STORY EXCERPT

Clotho, one of the three spinners of fate, sang of the things that are as she spun and weaved the threads of life on her spindle for the latest soul placed in her keeping. It was a duty given to her and her sisters before time began by their father, Zeus, and one they did with a steadfast dedication.

Her sister Lachesis sat beside her, singing of the things that were as she measured the threads woven by Clotho. Lachesis measured the thread of life allotted to each person with her measuring rod, choosing the lot in life a mortal would have and measuring off how long that life would be.

Beside them both sat Atropos, singing of the things that are to be as she cut the threads of life. She chose the manner of each person’s death, and when their time came, she cut their life-thread with “her abhorred shears.”

They were the Moirai sisters, the Three Hands of Fate. They controlled the threads of life of every mortal from birth until death. At the moment of birth, they spun the threads of destiny, because birth ordained death. They gave mortals at birth both evil and good moments, determining when they were brought into the world, and when they left.

Clotho smiled as she looked into the foggy abyss and watched as a new soul floated toward her, vying for position as the next soul to be born. “This is a strong one, Eileithyia. He fights to be born.”

Eileithyia, the ancient Goddess of Childbirth, and cousin to the three Moirai sisters, laughed as she walked closer to the abyss and looked down into its cloudy depths. “He is to be a warrior, my dear cousin, a guardian for the Tempio di Giove Olimpicoon on Sicily.”

“A guardian at the Temple of Olympian Zeus?” Clotho was impressed. “That’s a very prestigious position.”

“He will earn it when he fights in the Battle of Himera. His honor and sacrifice will be talked about in the halls of Olympus for ages to come.”

Clotho sighed sadly. “I always love spinning the threads of the warrior, but it breaks my heart knowing that their life threads are often so short.” Warriors died with glory and honor, but they still died. It always tugged at Clotho’s heart, knowing that the threads she spun could end so quickly.

“It is not for us to choose, my sister,” Atropos said. “We spin the threads given to us.”

“I know. I just—” Clotho stilled as she looked at the fabric of time that she wove the life threads into after Lachesis measured them and Atropos cut them. Her breath slowly caught in her throat as she stared at the small knotted and frayed thread. “Sisters, there’s a snag.”

“What?” twin voices shouted.

Atropos and Lachesis rushed to her side, all three of them staring at the snag in the fabric with something akin to horror. This was bad, very bad. Very few times in the history of man had there been a snag in the fabric of time—the fall of Babylon, Pompeii, the Black Plague, the two great wars that had covered the entire surface of the world, numerous earthquakes and tsunamis, and bell bottom pants, just to name a few.

And every time, mischievous and often evil forces had been at work.

“Can you tell what happened?” Lachesis whispered.

Clotho started at the beginning of the thread and slowly moved her fingers over it, following it as it weaved in and out of other life threads until she reached the snag. “He is one of our temple guardians, sisters. He was supposed to be rewarded for his service and find his mate here”—Clotho pointed to a section on the thread just after the snag—“but something kept his soul mate from being born.”

“No!” Atropos cried out. “That’s not possible. If you pulled a soul from the abyss, then you had to have weaved a thread for his soul mate.”

“I did,” Clotho insisted. “I would never spin a thread without there being a soul mate to bond it with. It is forbidden by our sacred laws.”

“Then how—”

“I smell sorcery, cousins.”

Clotho shuddered as she glanced up at Eileithyia. “Sorcery?” There was nothing in the world that Clotho hated more than sorcerers. They were the spawns of Hades and made life for mortal man a living hell. “What can we do?”

“Call Maat,” Eileithyia suggested. “If anyone can fix the fabric of time, she can.”

Clotho wasn’t so sure. She and her sisters controlled the threads of life of every mortal from birth to death. They were independent, at the helm of necessity. They directed fate and watched it be assigned to every being by sacred and eternal laws. They represented a power to which even the Gods had to conform.

Their cousin Maat might be the Goddess of Truth, Justice, and Harmony, but even she had rules she had to adhere to. Messing with fate just wasn’t done. On the other hand, Maat did stand for the spirit of truth and fairness. If anyone could buck the system, it was the Goddess Maat.

Clotho closed her eyes and sent out a call to her cousin Maat, requesting her presence in the highest tower of Olympus where she and her sisters resided. She smiled and opened her eyes when she felt a dry breeze blow over her skin as a portal opened and the Goddess Maat came through.

“Cousins.” Maat nodded with a deep smile, showing off the adorable dimples in each cheek that she was often teased about. “How may I be of assistance to the hands of fate?”

“There’s been a snag in the fabric of time,” Clotho explained almost stoically. “We believe it is the result of sorcery.”

Maat was a beautiful young woman, her long black hair always perfectly combed, and not a wrinkle or stain on her long, flowing white gown. The moment she heard the word sorcery, her hair began to wave around her shoulders in wild array and the golden string on her gown curled into knots.

“Sorcery!”

“We believe so, cousin.” Clotho pointed to the colorful fabric on her loom. “There’s a snag that prevented a soul mate from being born at the right moment in time. Because of that, this warrior will die without ever meeting his soul mate.” Clotho felt a tear slide down her cheek as she turned back to her cousin. “He’s one of ours, Maat, and he will die alone.”

ADULT EXCERPT

“How wondrous. My mate has been truly blessed by the Gods.”

Nikos groaned and dropped his forehead against the blue wall tiles. Yannis did not listen very well. Nikos knew he would have to do something about that. Until he knew exactly what Yannis was, and where he came from, he needed to keep his distance from the sexy man.

Yannis was dangerous, not only to Nikos’s libido, but his ability to think and use his common sense as well. The strange creature simply touched him and Nikos lost all of his good judgment, practically begging for more.

He couldn’t allow that to—“Yannis!”

Nikos tried to spin around when he felt large callused hands move over his skin in a gentle caress. Instead of allowing him to turn, his hands were grabbed and pressed against the shower tile in front of him. If he had been a cat, he’d be dead right now because his curiosity was shooting up through the roof.

“So perfect,” Yannis murmured against the nape of Nikos’s neck as he began kissing a small trail over his skin as he moved down his back and the soft curve of his ass. “I must have you again, Beloved. I cannot help myself. I ache for you, burn for you.”

Holy fuck!

Yannis could do with simple words what Nikos’s previous lovers hadn’t been able to do with their entire bodies. Nikos was so hard and aching so fast that his cock actually hurt and his head swirled as the blood drained from his brain.

He moaned in satisfaction as Yannis stroked his legs. Yannis’s tongue ran the length of his leg from ankle to knee then along the inner thigh of first one leg then the other. Nikos gasped when he felt Yannis’s tongue move between his ass cheeks, the man’s hands holding them apart.

“I would love you again, Beloved.” Yannis’s words were punctuated with more heated kisses and soft licks along his aching entrance. Yannis seemed to know just where to touch Nikos, to kiss him, to caress him to drive him insane.

Nikos moaned in ecstasy as Yannis licked his ass, his tongue running wet circles around his hole until the muscles relaxed. Yannis pressed a finger into the wet ring of muscles, gently working his finger in until Nikos’s body sucked the finger back into his body. Nikos was already pretty stretched, so it didn’t take long.

“Yannis,” Nikos hissed when he felt something brush against his groin. Just as Nikos felt the bulbous head of Yannis’s cock nudge between his ass cheeks, he felt something else wrap around his cock. It was hard and unyielding, yet soft at the same time.

It wrapped around the full length of Nikos’s cock, moving and undulating as it tightened and loosened over and over again. Nikos cried out and shuddered when the narrowed tip moved down to rub against his balls.

And it felt almost as good as the cock slowly filling his ass. The power of that first thrust took Nikos’s breath away as his body stretched to accommodate Yannis’s thick shaft. No matter how stretched he was, he couldn’t be prepared for the man’s massive cock. There was just no way. Yannis was hung like a fucking horse.

Nikos was on sensory overload.

Yannis was pounding into his ass from behind with such force that it shoved Nikos forward with each thrust. If the wall hadn’t been in front of him, and Yannis’s hands gripping his hips, Nikos was pretty sure he would have been fucked right through the wall.

Nikos wasn’t quite ready to acknowledge the thing wrapped around his dick, no matter how fantastic it felt. That was just a little too much for him at the moment. He just wanted it to continue what it was doing.

Nikos’s orgasm shot toward him at an alarming rate. One touch of Yannis’s hand, one thrust of his massively thick cock, one gentle kiss along his skin…and Nikos was ready to explode.

His stamina sucked.

“Yannis,” Nikos hissed again when he felt sharp teeth scrape along the soft skin between his shoulder and neck. He knew what the creature wanted. And as much as he knew it was wrong, he found he couldn’t deny that need. Nikos tilted his head to one side, baring his throat for his lover’s bite.

His body tensed as sharp teeth bore down, piercing his flesh and sending shivers running down his body. The pain was instantaneous but gone just as quickly, replaced by an ecstasy that made Nikos’s knees weak. He clutched at the wall, his grip slipping along the wet tile.

“Yannis!” Nikos shouted when he felt himself start to fall, his legs no longer having the strength to hold him up. Before he could fall to the floor, Nikos felt the hands gripping his hips tighten and lift him up, then move to his thighs.

Nikos was swung around until the built-in bench seat was directly in front of him, allowing him to rest his hands and brace himself, which was good because Yannis didn’t seem to have any plan on letting go of his hips.

If anything, Yannis tilted them up more. Nikos felt like his world was turning on its end as his ass was lifted higher. His feet were practically waving in the air.

“Yannis, I can’t—” Nikos’s eyes crossed as Yannis started pounding into him like he was trying to crawl inside of Nikos through his ass, using his dick as a guide. By the time Nikos realized that the man had pulled out, Yannis was ramming back in.

“Yannis…I…I can’t…I need…” Nikos’s body moved mindlessly, fucking himself on Yannis’s engorged cock.

“Come for me, Beloved.”