Page 191 of Their Lethal Pet

“Then I suppose I’ll stay here to greet the new arrival,” Helia replies.

I’m about to say that I’ll check in with Ares on our way back—since we’ll be heading through the dungeon again—when I feel the arrival of another Mythos Fae.

Helia must sense it as well because her eyebrow wings upward again. “That was quick.”

Yes,I think, my eyes narrowing.Too quick.

Reaper stiffens beside me, suddenly on alert. Likely because he can sense my mounting unease.

I know that aura. I turn to head inside, the presence near my Omega.

But Alina doesn’t appear to be in any distress.

Actually, she seems… calm.Toocalm.

Alina?I breathe into her mind.

I’m fine,she promises me.

Still, I can’t help taking on my Alpha form as I prowl toward her. My wings, both of which are fully functional again, take on an ethereal state, similar to when I first arrived in this realm. Usually, I prefer to let them free—which requires losing my shirt. But something about this aura has me feeling… less on edge. Moresoothed.

There’s only one being in the world who has ever made me feel that way.

“Mother,” I breathe as I round the corner and see her standing beside my mate.

It’s not her soul reincarnated, but her.Rhea. The Omega Goddess who birthed me and Hades.

She turns toward me, her long brown hair braided with golden ribbons down her back. “My son,” she says, tears pricking her eyes. “You found them. You found the Omegas.”

I rush forward to pull her into a hug, my arms shaking as I feel her embrace me in kind.

She’s alive. My mother’s alive.

Alina’s emotions trickle into me, her heart exploding at the sight of me seeing my mother for the first time in over two thousand years. She can feel what I’m feeling and hear what I’m thinking. Just as I know she can see the memories in my mind, including the day I lost my mother.

Despair unlike anything I’ve ever felt before plundered my soul. It was a sensation I never wanted to experience again.

Yet I did.

Last night—since it’s nearly morning now—when I thought I lost my mate.

But not only is Alina okay, my mother is, too. “Where have you been?”

“Hiding,” she whispers. “Waiting.”

“Why?” I ask, flabbergasted. “Why didn’t you come to us? Why didn’t youtellus?”

“I tried,” she replies. “But this dimension is so different from our own. And I couldn’t risk returning without Demeter noticing. So I stayed, hid, and did my best to guard them all in my own way.”

“So you’ve been here,” I realize. “In this realm.”

She tilts her head back and forth. “Sort of. I’ve been… all over.” It’s a cryptic response. “But I felt your brother recently, and I knew either he or you would come. And now that you have, the true hunt can begin.”

“What?”

“There are so many more Omegas here,” she tells me. “Thousands of them, my son.” She turns then, her eyes landing on someone behind me. “Hello, Queen Helia.”

“Rhea,” she returns, a note of familiarity in her tone. “I should have known you had something to do with this.”