CHAPTER FIFTEEN #2
“Mori,” Annila’s soft voice broke free from the fog. She laid pinned to the ground with her own sword. Sharon dead next to her. My sire didn’t let go of me until Ivan gave the shebear several hard kicks to ensure she was dead.
I walked, stumbling over rocks and my own feet to collapse on my knees next to my friend.
I thought about how angry I was that I wasn’t hired to wake her up.
About how she nearly blew me up trying to kill Sharon.
I held her bloody hand to my chest and smoothed her thick hair away from her face.
She’d survived cancer and everything else only to die on this crappy, little island so far from her home and her family.
Poor, poor Annila. Why did Sharon have to fuck up so many lives?
Why did Annila have to bring a draconic weapon to kill a shebear?
It didn’t matter because my sire took one look at the prone dragoness and shook his head. Annila wasn’t going to make it.
“Get my egg to Nic. Tell him I love him. Make sure he knows that she won’t come bothering him again,” she said, staring into the void, a stream of blood running from both corners of her mouth.
“My egg, Mori. You take it.” The last sentence came from behind me.
I stood on legs that forgot their elven heritage and shook like leaves.
Annila was beautiful in a light blue gown, and she spun in circles as if to show it off.
I wondered when in her long life she’d worn it but there were more pressing matters to discuss as two doors appeared on the island.
Sharon was greeted by an angry woman I once saw burst into Dern’s kitchen. The woman dragged Sharon through with a strength the newly dead shebear couldn’t resist.
When words failed me with Annila, it was my sire who stepped forward and kissed her forehead. She smiled at him and some of the weight of life disappeared from her dead face.
“I’ll make sure the egg gets to Nic,” my sire whispered to her and she shook her head.
“Let Mori take it. He needs a job or else he’ll sit around and dwell on all of this. He’s like you that way. He needs a job and this is an important one.”
“Thank you for tipping me off when you heard about where she might be. This was worth it. All of it,” she said, looking down at her corpse.
“My hatchling won’t remember me, but they’ll grow up without worrying that their crazy--- without worrying about that bitch trying to sacrifice them so she can eat their magic. ”
“Colton!” Dad called and I thought for the first time in my life my sire was going to send me away for being an omega.
“Yeah? He’s stable! We have him in the boat!” Colton called back.
“Come bring Mori some water. He needs to go with you. Take him to Bane too. Make sure he let’s Bane look at him,” he said and then looked at me.
“I have her. I’m going to hang back and talk to her about some final arrangements.
Then I’ll meet up with you all. You need to stay with Vallis.
See this through until the end. Be there when Lero shows up.
Vallis is alive but they’re going to need support. ”
I nodded and took the water bottle my brother opened and offered to me. I gulped it down, only then realizing how thirsty I was.
“Nic will want a funeral and…” I said, staring at both corpses. I didn’t know what to do about Sharon. We gave Venal a funeral but that was because he was Andy’s dad.
“Leave it to me, son,” Dad said. “I know you guys are more than grown up now but I’ve cleaned up worse. Othoni and your carrier are already en route to Heartville. Go with them. Keep Vallis company. Be the level head because he’s the mate of Colton and Ivan’s son. They might get crunchy.”
“Are you trying to get rid of me because I’m an omega?” I asked, crushing the empty water bottle in my fist because I needed something to hold onto.
“No,” Dad flashed me a sad smile. “Trying to get you to go because the longer you stare at your friend’s dead body the longer you’re going to have nightmares.”
Colton scooped me up. I almost walloped him with the crushed water bottle but my brother knew a thing or two about trauma too. My best friend was finally coming to see me. I’d seen him and his mate right before Yule but that felt like it was part of another lifetime.
“I got you. Don’t worry about Vallis either. We didn’t go through all this trouble to save him just to skin him alive ourselves now,” Colton said as he sat me down in the boat.
Vallis was out cold again but at least he was back in his human form.
“Mori,” my carrier’s voice came into my thoughts like a gentle spring breeze. “You’re okay, Mori. Annila will be okay at some point. You were very brave today.”
I didn’t feel very brave. I watched while the women all killed each other.
“Being a woman doesn’t stop alphas from being dumb sometimes and power hungry.
Not Annila. I’m not talking about her. She decided how her story would most likely end the moment she found out that she was pregnant.
She’d stop at nothing short of death to protect her unhatched egg.
Life beat her up one too many times and she didn’t know how else to go out except for fighting.
I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you we were in touch with her so often.
After the explosion she stopped by a lot.
I thought it was better for us not to mention it but best to keep our eyes on the enraged dragoness.
She’s earned her rest, Mori. I’d have given her a thousand lifetimes worth of years to be happy for all she’s been through but alas I am not the creator nor the destroyer of worlds.
Her egg is safe here. I think your dead wolf played a trick on us because as soon as he picked up things over the group link Lero started shouting about the egg being at my house.
I think Dern or his mate wanted to ensure everyone knew where the egg was. ”
“Thank you for being her friend when I couldn’t,” I thought back to my carrier as sleep pulled me under and left me wondering if I was exhausted or if Colton had dosed my water with some tasteless sedative.
“Lero,” Vallis whispered in his sleep and that was the last thing I heard until I woke up at the hospital in Heartville.