Chapter Six

PAN HURRIED TO THE MOUTH of the cave in Taenarum. He had to get word to Hades as soon as possible. Demeter’s threat had shaken Zeus’ loyalty to the pact between the two brothers. The king of Olympus could not allow the mortal realm to wither and die, so his support for Hades’ claim on Persephone was fading quickly.

Pan moved the great boulder aside and stepped to one side as the chill air of the Underworld rushed out into the night-shrouded valley. As soon as his eyes adjusted to the heavier gloom of the Underworld, he entered the cave and pulled the boulder back across the mouth. It wouldn’t take long for Hades to sense the approach of another immortal to his realm. He would immediately come to meet the intruder — usually to deny them access. Immortals had no business in the world of the dead unless they were already bound there from loyalty to their dark lord.

Aphrodite had confessed to Zeus that Hades’ love for Persephone was instigated at her command, brought on by annoyance that love had not yet been permitted in the stygian depths of his realm and an equal fear that Persephone would follow in the footsteps of Artemis and Athena, the virgin goddesses. At least she’d admitted the idea was hers and not her son’s. Zeus still hadn’t forgiven the young god’s propensity for making him fall in love with the most ridiculous creatures imaginable.

The cow, for example. Zeus’ dignity had been shredded by the escapade with the cow.

Pan hurried down the dark path to the Underworld, his cloven feet breaking small stones free to skitter into the black depths before him. He had to get to his cousin quickly and warn him of the explosion that was about to break over his head.

“What should I wear?” Persephone asked excitedly, tossing delicate garments aside when they didn’t meet her expectations.

Styx laughed. “Wear whatever you wish, Persephone; Hades will not care. He will think you beautiful beyond all others regardless of your gown.”

Persephone laughed too. “I’d rather not take a chance on that. What about this one?”

Styx surveyed the light green gown critically. “You are a daughter of life, Persephone. It is fitting that you go to your husband in the colors of spring.”

“I agree!”

Persephone was laughing as she prepared herself for her wedding. Styx watched her, smiling but uneasy. Something wasn’t right. Something…

…that felt a lot like a god who was about to break his sacred word.

“What are you doing here?” Hades demanded as Pan skidded to a stop before him. He’d been waiting here since the first tremor had warned him of another immortal entering the Underworld. He crossed his arms in a forbidding posture, but his eyes twinkled at his young cousin.

“Hades, Zeus is about to betray you!” Pan exclaimed. “Demeter has withdrawn her blessings from the mortal realm until the girl is returned to her. The crops are dying, neither animal nor human is giving birth and the world is withering without her care. Zeus will be sending Hermes to demand the girl’s return.”

Hades’ face darkened. Zeus had betrayed him? What else was new? “When?”

“As soon as he thinks he can get away with it. Demeter accused him of taking the girl himself and Hera is watching him jealously.” Pan looked up at the dark god in concern. “Have you — ?”

“We are to be wed within the hour,” Hades said sharply. “By her will and mine. Did you really think I would dishonor her?”

“You can’t blame me,” Pan said reasonably. “Any other immortal would have.”

“I am not like other immortals.” Hades’ voice was cold with anger.

“I know, cousin. If you’re going to marry the girl, then by Styx do it quickly! Once you’ve wed her and consummated the marriage, it will be difficult for Demeter to demand her back. Especially if, as you say, it’s what Persephone wants as well.”

“I will.” Hades’ face suddenly cleared and he looked at Pan with a glimmer of amusement in his eyes. “And you will witness the marriage, cousin.”

“Me?” Pan said. “No, I don’t think so. Marriage is the direct opposite of everything I stand for. I don’t think I could stomach it.”

“You will,” Hades promised. “Think of how much you’re going to be annoying Zeus if you stand in his throne room and bear witness that Persephone was wed to me through her own will and desire.”

“He’ll incinerate me.”

“He won’t. Come!”

“Wait.” Pan put his hand on Hades’ arm. “Look, why not just make this absolute? Convince the girl to eat something; then by all our laws she cannot leave the Underworld.”

The air around them grew frigid. Hades’ face paled and hardened into a rigid mask. “Do you think I would trick her into staying?”

Pan backtracked hastily. “It was just an idea.”

“You know me better than any of the immortals who dwell upon Olympus,” Hades said quietly. “You, of all the gods, should know that Death cannot stoop to deceit, no matter what the cause. Death, above all, is honest and absolute even beyond Love, which can be fickle, and Beauty, which can be cruel. Do not give me the sorrow of knowing that you cannot understand me, cousin.”

“Well, then let me do it!” Pan pleaded. “I do not wish to see you hurt again, Hades.”

“No.” Hades’ answer was decided. “Death cannot allow another to stand between me and my goal. Persephone will wed me if she is fated to do so. If she is not, then I shall let her go.”

The throne room of the Underworld was brightened by innumerable lamps and smelled of sweet flowers, heaped in fragrant piles along an aisle that led from the doors to the great throne of Hades. The immortal denizens of the realm of the dead watched on either side, while Pan shifted nervously from hoof to hoof in their midst.

Hades sat on his throne, garbed in the black tunic and cloak that was his formal garb upon Olympus. A gold circlet sat upon his dark hair, and his eyes blazed as Persephone stepped through the doors of the throne room. Her black hair was unbound, tumbling down her back in a riot of soft curls. She wore no adornment other than the filmy green gown; even her feet were unshod, peeping daintily from beneath her tunic and chiton.

She lifted her chin at the look in his eyes and walked steadily toward him. He rose as his subordinates bowed — both in the respect due to her as a goddess and in homage to her beauty. Persephone noted this and her eyes sparkled with challenge. The god of the underworld descended from his dais and extended his hand. Unhesitatingly, she laid her small fingers in his and blushed when he raised them to his lips.

“Rhadamanthys,” Hades said to one of the three judges of the Underworld. “You may begin.”

Pan relaxed as Hades and Persephone began to exchange their wedding vows. Once they were safely married, perhaps this whole mess would work out. There was no denying that the girl, whose beauty was already ripening into the excesses of divinity, appeared to be sincere in her wish to remain with Hades. As for the god of the Underworld, well, he’d been in love with her from the first moment he’d caught sight of her dancing on the plains of Nysa with her friends.

He watched Persephone’s face as the ceremony proceeded. Once an immortal found his or her calling, they metamorphosed visibly before all eyes. Their skin paled, becoming luminescent, their hair grew more lustrous and their beauty intensified to the point that even another immortal wept to see it. As Persephone gazed trustingly up into Hades’ eyes, that transformation was taking place.

She was no longer a girl, daughter to a goddess.

Persephone was changing into a goddess herself. Hades also noticed the alteration taking place in the young woman he loved and his hard-planed face softened visibly.

The Queen of Death, the dread goddess of the Underworld, was growing before his eyes.

Her voice, already so soft and low-pitched, gained confidence as she recited the marriage vows. The innocence that had so enraptured Hades matured into an allure so delicious that many of the males — and some of the females in the throne room — caught their breath in admiration. She was lovely and dangerous, porcelain perfection honed with the keen precision of a sword’s edge.

Suddenly, they looked well-matched.

The ground rumbled overhead.

Hades’ lifted his head. Rhadamanthys spoke the final words of the wedding ceremony. Hades’ face tightened as the earth shook once more.

Persephone lifted her face to her new husband’s. Hades bent to kiss her, wrapping his arms around her strongly as her body melted against his. The ground heaved a third time. Pan put his hand out to steady himself and found, to his surprise, that Styx stood at his side. The river nymph bent down to his ear.

“Go, quickly! Another immortal nears Hades’ palace. You must not be discovered here. You might suffer for it!”

Pan swallowed. “It is Hermes, come to fetch Persephone and take her back to Olympus and her mother. I’ll try to delay him until this marriage is consummated.”

Styx hesitated, darting a look at the new-married couple across the throne room. She nodded and hurried to where her dread lord waited, his face falling back into the dark lines that betrayed his uneasiness — those lines that had been banished since he’d brought Persephone to share his existence.

Pan didn’t hesitate. He turned and ducked out of the throne room, running as fast as his legs would take him for the passage to Taenarum.

Persephone wasn’t certain why Hades’ expression had taken on that strained, bitter look so soon after their marriage. For a moment, it had chilled her to her very core. Was he already regretting his decision? Did he not want her anymore?

But then he looked back down at her and his eyes lit up. She saw his love for her and an overwhelming joy that she was there, with him. Still, she could detect an uncertainty that tainted his happiness.

She stood on her tiptoes and pulled his head down so she could whisper, “We’re married now. Can we leave?”

Hades threw back his head and laughed. “I cannot deny you any request, Persephone. We will do exactly as you wish.”

His hand clasped around hers was unusually cool but steady. Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, walked at her husband’s side as they departed the throne room. As they made their escape, the sounds of revelry swelled up around them. The denizens of the Underworld celebrated their wedding and the arrival of their Queen. She laughed nervously. Hades pulled her into her bedchamber and slammed the door closed behind them.

The room had changed subtly. Now instead of a room for a young girl, the chamber was a place for a husband and wife to share. Her dressing table and dainty chair was matched opposite a broad seat covered with dark furs. The broad curtained bed was heaped with pillows and coverings. The fire was low and the room was dim and cool, lit only by the flames on the hearth and a few flickering candles.

Hades released her hand.

For a moment they stood unmoving, close enough to feel the heat of each other’s body but yet not touching. At last, Hades reached out a gentle hand and stroked her hair from her crown to her shoulders, then down the one long curl that lay over her left breast.

“You are very lovely, my wife,” he said.

“I hope I am lovely enough,” she replied.

Hades let out an explosive breath. “Do you doubt it? Not even Aphrodite can compete with your beauty, my love.”

The curtains billowed with a sudden cold breeze and Persephone shivered. Hades wrapped his strong arms around her and pulled her into the warmth of his body. She felt strange — her skin was cold but her body felt hot on the inside. As his hand moved to her throat, she shivered. He tilted her face up to his, his dark look moving from her mouth to her eyes.

“What is it?” she whispered, as fear battled with eagerness inside her.

“I am almost afraid to touch you.” Hades seemed puzzled by his own reluctance. He brushed a wisp of hair back from her brow and his fingers lingered on her face reverently.

For a moment, everything save for Hades faded from her sight. Persephone’s nervousness evaporated. For the first time, she felt like a goddess — a being of power, confident in her beauty and allure. As the feeling grew within her, it was tempered by a surge of superior tenderness. She looked upon her husband’s pale, handsome face and wanted to ease his trepidation.

“I am not afraid to touch you,” she breathed. Persephone reached for his face, gratified by the spark of surprise in his eyes. Gently, she traced the strong line of his cheek and jaw and brushed her fingers against his full lips. Although his expression didn’t change, his eyes sharpened. He watched her intently, waiting to see what she would do next.

She moved her hand to the top of his shoulder and ran the tips of her fingers down the lean muscles of his arm. When she reached his hand, she picked it up and laced her fingers through his. Instantly, the heat she’d already come to associate with his flesh warmed her through. The last tiny knot of tension in her stomach dissipated. His hand was firm around hers as he lifted it to his mouth. Hades pressed a hot kiss on her knuckles, then turned her hand over and planted another on her palm. A shiver ran through her body and she ached to lean closer to him, to press her body against his and feel the thrill of his hard, male flesh against her softness.

Instead, she continued her journey of discovery, moving her free hand to his other shoulder. As she ran it over his chest and nipple, Hades’ body hardened. She looked up at him from under her lashes, a smug smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “You like that?”

“Surely I do not need to answer that question,” he replied, his voice amused. Persephone detected a roughened edge to his words and felt a thrill of triumph. She was affecting him, just as he had affected her the last few days. With an effort, she kept her voice low and indifferent as she said, “I think you should.”

“You do, do you?”

“Oh yes, I do.” She kissed him slowly just above his left nipple, then looked up swiftly to see his reaction. His expression hadn’t changed at all but his eyes darkened further. Beneath her searching hand, his body had gone rigid. “You’re trying to resist me,” Persephone chided him. “Why?”

“I want you to set the pace, Persephone,” he said earnestly. “Where you lead, I will follow.”

“What if I don’t want to lead? What if I want you to lose control?”

Hades laughed. “See if you can make me,” he challenged her. “I would really enjoy the game.”

“The game?”

“The game of seduction,” he murmured, trapping her hand beneath his own. Hades walked around her, putting her arms down at her sides. “The game you are playing,” he continued, his breath tickling her ear.

Persephone trembled as he gripped her arms firmly. She could feel his hard body just brushing against her back and the strength of his jaw against her hair.

“You are a maiden and this is your wedding night,” Hades breathed as his arms slid around her body. His hands spread flat against her belly, searing her flesh through the thin silk of her gown. “Although I desire nothing more than to know every inch of you, I can be patient while you explore.”

Hades pushed her hair aside with his cheek, exposing the curve of her neck. Persephone gasped when he kissed her throat, stroking her skin softly with his tongue. She leaned back as he moved to her ear, flicking his tongue against her earlobe. Her mind went blank.

“Persephone?”

“Yes?” She was surprised that her voice was so breathless.

“Aren’t you supposed to be exploring?” Hades’ voice was shaking, as if he was trying to repress a laugh. Persephone pulled away from him reluctantly and turned to glare at him.

“I am exploring,” she informed him loftily, crossing her arms across her chest.

“You are?”

She grinned. Without warning, she shoved him. Hades lost his balance and fell across the bed. Persephone stood over him, laughing. “I am discovering how easy it is to trick you.”

“It is never easy to trick Death,” he growled. Hades seized her hand and pulled her down on top of him. Persephone laughed as he quickly rolled over, pinning her body beneath his. “You think this is funny?”

“Not funny, no, but it’s definitely fun,” she countered, winding her arms around his neck.

He smothered her laughter with a kiss. Instantly, she responded, opening her mouth to him. His tongue twined about hers, pulsing excitedly as her arms wound about his neck. She felt his body harden against hers and a thrill of feminine power and excitement unfurled in her belly with a shiver. One of his big hands drove into her hair, holding her closer to his demanding kiss. He kissed her until she was breathless and her heart was pounding against his own. As her body responded, his kiss changed from seductive persuasion to complete domination.

This what I’ve been wanting. This is passion, that love Amphitrite is always talking about!

She gave herself up to the ardor of Hades’ seduction completely, melting beneath his touch. When he cupped her breast, she arched again and whimpered in frustration when the strength of his male body wasn’t there to greet her. Hades laughed against the tender skin of her throat; she could feel his smile and the vibration of his joy in touching her.

He rolled onto his side, propping his head up on one elbow and smiling down at her. Slowly, he untied the tiny bows at her shoulders, loosening her gown. Trustingly, Persephone rolled to her knees, holding her gown to her chest. While Hades watched, she released the fabric. The thin silk slid over her breasts and fell to her waist. She rose from the bed. The gown continued its descent until it pooled around her feet. Persephone stepped over the fabric and stood before her husband without shame or modesty.

“You are so beautiful,” he said, his voice already roughened by passion.

“Am I?” Although the question was coquettish, she could see the answer in his eyes. Hades got up from the bed. Holding her gaze with his own, he deliberately undid the large golden pin at his shoulder. His robes fell away. Persephone bit her lip. Nudity was nothing new to her; she lived on Olympus after all. She’d seen the athletes competing in the games at Delphi and the immortals who governed the elements rarely bothered with clothes. But Hades’ body struck her dumb. He was lean, sporting a chest any male would be proud to flaunt above a tautly muscled waist and narrow lips. His legs were long and graceful and his phallus curved proudly above them.

Wordlessly, he held out his hand to her. Persephone took it without hesitation. She allowed him to pull her against the hard length of his body. Her flesh trembled against him as he ran his hands down the curve of her back, cupping her buttocks briefly before moving to her waist. Her breasts began to throb, crushed against the smooth strength of his chest. He dipped his head to her mouth and dropped a sweet kiss on it, his lips moist and soft against her own. Her eyes fluttered closed as he kissed her again, this time a little harder, and one of his hands moved up to the back of her head. He wrapped one long, black curl around his fingers, caressing it with his thumb.

He took one of her nipples into his mouth. As he teased and caressed it with her tongue, excitement, pure and crystalline, raced through her veins. She barely noticed when he lifted her from the floor and laid her gently upon the bed. When his weight descended upon hers, she welcomed it. She arched against his body and moaned when he took both her breasts in his hands. He kissed a trail up her throat, nuzzling her neck just below her right ear before moving to her mouth once more.

There was no longer any question of who was in control. Hades had taken her teasing challenge to heart. His hands moved on her body with determined strength, coaxing her to respond as his passion grew. His hand moved between her legs, stroking her gently as he took her breast into his mouth once more. She wound her fingers into his hair, pressing him closer. When his fingers found the hidden bud of her desire, she sighed and arched back into the pillows.

She didn’t know what to do. She wanted something more, something the building pressure within her was yearning for. Desire coursed through her veins, pushing the cold brutality of the immortals’ ichor to one side.

This must be what it feels like to be mortal!

The pleasure stopped as quickly as it had began. She opened her eyes. Her whole body felt languorous and boneless. Hades knelt between her legs and she stared at him. His body was lean, with sharp-angled muscles cutting the smoothness of his skin. His mouth was set in a feral grin of possession and a muscle jumped in his right cheek. His eyes were flaring with desire as he looked down at her body.

And between his own muscled thighs, his phallus rose above her body, proud and fierce. She realized that what had happened before was just seduction.

Now it was time for him to possess her.

Hades gritted his teeth but managed to speak soothingly. “Persephone, my love, I cannot withstand the passion you’ve created in me but I must ask you one final time — will you have me?”

Persephone, still breathing hard from the spirals of desire spinning in her body, didn’t have to think about it. “I will have you, Hades, if you will take me.”

It was as if her words had shattered the last fragile barrier between them. As pieces of their self-control fell to the wayside, Hades redoubled his siege on her aching body. He was everywhere at once: kissing her passionately while his tongue danced with hers, his hands stroking her inflamed skin and leaving fires in their wake. His knees spread her thighs a little further while his finger manipulated the tiny nub of her sex with ever-increasing speed. Excitement rushed through her limbs so violently pleasurable that she writhed in frustrated passion. The felt the head of his penis pressing against her sex as the stimulation of her clitoris swelled into an almost unbearable scream of titillation.

Hades sheathed his swollen penis in her, filling her in such a way she’d never even imagined. As he drew back, she chewed on her bottom lip desperately, afraid that was all there was to it.

But then Hades began to move inside her, pumping slowly and steadily into her body while the walls of her womb clutched at his hot, wet flesh. The god set his teeth, moving Persephone’s knees between his chest and her body.

Hades paused, and looked down at her with a smile spilling over with love and anguished arousal. “You are mine,” he whispered harshly.

He drew back and slammed into her, moving so swiftly and strongly that Persephone’s breath left her in a rush. He worked his hand between them, insinuating a finger through her public hair until he found her clitoris. She was watching him, uncertain of what was happening. He looked down at her face and suddenly grinned.

“You will love this,” he promised. As he started to rub his finger over her clitoris, moving it in fast, tight little circles, he continued to move inside her. Each stroke was stronger; each stroke was faster. Each stroke was harder, so hard that her breath began to match the rhythmic power of their lovemaking. Hades groaned and his finger moved away but she didn’t care. He spread her legs apart with a growl and lowered his body on top of hers. The pace of the lovemaking increased until he was pounding into her eager body with vicious power.

Her body melted beneath him. Hades dropped his head, kissing her passionately on any piece of her he could reach — her throat, the sensitive flesh beneath her right ear, her mouth, clinging to the demands his kiss made upon her. She began to move under him, with him, her hips rising to meet his thrust with joyful abandon. Hades cried out and rolled over onto his back and Persephone almost screamed when he penetrated her fully. Each new thrust quickened the burgeoning excitement screaming through her body. Hades clutched at her breasts, kissing passionately from one to the other, tracing the nipples with his tongue and leaving the cold air of the Underworld to make them pucker into little stones while she whimpered above him, throwing back her head in primal assertion of her dominance and then buckling in submission. Long curls brushed against his skin until he was a groaning madman reaching desperately for her body. He pulled her down sharply so that the full length of her body stretched along his and rolled them over again.

When he opened his eyes and stared down at her, he clenched his jaw and stopped moving entirely.

Persephone shivered. Had she done something wrong? Hades closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “You’re going to be the death of me, my love. The things you are doing would drive any man to distraction.”

He opened his eyes again and this time there was a whisper of amusement on his face before determination and lust drove it away. He looked wild and feral all of a sudden — like a predator who has found the perfect prey and anticipated an easy kill. Hades lowered his face to hers for a moment. They lay cheek to cheek in the great bed of the god of death.

“You have bewitched me,” he murmured. “Now you must pay the price.”

He captured her mouth again, his lips twining seductively around hers while his tongue mated with hers in a frenzied dance. Hades began to move inside her again, his tempo rising and rising until it reached a crescendo of power and passion that weakened all Persephone’s defenses. She dug her fingernails into his back, surprised at his hiss of pleasure. She couldn’t believe it; his phallus was growing bigger. Every stroke electrified her body, sending escalating shudders of tingling excitement through her body. At last he slammed into her with the furious passion only a god can display and she was helpless beneath him, caught up in the throes of her own fervor.

They were building to something, only Persephone didn’t know what that could be. She moaned when the excitement grew too intense, but that just made Hades move faster inside her as he took delicate little nips at the over sensitized flesh of her throat and shoulders. He forced her face to his and covered her mouth with his. The frantic pulsing of his tongue with hers mirrored the frenzied possession of her body. There was nothing but Hades and her, him and she, alone in an isolated place where only pleasure and love spiraled about them.

Hades’ body went rigid. His fingers dug into her shoulders as his thrusts grew stronger.

And then, suddenly, they both exploded. Hades jerked a few more times inside her, intensifying the long, slow waves of release that softened her muscles into complete pliancy beneath him. Hades lowered himself to her gently. He kissed her softly now, dropping little kisses on her sweaty forehead and around her eyes, pushing her hair back from her face as he removed his phallus from her and lay carefully on one side. He leaned down on one elbow, his hands gentling away the final sparks of passion with delicate strokes of her skin. He tucked her into the curve of his arm and Persephone relaxed contentedly against his warm side.

“Hades?”

“Yes, my wife?”

“I love you.” Sleepiness was rushing over her in long, languorous waves.

“And you, my love,” he murmured, brushing an affectionate kiss on top of her curls. “I love you too, Persephone. It won’t be long before the other immortals know of our marriage. We will have to hide no longer.”

“Good,” she said drowsily. “Then maybe they’ll leave us alone.”

Hades waited until her breathing slowed into sleep before he slid gently from her. He picked up his dark cloak and covered her with it, lingering a moment to lift one tangled curl and smooth it between his fingers. As the last vestiges of contentment fled from his body, he turned with decisiveness. Dressing quickly in a tunic the hue of the darkest night, he left the bedchamber and his drowsing wife behind.

He’d felt the Underground tremble when Hermes, Zeus’ messenger had entered his realm. While he’d made love to his young wife, the sensation had been disguised by the magical pulses that shrouded the consummation of his marriage.

Somehow, through some unknown agency, Hermes’ arrival at his palace had been delayed long enough for Hades to teach Persephone about the power and beauty in lovemaking. He wouldn’t have hurried her first true taste of pleasure if Zeus himself had pounded on the door.

But now it was time for the King of the Underworld to face the consequences of his actions. He threw a second cloak over his shoulders and kissed his sleeping wife. Then he picked up his scepter and strode from the room.

He was ready to do battle with whichever of the Olympians would dare to take Persephone from him. If necessary, he would populate all the far-flung reaches of his domain with shattered and broken gods in order to keep her.