Apollo was yelling at one point – yelling at his sister, who clearly didn’t care. Titus was more focused on keeping his growls to himself when Apollo listed off people’s names who were clearly from past relationships. Titus never expected his mate to be a virgin – he’d lost his virginity before he got his driver’s license.I guess he has lived for a freaking long time – and a man like this…
Yeah, Titus couldn’t see Apollo being on his own for long. Although from the sounds of things, he was single now, and that was all that was important to Titus.
The pain in Apollo’s voice, as he was trying to get his sister to understand why he’d never intended to meet Titus in the first place, tugged at Titus’s heart and wolf. He could hear the man’s heartbreak, and any hurt he initially felt at Apollo not wanting to meet him was quickly put into context.
Not that Artemis seemed to care. She listened – half the building could probably hear Apollo’s distress – and yet his sister stood with a completely impassive face. She was either used to Apollo’s yelling or she wasn’t paying attention.
Titus’s wolf did go on high alert as Apollo was yelling about his lack of interest in business - how he hadn’t even wanted to be in the office in the first place.Why is Apollo listed as co-owner of a business if he had no business interests at all?
That didn’t make sense. Titus had three sisters. None of them wanted to go into business, either, and Titus would have never forced them to. So why was Artemis so intent on having Apollowith her? Was it simply part of the brother and sister dynamic or something darker?
Apollo’s words, when he described how he’d fallen in love with Titus from seeing him on television, touched Titus’s heart, while making him feel like stepping back at the same time. He understood the mating pull, but instant love from seeing his face on television?
You saw the man’s photo, his wolf argued in his head,and you felt a definite pull toward him, too. Our mate is intense, and from the sounds of things, he loves love, music, happiness, and joy - all those things we will give him.
Titus was inclined to be a bit more skeptical. He was heavily invested in his business’s day-to-day, although, realistically he didn’t have to be. He had come a long way since his first truck. But he was jolted from his thoughts when Artemis started explaining the concept of mates to Apollo.
A light show? That’s one way of making someone stand out in the crowd. Apollo clearly hadn’t known, or perhaps he had known, and he just hadn’t put that fact and Titus’s apparent light show together. But Titus had to speak up. He’d eavesdropped long enough – long enough to immediately feel bad when Apollo’s shoulders tensed the moment he heard Titus’s voice, and the huge wave of humiliation that came from Apollo’s soul immediately afterward.
Ignoring Artemis, Titus focused on getting Apollo out of that toxic office environment. If Titus had his way, Apollo would never have to go there again.
“It’s always nice being outside, don’t you think?” Titus asked once they were outside the building. He was aiming for some form of casual conversation, recognizing his knowledge of what were suitable opening conversation starters with new mates waslimited. Inside, he was amazed Apollo was walking beside him at all.
“Let’s go this way. There’s a nice coffee shop a few blocks from here.” Titus knew the part of the city they were in fairly well, and he took Apollo’s elbow, guiding him to the left as they made their way down the street.
“I’m so sorry,” Apollo said, his voice so low only Titus could hear. “I’m deeply embarrassed, and I am so sorry because I never wanted anything to hurt you. From the moment I saw you, I knew how special you are…”
Titus snorted. “There would be some who wouldn’t agree with that assessment – my three sisters and my right-hand man, Regis, for a start. You have nothing to apologize for. I’m doing my best to appear casual and friendly, when my wolf is turning cartwheels, and my whole body is alive just walking next to you. You have no idea how momentous this morning has been for me.”
“Wolves are very big on mates and family, aren’t they?” Apollo tossed back his hair, appearing to look in different retail windows, but Titus was also aware that Apollo was also watching him out of the corner of his eye.
“Poseidon, one of my many relatives, claimed an alpha wolf of his own a few years ago. They have twins, I believe. He seems to enjoy pack life. Thanatos, god of death, I suppose you would call him, has a wolf shifter mate as well, although his wolf runs with the hellhounds. Thanatos’s son Sebastian has a wolf shifter mate as well, now I think of it. I’m not sure if they live in a pack or not.”
That’s setting a positive precedent for us, then.“I was raised in a pack, although I haven’t been home in many years. But if you’re saying that people like me are hard-wired to care for mates andfamily, then yes, those instincts are as strong in me as in any other alpha.”
“My family is so dysfunctional, I wouldn’t know where to start,” Apollo said, and there was definite sadness in his voice. “I don’t know if you’ve read any of the myths that were written about us. About fifty percent of it was true, and fifty percent of the stories told were vastly underestimating the truth of the situation.”
He blew out a long breath, and Titus found himself slowing his steps. The coffee shop was just ahead, but Apollo was talking, and he wanted to hear what his new mate had to share.
“As you might’ve guessed from what you heard, I just… I haven’t had a lot of luck with relationships. I could find them easily enough, but no one ever wanted to stay with me.” His smile was tight, and Titus immediately hated it. “I often wondered if the sole purpose of my existence was to determine how many times a heart could get broken before it stopped healing.”
Uncaring that they were in the middle of a busy sidewalk, Titus wrapped his arm around Apollo’s waist. The man’s body heat seared through his suit jacket, sending his body signals he desperately tried to ignore...at least for now. “One thing I do know from the mating lore told by my pack elders is that when two people fated to each other meet, anything that happened in the past stays in the past. We have a future to build…together.”
“You are very driven, from what I have learned about you” Apollo said, tucking his hand in Titus’s back pocket as they kept walking. “From what I’ve observed, you’re very business oriented, much like my sister. Whereas I...for example, do you know what I did yesterday?”
“Argue with your sister about meeting me?” Titus chuckled to show he was teasing.
“I did that in the morning. In the afternoon...” Apollo glanced at him. “You’re going to think this is silly.”
“I can already tell you I won’t,” Titus said firmly. “I’ve always wondered how people like you filled your days.”
“By doing as little as possible most of the time,” Apollo said, but he was smiling. “However, yesterday I glamoured myself to look like a down-on-their-luck, barely held together man in their early twenties and went to a youth center. I’ve been going there two to four times a month for about four years now. They know me as Ace.”
“A youth center?” Titus was intrigued. “Are you a counselor there?”
“No, I’d be rubbish at that. I play music there. They have this old hall as part of the center – I think it used to be a school, but anyway. The center’s got barely any money – they rely entirely on donations – and the youngsters who go there have had such hard lives.
“I have donated there in the past, but the money never goes to any new instruments, and that’s understandable, but I go” - Apollo’s smile got wider - “and I’ll start to play my music and often some of the youngsters join in. Yesterday, this incredible young man, Timothy, started to sing.”
