“I don’t care what you wanted. I told you I wasn’t going to meet with him.” Apollo felt as though he was going to explode. Just having the man in the room was sending his body and powers haywire, and he had no idea why.
“How about you tell me why you wouldn’t meet with him. Will it impact the business?” Artemis’s eyes were flashing. “You’ve frozen them for goodness’ sake. What if somebody else comes in? Or have you frozen the entire building?”
Apollo wasn’t sure, and as far as he was concerned, it wasn’t important. “I love that man,” he said, moving into Artemis’s personal space.
She took a step back. “You said yesterday you didn’t have anybody in your life. You made mention of scratching your balls and dropping crumbs in the bed, being able to do that because you were on your own. Now you say you’re in love? Since yesterday?”
“I’ve been in love with Titus Haverland formonths. You have no idea what it’s been like. I was getting a food order the first time I saw him.” Apollo’s voice caught, the memory of that first time still strong. “He was being interviewed on television. I saw him, and then his name at the bottom of the screen. As soon as I saw him, my heart filled, and my soul sang. I knew in that instant that I loved him absolutely. I have seen him countless times since, always at a distance, and that feeling only grows stronger.”
“You’re in love with a man you haven’t met?”
Apollo snorted. “I don’t expect you to understand. I never needed to meet him to know how he makes me feel. You – you’re the one who forsakes all the joys that life has to offer – music, dance, happiness, and joy in the simple beauty around us. This” - he indicated the building - “this is your thing. This is your pleasure. This is the focus of your life. I have no idea why, but I’m not like you.
“I don’t care about business. I know nothing about business. I have said this a million times. There is nothing, nothing I could contribute to a meeting with anybody because I don’t care how business works, and I don’t want to know. But you betrayed me this day by bringing this man into my office when I told you that I would not meet him.”
Apollo didn’t dare even look at the man still standing frozen near the door. “He shines like a light from the heavens for me. I spend hours, days even, thinking about what it would be like tohave a relationship with him. So many dreams of so many happy times.”
“Then I’ve made things easier for you by bringing him to your office. Honestly, you’re not making sense.”
“That’s because you genuinely don’t understand – you’re just thinking of yourself, but fine, I’ll spell it out for you. No, it’s not easier to have him here. You know my history. You know what I’ve been through. You just have to think of Daphne, Coronis, Marpessa, or Cyparissus, or what about Hyacinth? None of them stayed with me. Nobody has ever wanted to stay with me because I’ve never been good enough.”
Apollo was yelling, but he was past the point of caring. “I was raised to be the epitome of perfection in our pantheon, but the moment anyone realized that perfection isn’t possible, and I scratched my ass the same as anyone else, they didn’t want to stay with me. And the ones that did? Do I need to give you a history lesson on what happened to those few who did want to stay? Those relationships all ended in tragedy! Tragedy for them!
“That is why I didn’t ever want to meet Titus Haverland – the man I already love with all of my being. I know what will happen – something bad will happen to him. The greatest gift I could give the man I love above all others is to leave him alone.”
He whirled around on his stunned sister. “You have to undo this. You have to go to Cronus – turn back time to a place so this gets undone. Don’t you understand? You have to do that. I will not let your need for business matters ruin that man’s life when he did nothing more than exist and make my heart sing. I won’t let you do this to him. I won’t let you do this to me. Fix this!”
Of course, his sister wasn’t affected. She never was. “Did I hear you say light?” Artemis tilted her head slightly. “Did you say thatthe wolf shifter was bathed in light? And that he has been since you saw him on the television? Is he still carrying that light?”
“He’s bathed in light everywhere he goes.” Apollo sighed, his shoulders slumping as he turned and looked out at the view. “It’s as though he carries his own light show. It is so truly beautiful. And I don’t know if it was some way of having me notice him, or maybe it’s just that he’s a truly good person, and he shines. It’s a complete mystery to me. But then Hyacinth shone as well – not in the same way - but he was a good person, and we all know what happened to him.
“I can’t go through that again. I can’t lose another love. Not one as important as Titus. He deserves to have a decent life. He deserves to meet his mate and have little pups or whatever it is he’s going to do. He deserves for me just to watch him from afar, never knowing of my existence. I will know that my sacrifice has meant that he will live the life he was intended to.”
“There are times when your head is so stuck up in your arty-farty clouds,” Artemis snapped, “that you forget some of the basic changes that have happened within our pantheon in recent years. Don’t you remember what happened to our father Zeus? To Poseidon? To Hades? Don’t you understand what they saw when they spied their mates for the first time? They all talked about how that person was bathed in a light only they could see. Their mates. Don’t you get it? If you see Titus bathed in light, then…”
“Excuse me, I already know Apollo is my mate.” Apollo tensed as a low voice interrupted. “While I’m fairly sure I appreciate the sacrifice you seem determined to make regarding me, if you don’t mind, I’d rather take a chance on finding out what life could be like with you than any other foreseeable future you might have thought about for me.”
Apollo swallowed. He didn’t dare turn around. “You weren’t frozen? You heard all that?”Oh shit.He closed his eyes, completely swamped with humiliation.
“Clearly, our powers don’t work on those we’re fated for,” Artemis said. “So, Mr. Haverland, or can I call you Titus? Now we’ve had that little revelation, what are the chances of us talking about business?”
“Zero to none,” Titus growled. “I’ve got business with your brother, and it doesn’t concern you or my trucks. Apollo. Mate. I would be grateful if you’d join me for coffee…somewhere else.”
What sort of tree would a wolf shifter make,Apollo thought as he turned and faced the Fates’ gift for him. He was still wondering that when Titus came over, gently taking his elbow and encouraging him toward the door.
Chapter Six
Titus knew that Apollo was his mate before he’d even gotten to the office. “I felt Apollo come in earlier,” Artemis had said brightly when he’d arrived. “I’m sure he won’t mind having the meeting in his office.”
She seemed on edge, her bright tones attempting to hide the nervous air covering her like a cloud. Considering Titus thought they had come to an agreement, he didn’t quite understand her attitude, but he was eager to meet her brother…so, he just smiled in response. Nervousness in another person would typically put Titus’s wolf on alert, but the moment he’d stepped into another hallway, following Artemis’s lead, he caught a scent that had him working double time to keep his body and wolf in check.
The smell was sweet and light, yet there was a hint of age and darkness there too - as if the man the scent belonged to had come through a million lifetimes and known both the depths of heartbreak and great joy as well.
Those ideas were confirmed when Titus followed Artemis through a wide door, indicating a corner office, and saw his mate for the first time.
What he hadn’t expected was Apollo’s reaction to seeing his face. The door slammed behind him, the sudden freezing of the PA who was stuck hovering at a really uncomfortable angle as she was about to put a tea tray on Apollo’s desk. Titus had stilled as he felt the brush of magic wash over his body, not because it affected him, but because he realized there were dynamics going on between Artemis and Apollo that could be useful to know.
He could be patient, waiting until there was a chance for him to speak. As Titus listened, he drank in the details of the man who would be his forever. It was easy to see that Artemis and Apollo were related. Artemis’s hair was more white-blond, whileApollo’s was a darker blond. He looked fit, without being bulky about it, and the sage green suit he was wearing really looked good against his lightly tanned skin. Apollo was the epitome of golden…a gorgeous, perfect, golden mess.
