Page 16 of Rhaz’s Redemption (Shifters of Valo Prime #6)

I resisted the urge to rub my head where I’d been wounded.

“Gil? Aratha’s son? You must help him. Keep him away from Dameron.” My mother insisted.

“I’ll see what I can do. Right now they’ve got me tied up and pinned to the ground,” I lamented.

My mother pursed her lips with disappointment. “I wish I could protect you from him like I did when you were a boy.”

“You gave too much of yourself back then. I’m just glad he can’t hurt you anymore.”

At that moment, Bhaz began to stir. He lifted his head off my shoulder and rubbed his eyes.

“Are we there? Did we make it to the city?”

The young sietling looked up and saw my mother standing next to the golden gate and he immediately straightened.

“Hello, Bhaz. I’ve been waiting for you,” my mother gave the child a warm smile.

“You have?” he seemed hesitant to believe this woman he’d never met, but he also couldn’t take his eyes off her shimmering blue wings.

“Yes, I’ve known about your arrival for some time now. I’ve set up a room for you in my house where you’ll live until it’s your time to go back into the land of the living.”

My mother spared a quick glance at me and there was a suspicious twinkle in her eyes that told me she knew something that I did not.

“Can I go back now?” He asked with hope in his eyes.

“Not yet, but soon,” she held out her hand for him and he squirmed down from my arms to take it.

“I want to see the city!” Bhaz pulled on my mother’s hand and led her to the golden gate, and it did something I’d never seen before. The gate to the city of souls opened.

“Come on, Rhaz!” he waved for me to join him, but I stayed put. It wasn’t my time. I don’t know how I knew that but I did. Every time I visited this place a sense of displacement filled my soul like I wasn’t supposed to be here.

“He can’t come with us,” my mother informed Bhaz.

“But…” he looked up at me and his chin began to quiver. “I don’t want you to go.”

“I wish-” I didn’t even finish my sentence before Bhaz came running back to me and hugged my legs.

“When I go back to the land of the living, I’m going to live with you.” There was a strong determination in his little voice. He meant what he’d said.

“I’d like that,” I patted his head and gave him a warm smile.

Reluctantly, he dropped his arms from around my legs and walked back to my mother.

“Why don’t you wait for me by that fountain while I say goodbye to Rhaz too,” she suggested.

Bhaz’s eyes lit up at the sight of the tall fountain covered in a mosaic of beautiful stones and tile. It shimmered like a rainbow with a light all its own.

“Okay!” He dropped her hand and ran toward the sparkling water and my mother turned her attention back to me.

“He’s my son, isn’t he? My future son.” The familiarity I had with him was too strong to be coincidence, and the way my mother looked at us as if we were already a family confirmed what I’d already been feeling.

“Yes.” A wide smile spread across her face. “When his time comes to return to the land of the living, his soul will choose to be with you. But until that time he’ll live with me along with the grandparents he met during his most recent lifetime.”

Bhaz . His name made me think of how Tarak and Gab-bae combined their names to make Tabby. Those brown eyes… I’d seen them before…

“Ask your question, son, and do not be afraid of the answer.” My mother encouraged.

“Is he the son of Beatrice as well? Is he our son?”

“Yes.”

Her answer shook me to my core. I’d been so adamant about rejecting any notion of having a family, and now here I was looking at the son I’d have with the female I cared most about in the entire universe. I’d been such a fool.

“Will I mistreat him like Dameron mistreated me?”

My mother took my hand and assured me, “that’s entirely up to you, but I think you’ve figured out the truth. You are not like Dameron. The path before you is much different than his, and much brighter.”

“Is he destined to repeat this fate? Will he die young in his next lifetime?”

“It was his destiny to die young in the lifetime he just lived. How long he’ll live with you and Beatrice is unknown even to me.”

I nodded my head in understanding. Now that my mother had crossed over to the other side, she had much knowledge and wisdom that I did not, but even her special knowledge extended only so far.

My mother pulled me in for a hug and confessed, “I wish I could tell you more, but that is all I know.”

“My time is running out isn’t it?” She always hugged me right before I was forced to leave.

“Yes, I wish I could go with you, but it’s not my time yet.”

“I love you, mom,” I whispered as I held back my tears. These goodbyes never got any easier.

“I love you too.”

Her voice was the last thing I heard as my soul was yanked from the realm of the dead back to the land of the living. There was complete darkness and then there was pain, so much pain.

A groan ripped from my throat as I regained consciousness. Everything hurt. Every muscle, every ligament, every inch of me was racked with pain.

“See, what did I tell you? He’s impossible to kill, but your act of bravery has won me over.

I’ll let you fight with my hunters when the other dekes comes.

You will fight to free the females they’ve trapped and when they see you and all your strength there will surely be one who will want to lay with you. ”

“I want a female to love and protect, not one just for mating.” Gil huffed. He’d returned to his natural state. He still had four arms, but he was a similar height to Drovo and had a strong build like Tarak.

“Sure, whatever pleases you.” Dameron waved his comment away.

“I told them not to come,” I said. “They won’t waste their time saving me.”

I prayed that I was wrong. I didn’t want to be trapped here. I wanted to get back to Beatrice. I wanted to warn Tarak that my sire had something planned.

“They might not come to save you, but they’ll come to steal back the females I plan to save from their barbaric ways,” my sire purred knowing his words would strike me right through the heart.

“Stay away from them! Don’t go near our mountain!” I growled.

I wouldn’t let him touch Beatrice. It would be over my dead body that he’d even get close to her and I was a hard person to kill.

“Your mountain? You own nothing,” he snarled with disgust. “You all are monsters, unworthy of the air you breathe.”

“You, go back into the forest and listen for my signal,” he pointed to Gil. “I’ll call for you when I need you.”

The muscular hunter looked troubled but he did as Dameron commanded and walked into the dense forest until he couldn’t be seen through the trees.

“I need you on your feet,” my sire untied the ropes holding my ankles together and helped me up.

“What do you plan to do with me?” I asked.

“I plan to use you as bait.” His smug expression made my heart sink. He’d thought of everything and there was very little I could do to stop him.