The Return (Titan 1)

Man, I missed the Pillow Pet I’d had growing up. I’d had a ladybug that I’d taken everywhere with me, even to the lake. I’d had it with me once when Bob had showed up, and he’d stared at that thing like it was some sort of mystical creature. I wondered if my grandparents still had it stowed away—okay, who cared about the stupid Pillow Pet? Rolling my eyes, I told myself to focus. But how in the world was I going to move his hand? Or get my leg out from under his? Or not accidentally knee him in the—

A throat cleared softly.

My heart skipped a beat as my gaze darted around the room, landing on the tall, dark-skinned girl sitting in the chair in front of the desk.

Oh gosh.

Erin sat there, arms folded over her chest. She looked normal, like the girl I’d met two years ago when I shuffled into my dorm for the first time, wishing I’d had my Pillow Pet with me. There were no leathery wings or all-white eyeballs. Her skin was smooth and flawless, not charcoal gray, and her fingers weren’t sharpened into deadly claws. She looked human. Our eyes met, and my stomach hollowed as I stared at her. Everything she had told me was a lie.

“Weeell,” Erin drew the word out as she hooked one slender leg over the other. “I’d heard about his reputation, but I have to admit, I didn’t think he was this good.”

For a moment, I didn’t get what she was suggesting, then I remembered where I was and who I was lying on. Ah, awkward.

“This isn’t what it looks like.” I started to sit up, but the hand that had been in my hair slipped down the curve of my back in a slow slide that caused my breath to hitch and my toes to curl.

“It’s totally what it looks like,” came the deep voice.

Erin arched a brow.

My head whipped around. Seth gave me a lazy grin from where his head was propped up on the pillows. “You’re awake!”

“I have been.”

“For a while,” Erin added, and I twisted back to her. “We were debating on waking you up or not. Especially when you were making those noises.”

“Noises?”

Seth’s hand was a heavy weight on the side of my stomach. “Yeah, it was kind of like little whimpers.”

Heat blasted my cheeks. “I d-don’t make noises when I sleep.”

“Yes, you do.” Erin tapped her fingers on the arm of the chair. “Kind of like what a baby kitten sounds like.”

My mouth dropped open.

She shrugged. “It’s cute.”

It was mortifying.

Planting my hand on Seth’s stomach, I pushed up. His stomach didn’t give an inch. It was like pushing on a wall. Gathering up the edges of the robe, I scooted to the far side of the bed.

Seth sat up, stretching his arms above his head. Joints cracked as he twisted at the waist. As he lowered his arms, his lazy gaze swept over me, lingering where my hands clutched the robe, and then moved to where Erin sat. Then he said, “I’m hungry.” He looked at me, sleep clinging to the relaxed line of his jaw. “You hungry?”

I was always hungry, so I nodded.

“Perfect.” He swung his legs off the bed and stretched again. This time, when he raised his arms, his shirt rode up. Not that I hadn’t seen it all when he’d paraded around shirtless before, but the glimpse of hard abs still caught my attention.

And Erin’s.

He sauntered past her on his way to the bathroom. “I would ask if you were hungry,” he said to her. “But I assume you ate your fill of babies last night.”

My eyes widened. “You…eat babies?”

Her eyes rolled. “No, I don’t.” She shot him a nasty look as he chuckled. “Asshole.”

Seth disappeared into the bathroom. I didn’t know what to say to Erin in the silence that followed, and he returned in a few seconds, the hair around his face damp. He tugged the ends back, securing them at the nape of his neck as he toed on a pair of sneakers I hadn’t noticed before. “I’ll be back,” he said as he walked to the door. “With bacon. Pancakes. Eggs. Sausage. Maybe some fruit,” he continued, opening the door. “And waffles. Oh. Omelets sound good, too. With lots of cheese and peppers…” The door shut behind him as I wondered how he’d get all that food back here.

Silence.

Smoothing a hand over my hair, I looked over at Erin. She was staring at the closed door. “I’ve heard a lot of stuff about him,” she said, her voice soft. “Rumors. Some of it probably true. Some of it not. He did kill one of my sisters.” She turned to me. “Granted, they were trying to kill him.”

I wasn’t sure if that made it any better.

Uncrossing her legs, she dropped both feet to the floor and leaned forward. “He’s just not… He’s not what I thought.”

“What do you mean?”

Erin shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I brought you all the clothes I could grab, and some of your other stuff, too.”

On the floor under the desk were several gym bags and backpacks that looked full to bursting. My tongue felt woolly as I spoke. “Thank you.”

Her features pinched. “We need to talk before he gets back and pisses me off. I know you’re probably confused.”

“Confused?” My laugh was as dry as dust. “Twenty-four hours ago, I thought Greek gods were nothing but myths, and now…”

“And now you know you’re one of the myths,” she finished. “A demigod—a very important one. Besides the fact that there hasn’t been a demigod since, well, a very long time, you’re Apollo’s daughter. The freaking sun god is your father.”

My father. I still couldn’t wrap my head around that, but I did know I wasn’t comfortable with the way it sounded. “Please stop saying he’s my father. He might’ve donated some sperm, but that’s all he did. He’s not my dad. My grandpa is the closest to a dad I have, because he raised me. He loves me.”

She cocked her head to the side as her brows knit together. “Apollo loves you, too. I know that may be hard to believe, but he does. He made sure you were always safe. Protected.”

The thing was, I hadn’t needed that when I was growing up. Or if I had, I’d been completely oblivious. What I had needed was a dad. Grandpa was great and did everything he could, but it wasn’t the same.

I swept those thoughts aside. “He sent you to watch over me.”

She opened her mouth and then closed it. As she nodded, a twisty motion enveloped my stomach. “He did.”