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“See you when we see you, I guess,” I said with a shrug, not sure what else to say to two men I barely knew, but owed so much to. They also felt a lot like family. And I was certainly lacking in the family department.

With their hands in their pockets and hope in their eyes, they watched us turn around and head toward the mouth of the passageway. My mates sandwiched me between them in our queue, but when I glanced over my shoulder before we took the first corner, Shoy and Kenvin were still there, behind Zandren. I offered them each one more wave, then followed Drak around the corner.

We were finally going home.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Zandren

I knew Omaera had developed a fondness of sorts for Hell—or at least for a few demons she met while here—but I was itching to get the fuck out of the place. This was the longest I’d ever gone without shifting, and the bear inside of me itched and growled to get out. But I knew that shifting in such a hot place would not be wise. I was already uncomfortable, but in my bear form, with all the fur and insulation, I would be the most miserable beast alive. My mate didn’t need that stress added to her plate.

Would I stay in Hell longer if I had to? Of course I would. I would do anything for Omaera, but I was also allowed to be relieved that we were finally leaving this godforsaken place in our rearview mirror. I planned to smash the shit out of that mirror when we got through the portal. If I could scrub the memory of our time in Hell from my mind, I would. Maybe Omaera could go in with her demon powers and just gently scoop that part out? It was worth a try.

I was in the back of our four-person convoy. Maxar led the way through the mountain passageway, with the dumbass vampire behind him, Omaera in the middle, then me taking up the back. I had everyone’s six. But honestly, if push came to shove, they all knew that the only person that mattered was Omaera.I’d let the other two become bisibra food while whisking my mate off to safety.

She seemed pretty capable of taking care of herself though. She did manage to save the weak little vampire from the bisibra, after all.

Even though it’d been a little over a week since we made this trek through the mountain in the opposite direction, it felt a hell of a lot longer going in reverse. If I was an annoying dick like the mage, I would ask if we were there yet. But I wasn’t. So I kept my mouth shut and just maintained pace with the rest of them, keeping my ears and nose tuned into what was behind me. I also glanced over my shoulder every thirty seconds or so.

It was light enough that unlike last time, we didn’t need any of the little torches that the mage conjured for us. And now, Omaera could make her own fire. The mage certainly had his uses, but he could also be annoying as fuck. I was still having a hard time reconciling the fact that he was going to be part of my life for eternity. He just never shut up.

Maybe I was overthinking things, but after he saved me out in the desert after the bisibra got me, not to mention our time together with Omaera in the training room, Ididfeel a very small—and I mean microscopic—amount of fondness for Maxar. He was proving to be useful, and seriously committed to Omaera. It just drove me crazy that he never took anything seriously.

Tickling my nuts? Fuck right off.

Omaera glanced at me over her shoulder. “How are you doing, Pooh Bear?” Her smile dissolved all the remaining bits of annoyance from my body, replacing it with nothing but an overwhelming love for this gorgeous creature. She was all mine—sort of—and I’d never cease to be amazed by that.

“Hanging in there,” I said with a smile before pulling on the top handle of her backpack, so she was forced to stop. Then I planted a big, smacking kiss on her mouth.

She was breathless when I released her, her eyes full of stars. “Well then,” she said with a light giggle.

“Nearly there,” Maxar said from the front.

Thank fuck.

It was starting to feel like a goddamned maze, and we were just going infucking circles.

I kept pace with them, and within a few minutes we were stepping out of the passageway and back into the endless red desert of despair with the sun rising big, orange, and obnoxious in the east just above the horizon.

“How do we even begin to look for the portal?” I asked. “At least on Earth it was between two rocks. There aren’t any rocks out there big enough. It’s a fucking wasteland of nothing.” I waved my hand at the empty scene before us. “Nothing can survive out there.”

“The portal will present itself when we’re close enough,Pooh Bear,” Maxar said, flashing me a cocky smile.

“Nobody calls me that but Omaera,” I warned with a deep, throaty growl.

Maxar merely smirked, hiked his backpack onto his shoulders, then set off in a straight line out into the vast nothingness.

I’d never felt so freaking hopeless as we wandered like idiots around that sterile land, searching for … what? What exactly were we supposed to see? Were two stones going to just magically appear? It was so flat, I could see for miles in every direction, and there were definitely no stones, boulders, trees, or mounds in which a portal could hide behind. We were sitting ducks for whatever predator flew over and had a rumbling belly.

Every whistle of the wind had me pausing and my asshole clenching up tight. The breeze sounded oddly similar to a bisibra screech. Or was my mind just playing tricks on me?

I honestly didn’t know how long we wandered for. But the sun was directly overhead now, and we had all sweat through our clothing and were down to just underwear, leaving drips and drops of sweat on the cracked muddy ground that sizzled when they landed, only to evaporate in seconds. We stopped for several water breaks and were already running low. At this rate, we’d be dead by morning from dehydration if a bisibra didn’t get us first.

Fear and hopelessness made pounding steps through me. Or maybe that was just the headache forming in my forehead. I was growing delirious from the heat and every time I looked up, spots would cloud my vision and things would get blurry.

“Whoa, big guy,” Maxar said when I swayed and wobbled, my legs becoming Jell-O. He looped an arm under me to support my weight.

“Get off me,” I grunted, trying to shove him away. But I was too weak.