Excerpt of The Heart of War by Lisa Beth Darling

The Olympians were quite the Divinely Dysfunctional Family. Alena had never seen or heard so much bitter bickering from one clan. If that was her Family, she might be damn happy that she lived in Exile on a beautiful island such as this. "They're awful." She whispered in his ear careful not to let any prying ears overhear. Ares gave out a deep chuckle and then another sigh as his hand rose up to caress her arm. She thought of how brave, how daring, and even dashing, Ares had been as he stood there telling all of them they could not have her. When she listened to him speak of Artemis, Alena nearly cried. Then she had been stunned into silence having expected the God of War to hand her over, maybe not with ease but readily enough, in return for his crown and scepter. "Thank you for keeping your promise."

"You expected this chauvinistic pig to do less." Ares mused still with his eyes closed. "Everyone does."

Under her hands, beneath the thick pad of fur her fingers were twirling, Alena felt the steady beat of his heart. It too was brave and strong. "Why did you do it?"

Last night, Ares indulged himself in the pleasures Alena had to offer not in the name of any barter. Not for any affection. Just, simply, because the opportunity arose and he took it as he always did. Come morning, Ares expected that he would turn her over to the Olympians in exchange for those things so wrongfully taken from him. For all her intrigue and mystery, she was still, disposable. Unimportant. Superfluous. For centuries, all he thought about was going home and the chance finally fell into his lap, Ares thought it was a Gift from the Gods.

Yet when Zeus unknowingly presented all of them with irrefutable proof of Ares' innocence, he had the gall to make more demands upon him instead of lifting Ares' exile. It wasn't that Ares minded going to War, it was after all, his Thing. He wanted revenge for Artemis as much as much as any of them. Couldn't Zeus see that? Surely, he did, he must know this much about his Son. It was then that Ares realized none of it was about Justice, just Power. Nothing ever changed on Olympus. Standing there in the Great Chamber, Ares started wondering why he ever wanted to go back to Olympus. Why return to all of that bickering and backstabbing when he could stay on his island with her?

Last night she was expendable. Tonight that was no longer the case and he wasn't sure where the tide turned or even how it had done so. Ares understood that Vindication wasn't the Gift the Gods sent him; Alena was. With five thousand years behind him and, if all went all, another four or five thousand ahead of him, Ares was too old to mince words, too old to play stupid or coy. He wondered how much time his pretty little Fey had ahead of her. "I'd rather have one night with you here on my island than ten thousand more nights with them on Olympus."

"Why?"

"I'm tired of being alone." Ares confessed.

"You're not alone. You have all of your guards and your women."