“You were keen on having a child, though – that’s what I’m hearing here.” It probably wasn’t the most ideal dinner conversation, but Apollo felt that being in a quiet restaurant was probably the best place to have a relatively sensitive discussion. His wolf didn’t realize it, but because Titus was thinking aboutchildren, there was a good chance the act of claiming could result in Apollo – or Titus – being pregnant by morning. The Fates were a little loose on their definition of “intent,” as was seen in Poseidon’s case.
Both of us pregnant? Is that even possible?Resting his chin on his elbow, Apollo cast his mind back over all of the couples that he knew who were mated – males with male mates – and who had children. Would the Mother allow both men to get pregnant at the same time, or would that be too much stress on a newly mated couple? Apollo decided to ask Paulie about it later. In the meantime, Titus needed to be warned.
“We do need to have a discussion about children,” Apollo said, keeping his voice low. He stopped when he saw the waiter coming over with their meals. Titus let the waiter know that nothing further was needed after the plates were put down, and the waiter left with a friendly smile. Titus immediately picked up his knife and fork.The conversation can clearly wait five minutes.
Titus was having a huge steak meal. Apollo didn’t think he’d ever seen a wolf shifter eat anything else. Although Titus had ordered mushrooms in cream sauce on the side, which smelled particularly nice. Apollo had decided to go with chicken drumsticks. He wanted something to pick at because he wasn’t overly hungry, but they smelled good as well, and the skin was extra crispy.
Apollo waited until Titus had halfway cleared his plate before he picked the conversation up again. “There was something that happened a couple of years back that does impact the likes of you and me, which is why I was asking you about children.”
Titus quickly swallowed his mouthful and winked. “From the moment I saw you this morning, I accepted I wouldn’t be havingany more kids…or kids full stop, it appears. Mates don’t stray ever. That’s fine. I probably wouldn’t make a good dad, anyway.”
Apollo could see that Titus was trying to be casual about the whole thing, but he also knew that having pups was a strong instinct in many shifters. Picking up a piece of chicken, he started tearing it apart in his fingers, popping small pieces in his mouth as he thought. Finally, he decided he might as well be blunt about it.
“Due to a change in policy,” he said, before breaking off. “Sorry, I’m sounding like Artemis, but due to a change of policy, and the fact that the Mother of All is so keen to see our kind find our mates regardless of gender…”
“Really? The Mother of All thinks like that?”
“Why shouldn’t she?” Apollo tore off and chewed another piece of chicken. “Love is love, and love is something that’s been sadly missing among my kin and other pantheons. Many of us have been alone for centuries. Anyway, because a number of my male kin found same-sex mates, the Mother decided that when a male/male couple is fated, either one of those males can get pregnant.
“Prior to that, male gods could only get pregnant if they were impregnated by another god. Now, either the male god or their partner can get pregnant, regardless of the species of that mate. Only one god needed. So children are a possibility for us.” Apollo smiled.
Titus’s knife fell with a clatter onto his plate, and he quickly picked it up, looking around to make sure nobody noticed. It was four in the afternoon. There was barely anybody in the restaurant except for a group of two couples - older people - who were enjoying their early dinner at a table over by the window.
“You’re telling me that when I claim you, you could get pregnant?”
There’s that control aspect again. Apollo’s smile widened, and he nodded. “And when I claim you, if you happened to be thinking about having children, then you’d be the one who could get pregnant. It works both ways.”
“You have got to be fucking kidding me!” Titus moved his hand as if to cover his ass, although he quickly caught himself. That hand still had a fork in it, so that was probably a wise move.
“I felt you should know.”
Leaning over the table, Titus whispered, “This could happen anytime? Why did the Mother do that?”
“Gods haven’t had new offspring in the longest time, and the Fates needed more permanent threads to extend the weave to account for the massive population growth. Any child of the gods will be immortal, the same as you will be when we’ve claimed each other,” Apollo said quietly. “Having same-sex mates shouldn’t be a barrier to the Fates’ design, so the Mother made that ruling. Before you panic, I need to remind you that you’re missing the major point.”
“I don’t think I am.” Titus’s eyes were wide.
“The point is theintentbehind the act. If we’re having sex…” Apollo tried very hard not to blush because he had a very vivid imagination, and something like that was easy to imagine with a man like Titus. “…And you were thinking about breeding me, for example, or creating babies with me – you know, some of those things that men think or say in the heat of passion – the Mother and the Fates would take that as intent. Because of my genetics, or DNA as you call it, that intent could result in pregnancy for either one of us.”
Titus let out a long breath and nodded. “All right. Intent. It’s all got to do with intent. I get it now. I’m glad you told me before we claimed each other.”
“I felt it was the right thing to do, especially with what’s happened since we met,” Apollo said. “I would like nothing more than for you to find a hotel for us, where we could park the truck. It really doesn’t matter where that hotel is because once we’re behind locked doors, I am fully prepared to translocate you to my house. I know once there, you’d find a mattress that is beyond divine, and we’d have the comfort and privacy to enjoy each other fully, claiming each other the way we’d both desire. But when we do, you absolutely can’t go thinking about puppies, at least not yet.”
“No, you’re right. Children are something we can discuss at a later stage if that’s what we want to do.” Titus cut another piece of his steak.
“It’s why so many of my kin are now living on Earth,” Apollo explained as he started picking at his chicken again. It really was quite tasty, although a tiny bit dry, but that could be because he’d been fussing with it. “They started having children again. My father, Zeus, for example, got Paulie pregnant, and they’re very happy. There are many pictures that I’ve seen on my table where he’s curled up with his son, watching the sunrise. The Zeus of mythology would never have done anything like that.
“And then there was a huge, well, not huge outcry so much, but there was a bit of gossip when Ra, the Egyptian Father of Everything, got pregnant. He has two male mates, a wolf shifter and a vampire. They had a beautiful little girl.
“Seth, the Egyptian God of Storms, got his mate pregnant. His mate is an omega wolf shifter.”
“An omega? I thought they had all died off,” Titus broke in. “I truly believed the Fates let them die out because of the atrocities that used to happen to omegas in packs decades ago.”
Apollo wrinkled his nose as he thought. It was tempting to ask Paulie, but he didn’t want to trigger Titus again so soon. “I know there are two for sure – one living in a pack in Cloverleah, and Seth’s mate. I thought there was a third, but I can’t think of who that is right now. Apparently, packs are changing – slowly - but they are changing their ways and omegas are being born again.”
“That’s a very positive sign for shifters everywhere.”
Apollo wasn’t sure about that, but then he didn’t have Titus’s lived experience in a pack. “So yes, Seth and his mate were pregnant, Hephaestus and Hades were the ones who got pregnant in their matings. Hades is another one of my uncles. He has had two sets of twins to his mate, and Poseidon, another uncle, had twins as well to his wolf shifter mate.”
