Page 81 of The Alpha's Mates

I blinked, looking around as he disappeared. My jaw was hanging open, and I was pretty sure it had been the whole time. Soren nudged me and I managed to shut it with an audible click.

"If you do this, I'm going to make you regret it!"

We all looked over, and there was Arune, chest heaving, gown torn, clay dripping all over her, courtesy of George.

Lyas rolled her eyes. "I regret everything about you, Sister. You always were a devious little bitch. I don't know why I thought anything had changed."

Arune's eyes widened and then narrowed. "You're not going to get away with this!"

Lyas laughed again, the sound like tinkling bells. "I think I already have." With that, she lifted her hand and spoke into her fist, then opened it.

We all had to shield our eyes from the blinding light that lit up the beach next to the Silvest Pack's village. A gasp came from below me and my heart froze mid beat in my chest. Glancing down, I nearly broke Reese in two when I saw her eyes open, staring up at me. Her chest was rising and falling with her breaths. Her mind was once again within ours and I felt herconfusion. Her soul was back, melded into the tapestry of ours and we were whole once more.

Soren's arm tightened around me in a side hug as he watched her expression change from fear to wonder. She was remembering everything. Her battle. The loss. The pain of drowning. And she was remembering us. Our bond had been broken, but it was back now, stronger than ever before. We went through it all with her.

She didn't speak, but our bond told us everything we needed to know. She loved us and she wasn't going anywhere. Not without us.

"Welcome home."

Reese looked over and her eyes widened. "Lyas, my Goddess." She bowed her head, though she didn't try to pry herself from my arms. It was a good thing because I wasn't letting her go.

"You're too weak to take me on," Arune screeched, reminding us of her presence once again. She didn’t like being ignored.

"Let me up," Reese told me, and as one unit the four of us rose. She faced Arune. "We're not too weak."

Arune scoffed. "Gods can't kill other Gods, Little Wolf. What makes you think you can do anything to me?"

The smile that spread over Reese's face was...disconcerting. "I just spent what felt like a lifetime with Shroul. Did you know he loves to play Kroust?"

Arune's face paled.

"It's always been his favorite game," Lyas answered since Arune stayed silent. "Though I've long suspected he cheats."

"Oh, he absolutely does," Reese said with a dark laugh, "but not as well as I do. I was able to wrest all sorts of information out of him while we waited together."

"Waited?" Soren asked.

"A section of Shroul's domain acts as limbo," Lyas replied. "Anyone who hasn't been placed with him, or Drennen, waits there until their end is revealed to them."

"Huh," Calder said. "I would have thought that would be one of Drennen's duties."

"Father could never give up a soul," Lyas said with a soft smile. "He would keep them all, despite the consequences. Uncle is much easier to convince to release a soul to where they're meant to go."

"It turns out," Reese continued, "that all manner of Gods and Goddesses visit Shroul there. I know more than you think." She lifted a hollowed out reed to her lips and blew into the end of it.

The shock on Arune's face was so fucking satisfying. We'd been running from her for days. She'd been the start of all of this, though it sounded like Fate had something to do with it all as well. My head was spinning thanks to the lack of details though, so I might have gotten some of that wrong.

A black stain began to spread over Arune's skin where the dart had punctured. A scream shook the very air around us. "This isn't over!" But she didn't hang around to back up her threat. Much like Shroul before her, she was there, then she'd just disappeared without a trace.

"No!" Soren roared. "We have to go after her." He halted as Reese put a hand on his shoulder.

"That gives us some time. Enough that Lyas can regain her strength, and us too, but she’s right… This isn’t over."

"Whatever that was, won't kill her?" I asked.

"Just incapacitate her for a while," Reese confirmed.

"She won't stop," Lyas told us. "She'll keep coming until one of us is dead."