Page 25 of The Night Rising
Raika would die before we got married and had kids.
I rubbed my chest. This hurt more than I thought it could.
“Hey, man, what’s wrong?” Dom entered the office. I had been so distraught, I hadn’t even heard him approaching. He rounded the desk and pressed a hand to my back. “Shane, you’re scaring me.”
I took a deep breath and waved him away. “I’m fine.” I shook my head. “I take that back. I’m not fine.”
He retreated a step and looked at me. “What is it?”
“Remember Raika is sick?”
He nodded.
“It’s worse than that. She’s dying.”
He froze. I told him all we knew so far. Killian arrived in the middle of my tale, but remained quiet as a statue along the wall beside the door, listening. He knew all of this already.
“Shit, man, I’m sorry.” Dom shook his head. “I’m sure that with everyone working together, we’ll find a solution. Let me know if you want help with your research. Things have been slow over here.”
“I appreciate that.” I rolled my shoulders and changed gears. “All right, but I didn’t ask you two here to talk about that. I want to talk about a second beta and new council members. And also about Tyren.”
“Tyren?” Killian frowned. “What did he do?”
“Nothing, but I realized that if Raika dies—” My voice broke. I cleared my throat. “I won’t have any heirs. I know Tyren is young, but he’s the next alpha. We need to start training him for real and tell him everything we know. He should even start participating in these meetings.”
“Does he know about Raika?” Dom asked.
“Raika said we had to prepare the kids, but knowing her, she lost the nerve and hasn't told them yet. But she will, and when she does, we take Tyren on. He’ll be my second beta until he becomes alpha.”
Dom and Killian nodded.
“What about the council members?” Killian asked.
“We need more, and I’ve been thinking about a few names. Lydia, for one, and Jones.” Both older wolves who had been in the pack for a long time. “And maybe Lucille. It might be good to have another younger perspective in the group. Any objections?” Both of them shook their heads. “Good, then that’s settled. Moving on to—”
“Actually, I have news,” Killian said, his tone grim.
Oh, this couldn’t be good. “What?”
“I was with Lord Drake this morning when a report came from the demon hunters. Apparently, Paimon found a mage. From what we know, he was the only one who had a key that opened a portal to another realm.”
I shook my head. “Wait … a mage? Portal? Another realm?” I had heard of portals and different realms before, but mages? That was new.
“What realm?” Dom asked.
“We don’t know for sure,” Killian said. “There are an infinite number of realms. No one knows them all.”
My brow furrowed. “So he went to this supernatural to get the key to the portal. This can’t be good.”
“Has he done anything with it?” Dom asked.
“We don’t know,” Killian said. “The demon hunters are trying to find out more, but right now they believe Paimon is using this realm to hide.”
“Is this key like the fae medallion that can open a portal anywhere, or like the underworld gates, in specific places?” I asked.
“We don’t know.” Killian seemed as frustrated as I was. “Like I said, the demon hunters are doing all they can to find out that too. I’m sure they will share the information with us once they have it.”
“But if Paimon is hiding in another realm, then they will never find him. He’ll find us. He’ll open a portal right on top of our heads and attack when we least expect it.”