Page 22

TWENTY-TWO

Fiona

R eed apologized profusely, but as soon as we dropped my suitcase in his room and I washed my face, he needed to go check in with his Alpha. I wanted to come along, so relieved he was up and about, back to his usual strong, dominant self, instead of the pale, bruised shadow of a man I’d seen in that bed after our accident.

I wasn’t sure that I’d completely dealt with my shame at how I’d hurt him, but when he told me he wanted me to stay, that he would still follow me if I left… I believed him.

Deep down, I didn’t want to leave. I was just so horrified at what I’d done, I felt like I had no other option. How could he possibly still want me—and whatever evil magic lived inside me—as his mate?

But when he kissed me, held me, spoke to me like that… it was impossible to deny him. That same part of me underneath, the wilder, freer part—it craved him in the same way his wolf craved me.

I had to hope that with his help, I’d learn to control my magic, like he and his pack mates had their wolves.

Terrifying? Yes. But now that I knew it was there, was there any other option?

Everyone cheered when we walked into the Alpha’s bedroom, but still, I hung back, letting them surround Reed and welcome him back to the land of the living. They were his pack, and I wasn’t as certain as he was that I’d be accepted back. I’d pretty much hidden in Olivia’s rooms ever since getting cleared by Brielle, except for sneaking into his sick room at night, holding his hand until dawn.

But Olivia’s eyes shone brightly as she crossed the space to wrap me up in her arms and rock back and forth like I’d just given her the best birthday present of her life. She was such a kind, caring woman. I hugged her back, tears once again stinging my eyes. But when the other pack females—Brielle, Shay, Leigh, and even Elodie, the maiden—came to circle me and offer hugs and words of welcome, the tears started to come more quickly.

“Oh Goddess, save me from hormonal females.” Galyna grabbed a tissue box and handed it to me as she offered me a back slap of welcome. She was less touchy-feely than the others but still looked bemused instead of pissed-off like the first time she’d seen me. It was progress.

“Shut up. Sometimes girls cry,” Leigh snapped, stealing the tissue box and blotting her own misty eyes, making me laugh in the process.

“You’re pregnant, it happens,” Brielle said with a little chuckle.

“I didn’t think you would all want me back.” I bit my lower lip, feeling stupid for blurting it out to these women I barely knew and had been avoiding. But it was true, and honesty was a core tenet of who I was as a person.

Or, well, a magical, not-quite-human person.

Leigh was the one to roll her eyes and respond. “Of course we want you back. That’s what being pack is all about. We all make mistakes, but we still love and support each other. You’re not getting rid of us that easy.”

I smiled at that, lost for words.

Reed was right. They didn’t want to boot me, even though I’d messed up. I glanced over at where he stood, surrounded by the males in a very similar circle. And for a moment, I just thought about how freaking amazed I was that these people were all in my life. They could have treated me like an outsider, but instead, they took me in and treated me like family.

Certainly, better than my own family ever had. The scars of my great-grandmother’s institutionalization ran deep, and my “oddities” were shameful, something to keep hidden.

To find people who accepted me like this, completely and without reservation? I was a lucky, lucky girl.

I still had reservations, though, about staying with the pack. The beastly magic that lurked inside me was destructive. I could tear them apart, if I wasn’t careful. I didn’t want that, but when that power had come out?

The memory was still fresh, the glee, the joy I’d felt at causing such a horrific storm. I shuddered at the vivid sensations, trying to keep a smile pasted on that now felt hollow.

I was with the pack, but I was by no means one of the pack. And I couldn’t let myself forget it.

After the initial welcomes concluded, everyone settled in around the room. Reed surprised me when he sat down on the floor, his back to the wall, and pulled me down across his lap.

“I can sit next to you,” I whispered.

He growled low in his throat, narrowing his eyes at me. “I haven’t touched you in a week, and you want to deny me your touch now?”

“Well, no, I don’t want to deny you anything, but your entire pack is in here,” I whispered back, cheeks heating as one or two of them glanced our way, then pointedly averted their eyes. Olivia had told me that wolves had freaky-good hearing, meaning our private conversation was anything but.

“And they know how I feel about you and what it’s like to have a new mate bond. Touch soothes wolves. It doesn’t have to be awkward, and I promise you they don’t care. Look around. See how close they all are?” He discreetly pointed to Brielle and Kane, and yes, they were snuggled up close, despite the crowd. I let myself trace the rest of the group, and every mated couple was touching in some way. Shay and Dirge were the most reserved, his arm around her waist as they stood together, her back to his chest.

I could keep standing on human propriety, or I could accept that none of us were human and their culture was different. I leaned back into his grip, exhaling as I let him tuck me under his chin.

When in Rome, put on the damn toga.

A second later, he started to do that rumbling thing in his chest, and I melted a little more.

Good decision.

“So, fill me in on what I missed while I was out,” Reed said, directing the question to Kane and the attention away from us, which I appreciated.

Kane ran his hands through his hair, and as I studied him, I could see the marks of exhaustion. Not just in his face, but in his posture too.

“Brielle’s powers, now that they’re free, are significantly stronger than before. That’s pretty much what we expected. What we didn’t expect was that they’d continue to be so erratic.”

His expression was grim in a way that made me uneasy. Brielle was one of the sweetest people I’d ever met, and I had no doubt she was an asset to the wolf community. The fact that they wanted to shun her, hurt her because of who she was, was completely unfair.

I tried not to think too hard about what the mark on my hand meant for my future child. I’d learned a bit more about what was going on with the pack in the week since Reed had been knocked out. Olivia had been happy to answer all my questions, at night before she fell asleep and I snuck away to sit with Reed.

She was someone I could easily see myself becoming best friends with. We just… clicked. But what she’d explained about the omega seal on my palm and the Omega Defense League? It was enough to keep me on birth control permanently.

The idea of bringing a beautiful, perfect baby into this world and having the ODL rip her out of my arms?

Fuck no. Fuck no.

But as I looked around at this pack, this strong group of wolves, I had hope that they—no, as Reed’s mate, I was part of this problem now too. That we would fix it. Protect our daughters, change the hateful laws.

Kane soldiered on with the bad news. “Her powers surge, then plummet, then surge again. Each surge seems to batter the priestess’s hold on the barrier magic that protects her—all of us—in the enclave. Keeping you two on track with your healing actually helped, because when they started to surge, she’d pour that extra power into healing one of you. But now, with nowhere for that extra energy to go…”

“I guess that explains the big crack in the middle of the barrier.” I said it offhand, thinking out loud.

But Kane’s eyes sharpened on me. “What do you mean?”

“Umm…” His attention was unnerving, the glow of his eyes and the dominance he wielded not hitting me quite the same as Reed’s warm, endearing power signature. “The last time I was outside, there was a big crack about a third of the way across the top of the barrier. I assumed you all knew—that the priestesses would have told you?”

He shook his head, frowning with worry as he looked at Gael.

“That’s more serious than we thought, though it does explain what I need to tell you next.” He grimaced apologetically. “The priestesses think we need to find something called the omega stone. It hasn’t been seen for centuries, since before the omega purge.”

“So not at all a challenge to locate. We’ll just hit up the local superstore, pick up one handy-dandy omega stone, and all our problems will be solved,” Leigh said with an eye roll.

“Okay but what is a rock going to do about Brielle’s powers being erratic?” Reed asked, and I gripped his hand more tightly.

“The omega stone isn’t an ordinary rock,” Galyna interjected, already shaking her head. “It’s a thing of legend. I’m frankly surprised the priestesses think you’ll be able to find it.”

Elodie nodded her agreement, wearing a bewildered expression. “Yeah, it’s half fairy tale at this point.”

“If it’s a fairy tale, why haven’t any of us ever heard of it?” Brielle asked. “It’s never mentioned when people talk about the omega wars.”

There was a long pause while Galyna and Elodie stared at each other. Galyna’s expression was grim when she finally looked away and spoke again. “Some fairy tales don’t have happy endings. They aren’t the kind meant to be told.”

“Okay, if you could cut the cryptic and give us some hard facts here, I’d really appreciate it.” Leigh looked pissed. “I’m sick to death of being constantly in the dark and twelve steps behind. We need to know what the heck we’re dealing with, y’all, if we’ve got a chance of standing up to the ODL. My baby’s life is on the line, and I’m ready to kick ass and take no prisoners.”

There was a chorus of agreement around the room, and I was surprised when Reed tightened his grip around my waist and chimed in with a “Hear, hear.” His breath ruffled my hair, and suddenly, I understood why the touch was so important for this conversation. It was visceral comfort, reassurance that no matter how bad things seemed, we weren’t alone.

Galyna ran a hand over her close-cropped hair, the gesture very similar to her brother’s favorite move. “We don’t know everything either. I’m not sure anyone still alive does, but we know some. You should tell it, El. I’m not as good a speaker as you are.” Galyna waved brusquely for Elodie to take over.

“The omega stone is beautiful, a perfectly smooth chunk of celestite the size of an ostrich egg. But beyond the fact that it’s a precious gemstone, it’s somehow bonded to the land. Pack Caelestis is actually named after the stone, though most of the members nowadays would be horrified to know it.”

I turned to look at Reed, and he must have read the question in my eyes because he whispered in my ear. “Pack Caelestis was Kane’s father’s pack, which he’s now inherited. It’s the oldest, strongest pack in the world because their Alpha line is unbroken and has been for generations.”

I nodded, then turned back around to listen to Elodie’s tale.

“The stone was found by an alpha-omega pair centuries ago. Nobody knows where it came from or how it got perfectly polished. All they knew was that the omega was drawn to it, and it grounded her gift. But in addition to helping her control her powers, the stone also amplified them. When in possession of the stone, a mated alpha-omega pair can extend their omega’s gift to all wolf packs. So, in this case, Brielle’s fertility gift, if we find the stone, could extend to every wolf shifter in the world.”

“Holy shit,” Leigh swore, eyes wide as she turned to look at Brielle. “Do you know what that could do for the packs? We’ve been in decline for ages . If all our women stopped dying in childbirth… Y’all, that’s huge .”

“More than that”—Reed interrupted, an excited edge to his voice—“if we could tell the other alphas that we’re on a mission to eradicate the deaths of their mates, to save their children and restore our numbers, that is something we can rally behind as a species. That is a big enough carrot to get even the stubbornest of alphas to rally behind us against the ODL.”

Kane nodded gravely, gesturing for Elodie to continue.

“The problem is, while it could and would amplify Brielle’s amazing gifts, it also amplified Narcissa’s.”

Heavy silence fell over the room, and once again, I was confused. “Who’s Narcissa? I thought Brielle was the only living omega?”

Elodie winced. “Brielle is now . Narcissa is the one who caused the omega wars, which led to the purge. She was the only omega to ever have the gift of war, and she used it. She picked the most powerful warmongering alpha she could find, Bran Cadogan, and together, they tried to dominate the supernatural world. Pixies were nearly wiped out, Witches were exposed to humans, hanged and burned at stakes, and vampires were sent into hiding to avoid eradication. The omega stone was deemed too dangerous. If she could do that much damage with her own influence, what could she do with the stone? The IGC wasn’t formed yet, but several species worked together to steal the stone from Pack Caelestis, whose omegas had held it safely for centuries. It hasn’t been seen since, and that was in the 1600s during the war.”

Everyone was silent for a beat as we collectively processed the bad news.

“So, it’s hopeless, then? We’re sitting ducks with a failing barrier, we need a stone that nobody’s seen for centuries to stop the damage, and we have no way to unite the packs against the people who want to hunt us down and kill us?” Shay’s quiet question broke the desolate silence.

“Don’t forget the traitors among our own kind who are following Petró Varga in his witch hunt and setting fire to Pack Caelestis’s castle,” Gael added bitterly. “They’ll hunt us down like dogs if we give them a chance.”

“Good thing we don’t intend to do that.”

My head jerked up in surprise to see one of the priestesses standing in the doorway with the bearing of a queen, hands on hips and chin high. “So, have you come to a decision? Will your pack make the sacrifice to find the omega stone?”

“We would gladly undertake this mission if we knew where to look, Lisanne.” The usually quiet Dirge spoke up, eyes glowing with his wolf.

Lisanne grinned, showing off straight white teeth and, to my surprise, elongated wolfish canines studded with diamonds, as if they were always shifted. “Well, you’re in luck, because I’m older than dirt, and I know who has it.”