As Myron moved the clothes boxes off the bed Chara eyed it then the sofa. He followed her gaze and felt something inside him sink. The whole time he'd been trying to politely get Cadmus to leave him alone, he'd been imagining her in his arms curled up in his bed. Not even sex with her, just her in his arms sleeping peacefully. The idea made his heart swell and a lump form in his chest. She always seemed so on edge and ready to fight, he longed to see her at ease, her beautiful face peaceful, not like a deer but like a woman.

"I can sleep in the forge." He said quietly as she eyed the bed she was sitting on again.

"Why?" She looked up at him, her face a mask he couldn't read.

"You didn't look comfortable and were looking at the sofa." She flushed slightly and hugged herself.

"I... It's been a long time since I slept in a real bed, it felt good earlier." He frowned a little."So you considered the sofa?"

"No. Well yes..." She looked away from him and blushed.

"I haven't slept with anyone since my sisters all those centuries ago. I've never slept with a man." His eyes widened a little.

"I wasn't expecting sex, Chara." She looked up at him, shame and sadness on her face.

"If you want sex you can have it. I am not a virgin. The demon made me have it many times."

He drew closer to her and kneeling took her hand in his.

"Made you? I would never make you, Chara."

She looked away from him, her face turning a deep scarlet.

"It's fine. I will be still and quiet if you want it."

"Still and quiet?" Myron was horrified, what had she been through that she was offering that to him but was worried about actually sleeping with him. He pulled her into his arms and cradled her against him, his emotions churning.

"Chara, no. That's not how it should be. I never want you to lay still and quiet. Hasn't anyone ever made sure you enjoy it?" Her voice was muffled against his chest.

"The demon was the only one to ever take sex from me."

"Take?" He kissed the top of her head and held her closer. "Chara I will never make you have sex with me or just take it. If we ever make love it will be because you want me. Chara, please sleep with me tonight, safely in my arms where no one can ever hurt you." He felt a small shudder run through her body, was she fighting back tears? Revulsion? Was he asking too much of her too soon? He'd searched and waited so long for her, but that didn't mean she'd given him a single thought since they first saw each other. Although she'd said she had.

He felt his heart break a little as she pulled out of his arms then his jaw dropped as she balanced on her leg and unbuttoned her trousers. They slide off her hips to the floor, then she started to unbutton her blouse.

"Just sleep? No sex? And I can keep the sock on?" He couldn't stop the belly laugh that escaped his lips. There he was worried she didn't want him and she just wanted to keep her sock on. She frowned at him in confusion and stopped undoing her buttons.

"What?"

"I'm sorry Chara. It's just...." He trailed off as he caught sight of a huge scar running between her breasts. "You can wear socks whenever you want my love."

"Why are socks funny? I never had any before, it's so warm and comfortable. I really like socks." She was so unusual, he'd spent fortunes on expensive clothes and she was just interested in the basic thick woollen sock.

"Then I shall buy you a million socks,'' he said, scooping her up in his arms and placing her gently on the bed. She finished unbuttoning her shirt, pulled it off her arms and dropped it off the edge of the bed.

He couldn't stop his eyes roaming over her body. She was toned and muscular with honey-coloured skin and small firm breasts. He couldn't help but notice how many scars marred her beautiful skin. A part of him wanted to dip his head and start kissing each of them. She rolled onto her side and pulled her legs up, curling into a defensive ball. He was about to comment when he saw a huge tattoo of a stag that covered her back. He reached out and started to trace the lines with his fingertips.

"It's beautiful work."

"Artemis gave it to me, she had the same image on her arm. She gave us all the same tattoo. Kaia thinks it's our father."

"Your father?"

"The stag Artemis fell in love with."

"She fell in love with a stag? The Virgin Goddess?"

"Yes, our father." Her words echoed around his head until something clicked inside him.

"Chara? Is Artemis your mother?"

"Kaia says so. She sacrificed herself to save Kaia and her daughter." Myron froze and pulled his hand back.

"You're a demigod? The child of the virgin goddess?" His mind raced. Why would Zeus have killed the hinds if they were his grandchildren? Why was their lineage kept so quiet? The gods never hid their children. Not even the ones they abandoned. Would the fates really have fated him to be with a demigod?

"I guess I am. I only found out yesterday, although it was always there on the edges of my thoughts, something about the goddess felt warm and safe. Then you found me. It's been a lot to take in." Myron shifted closer to her, his huge horse's body taking up much of the bed as he pulled her against his human torso and buried his face in her shoulder-length golden brown hair as he pulled the comforter up over them.

"I'm sorry Chara. Here I am firing questions at you while you are still getting used to everything." She shrugged and yawned, enjoying the feel of his warm skin against hers more than she believed she ever would have believed she would.

"I have many questions myself. But they will keep."

It didn't take long for her breathing to take on the slow peaceful rhythm of sleep. He found sleep much harder to come by, her warm slightly gingery scent filled his nostrils while her pert bottom pressed into him where his human torso met his horse body. His mind wandered over everything that had happened. After so many years of not knowing who she was but being haunted by her face, she was curled up asleep in his bed, in his arms. She wasn't an unknown anymore, his beautiful vision wasn't just Chara the protector herself, a name tort to all in the Olympian army as someone to aspire to. As if finding out she was the most famous bodyguard in the world wasn't enough she was a demigod. The daughter of the supposed virgin huntress herself.

He let his fingertips stroke the skin of her belly as he revelled in the scent and feel of her so close to him. Would she want to join the Olympian Army? He had been semi-retired from it for a few centuries now only training cadets two or three times a week. She had always been considered a soldier since Zeus himself had appointed her to protect the Oracle.

As sleep finally started to come to him, his mind wandered to seeing her in Gabriel's garden cradling the infant in her arms. Would they have a child one day? He wondered if it would be a centaur or a hind as his mind finally succumbed to sleep with images of her belly swollen with his child fulling his dreams.