♚ Aphrodite ♚
"How could you do this to me? Your own family?!" Another antique vase shattered as a result of my violent outburst. In my opinion, it was well justified, as there was no other way to react to my dead uncle suddenly appearing after seven years. Sure, I could have gone and hugged him and told him how much I missed him, that is if he didn't actually pretend to be dead, cut off the mind-link with me and let Ares take over the throne.
Speaking of Ares, I turned to him with the same amount of betrayal. The fact that I trusted him, and he did this... I knew I could no longer be mad at him anymore, he told me everything he had to say about him, all of which were well justified. He wasn't the person I should be angry at, after all, Ares was just a pawn of a bigger and more malicious scheme- my uncle's scheme to have power to the throne.
"Aphrodite, please calm down." Ares tried to reason, he was experiencing the same emotions as me, due to the mate bond, but I continued to throw fits of anger around the room. The room was completely destroyed, the walls had holes in it, the tables were overturned. Oh, and not to mention, Ares has bloody scratch marks across his arms.
My head swiftly turned Ares, giving him a cold glare. "I am calm!"
With that, I tried to get out of his grip, piercing my claws against his already bruised arm. Ares winced in pain, yet he held me tighter around my torso. Warm and moist lips pressed against the prominent mark on my neck, and a sudden surge of the best feeling emerged in my body. It was a reminder, that I was his and he was there for me during the worst period of my life.
My nails stopped dragging down in skin and my back met against his hard torso, one of my hand reached to clasp his two joint hands at my torso, and true other reached up to his neck, gently grazing his mark. We remained in the position for a few minutes, enjoying each other's embrace.
All the while my uncle watched, with a cup of tea in his hands. He had a smile so wide and so bright that it shined brighter than the sun. It was also, an evil smile, one that I wanted to smack of his face.
"Nice seeing you two together, in love." My uncle clapped his hand and jumped up like a five-year-old girl. I could hear Ares let out an annoyed huff behind me, knowing that anything my uncle said would fuel my anger further.
"You son of a bitch, I'm going to skin you." My legs began to flail all around, Ares swiftly grabbed my arm and dragged me to the nearby sofa. He sat down first and proceeded to firmly place me on his lap, I was stuck and there was no way out.
"You're not the only one who has said that." My uncle replied as he sat down on the sofa opposite to Ares and I. His proximity caused me to emit low growls, while Ares kept rubbing circles on my exposed back.
"I think it's time to get all of our secrets out in the open." Ares said, his voice calm and collected, but his heart was beating at a rapid pace in anticipation of my reaction.
"Yeah, I'm so eager to know why my very own uncle decided to corporate with my former enemy and overthrow me." My voice was filled with exasperation, my hands began flailing around trying to release my anger somehow. "Or maybe why my uncle cut off the mind-link with me when I needed him the most."
My uncle sighed, knowing that the things I said was true. Ares, on the other hand, tightened his grip around me. This was the first time he was hearing about my hardships, I could feel the burning sensation that was going through his heart, I felt it too.
"Did you like it when I was on the verge of death in the Gehenna?" I leaned forward looking my uncle directly in his golden eyes, he remained quiet, his eyes glossy filled with regret.
"I thought you were different, that you actually cared about me," I cried out, hot tears freely falling down my face. "You are just like my parents-"
"Enough, Aphrodite!" My uncle's loud voice boomed across the entire room. That immediately shut me up, my back reclined towards Ares as I watched the scene unfold in front of me. "Just fucking shut up already! All these years, I've had to deal with your fucking bullshit and it never stops."
"I suggest you check your tone before speaking to my mate like that, Hades." My mate's voice came out low, almost in a sort of growl. His hands clenched into a fist, only thin air was there to stop him.
My uncle looked at my mate with wide eyes, before laughing it off like a mad man, "Look who's there to defend my incompetent niece, my little pawn. You think you'd be King without me Ares? I'm the reason why you're out of the Gehenna, I'm the reason you sat on the throne."
"Wait, what?" My eyebrows furrowed, my uncle looked at me expectantly, like he thought I knew what was going on. The expression on my face gave him the answer.
"Oh you don't know?" He exclaimed before giving out an evil laugh, "Oh this should be fun. Ares!"
He snapped at the direction of my mate. Who looked to the other side, trying to avoid the drama, like he usually does. But this time, my uncle was going to drag him down. "Would you like to tell your lovely mate about how I was your knight-in-shining-armour who took you out of the Gehenna and trained you to become worthy of a King?"
My head turned to Ares who didn't meet my eyes, I knew he was guilty without him even looking at me. There was no need to ask him if this was true or not.
"Oh and maybe he forgot to also mention the fact that I helped him carry out the death of you parents, your second uncle and your brother, as well as the destruction of the Castle that day, am I right?" My ears couldn't believe what they just heard, my uncle and my mate worked together to kill off my family and remove me as Queen, but why would my uncle do that?
"Being the third brother," my uncle spoke, reading my mind, "I was always last in everything. It was always Zeus and Poseidon the great brothers, but no one cared about Hades."
My uncle broke out into fits of laughter, the one you would hear in a mental asylum late at night, "Hades is weak, Hades cannot fight, Hades never got the women, Hades is gay, Hades will never be King, Hades will never be anything great - those were the words spoken by the Elderly Council."
My uncle slammed his hand on the coffee table, right on the cup of coffee. The glass shattered all around the floor and some shards even went into his hands. "I wanted to prove them wrong. And I did! When your father – King Zeus – was busy loitering around the Bloodrose Pack, I was busy coming up with a plan, and then my eyes fell upon a young, fragile boy - your mate."
Looking into Ares eyes for the first time, he gave me a subtle smile, confirming the actions of my uncle. I looked back at my uncle in awe, there were a lot of things that my uncle did without telling me. He was truly the greatest.
"At first, I didn't bother thinking about that young boy rotting in that prison." My uncle continued, "But the look in his eyes was just... I had to help him. And that's when I came up with a plan, to take up the throne without getting caught."
"I'm gonna skip over the details but one by one your father and his more visible brother fell." Hades said as he hand gestured a terrified servant to bring him another cup. Once the servant got him a hot cup of expresso, he started sipping it, making a gurgling sound. All the while Ares and I just stared at him, expecting an answer.
My uncle looked out to the scenery and then back at us, he thought we were satisfied with the little story he told us. When he saw our confused expression, he rolled his eyes and removed the cup from his lips.
"Ares and I killed Poseidon first, and then Zeus to create a more dramatic effect." My uncle's hands went flying in the air, creating the vision of an explosion. "Then your whore-of-a-mother found out and begged me to let her stay in the Castle. She was even willing to be my mistress, if only she knew that I preferred men."
That part didn't surprise me, my mother showed big signs of being a gold digger, she was a manipulated victim of abuse and she inflicted it upon me too. Her death affected me in no way, she was a useless creature created by the Moon Goddess, and she had to go.
"But you know the Elderly Council? They thought yah boy Hades couldn't kill a woman, I had to live up to that expectation so that they wouldn't get suspicious," he paused, his eyes gazing over to Ares for a split second, his lips curling into an evil smile, "So I had your mate carry out her assassination all by himself. He's very good with the ladies you know. Spoiler alert: he killed your lady-in-waiting too."
All this information was too much, but I still wanted more, these hidden secrets were like a drug which would harm me but I wouldn't feel satisfied until I had it all. "Why didn't you become King instead? Why put me in charge and become Regent?"
"I don't have the heart, nor the stomach to kill little kids." He gave me a sympathetic smile before his face scrunched into disgust, "But your brother, that filthy spoilt brat was eating me alive. Not only was he arrogant and childish, but he was smart, very smart! In fact, he was smarter than you, no offence."
"That was offensive." I never liked being compared to my brother especially in a way that made him better than me. My uncle looked away and sipped his coffee as if he was saying that it was 'none of his business'. My eyebrows furrowed in awe, did he really mean that?
"Face the truth Aphrodite, you're one stupid bitch." His words made me emit a low growl, "You put your blind faith in me, never once doubted me. Your naivety is the reason why Ares conquered your Kingdom."
"Oh no you fucking didn't-" my claws were out again and they went straight for his face, my uncle dodged it and caught it with his other hand. All the while, the coffee still remaining in his cup.
"You were a terrible Queen," he whispered in my ears, his voice breaking every part of my heart and soul, "So you had to go too, we were planning to kill you but then the stupid mate thing happened and Ares was being too whiny about killing his mate so I locked you up in the Gehenna."
"So it really was you, in the Gehenna..." my uncle laughed and released my hand, my body was paralysed and I just looked around the floor.
"Of course it was me, I had to pay a visit to my niece." He said as his hands went to the strands of my hair, the once soothing feeling now left me disgusted.
"I'm your only niece." I replied slapping his hands away.
"No, there is that intelligent one – Athena, she's smarter than you too, no offence." He said as he patted my back, as if he was trying hard to make me stable.
"None taken." I said as I removed his hand away from me for the second time. Deciding it was enough, I walked over to the door to open it but I was interrupted by my uncle's voice again.
"The story isn't finished my love." He said, "I still haven't told you how I helped Ares to locate you in the Ambersky Pack."
"You what?" My head turned back around to my uncle who sported a wide grin on his face. I couldn't believe my uncle was the one who saved me, I thought it was Ares all along.
"That's right! After all, Dionysus works with me." He looked at to and then to the door before muttering, "Speaking of which, Dionysus? Did you get the documents ready?"
"Oh yes, I did-" the door opened which pushed me further into the house. That was was so familiar, I didn't even need to see who it was. The man behind me – Dionysus – took in a big gulp at the sight of me. I thought he was dead, clearly, everyone had secrets.
"Oh, my Queen-" a low grumble erupted within me, Dionysus took a few steps back but my uncle gave him a hand gesture to say it was alright. I need a drink.
"I think you've met each other, in fact, I heard he helped you out," my uncle spoke with gritted teeth as he stared at Dionysus. "That's why, he had to go too. But he was my favourite secretary so I just took him with me. The end!"
That was a big relief. The reality of the revelations was much different from what I had expected, I thought that if the secret was out in the open then maybe the air would get a bit clearer. Boy, was I wrong.
There was still one unanswered question, and it had been bugging my mind ever since I saw him. "Why now? Why would you tell me all of this at this exact moment? Why not when I got released from the Gehenna?"
"Oh yes," my uncle sighed, his eyes wide as if he had messed something up. It wouldn't be a surprise really. This secret may be the key to my relief but the next few words uttered made my life much worse.
"I'm here, because I'm going to be the future King."
❌❌❌
🌙 *sips tea in the corner*
🌙 So the past couple of chapters were fillers with a lot of talking lol. That's because the main chapter is going to come next 😉
🌙 Only two more chapters left before an epilogue. 😭 You guys, this is the first time I've completed a book!
🌙 Like I said before, it's not your Cliché book, so don't go mad on me at the ending. But I promise, it will still be a happy one. Gotta keep my readers alive for the next few books I'm writing 😉
🌙 Oops I spoiled the surprise. Whatever, you'll figure more in detail in the epilogue.
🌙 Don't forget to vote and comment on my book!
-Le_Roma