They're so different.
Yet very much the same.
Both are so hungry for power. Both want control. Both are dominant.
I am not, and that is why they chose me.
I had never met Zelena, but Hades and I had a history. I had been his for a long time. When Killian had found me, it had been many years. Hades had owned me for eons, dangling my freedom in front of me and making me jump to get it.
But he never freed me.
That was why I was running that night with Cerebus chasing me.
I was running away from Hades, and he sent his dog after me.
Either I thought that I could outrun it, or I thought that death was better than a living eternity with Hades.
Unfortunately, I'd overlooked the fact that if I died, I would go directly back to Hades, and that was what he had been counting on.
As soon as the beast's claws tore through me, I knew that running had been a mistake. I should have known that he wouldn't have let me go so easily.
I was his pet.
I'd sold my soul to him long ago in exchange for him saving my ailing lover from death. Hades surprisingly kept his end of the deal, but my lover had been healed for barely a week before he ran off with another woman, leaving me devastated.
Weakened and alone, I'd gone to Hades for comfort.
His comfort involved me kneeling before his throne as his fingers tangled in my hair. His comfort involved me laying before him, my own fingers moving over my most sensitive regions. His comfort involved bending me over his dining room table and hiking my skirts up and over my hips.
And it did comfort me.
For a while.
But then he got too rough. Too greedy.
And at some point I realized that he was using me for comfort too.
He – like me – was in love with someone who'd never love him back.
So he used me to fill the void.
By filling mine.
He used me daily.
Then, when there was a spark of hope that Zelena had returned to him, he dismissed me. That was when Killian had found me and freed me. And shortly before I was caught yet again, like I knew I would be.
Because it wasn't long before Hades decided that he missed me.
He loves Zelena, but she's not me. She will not play the submissive like I will.
She's good for loving, but I'm good for fucking.
And it was shortly after he introduced us when she took a liking to me as well.
They are very different lovers.
Hades is rough. He pulls my hair and slaps me around. His caress is a distant memory, from a time before there was a Zelena. He calls me names and, in turn, makes me call him Master.
Zelena is gentler…once it is over.
She's just as mean during sessions of lovemaking.
Is that the right word when there is no love involved?
But afterwards, Hades leaves without saying a word. He shoves me away from him and stalks out of the room without glancing back.
But Zelena will stay and take care of me. She puts me back together and heals the wounds that she's inflicted. She kisses me on the forehead and brushes out the tangles in my hair.
I have become the family pet. They hardly talk to me, but I am expected to sit with them on their sofa, or cuddle with them in bed.
Just like a dog.
But oddly, I don't mind.
Maybe it's because I'm dead and don't feel like they're depriving me of my life. I'd done that myself. They're simply making my death interesting.
Maybe it's because the way Zelena treats me gives me the strength to endure Hades' torment.
Or maybe it's because I'm more than playing the role of submissive.
Maybe it's because I really am.
Or maybe it's because lovemaking isn't the wrong word to use.
Maybe there is love involved.