Fates & Monsters

Fates & Monsters Defying the Gods S. Cinders Copyright © 2023 S. Cinders Author LLC Fates & Monsters Defying the Gods All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at [email protected]. * * * Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination only. Contents Prequel In the beginning Chapter 1 Three months later Chapter 2 A lifetime later… Drugs are bad Chapter 3 Some Suits are Double Breasted Chapter 4 Dancing Queen: A Trip to the Loo Chapter 5 Some Backsides Are Meant to be Worshiped Chapter 6 Three Weeks Later: Detention Chapter 7 The Spells We Weave Chapter 8 Awake at Last Chapter 9 Big Man on Campus Chapter 10 It’s Not ‘a’ Gay Chapter 11 Some people suck Chapter 12 Several Weeks Later: Everyone Loves a Wicked Granny Chapter 13 Demotions and Promotions are Kissing Cousins Chapter 14 K-I-S-S-I-N-G: Happily Ever… Well, You Get the Drift About the Author Also by S. Cinders Achilles’ Earth Angel “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned / Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.” -William Congreve, 1697 Prequel In the beginning Brigid sighed and checked the sundial in the courtyard. She still had another two hours on her shift of keeping vigil over the eternal waters. In the House of Holiness lived the fountain of eternal waters, where every god and goddess came to replenish their wisdom, strength, and even uplift their spirits. While it wasn’t critical to the god’s immortality, it certainly made things better. That also made it important enough to place a guard around the clock to protect the waters. Normally, this wouldn’t have been one of Brigid’s responsibilities. Brigid, the “Exalted One,” was a Celtic Goddess of Fertility and Motherhood. However, she wasn’t feeling particularly exalted on account of a certain Egyptian god who was bloody brilliant at getting her into trouble. “Hey, Gorgeous!” Brigid, immediately recognizing the voice, whipped her head around to glare at none other than Shai, God of Destiny. “I hate you,” she snapped, narrowing her eyes when he began to laugh. “I have it on good authority that you like me—or rather, you appreciate certain parts of me.” He countered, moving in a smidge closer than was polite. “Oh Shai, more Shai, right there, Shai.” His scent, all sexy-deliciousness personified, had Brigid’s hormones racing like the Indy 500 despite her ire. What was it with this man? She thought, feeling disgruntled. Okay, so he’s not a man, but he sure as hell acted like a human male 98.9% of the time. “Go away, Shai. I’m already in trouble,” she huffed, attempting to keep the hurt out of her tone. He shrugged one shoulder, drawing her attention to the face so unearthly, rugged and handsome that it should have been a sin. Follow that up with a glimpse of an impressive expanse of his heavily muscled tan chest. “Look, sweetness, how was I to know that your voice would carry like that?” He quipped innocently. “Had I known the higher ups were meeting in the holy chamber, I never would have suggested our little tête-à-tête in the adjacent library. It truly was just bad luck that Odin happened to recognize your voice.” Brigid’s blood boiled. “How dare you? When they came running, I was the one caught bare-handed.” “Bare-assed more like,” he teased with mirth dancing in his eyes. Brigid launched herself at him, doing her best to ignore the way he caught her instantly. It was just a coincidence that she felt so at home in his arms. Even beating his chest was causing her anger to morph into something of a sexual nature. His breath brushed against the shell of her ear. “Sweetness, we can continue to throw barbed sweet nothings at each other for the rest of your shift. Or we can find another way to occupy our mouths for the next two hours.” Brigid was seconds away from telling him where he could not only spend the next two hours, but also where he could rot for the next hundred years. Only he placed his hands on her ass to pull her tighter against his chest, distracting her. Then he squeezed her cheeks hard enough to cause her to gasp and glare at him. But they both knew that she loved it. “What’s it going to be?” he whispered softly, his deep brown eyes effectively hypnotizing her. Obviously, it had to be some kind of mind control because she was seriously considering going along with whatever his plan happened to be. With one caveat, they must be naked. “Why are you here, anyway?” Her question, softly spoken, was accompanied by a furrowed brow. Brigid was doing her best to show the beast that he hadn’t hurt her. Only fibbing wasn’t ever her strong suit. “I’m here on official business,” Shai replied, leaning forward to rest his forehead against her own. “I have come to resupply the destiny dust in the vault.” Being the God of Destiny, it was hardly any surprise that Shai should have destiny dust with him. However, the dust was used as a helpmate for the humans to find their true soul-mates. Was it any wonder that most of the gods steered clear of anything resembling settling down into a happily ever after? And because of that, Shai only came by once a month to restock the dust. A look of confusion crossed her face. “But you’ve already done that this month.” “Have I?” he murmured, leaning in close to kiss her nose. It was butterfly soft