Chapter 37
Hades
A Few Seconds Earlier…
Serapina, I think, in awe of her resilience. Her strength.
I’ve only recently become aware of where we are and what’s happening, but I feel her pushing back against Demeter. Hear every thought. Sense her determination and alluring spirit.
She’s so much more powerful than she realizes.
Not only is she standing up to an oppressive Alpha, but she’s… she’s also battling an ancient familial bond. The one between mother and child.
She’s severing her soul from Demeter’s, and with each passing instant, she’s yanking me back into consciousness.
My beautiful, amazing Omega…
My purr is automatic, my pleasure radiating through our bond just as Demeter releases a dominant growl. I nearly release a rumble of my own, but Serapina melts into my side, her lips caressing my skin.
You can hear me, I realize. Sera—
Her teeth sink into my hip, the bite so utterly unexpected that I lose all conscious thought. All feeling. All everything. And simply exist in the sensation of being claimed by my Omega.
A brightness unlike anything I’ve ever experienced blossoms inside me. My heart beats as though for the first time. My veins flood with warmth. Life.
My Serapina…
I feel alive in a way I could never have anticipated. Empowered. Cherished. Owned in the best way imaginable.
Hades? she whispers into my mind.
Demeter unleashes a violent growl before I can respond, and Serapina’s touch disappears as she releases a pained whimper.
My eyes open, the world coming into focus around me as I see my mate’s body fly across the room into a wall as a result of Demeter’s vicious throw.
The blonde strands in Demeter’s fist tell me she grabbed my mate by the hair, too.
Fury unlike any other boils inside me as I burst free from my restraints—the tree disintegrating in my wake.
Demeter startles then, looking at me in surprise.
My chest rumbles in response, my power wrapping around me in a blanket of intense energy that feels more potent than ever. More deadly. Lethal.
Because it’s riddled with vitality, too.
Vitality from Serapina.
Our gifts are mingling in a unique manner, one that emboldens my steps as I mist to Demeter and wrap my hand around her throat.
Her bright blue eyes widen, and she grabs my wrist.
Energy hums from her touch, but it doesn’t affect me. Because it’s less potent than before. Weakened.
Serapina’s bite seems to have impacted Demeter’s control, our fresh bond superseding the one Demeter claimed over her daughter before.
Or maybe Serapina has simply learned how to block it.
Demeter renews her effort, some of her shock dying off as ire fills her features.
She’s always loathed me, simply for being the Alpha who mated her daughter. I was never good enough. Never right. “Death and life are not compatible,” she told me once.
I suppose she was right.
But now I know what is “compatible.”
Death and a reincarnated mate.
Serapina is my equal. My other half. My heart.
I feel her pulse as though it’s my own, her essence continuing to mingle with mine to manifest a bold entity. An unyielding power.
Only, some pieces are missing.
We need more than just the two of us, more than just an Alpha and his Omega. We need our—
A punch to my chest sends me soaring backward as a fucking tree root seems to drive right through my heart. Everything spins. The air… the air wheezes from my lungs.
And a furious sound erupts from somewhere in the room.
From Serapina…
It was a scream, but filled with anger, not fear.
So strong, my mate, I think at her as I wrap my hands around the item lodged in my torso. The bark digs into my palms, my vision darkening with each passing second.
This won’t kill me.
However, it… it fucking hurts.
Electricity floods my insides, the foreign energy belonging to the Goddess of Fertility. She’s trying to drown me in life.
I shove back with a bolt of icy death, causing the root to wilt and die before me, the bark turning to ash in an instant and relieving the pressure on my chest once more.
But without it anchoring me to the wall, I fall to my knees, only to be caught with a strong arm around my torso.
Maliki. I recognize the writhing sensation against my skin, his tattoos exuding a healing essence that instantly calms my insides.
He forces me back up, his golden eyes catching mine. Then he leans in to bite my fucking shoulder.
I’m about to demand that he explain himself when he strikes at my neck, and I suddenly realize what he’s doing as his claim snaps into place.
It’s dizzying and different, and not quite right.
I reach for him and yank him to me, but he’s already coming willingly, his head canted to the side to expose his throat.
Any other day, I might have tried to be more creative.
But this needs to happen quickly.
So I sink my teeth into the thick tendons of his neck. That fucking hurt, he growls into my head.
Likewise, I say, releasing him as power floods through me. Mate power. But it’s still incomplete. Where’s Morpheus?
However, I already sense my cousin before I even finish the question, my eyes finding the God of Dreams standing between Demeter and our mate. His arms are stretched out at his sides, his hands open, his shoulders tense.
I can’t see what he’s doing, but I assume he’s thrown Demeter into a sleep state.
However, he won’t be able to hold her for long. She’s too fucking powerful—because of her links to her daughter’s essence.
I hear all the knowledge swimming through Serapina’s head, how she’s realized what Demeter has done to the sacred bond between mother and child, how she’s still abusing it now by siphoning energy through Serapina’s connection to me.
It’s so fucked up and convoluted, an abuse of motherly authority.
Yet it runs deeper than that. It’s founded on Demeter’s fertility power.
She abused the cycle of life to create Persephone, I realize. That’s… that’s how she became pregnant.
The concept clicks after hearing Serapina’s mental analysis depicting why Demeter created her own plane and why she feels so responsible for all of Omega kind.
Serapina thought it was out of a responsibility to Persephone, as a result of being gifted with life via Jove.
However, it… it’s because of that life—a life she should never have been able to manifest and nurture—that she has this unique link to her daughter.
This obsessive, all-encompassing desire to control every aspect of Persephone’s former and current existence…
It’s all grounded in the fact that Demeter feels Persephone is her creation.
Not a daughter.
Not an Omega.
But a possession.
“You’re just like all the Alphas locked away in Pandora’s Box,” I say, stalking toward the treacherous bitch. Her eyes flutter, Morpheus either releasing her from his mental hold or her power coming through. I’m not sure, and I don’t fucking care.
I slam my fist into her face, then grab Morpheus by his dress shirt and haul him toward me. He arches a brow, the only indication of surprise, before he slams his palm against my chest. “On the forearm,” he tells me. “I don’t fancy wearing your mark on my throat, Cousin.”
I grunt, then offer him my own arm, and we both bite one another at the same moment.
Heat floods my veins, his power a fucking aphrodisiac to my senses.
Or maybe it’s heat from our Omega, because I lock eyes with her and note the way her pupils are dilating.
She’s feeling the impact of our bonds, our Omega right at the heart of it all, and it’s flooding her with energy, igniting her spirit.
Slick permeates the air, drawing my gaze down her naked body to the sweetness between her thighs.
It’s such an intense reaction, one that I know is driven by the need to mate.
But we have something else to create first. Something powerful. Something… spectacular.
“Distract her,” I tell Morpheus, referring to Demeter.
My cousin grins. “Happily.”
A piercing scream leaves Demeter, the sound music to my fucking ears. I’m almost tempted to go into Morpheus’s mind to see what fresh nightmare he’s just sent Demeter into, but I have a more important task to see to.
Glancing at Maliki, I add, “I need you to protect us.”
My best friend nods. “Always.”
It’s a vow, one I take to heart.
Because I believe him.
I believe in all of us.
I believe in this circle, this dynamic, this destiny.
But for us to embrace our future, we need to deal with the past.
A fact that has me walking toward Serapina. I don’t mask my intentions, allowing every member of our circle to hear what I intend to do.
But most especially, our Omega.
Our heart.
She reaches for me the moment I’m within arm’s length and pulls me in for a kiss. A kiss I indulge. A kiss I own.
I heard her thoughts about sacrificing herself, how she thought her soul needed to be reborn, how I may never let Persephone go. But this runs so much deeper than my soul’s mate. So much deeper than who I used to be and who I long to become.
This is about us—our new bond as Serapina and Hades. She’s the mate I never knew I needed. The mate I never knew I desired.
I loved Persephone as an Alpha should, devoted my existence to protecting hers.
But with Serapina, the foundation of my adoration runs impossibly deeper.
She’s a strong wind on a cold winter’s night, the perfect breeze to stir death from its grave.
I’ve been living in the shadows for so long that I forgot what it meant to step out into the light. To truly exist again.
She taught me that in a manner I wasn’t expecting.
I love that she has memories of my past life with Persephone. I love that she knows the Alpha I used to be. Because it’s going to make who I am now—with her—all the more impactful.
I clasp her nape, my opposite arm encircling her waist as I mold us together. Energy hums between us, my Omega knowing exactly what to do. How to weave. How to create.
Use me as your conduit, mate, I tell her. Use all of us.
She shivers in my arms, her body seeming to vibrate against mine.
Serapina is no longer overthinking or analyzing; she’s simply existing.
And it’s a beautiful fucking sight.
Our own beacon of light.
I hold her with all my strength, ground her as an anchor, and give her all of me.
My death.
My love.
My own fucking soul.
I’m utterly hers. For etern—
Pain pierces my midsection, causing my knees to nearly give out.
Morpheus and Maliki both shout, though I can’t… I can’t hear them.
But as I look down, I realize with horror that I was pierced from the front. Not the back.
Which means…
Which means it went through Serapina.
Her blue eyes are wide, her lips parted on a silent cry.
And then she goes limp in my arms.
Her life… extinguished.
No.
No.
“No!” I roar, taking hold of the branch that’s connecting us in bloody matrimony, and introduce the limb to death.
It dissolves into ash, just like the other one.
Only, Serapina doesn’t stir. She collapses into me instead, utterly devoid of movement. Of feeling. Of… of anything at all.
I shake my head, refusing to accept this.
She’s not human. I know she’s immortal.
But Demeter’s tricks, her powers, her fucking games…
I’m tired of playing. I’m tired of this ridiculous dance. I’m tired of her insane need to control.
“She’s no longer yours,” I tell the Goddess of Fertility. “She’s ours.”
I lift Serapina into my arms and slowly face the Alpha who has the audacity to try to take my mate from me. Again.
Maliki has Demeter wrapped up in shadows, his expression furious. I’m not sure how her lethal branches got around him, and I don’t fucking care.
Because this ends—
Power erupts through the room, the source of it coming from an unexpected source.
From the female in my arms…