“Hellhound Lamont.” The demon inclined his head. “Lord Hades and Consort Ali request the presence of you and your mate for dinner this evening.”
Lamont exchanged a glance with Ewen. “Is this a formal summons?”
“Lord Hades specified it’s a casual dinner. Just the four of you.” The demon’s expression softened slightly. “Consort Ali has been asking when he would get to properly meet your mate.”
Right. Ewen had met Consort Ali exactly once, and he’d been wearing nothing but a bathrobe while half-asleep at the time. Not exactly an ideal first impression.
“What about our clothes?” Ewen gestured at his jeans and T-shirt.
“Consort Ali said, and I quote, ‘Tell them to come as they are. We’re not doing the formal thing tonight.’” The demon’s mouth twitched. “He may have also mentioned something about how traumatizing it was for a hellhound’s mate to meet a god for the first time while wearing only a bathrobe. Consort Ali was insistent that he wasn’t about to subject you to formal wear on top of that.”
Ewen’s face flushed. “He remembers that? I was hoping he’d forget about that side of things.”
“Consort Ali remembers everything.” The demon’s tone held definite amusement. “The dinner is in an hour at the mansion. Shall I tell Lord Hades you accept?”
Lamont looked at Ewen, who nodded slightly.
“We accept,” Lamont said. “Thank you.”
The demon bowed and vanished.
“So.” Ewen stood, brushing red sand off his jeans. “We’re having dinner with the god of the Underworld and his consort. A casual dinner.”
“Consort Ali’s good people.” Lamont rose as well. “He’s been mated to Lord Hades for a few years now. You have to remember that back before he met Lord Hades, the consort was a shifter living a regular life, just like you did before you met me.”
“A chipmunk shifter married to the god of the Underworld.” Ewen shook his head. “My life has gotten very strange.”
“Says the investigative journalist who’s mated to a hellhound and about to expose a multi-million-dollar defense contractor fraud scheme.”
“Fair point.” Ewen’s fox gleamed in his eyes. “Do we need to bring anything? Wine? Flowers? What’s the protocol for dining with gods?”
“To just be ourselves.” Lamont pulled Ewen close, already reaching for the translocation magic. “And maybe prepare yourself for the consort to ask at least a million questions about how we met. He loves a good romance story.”
“I thought you’d already told him we met because I got kidnapped and you had to rescue me from a basement.”
“He’s going to want to hear all about it from your perspective. It has been said, although I haven’t noticed it myself up until now, that Consort Ali has a very definite interest in all aspects of his mated hellhound’s lives. He worries that hellhounds are useless at making sure our mate’s needs are met. He feels, based on my packmate’s issues with their matings in the past, that we are lousy at dating apparently.”
“He could have a point.” Ewen laughed as Lamont pulled him to his feet. “It’s not like I’ve seen a lot of dating in our relationship either.”
Lamont groaned as he held Ewen close. “Please don’t mention that too loudly in Consort Ali’s presence. We’ve both been really busy. I’ll do better, later, I promise.”
“If an actual god’s consort asks me a direct question…I’m just saying.”
“Oh, boy. I’d better be prepared to be reprimanded.” But Lamont was laughing as he held Ewen close and translocated them to Lord Hades’s mansion.
Chapter Nineteen
They materialized in an opulent foyer that felt warm despite its grand scale. Rich wood paneling covered the walls, and soft lighting came from fixtures fit for a palace. Through an archway, Ewen glimpsed a comfortable living space with overstuffed furniture that didn’t match the formal entrance at all.
“I think it’s this way.” Lamont kept a hand on Ewen’s lower back, guiding him down a long hallway. “Apparently, the rooms here move around within the mansion sometimes, usually dependent on Consort Ali’s needs on the day, but this hallway looks pretty obvious as an invitation to me.”
Ewen knew Lamont had spoken, and he heard the words, but they didn’t make sense.Moving rooms?He was too busy looking at the display cases that lined the hallway. They held what appeared to be ancient Greek pottery. Ewen tried not to stare, but it was really hard not to. The pieces looked as if they belonged in a museum. But then he figured, the pieces probablyweremuseum-quality, considering who owned them.
“Lamont and Ewen.” A cheerful voice called out. “Finally.”
They entered a dining room that completely shattered Ewen’s expectations. In his head, he imagined a hugely long table with a mass of chairs in a very austere room where a non-shifter would have to ask someone to shout so they could be heard from the other end of the table.
Instead, the space they walked into felt and looked like someone’s comfortable kitchen dining area, just scaled up. A large wooden table dominated the center, already set for four. French doors opened onto an actual garden courtyard where red flowers bloomed despite the Underworld’s perpetual twilight.