Page 2 of Make Mine Nymph

So, instead, I make excuses so I can keep Daphne to myself. Especially since, for months now, Noelle has been pushing to have some “girl time” with just her and Daphne, and I’ve been finding ways to refuse. Not because I worry about what my sister will tell my soulmate when I’m not there, but because Noelle is also pushing me to get to know her husband better so that we’ll all get along.

With a snort, I remember the bright and cheery way Noelle suggests we get together for “double dates”. Please. If I’d rather keep Daphne away from Orion, that’s nothing compared to how I’d avoid him myself if I could.

Apollo, in so many ways, is a petulant god. He’s pleased that we have Daphne in our palace, though he can’t understand why she still sleeps in her own room in her own bed instead of in mine. Luckily for me, now that I played my part here in the Other, it’s easier to keep him quiet. He rarely rises up these days, and I’m glad. I just want to have my twin in my corner and my soulmate at my side, and if there’s one god who can screw that up for me, it’s Apollo.

Having me play nice with Orion? That’s a surefire way to get a rise out of the sun god who, millennia later, still despises the one male who tempted his maiden twin to fuck.

Me? I like sex. It’s been four decades since I’ve had any myself, and though the nymphs who always seem to track me down have been more than willing to sleep with me over the seasons I’ve been Apollo, I… I couldn’t do it. Alex couldn’t. It wouldn’t be right, and even if I’m one of the Twelve, that just makes it worse. I know what I look like. You don’t get as arrogant as I am without a good reason to be. I could hop from nymph to nymph and, in the Other, no one would think twice.

But Alex would. And, stubborn as I am, I’m not just Apollo. I’m Alex, and Alex knows better than to sleep with someone just because they’re attracted to what he is instead of who he is.

Daphne could care less that I’m a god. She told me so herself. The power I have in this world? It doesn’t faze her at all. Now, my looks definitely make her lusty—and I’m vain enough to preen when my Daphne touches my arm or runs her fingers through my hair—but when she admits that it’s my surprisingly generous nature that she can’t help but love, it takes all I have not to drop to my knees in front of her then and there. So what if I’m a god? I’ll be the first of us to worship a wood nymph.

I’ve always said I was generous. She’s the first who sees it. The first who sees me.

And I want her. I want her so bad it feels like I’ll die at times if I didn’t get to have her. I didn’t realize how hard it was to hide an aching erection beneath the Other fashions, and I finally understand why Orion wears his hooded cloak. When Daphne touches me, I go as hard as stone—and, thanks to my chiton, she knows it.

She teases. My ball-busting soulmate loves to tease, but that’s all she does. Unlike Kyrene and Melia, she never invites me to her room, and I can’t bring myself to offer her to join me in mine. Because if she refuses? I don’t know how I’ll take it—or how Apollo will.

So I leave things as they are. It’s only been a season, fall turning to winter on this side of the mirror, and Daphne is still here. She’s made herself comfortable in my palace—at my insistence—and she’s looking forward to spring, when her cousin will visit her and Aiden will decide whether or not he wants to support the rest of us in fighting against Kronos.

My father isn’t so happy with his brother. As Hades, Aiden is a powerful piece in Zeus’s plan to bring balance to both worlds: the Other and mirrorside. Zeus and Hera, my stepmother dear, have been playing matchmaker recently, their latest scheme in making it so that the Other realm has enough balance to keep it thriving.

No balance, no Other. And while I could survive a return to the mirrorside, and so could my soulmate, the magic won’t let her cousin go. Neither will Hades. And that means that, despite my only loyalties belonging to my sister, my soulmate, and my snake, I have to do whatever I can to make Daphne happy.

Which is precisely how I find myself sitting down for a meal with Daphne, Noelle, and the huntsman.

At least, I’d thought it was just a meal. A quick vegetable stew—since Daphne was a guest, and I insisted—a couple of pats on Dudley’s head, and Daphne and I could return to the palace to spend some time together alone.

But, see, I find it hard to deny my sister anything. With Daphne, it’s impossible. When the two of them gang up on me and Orion, I know it’s a lost cause so I don’t even try.

I’ll give the huntsman credit. He’s a smarter man than his brawn and brute and reputation suggests. When he realizes Noelle has gotten an idea in her head, he doesn’t argue. With a solemn, “‘Course, darlin’,” he just gives her whatever she wants.

And what she wants? Is to know which of us is a better shot. Now, I’d say it’s a fair enough bet that I could shoot the hood off of his cloak if anyone let me, but she suggested a contest.

That’s the goddess in her coming out. Zeus knows none of us can refuse a contest.

I’m no exception. Neither, it seems, is her Hunter.

But that’s how I know that my twin is up to something. She volunteers Daphne to be judge, but then says that we should go practice first. She offers the huntsman the charmed bow Hephaestus made for her, but he shakes his head and returns with one of his many weapons from the hunter’s cache he keeps; I’d brought my own since I was leading Daphne through the dark woods to bring her to Noelle’s shabby cabin. With a shooing gesture, she sends us away while the two women stay behind with Dudley.

Of course. I know my twin. Noelle’s been dying to get Daphne alone, and the only way she could do that was if she managed to pawn me off on the huntsman. I’d come up with excuse after excuse to keep my firecracker of a nymph in my sight, but Noelle found my weakness.

I refuse to let anyone best me in a contest.

Especially Orion.

CHAPTER 2

TAKE YOUR SHOT

ALEX

Once we’ve gone far enough that the women are out of earshot—but close enough that we could reach them should they need us—I pause. So does Orion.

Hefting my bow, I give him a side-eyed look. “You might as well forfeit now, Huntsman. You won’t be able to best me.”

He handles his bow just easily, assuming the archer’s stance. “You know this contest is just a way for my wife to get your nymph alone so she can talk about how things are going with you, don’t you?”