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Archon flinched when Nildar slammed his hands on either side of his head, trapping him against the wall.

“We’re doing this, Archon,” the East Star growled.

“I—I don’t know what you mean,” Archon protested. His gaze roamed the chamber frantically, seeking an escape route.

Nildar narrowed his jade green eyes. “I finally have my hands on a vial of Fenoa flower nectar, so you can ditch your excuses.”

The demigod grabbed Archon’s wrist, hauled him across the suite to the bedroom, and pushed him down on the pale sheets.

Archon nearly swallowed his tongue at the scorching look Nildar gave him while he undressed. He’d known this day would come since the time the East Star first kissed him, after the war with Elios ended. But he’d never imagined he’d be so nervous about the whole affair. He wasn’t a stranger to the pleasures of the flesh, after all.

A particularly solid piece of flesh captured his attention.

Archon’s ass twitched as he beheld Nildar’s rock hard member.

Though Nildar was slender compared to Archon’s beast-like physique, that part of him was anything but.

Archon swallowed and scooted up the bed. “I don’t think this is gonna work.”

Nildar undid the silk tie holding his ponytail and shook out his long, brown hair, his expression unrelenting. “It’ll fit.” He climbed on the bed, tugged Archon toward him by the ankle, and stripped him naked.

Archon’s pulse pounded as Nildar trapped his hands above his head.

“Now, how about you behave and let me eat you?” the East Star said with a wicked expression.

And eat Archon he did, from his head all the way to his toes.

By the time Nildar pulled his fingers out of Archon’s slicked-up hole, the demigod was a hot, trembling mess.

Nildar pushed a pillow under Archon’s lower body, locked Archon’s thighs around his hips, and spread him nice and open.

“Say it,” the East Star commanded. He teased the head of his erection against Archon’s twitching pucker.

Archon whimpered and covered his face with an arm.

“Don’t hide from me.” Nildar tugged Archon’s wrist and leaned forward to take his mouth in a scalding kiss. “Tell me what you want, Archon.”

Archon’s belly knotted as he beheld Nildar’s smoldering gaze.

“I want—I want your cock inside me!” he admitted breathlessly. “Pierce me with your thick stick, Nil— Ah! ”

“—and that’s how I imagined things went down between you two,” Suzie Myers said with a wave of a hand as she worked a cocktail shaker in Cassius and Morgan’s kitchen.

Archon’s mouth rounded on a gasp of horror.

“That’s—that’s not how it happened at all!” he protested.

Suzie arched an eyebrow. “Oh. So, you’re not denying it did happen?”

Zach Mooney’s shoulders trembled where he’d poked his head inside a cupboard in search of a salad bowl. Nildar hid a smile behind the drink Suzie handed him.

Jasper Cobb sneered at Archon. “This guy’s an idiot.”

The West Star stared daggers at the demon as he mixed batter for a cake.

Cassius scowled at Suzie, his hands still pressed to Noah’s ears where the little boy sat on his lap.

“How could you?” he berated. “There are children present!”

Noah wriggled out of Cassius’s hold.

“Is Aunty Suzie being a foul-mouthed witch again?” he asked Cassius innocently.

Suzie’s expression fell. “Who told you I was a foul-mouthed witch?”

“Dad did.” Noah pointed at Morgan.

The demigod was rubbing the back of the fair-haired baby girl he was bottle feeding. He arched an arrogant eyebrow at Suzie’s frown. “It’s hardly a lie.”

“He’s right,” Reuben Fletcher murmured.

The angel passed Jasper a glass of wine before turning his attention to the pots simmering on the stove.

Elisha Rose Atlanteia Black-King burped contentedly on Morgan’s shoulder.

Loki returned from where he’d been changing Elisha’s twin Isameine in the nursery. “What’d I miss?”

Phebei tugged Lilaia’s hands from her ears.

“Aunty Suzie was describing how Uncle Archon rode Uncle Nildar like a wild—” she started excitedly before her mother muzzled her.

The Nymph glared at her daughter while Loki rolled his eyes and plopped Isameine down on her play mat.

“What did I say to you?” Lilaia asked Phebei sharply.

Phebei peeled her mother’s fingers from her mouth and gave her a wise smile. “That it isn’t the size of their peepee that matters, but what they do with— ouchie! ”

Lilaia had boinked her on the head.

“Not that!” the Nymph snapped.

“Bibi’s in trouble again,” Noah muttered.

“When is she not in trouble?” Charlie Lloyd said drily. The enchanter was helping Reuben cook.

Bostrof sighed wearily while Lilaia pinched Phebei’s cheeks and stretched them wide. His and Lilaia’s son Orthelis giggled on the Lucifugous demon’s knee.

A portal opened on the terrace. Theo and Victor stepped out and wandered inside the apartment through the sliding doors.

“How’s my favorite nephew?” Theo ruffled Noah’s hair and pressed a peck to his brow after greeting Cassius.

“I’m your only nephew, Uncle Theo,” Noah pointed out.

“Morgan’s personality is starting to rub off on your kid,” Victor muttered, kissing Cassius’s cheek.

Cassius smiled. Morgan’s eyes shrank to slits.

Theo studied Archon curiously as he headed into the kitchen and grabbed a couple of beers from the refrigerator. “Why is your face bright red?”

Archon indicated Suzie belligerently. “Because that woman is spreading vile lies about me!”

“To be fair, bar the bit about you asking me to pierce you with my—” Nildar paused and glanced at Phebei, “you-know-what, she was pretty much bang on the money.”

“Peepee,” Phebei contributed helpfully while Lilaia continued pulling at her cheeks, except it came out as “Pheephee.”

“Oh, that.” Theo grimaced and passed Victor a beer. “Yeah, I heard the evidence when I was flying home one night.”

Nildar gave the North and South Stars a jaundiced look. “Why do you guys even have separate palaces? You’re at each other’s place practically every night.”

“Because sometimes, a demigod needs his own space,” Theo replied. “Especially when his boyfriend won’t leave his ass alone,” he muttered into his drink.

“This is unfair,” Phebei told Lilaia petulantly. “How come Uncle Theo can say ass and I can’t say peepee?”

The doorbell rang before the Nymph could berate her precocious daughter.

“It’s open!” Morgan called out.

Eden and Cedric Esteban appeared, a young boy at their side. Eden’s younger half-brother Julián brightened at the sight of Noah and Phebei. The kids moved over to the coffee table and started playing the board game Kalliste had gifted Noah.

“How was the honeymoon?” Suzie asked Eden and Cedric with a grin.

Eden refused to fall for the bait and graciously accepted the cocktail the witch offered her. “It was great. We loved Europe.”

“The hotel in Venice had the most amazing waterbed,” Cedric said bluntly.

Eden choked on her drink. She flushed and pierced the Dryad prince with a dark look.

“Everyone’s talking about peepees,” Noah observed at the coffee table.

Isameine rolled toward him and bumped into his leg. He picked his sister up absent-mindedly and sat her on his knees.

“Watch closely, Isie. This is how you annihilate war demons.”

Isameine blew bubbles as a group of tiny war demons perished on the game board in thin wisps of black smoke at a flick of Noah’s fingers.

“It’s peepee season,” Phebei said confidently. She moved her army of Lucifugous demons opposite Julián’s mage troops, the armored figures grumbling as they jostled one another and waved clubs the size of toothpicks.

“What’s peepee season?” Julián asked curiously as he re-arranged his magicians in a defensive formation.

Eden’s eyes bulged.

Adrianne and Bailey Green arrived before Phebei could launch into an explanation guaranteed to give Eden a heart attack. Bailey was holding a bright-eyed blond boy in his arms.

“God, I feel like a balloon,” Adrianne groaned. She lowered herself next to Cassius with some difficulty.

Bailey put their son Sylvester on the play mat with Elisha before hovering close to his heavily pregnant wife. “Can I do anything for you, honey?”

“You can pledge a vow of chastity,” Adrianne grumbled. “I can’t believe you impregnated me twice in eighteen months.”

Bailey made a face. “Yeah, that one’s a no go, I’m afraid.”

Elisha started commando crawling toward a wide-eyed Sylvester. Orthelis wriggled off Bostrof’s knee and tottered over to them.

Julia Chen and Francis Strickland arrived just before the Reaper God and Mortis. A haze of golden light heralded the appearance of Morgan and Victor’s sisters just as the sun started to sink toward the horizon, the dragon Ladon perched on Hesperis’s shoulder in his lizard form.

Pan and Boreas were arguing about something as they emerged from the portal behind the goddesses. Demetrius followed in their wake, the demigod wearing the expression of someone who wanted to smash the two deities’ heads together.

Warmth and laughter filled the apartment as they sat down to eat.

Cassius’s heart constricted when he looked around the table at the humans and otherworldly surrounding him. Seven years had passed since his return from the Nether. And they were the seven happiest years of his current life.

Bar Kalliste and Galatea, everyone he loved was in that room.

It had taken over six years for the queen of the Nymphs to fulfill her dream of falling pregnant. Now nearing the end of her confinement, she wasn’t allowed to travel outside Rain Vale.

To everyone’s surprise, the Tree of Esnant had born fruit three times after Cassius and Morgan had spent their honeymoon inside the sacred sanctuary it hid. Kalliste and Galatea’s first attempt at producing a child had failed, so the next fruit had gone to Cassius and Morgan.

Cassius’s cheeks warmed as he recalled their second time in the sanctuary. It had only taken them a week to conceive the twins.

Elisha stirred on the mat where she was sleeping with her sister, Orthelis, and Sylvester. Atropos rose, picked up the little girl, and stroked her back gently as she went into the nursery to change her diaper.

Cassius’s eyes misted.

I will protect them . Even though I am no longer the Awakener. I will do everything in my power to make sure this happiness never ends.

Noah tugged on his arm.

Cassius wiped his eyes and smiled at his son. “Yes, Noah?”

Noah pulled Cassius down.

“Don’t worry, Papa,” Noah whispered in his ear. “My sisters and I will protect you all.”

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Welcome to the world of The Mage and His Brute, where magic and passion collide in an alternate Victorian London brimming with mystery and danger.