Chapter 21

"I gave you the plan and you are going to stick to it!" he yelled out angrily. "You are not going to deviate from it and if you dare do it, then you better hope you die on that field because once I get my hands on you, you're going to wish you had."

The threat was evident in his voice.

"Yes My Lord." the man quickly agreed. He knew that his lord was not joking and he kept his gaze adverted from his because he was too afraid to look him in the eye, fearing that if he did, he would kill him right then. He knew better then to question him when he was like this. He was angry about something and now he had to deal with the brunt of his anger.

"Good, now make sure the men are ready to move out at first light tomorrow. I don't want anyone slacking off and I will know if they are."

"Yes My Lord. As you wish, it will all be taken care of. No need to worry about a thing…." his general started saying. He wanted to stay on his good side and didn't want to enrage him anymore then he already was.

"See it done, then! " he growled out and quickly vanished from the tent.

The general let out the breath he had been holding since the God had arrived. He was just glad that it was not him that his anger was directed at and he felt sorry for the person that it was. He knew his God was unforgiving and that person was probably in for a world of hurt. He shivered at the thought of what he had seen his God do in the past to people that were disloyal to him. Putting those thoughts out of his mind, he headed out of his tent to inform his men of their new plan of attack.

Xxxxxx

Ares reappeared in the Halls of War and let a fireball fly across the room and it collided with an arrangement of weapons on the wall. He was sexually frustrated and the idea of just ordering one of his priestesses to take care of his need was almost overwhelming, but he knew it was not going to sate him. That little vixen had built a fire in him and abandoned it to rush into the arms of another who was probably getting his release from her at this very moment. No, no, no he might be able to get his release from another but he was not going to be satisfied with it. A quick fuck with his priestess was not going to extinguish the fire that she had built. He took deep breathes to try and calm himself and hopefully the problem would just go away on its own. He wasn't some ordinary, horny school boy having trouble controlling his urges. After a few more randomly tossed fireballs he managed to work out his frustration.

"Well someone's in a bad mood." an all too familiar voice came from behind him. Already knowing who it was, he turned around to see Aphrodite standing there looking around the room.

"What are you doing here?" he breathed out on an aggravated tone.

"What's wrong bro, are things not working out with your generals?"

She had seen him angry plenty of times but this had the air of something major.

As always, she got the silent treatment from him whenever she tried to get him to talk about anything he didn't want to discuss. She watched as he just ignored her and walked over to his throne , slumping down on it as if he had nothing better to do. The Love Goddess wondered what could be wrong. She had checked in on him earlier and saw that he was spending time with the warrior babe at Athena's training grounds and everything seemed to have been going well. That was it, something must have happened to his new favorite warrior to have put him in such a bad mood.

"Did something happen to Xena?" she asked him, instantly noticing the way his eyes narrowed at her for mentioning her name. "Is she hurt?"

Ares laughed bitterly at her last question. "No, I believe pain is the last thing she is feeling at this moment."

"Well something must be wrong. You and Xena seemed to have been getting to know each other pretty well at the arena. I gotta say I'm proud of you bro, you didn't waste any time..." but he cut her off.

"Are you following me?" he glared at her and got off of his throne and started walking towards her.

"No, not following just checking in and I saw that the two of you were getting friendly so I left." she said, backing away from the angry War God.

Ares stopped his advances, in the end, it was not her he was mad at. He didn't know why he was letting this situation bother him as much as it was, it wasn't the first time he got interrupted when he was about to bed a woman. Although, he never had one that willingly left him to go to the arms of another, he was the one usually doing the leaving. And all it took was that pathetic mortal saying her name and she had completely forgotten all about what they had been doing up to that moment, practically falling into that bastard's arms as if he was some great deity that she just couldn't stay away from. Maybe it was because he finally did have her, able and willing to join him, and that consummation would have solidified their alliance. Yeah that was it, he refused to label it as anything more than having once again been denied the chance to have her as his warrior.

Aphrodite watched as the War God had a silent battle with himself inside his head. She looked on as a bunch of different emotions played out across his face. Anger, resentment and finally a satisfied look as if he had come up with a good enough answer for himself to whatever had been bothering him so much. All that brooding could not be good for one God. She wished he would just open up to her.

"Ares, are you sure everything is fine?" she asked timidly.

Ares turned back to his sister at her question. He nearly forgot that she was still standing there. "Yes, everything is fine. Just a minor setback on a business transaction."

"Anything I can help you with?"

"Uh, no." he bluntly rejected her offer. "Your little love spells are not going to help solve the problems with my warlords."

"Hmm, maybe... but how can you be so sure if you have never tried it?"

"There is no room for love in war." he told her in an ominous tone. "Love is a weakness that clouds the mind and makes mortals blind by it. In war you can't afford to have any weakness."

The Goddess of Love knew there was more to the matter but she for once was not going to press the subject. She could see that whatever it was, had him greatly upset and she didn't think she would survive the questioning if she continued to prod him about it. "Alright…whatever you say… If you need my help you know where to find me."

She didn't wait for his response as she vanished in shards of pink light.

Ares took a brief look to where Aphrodite had been standing to make sure she was gone. He made his way back over to his throne and sat down. Wanting to take his mind off of his current problem he opened a portal to look in on some wars. There wasn't much going on at this time and he sighed deeply, annoyed that he couldn't find anything that would keep him distracted. He changed the image a few times to look for something, anything that would make the nagging in the back of his mind to check up on her, go away.

He finally stopped on a small battle between two warlords and he decided this was as good as it was going to get. He watched the skirmish trying to get into. He told himself that he wasn't going to do it, he wasn't going to change the image he was looking at. He didn't want to know but the image before him was not at all captivating and the pesky need to make his own self miserable was pushing its way through.

Grudgingly, he changed the image in the portal and a dark room came into view that had a small fire burning in the hearth. The portal began to focus on the bed where it was occupied by two people. It moved in closer and he could see Xena and that insignificant man lying close together on the bed. Their hands were intertwined together and both had a subtle smile on their faces as they slept. Ares instantly regretted changing the image, he didn't like what he was now seeing and he balled his fists at the sight, thinking about how the two of them must have spent the night pleasuring one another, how he had warmed her up for that bastard and he got to wreak the rewards of his labor. His mind flashed back to her moans and to the soft sighs that she had let escape at his touch and he thought how that could have been him right now. Pleasuring every inch of her body and having her cry out his name in the throes of passion as he continued to maximize her release again and again.

He threw a fireball at the portal and it immediately disintegrated. Watching that image had made his anger come back with a violent passion. He sat on his throne seething, he needed to take his anger out on something. Knowing just where he could do that he vanished from his throne room. He wasn't going to wait till dawn, his army was going to move out now and they were going to attack that opposing army so he could let off some much needed steam.

"Wake up!" he shouted at his general the moment he appeared in his tent.

Startled by the unexpected angry voice that now filled his tent, the general quickly jumped out of his cot. Scanning the small space he saw that his lord had come back and by the looks of him, he was still very much pissed.

"My Lord." he said and bowed to him. "What brings you here this late at night?"

"Rouse the men, we are going to lead the attack against Gregor's army tonight."

"But My Lord what about what we discussed earlier and ..." but the War God quickly cut him off.

"You dare question me?!" Ares hissed at him.

"No My Lord.." the general lowered his head to avoid his lord's malicious gaze. "It's just… I thought we were going to wait till morning?" he sheepishly breathed out.

"Nothing beats the element of surprise. Now wake the men and don't make me ask you again because the answer you will get will not be pleasant for you." the War God breathed out on a frightening tone.

The general didn't waste any more time as he quickly left his tent to get the army on the move. He was hoping that the War God would had cooled off since his earlier visit but it seemed that he was even more upset then when he left. He was very attached to his life and he knew the God of War was going to make good on his promise if he didn't do what he ordered.

"Rouse the troops, we are marching against the opposing army now." the general ordered out to a night guard.

"But I thought..."

"Don't think, just do as you are told. Now wake the men!"