Shafted Read Free Page A

lead
ones. Instead of being the final reckoning for those who
deliberately preyed on the hearts of others, it became his job to
save mortals suddenly in love against their will with people who
would never love them in return. Anteros was the only one able to
free Eros’s shooting-spree victims but it meant absorbing their
heartache as his own to do it.
    And what thanks did he get for spending the
last several centuries drawing in and carrying the pain of all
those hearts? His beloved brother, the one at fault in the first
place, shot him - and on their mother’s orders no less! And not
with just any arrow either. No, it had to be one of his thrice
cursed golden ones. His fate was sealed.
    Within twenty-four Olympian hours, roughly
one week on earth, his heart would be hopelessly lost to the first
creature to cross his path. Anteros’s eyes were involuntarily drawn
back to the lumpy-limbed figure in front of him. He could feel the
pull starting already. Hades Balls! He’d imprinted on the hideous
creature with the rubbery feet and runny nose. A mortal! A groan
escaped his pursed lips. Why a mortal and why’d it have to be so
damn ugly?
    Anteros’ heart bashed up against his chest
wall and the last of his fog cleared. Zeus’s beard, they might as
well have condemned him to eternal torture in the lowest levels of
Tartarus as this.
    He was doomed. With the use of a golden
arrow, not only was his heart forfeit, his soul would soon be
irrevocably tied to hers. When she died, she’d take him with
her.
    Not only had they ruined his life, they’d
killed him by robbing him of his immortality!
    Anteros couldn’t decide which was worse, the
burning in his heart from the arrow’s path, the hole in it from the
enormity of his family’s betrayal, or the fact he would never know
a moment’s freedom from the monstrous ice encased mortal currently
hopping from one foot to the other screeching like a banshee as she
hovered over him.
    “Hey Mister? I’m sorry, really. Oh gosh, what
can I do? Can I help you up maybe? Do you need a doctor? Or is
there someone else I can call?”
    The concern in her eyes pulled on his heart
strings and, to his horror, other things as well. Stupid arrow was
working all right.
    “Who are you? Can you tell me your name?”
    Uh, tell her his name? Come to think of it,
probably not. Hmm, let’s see, how did one explain such things to a
mortal?
    Hello, I’m a pissed off god who’s been shot
with the equivalent of a super love potion slash aphrodisiac by
‘Stupid Cupid’ and you, you lucky thing, are now the target of my
every superhuman desire. Something, by the way, that will build in
potency to a point I’ll no longer be able to resist and will very
likely jump all over you. Which really isn’t working for me because
the second I do, the arrow’s magic will pierce you too - lovely
little golden bugger that it is - and you’ll fall for me against
your will. In turn, my immortality goes up in smoke and I’ll die
the second you do.
    Oh and since you asked, my name is Anteros,
God of Love Returned, Dread Avenger of Unrequited Love, brother of
Eros and son of Aphrodite and Ares. Let’s have sex right now. How
do you like me so far?
    Oh, yeah, that should go over real well.

Chapter 3

    It was official, the Universe hated her. Why
else would this be happening?
    Not only does she trip over the most
delectable example of the male of the species she’d ever seen in
her life moments after she’d sworn off men, what does she do? She
kicks him...well... there . Not that he hadn’t scared the
be-jeepers out of her or anything, but still; she wasn’t normally a
violent person, a bit testy sometimes maybe, but not violent.
    What in the world was he doing lying out here
in the snow anyway? Didn’t Mr. Luscious have any sense? He could’ve
frozen to death for Pete’s sake. He’s lucky she came along, even if
he didn’t seem to think so at the moment. Well, since he was still
trying to catch his breath