Chapter TWENTY
–Tréan–
I HAD NEVER experienced the kind of terror and fear I felt when my enemy pulled Kaia back against him and held a blade to her throat.
When I knew how close she was to death at the hands of a madman.
If I thought I could get her out of Tadc’s grip quickly enough, I would have, but I knew just how fast and ruthless my enemy could be.
While angry at Kaia for acting so rashly, I could only blame her so much.
It was in her nature to be protective, so I should have seen her actions coming when Ceara was brought forth.
If Ceara’s appearance wasn’t heartbreaking enough, I should have known being shoved to her knees in front of Kaia would be too much.
Truthfully, it was too much for all of us, but Kaia acted faster and more aggressively—something she might not have done had she known my plan.
So again, she wasn’t all to blame.
Suffice it to say, I’d never been more grateful that when battling exploded around us, Zane and his daughter, Freya, came to the rescue.
I’d grown as close with my Viking friend over the years as the little girl my pack had raised, so it meant everything that he’d shown up when he did.
That he saved my mate's life when I couldn’t get to her.
Fighting for all I was worth, I tried, but too many enemy warriors rushed at me.
Kaia had claimed a pack war was coming, and here it was.
Some fought with blades and others with fangs as man and beast crashed together in flashes of lightning and driving rain.
“Get to Kaia,”
I roared into my brothers' minds, using the commanding tone of their alpha, but there was no need.
They fought just as hard to get to her, feeling the same fear and anguish as me because Kaia was as much theirs as she was mine, just in a different way.
She was their queen.
Their alpha’s fated mate.
Even if she weren’t, I knew they would do anything to save her because they were as impressed by her as I was.
She had been a true warrior and devoted pack member tonight when she’d forfeited herself to a monster if it meant protecting Ceara.
More of a warrior, still, when she’d tried to single-handedly protect our matriarch with a blade she’d grabbed off a fallen enemy.
Then, when all else failed, she threw herself over the injured wolf, willing to die with her so she didn’t pass into the afterlife alone.
So it was safe to say she had won over not just my brothers but our entire pack because they didn’t need to be present to sense what she had done.
How selfless she truly was.
And it didn’t end there.
Not when she did something I didn’t think possible.
With my Viking ally Zane fighting over her and our matriarch beneath her, Kaia shifted without my help and outside of a full moon.
This time, she didn’t go through the excruciating bone transformation of a newly made wolf but transitioned far quicker.
Gracefully, in a blur of bluish-golden light I knew was born of what the Viking curse had become for us.
She had suffered very little pain during it, but I still wanted to be there for her.
Help her.
Instead, I was met with a sea of blades despite Zane’s dragon raining down fire.
Many warriors and wolves scrambled away in fear of him, but not all.
“Go, my friend,”
Zane said into my mind, casting aside a swath of warriors with one mighty sweep of his talon.
“Get your mate.”
“Many thanks.”
I shifted and flew into the woodland after her, grateful for the support of my pack as they cleared the way, cutting down anyone who tried to intercept me.
Although I’d lost sight of Tadc shortly after Kaia stabbed him and kneed him in the ballocks, I knew he still lived.
Fortunately, the Viking blade had temporarily crippled him, so that bought me time but not much.
He would have his top commanders after Kaia right away.
Not to bring her back to him but to kill her because he now knew we were nearly done our Fated Mate Cycle and would only become more powerful.
Yet I couldn't sense her as I flew into the dark, stormy woodland.
Her scent was gone.
Missing in a way that alarmed me almost more than how close she’d come to losing her life only minutes before.
Where was she? Had Tadc taken her already? Found a way to mask her scent?
Panicked, I raced through the trees, willing the wind to gust in every direction so I could catch her scent.
Used my superior hearing to listen more closely than most, but there was nothing—only silence.
“Kaia?”
I roared telepathically, desperate to find her.
“I am here, mo maité.
Always here.”
“And she is here,”
whispered into my mind, albeit choppy and distant.
A fresh surge of energy and relief shot through me at the sound of Adlin’s voice.
Spying a nearby oak tree, I raced straight at it into the future, traveling forward in time over a thousand years before I shot out of the old oak tree in front of the Colonial in New Hampshire.
“Where is she, uncle?”
I asked, or maybe even roared, shifting when I saw Adlin standing there patiently waiting for me in his long, white wizard robes.
He pointed at the front door.
“She’s in there, but you may want to—”
Not waiting to heed his warning, I barged inside only to find the last thing I expected.
A fire crackled on the hearth in the living room, and Kaia, in human form, as well as her cousin Storm, sat on the furs I’d left on the floor, playing with two male wolf pups.
If that wasn’t unexpected enough, a third dark brown female pup rounded the corner.
Putting herself between me and the others, she raised her hackles and growled before—not waiting to see if I was a threat or not—she rushed at me to attack, only for Adlin to scoop her up.
“What I was going to say was you might want to wait for me to intercept this wee one.”
Adlin chuckled as the little wolf snapped at me and bared her teeth.
His merry eyes went from Kaia and Storm back to me.
“She’s very protective of her kin.”
“Yet she need not be,”
I said softly.
Holding out my hand, I looked at her through my wolven eyes and bit back emotion.
Now that the past had fallen away and the protective magic around Kaia and the baby wolves had faded, I understood exactly who these pups were.
Family.
Pack.
Mine.
Blood related to not just my mortal enemy but my fated mate.
The little female wolf sensed it, too, because after giving my hand a good sniff, she clawed her way to me, and Adlin gladly handed her over.
Though tempted to rush to Kaia, pull her into my arms, and never let go, the pup made that impossible as she settled against my chest and released a contented sigh.
“I think she likes you.”
Kaia’s wolven eyes connected with mine in a moment of mutual understanding.
She wanted to be in my arms just as much as I wanted her in them.
“But then you’re her new alpha.”
While I found deep contentment having the pup in my arms as I sat in the living room, smiling when the males rushed over, not frightened now their sister had paved the way to safety, I remained unsettled.
“As you should be.”
Adlin set a cup of ale by my side, his gaze as troubled as Kaia’s and Storm’s.
“What happened tonight in your era marks the beginning of a pack war Kaia sensed coming.
As you can imagine, one that will be ferocious, given you now possess your enemy’s only surviving litter.
Offspring he cares nothing for other than their value as bargaining chips.”
“Chips that are now in my hands,”
I reminded.
“Yet chips all the same because they carry not just the blood of your pack but your fated mate’s in their veins.”
Adlin gave me a look.
“And we both know that will only make the pups more powerful as they age.
Make them rarer than any shifter born because, through your connection to Kaia, they carry the tremendous strength of not just the Wolves of Ossary but Tadc.
We might not like it because he’s the darker side of your good, but he’s tremendously strong and will expand his army quickly.”
As I contemplated his words and my pack's unpredictable future, Adlin sighed and nudged my ale closer to me.
A small smile curled his mouth when he looked at the pups.
“Take this time, nephew, and enjoy your newest pack members, who I dinnae doubt you will protect until your dying breath.”
Seeing things only he could see, his eyes met mine again.
“Your pack is faring well under Bain and Callum, so take this time to prepare yourself for what is to come.”
“Understood,”
I replied, gleaning everything I needed to know from Adlin’s steady gaze.
Not just unpredictable times lay ahead, but great change was upon my people.
Not only were these pups significant, but Kaia and her cousins.
“And I will continue to keep your mate’s kin safe to the best of my ability here in this century,”
Adlin said into my mind.
“But the time will come when they will need their mate’s protection and vice versa.
They will need to become part of your pack lest Tadc makes them his own, and that is a force you dinnae want to go up against, Tréan.
A force that will only become more powerful with Naya and then powerful in ways you cannae even imagine with Storm.”
My gaze drifted to Storm with her vibrant reddish brown hair and gentle ways as she smiled and enjoyed the pups, sensing more strongly what I’d suspected when I first met her and what Adlin alluded to now.
Something aided by my almost concluded Fated Mate Cycle with Kaia.
Whatever lived inside Storm’s wolf was different than the rest.
Different than anything I had come across.
Yet I couldn’t sense what that was.
All I knew was it had something to do with why she hadn’t shifted during the last full moon despite its immense power.
She was undoubtedly a force unto herself.
“And what of Naya?”
I looked at Adlin again.
“What is her role in all this?”
“Now that is another story altogether.”
He gave me a warning look with a rare twinkle in his eyes that I didn’t quite like.
“I wish Bain the best of luck because ‘twill not be easy handling her.”
“Handling her?”
Kaia said into our minds.
Her cutting into our telepathic conversation surprised even Adlin based on the flare of his pupils.
“Care to elaborate because I’ll castrate him before he gets within a thousand years of her if he “handles,”
her in a way I don't like.”
“What I mean—”
Adlin sipped his whisky so their inner dialogue wouldn’t be obvious to Storm— “is your cousin Naya, as you know, is an independent sort who prefers doing things her way.
Yet she will soon have no choice when Bain comes for her because he will whether he likes it or not.
Her wolf went Renegade under a Hunter's Supermoon, and the only way to handle the progress of that kind of Renegade wolf and keep her safe from the boundless threats heading her way is to find a mate.
A fated mate, preferably. ’Tis the only hope Naya has of surviving not just what she’s becoming but the enemy who will soon wish to harness it.”
“What is it, Kaia?”
Storm asked, still smiling at the antics of the male pups crawling all over her while the female rested peacefully in my arms.
Her smile faded at the look on Kaia’s face.
“Is everything all right?”
Taking in what Adlin had said about Naya, Kaia stared at him a moment longer before her gaze met mine ever-so-briefly, only to land on Storm.
She managed a smile to ease her kin.
“Everything’s fine, sweetie.”
Storm might have smiled in return, and all seemed lighthearted after that, but the longer I watched Storm and felt her out via my growing bond with Kaia, the more I understood she was different.
She watched everyone when they didn’t think she was looking.
Paid attention in a fashion that told me she was more observant than she let on.
In fact, the more I watched her interact with Kaia, the more I understood the dynamics of their relationship.
Kaia was the protector, especially of Storm, the youngest of her and her cousins.
As Kaia and I merged, I was able to live her memories like a flashback.
Storm had always been different. Vulnerable. More trusting of people despite the difficult area in which she’d been raised. Unlike Naya, who loved the city, people, and success, Storm preferred the country and the freedom she found in it.
So it was a wonder she hadn’t moved out of Boston sooner.
Yet, as I saw the look in her eyes when she glanced Kaia’s way every so often, I understood even more.
Storm was much stronger than she appeared and had wanted to keep an eye on her cousins.
Stronger than even Kaia realized, and that comforted me because Adlin was right.
Kaia was right, too.
War was beginning, and with it, our pack would grow.
Fated mates would find each other.
“So what happens now?”
Storm finally asked, a hopeful glint in her eyes when she looked at the pups.
“Will they stay here until the war is over?”
“I’m afraid not,”
Adlin said softly.
“They are safest with the Wolves of Ossary.
With their pack and mother—”
his gaze settled on Kaia— “and their blood, who also belongs there, keeping her people safe.”
I felt Kaia’s inner struggle.
Her gaze went from Storm, who was blood-related to the pups as well, to me, then back to Adlin.
“I can’t leave my cousins or Uncle Connor.
They need me.”
“As does your fated mate and alpha,”
Adlin returned.
“Just as much as you need him.”
While tempted to refuse her being anywhere but by my side, I knew better.
Kaia was her own woman and should remain by my side only if she chose to.
She knew it, too, because I’d told her as much.
“It’s okay, cousin,”
Storm said gently, resting a hand on Kaia’s arm, surprising them all yet again.
“I’ve heard everything said, both aloud and telepathically, so I understand what’s happening.”
She met Kaia’s eyes.
“Naya and I will be all right.
Uncle Connor will, too, if he ever shows up.
You need to be there for your new pack and these pups because you’re the strongest person I know, and they’ll need you.”
Her gaze flickered from me back to Kaia.
“Your mate will need you just like you’ll need him.”
“But what about you two?”
Kaia shook her head and eyed Storm with concern.
“If you heard everything, then you know—”
“Enough that it sounds like it’s only a matter of time before we join you.”
Storm shot Adlin a grateful look.
“Until then, we’ve got Adlin watching over us, and I’m sure once he makes an appearance, Uncle Connor, too.”
“While truly grateful for that—”
Kaia looked Adlin’s way— “I can’t help but wonder how you’re watching over Naya when she’s in Boston and you’re here.
How you didn't know she’d shifted and ran alone during such a monumental full moon.”
“As to not knowing Naya ran alone, I can only say her inner beast is likely behind it,”
Adlin said softly, unrattled by it, which said much.
“That could very well mean it understands going Renegade was the only way it could get its fated mate’s attention.”
“As to Adlin keeping an eye on both of your cousins at once, you’d be amazed by what he's capable of.”
If Kaia hadn’t caught it already, I ensured she sensed how powerful my uncle really was.
How he had, in fact, been keeping tabs on both women since our departure.
“So you’ve seen Naya?”
Kaia asked Adlin.
“I have,”
he confirmed.
“And while ‘tis safe to say she’s not pleased with the situation, she’s fully aware ‘tis only a matter of time before she has no choice but to get involved.”
“I’ll bet she’s not happy.”
Kaia looked at Storm again and squeezed her hand.
“Are you sure about this?”
She glanced curiously at me and Adlin.
“What if she came with me now? If—”
“No.”
Storm shook her head.
“Not yet...”
As if she struggled with something, her voice dropped an octave.
“I’m not ready yet.”
Hesitating, clearly gathering her thoughts, Storm's gaze drifted my way, her eyes different.
“I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready any more than he is.”
I didn’t need to ask who to know she spoke of Callum.
I felt it in her inner beast.
In the things she wasn’t saying because she barely understood them.
Fated mates or not, she fully intended to reject him.
And if that happened, we could very well lose the war.