“Given that Lorna and Brian are now dead, do we – and by we, I mean Apollo and I – have to worry about anyone else coming from Lorna’s family, or Brian’s, who might be a danger to Cassius going forward?”
“There is no one,” Paulie said firmly. “You are Cassius’s family now. Lord Zeus was very proud to hear that one of his own had claimed both a fated mate and such a special child. Youcan now consider yourself part of a very eccentric, but definitely interesting god line.”
“Thank you, Paulie. Appreciate the chat.”
He was just about to tap the app again, when Paulie said, “If you have no other questions for me today, may I make a suggestion?”
Titus wasn’t used to apps showing some initiative, but Paulie had set his mind at rest about his issues with his son. “What suggestion would that be, Paulie?” Hopefully, Paulie would be quick. Titus was keen to get upstairs and see what Cassius had chosen as his room decoration before his son went to sleep.
“It would be highly useful for you to have your personal phone added to the godly network. You’d be protected from hacking and any attempts to track your location from local, national, or government authorities. Access to the godly network would also mean your mate can track you on the godly app if you choose to be added there as well. A lot of gods find it useful to see where their mates and other kin are relative to their own location at any one time.”
Aww, a welcome to the family gift.Titus grinned. “If it can protect me from hackers, Paulie, you can count me in. Please make arrangements with whoever you need to, to make this happen. I assume you already know my phone number and can make the necessary transition from my current provider for me. Can I assume, as I am now mated to one of Lord Zeus’s sons, that I won’t be invoiced for the services?”
“It would pay for you to remember that you’re immortal now, Titus Haverland,” Paulie said. His tone didn’t change much, but Titus would swear the app was grinning. “We of the god line do not discuss money for any reason as we are above such a mortal concept.”
Titus cracked up laughing as he clicked off the app, barely giving Paulie the chance to say, “All hail the Almighty Zeus and his beloved consort, Paulie.”
Feeling a lot lighter and happier about his new situation, Titus tossed Apollo’s phone onto the coffee table and got up from his chair. Running up the stairs, he poked his head in the room they’d allocated for Cassius. His son and Apollo were still there.
“Oh, my goodness,” he said, his eyes widening as he entered the room. “What is this place?”
Instead of a typical boy’s room, which Titus fully expected, the entire room glowed like an underground cave. The walls looked as though they were carved out of a mountain, and yet when he looked up, it was as if the moon was literally hovering in the night sky. It looked so real, Titus was sure that if he stood on tiptoes, he could reach up and touch it. “Is this how you wanted your room?”
“Isn’t it great, Dad?” Cassius bounced on his large bed, which was covered in a thick duvet and multiple pillows. “Apollo is so great at this. And he said that when I’m sick of the caves, he can make this room a jungle, or a forest, or an apartment, or anything I like. I haven’t thought what that might be yet, but Apollo said he can do it. Oh, I know, maybe it could be an alien spaceship.”
“We can do something like that, too, although I’m warning you now, there are many aliens in this universe, and they all have different spaceships, so we may have to do some research.” Apollo laughed. “But come on, young man, it is well past your bedtime. Maybe Titus would like to sit and read you a story, or are you too old for that sort of thing?”
Story time?Titus wasn’t sure Apollo had any children’s stories around, but it seemed Cassius had other ideas.
“I’m quite capable of reading myself,” Cassius said. “But Dad…” He patted the spot on the edge of the bed. “Can you come and talk to me for a while? I really want to hear what it was like growing up in a pack. Apollo said we should all learn from each other, and I’d really love to learn about you.”
“And that’s my cue to go. I’ll be taking a bath,” Apollo said, as he kissed Titus briefly before heading out of the room. “Night, Cassius. Don’t sit up all night, you two,” he warned as he left.
Titus sat on the bed, studying his son. There was already some color on his pale cheeks, and Apollo had clearly tidied his dark hair. Dressed in comfortable pajamas that seemed to have a night sky design, Cassius seemed a lot more relaxed than he had been.
“Are you all right?” Titus asked quietly. “I know this has been a bit of a life-changing day for you.”
Cassius nodded. “Mom always said you’d look after me if something happened to her.”
I probably should’ve asked Paulie about that, too.That was the second time Titus had heard Cassius say that in one day. But just before bed was not the time for that sort of discussion. “You can tell me all about that later,” he promised. “How about you snuggle down under the blankets for now and close your eyes. I’ll see what I can remember about what it was like growing up as a pup in the wolf pack I was born into.”
As Titus began to share some of his earliest memories, he couldn’t stop watching his son. Cassius’s smile as he drifted off to sleep was one of the best gifts Titus had ever had, aside from his mate.May your soul find peace, Lorna. Thank you.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Hey.” Apollo rolled over to find Titus propped up on his elbow, apparently watching him sleep. “What’s going on with you? I’d have thought with all that energy you expended earlier, you’d have been snoring like a train by now.” He stretched and groaned. “I think we both had a bit of a workout by the time we got to bed, and that’s without everything else that went on today.”
When Titus still didn’t say anything, Apollo rolled toward him. He rested his hand on Titus’s bicep, as he smiled at his mate in the dim light. “Do you want to talk about it? A problem shared is a problem halved and all that.”
Titus smiled. “I’m just thinking. Thinking about today. Thinking about Cassius. Thinking about you. Gods, do you realize we’ve only been together a week? And yet I feel like my whole life’s just blown wide open.”
Apollo wasn’t sure if Titus meant that as a good thing or a bad thing. But that was all right, because he was patient, and Titus would get to the point eventually.
“If I hadn’t met you, then I don’t know that I would have taken in Cassius the way we did today.”
“That’s not true,” Apollo said quickly. “You didn’t know that Cassius wasn’t yours until you met me. Could you imagine what a disaster it could have been, and how potentially traumatic that would have been for Cassius, if Lorna and Brian had still died?
“You would’ve gone to pick him up, because Cassius, as far as you were aware, was your son. Imagine going to the police station and realizing in an instant that he wasn’t your blood. The parents were dead, and Cassius still had nobody else to care for him. Throw in the fact that you were a workaholic, who usedother people as a means of getting to sleep at night. Just think about it. You’d have been angry, feeling deceived and rightly so, but in the meantime, you were the only person Cassius could depend on to keep him safe. I know you would’ve given him a home – I don’t doubt that for a second. But how comforting do you think you’d have been for him with all that going on?”
