Vol.5 Ch.26.2 – Wait, What? II

“So, how does it feel?” Melinoe asked as we walked. We were headed to the main plateau, at her request. I wasn't sure why exactly she wanted to go there but this was a conversation I also wanted to have in private so I hadn't refused her. “You saved Olympus and you won't even get to brag about it.” The words could have been biting but they weren't. It was genuine amusement and curiosity bubbling through her tone. She found the situation as ridiculous as I did. Or rather, as ridiculous as she thought I found it.

“I don't really do this so I can brag about it, you know?”

“I've seen the way you've been treating the Olympians,” she said. “You didn't just come here because saving them was the right thing to do.”

“I didn't,” I agreed. “But even so, I don't need to brag about this. I don't need people in the capital to know I saved the Olympians. The Olympians know and that's enough. Once the initial relief wears off they'll realize just how humiliating it is that I of all people had to come and save them. Not just that but...” I took a deep breath and took a moment to phrase it: “My girls, all of them, have what it takes to be Great Heroes. Every single one of them is more powerful than me and none of them are as despised by the gods as I am. Gods above, Alisha and Selene are even directly blessed by the gods. But in the end I was the one to chase the Holy Maiden out of this world, the one out of our entire group that, according to the Olympians, should never have become a Hero in the first place. Is it a shame that no bards will ever sing about what we accomplished here? Sure. But I'll be able to rub this in their faces until the stars burn out and nobody will ever take that away from me.”

By this point we'd reached the first light bridge and there was a lull in the conversation as Melinoe focused on activating it. The bridge snapped into existence before us a moment later and as we stepped onto it I asked: “That didn't sound very heroic, did it?”

She shook her head. “No, I like that answer. I don't care if it's heroic or not, I feel the same. Knowing that I was not only part of saving Olympus but that I personally got to save my psycho grandma will keep me warm for centuries.”

“She did come through for us in the end,” I said, nodding over to the rather excessive blood puddle ahead, the spot where Demeter had torn Bres into bloody bits. She had gone completely overboard, her vines shredding the meat off his bones, all over his body. But after what he'd done to her, presumably for months, I didn't exactly feel bad for him.

“She did, didn't she?” Melinoe said, her tone implying that she really didn't know how to feel about it.

“I wonder what it was,” I said. “Was it Hestia's speech? Or was it what either of us said to her?”

“Definitely Hestia,” Melinoe said. “If anything, I wouldn't put it past her to come after us for this.”

“I suppose,” I said.

“Then again, if this is as humiliating to the Olympians as you think then I wouldn't put it past a lot of them to come after us... after you, for this.”

“They can try,” I said. “But I might start developing loose lips if they do.”

“They'll just deny everything you say.”

“The royal family would corroborate my story,” I said. “Anna will make sure of that.”

We had reached the far end of the plateau we'd fought Bres on and as Melinoe turned away to turn on the bridge of light she muttered: “So would I.” It was so quiet that I wondered if she'd intended for me to hear it.

“You would?” I asked, surprised to hear her say that.

She nodded as we stepped onto the bridge of light. “I may not have as much influence as a proper goddess but within my limitations, yes I would.”

“Why go through those lengths?” I asked, feeling like I was cutting to the core of the matter.

“Because I hate the way this went down,” she said. “They get to pretend that everything's fine, that they didn't get overrun, that they weren't held captive for months and that they didn't need to get rescued by someone they despise. And once things blow over you can expect more of that same scorn from them.”

By this point we had reached the end of the light bridge and stepped onto the main plateau of Olympus. And in the morning light things didn't look as bad as I had expected them to. The main streets ran red with blood but the side streets were fine enough and the streets along the plateau's edge looked no worse for wear.

Off in the distance I could hear the sounds of fighting, of dying goblins and blades slicing into flesh. I knew the Royal Guards that hadn't joined us in Zeus' tholos were out here, cleansing Olympus of the last remnants of the invaders and Artemis had rushed off the moment the Holy Maiden had escaped, desperate to free her brother Apollo. But none of that was my concern.

Melinoe's words cut deep. As much as my girls and I understood each other, none of them quite felt the same way about the Olympians that I did. Alisha had been treated as lesser by her family, Selene had been a dumb peasant girl to the people of her village, Yume had been scorned by the humans of her lands and Anna had been rejected by the nobility. But Melinoe alone understood what it meant to be found wanting by the Olympians. And so those words meant even more coming from her. She understood exactly how I felt. As glib as I could be about being able to make fun of the Olympians, I felt the same way she did.

After all of this, after months of nobody even missing the Olympians, they could just go back to pretending they ruled the mortals. It disgusted me. And what disgusted me even more was that...

“Wilhelm had a point, didn't he?”

“There was a lot of truth in what he said,” she agreed.

“But what does that mean?” I asked. “Is this our choice? Go along with everything the gods want or join the Outsiders?”

She chuckled. “Of course not.”

I looked over at her.

“You've met the Great Heroes,” she said. “How many of them show genuine respect towards the gods?”

“None,” I said instantly.

“Precisely,” she said. “All of them stood with us against the Outsiders and none of them bow to the gods. There is always a third option and it's up to us to find it.”

“You say that but none of them have managed to dethrone the gods,” I said. “As much as they despise them, the reign of the gods has survived all of them.”

“True,” she said. “But if they'd had the opportunities we are forging right now, they would have.”

“I suppose.”

“Look me in the eyes and tell me that the boon you're thinking of asking from Zeus won't be something that will weaken the gods in the long run,” she said.

I allowed myself a small smile. She had figured me out already.

“So, do you still think there's no other options for us?”

“No, you're right,” I said. “I didn't get this far by blindly following the gods' whims and I shouldn't start now.”

She nodded.

“So there's been an awful lot of 'us' in what you've been saying lately,” I said, surprising her.

“I...” she retorted expertly. She fell out of step with me and I slowed down for her. That one had struck true.

I gave her a moment to compose herself and finally she said:

“I have been spending a lot of time with your girls lately so it just... kind of...” She trailed off, her cheeks growing redder with every word.

“You have been, haven't you?”

She suddenly found her sandaled feet fascinating, staring down at them.

“I think we've been putting this conversation off long enough,” I said, trying to keep my voice gentle. She seemed like she might startle at any moment.

“We have,” she agreed meekly but didn't volunteer anything else.

I took a deep breath. “You drive me crazy, you know that?” I said. “I like you and you're fun to be around but... the way you act around my girls confuses me to no end. The furtive glances, the whispered conversations that stop dead the moment I get close... The only reason the two of us haven't had a real problem with each other yet is that when I saw you in bed with them you were all still wearing clothes.”

“You saw that, did you?” she asked, her blush growing darker.

“I did,” I said. The black camisole had looked amazing on her pale skin but that really hadn't been my priority back then. Gods, above. 'Back then'? That had been yesterday but it felt like a lifetime ago. “And that's what confuses me.”

“Yeah,” she agreed.

“So, you wanna tell me what I'm missing here?”

Because to me there were really only two options here. Look, I'm not totally oblivious. Of course I had considered the possibility that Melinoe might be interested in me. But if that was the case, why would she not simply talk to me? Why risk this kind of misunderstanding? So that left the second possibility, that it wasn't me Melinoe was interested in but rather my girls.

And that idea pissed me off far more than it should have. But it was hard to reconcile that idea with the spectacular woman I'd spent the last few days getting to know.

“I don't want to tell you,” she said and I could feel my eyelid twitching in anger. She must have noticed because she quickly amended: “Look, you absolutely deserve an explanation and you'll get one. But it's embarrassing and it's really complica—“ I couldn't take it anymore.

We'd been walking through what passed for a back alley in Olympus and I spun on her, then slammed my palm into the wall right next to her, trapping her between the wall and me.

I stared down at her, only now realizing that I towered over the demigoddess by at least half a foot. In any other situation, with any other woman, I would have realized how imposing it must have felt for her but right now I didn't care. I wanted her to feel small. I wanted a fucking answer.

But even despite my anger I couldn't help but notice how cute, how beautiful she looked like this. Startled, panicked, and so small. She looked up at me as I loomed over her, her eyes wide and her breathing ragged. But the answer I got from her was the last thing I had expected.

She leaned forward and kissed me, a desperate liplock that stole my breath away.

Her lips were unbelievably soft and hot and smooth. The subtle scent of apples that always followed her around was nearly overwhelming up close. Not only did she smell like the sweetest, ripest, most delectable apples, she tasted like them as well.

She pressed her body against mine, closing the distance between us as much as physically possible, pressing her sweet breasts and her flat tummy against me. I responded by pressing my knee between her thighs, feeling how wet and warm she was against me.

I ran my tongue over her lips and she opened up for me, our tongues dancing as she started to grind her crotch against my leg. Alright, maybe she hadn't just been interested in my girls after all.

Finally I gave up on the looming and ran my hands along her sides, down her shoulder blades, along her slim waist and finally to her exceptional ass, cupping both cheeks and giving them a squeeze. Hera's bush but she had some lovely buns on her.

I felt a pressure on my crotch and looked down to see her rubbing at my cock almost desperately. The position was too awkward for her to reach into my pants and so this was all she could do. Well, if she wanted it that much...

I took a step back, breaking our kiss in the process. She seemed confused for a moment until I grabbed her wrist and placed it on my crotch. “You want it?”

“Yessss,” she hissed and then moaned as I cupped her small breasts before going back in for another kiss.

Her hand was soft but her grip firm as she rubbed up and down my crotch, her stroking becoming more specific as my cock rose to full hardness and she could feel the outline against my pants. Finally, when it was fully hard, she reached into my pants, wrapping her long fingers around my cock, her soft hand feeling obscenely good on my sensitive skin.

“Yes, that's it,” she moaned as she broke the kiss. “I need it. I need to feel your huge cock inside me again.”

Wait, what?