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She is everything—mine. And I am hers.

Her eyes roam over my Gods’ Form, igniting with need I ache to satisfy. But tonight, I want her as a man. Skin to skin, soft and slow.

I want to make love tomy wife.

She's always been my wife from her very first life, the vows stand true still.

I inhale deeply through my nose and scenther.

She smells of spring and life and sweetness. Under it all, there is a musky scent of warm desire I do not have the strength to deny. It's not the same need that spilled from her body to tease and taunt me. The need that drove me to take her as a beast.

This is natural. Her desire is not a desire woven by fate, manipulated by higher powers for a future in which we are pawns for the crafting of a new world.

This desire is inherently hers. It is warm and nurturing and soft.

It is everything that I want to sink into and lose myself in. It is her, love.My soul mate.

My fingers curl into fists as my beast form hums with need. I try again to center myself. Try again to soothe the raging flame that roars inside me.

I will not go to her in this form, not tonight.

When Hydra had flown with her on her back into the black mountain, fear unlike anything I'd ever known had expunged every ounce of rational thought.

Never in all my centuries had I transformed from man to God so quickly, so viciously.

I've tried multiple times to change back and failed.

I'd been so agitated, so afraid, I'd been unable to take the form of a man.

Now, finally, I feel that agitation soothing as I stare at my woman, my little goddess. My wife.

Finally, the tendrils of black smoke that curl around my body drift inward as though feasted upon by the magma in my veins. It's not long after that I feel the morphing, the change.The lessening.

Hard, rock-like black muscle softens to the flesh of man. The raging beat of my heart soothes to the symphony of humanity.

She smiles a slow smile that calls to me.

She invites softly, “Come to me, Hades.”

Her eyes never leave me, the hunger never fading. If I could look at one thing for eternity, it would be her just like this. With need and hunger for me burning in the depths of her eyes. With love and surrender andtrust.

She is everything.

She is my everything.

She is centuries of dreams and wants wrapped up in the fragility of one small human woman.

The thought is terrifying.

I want to fall to my knees and beg for her soul, but something stays me. Somethingother.

It is not the time.

I am not sure if the thought is my own or planted there. I simply know it is true, even as I wish to deny it.

I bid her request as I begin to move slowly into the pool. Again, her eyes stay fixed on mine.

She is so beautiful, so sweet, and somine.