of my life. Hard to imagine I’m never going to see this view again.” I turn my head and look at the old willow tree that has stood on the edge of this cliff for centuries. “Have you asked the tree for forgiveness yet?” Ares chuckles. “I’m not in the mood to whip myself or kneel on rice hours before sentencing, thank you very much.” He shifts his weight, releases a deep breath. “What I’ve done, even that tree can’t forgive.” The tree of forgiveness… The bane of my siblings’ and my existence. Both our parents forced us to come to this tree to punish ourselves whenever we did anything wrong. They didn’t believe it was their duty to teach us the lesson, rather it was our job to search our inner selves to find the lesson and learn from it ourselves. I walk over to the leather strap still hanging from the lower branch. “Maybe I should be the one to whip myself.” I look over my shoulder at Ares. “I should be the one going to jail today. Not you.” “Stop,” he snaps. “We’ve had this conversation over and over, and I’m sick of it.” “You didn’t kill that man. I did.” There’s a part of me that wants to throw myself off the cliff just so I don’t have to live with this guilt any longer. “I can’t let you take the fall for me. I don’t care what you, Athena, or my father say. I can’t.” “I’m not going to jail because of you,” Ares