AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She stepped back away from the bitter old woman. “Grandmother, I hope you find as much happiness in your fate as you were eager to give others.”
Cyrus and several of the Guild members closest to the stage chuckled; even Maddi nodded her head with a small smile. Lady Vera bolted forward in fury, her long fingers hooked into claws, but Cyrus snapped her back with a rough jerk of his hand.
“Come then, dear Granny. I know the perfect spot to get you settled,” he jeered. His smile turned genuine as he glanced up at Maddi. “My lady, would you care to accompany us to see to your grandmother’s… ah… resettlement?”
“Yes, I think I will,” Maddi said as she stepped down from the stage. She paused as her eyes flicked over to the Ragoru triad. “Remember your promise. We will gather in front of the Temple of the Mother at dawn. The people will be summoned, and we will show them a new future. One without the Order.”
A cheer rose from the Guild, and they parted as Cyrus and Maddi left the ballroom. Those still among the living slowly trickled out, leaving none remaining in the ballroom except the dead, Arie, and her mates. She did not fail to notice that a good many of those leaving had arms laden with stolen goods, but she couldn’t care less. She wished them well with their gains and dismissed them from her mind. As far as she was concerned, they were welcome to pick the entire mansion apart piece by piece.
Once alone, Arie turned to face her triad. She cursed her too few arms that inhibited her from touching them all at once as they crowded in around her. They crooned to her, and she kissed each of them as their hands all at once reached for her and stroked over her through the red gown. One of Warol’s hands brushed the top of her head, and she turned tear-filled eyes toward her mate. Her lips quivered, feeling a sense of loss that he couldn’t thread his fingers through her hair as he so often did. To her surprise, he smiled and leaned his cheek against hers.
“You are beautiful, mate. I am so happy to have you in my arms again,” he whispered.
A sharp cry broke from her, and she pressed against him. “I thank the Mother to have you again. All of you. I can’t believe you are here. I knew you would come for me,” she choked out. “No matter what anyone said, I knew you would.”
“Nothing could keep us from your side,” he rumbled. “We had to wait a few days to pick up the trail and give Kyx time to heal, but then we began our hunt for you. We would never leave your fate unknown, and never would we have left you with the huntsman even if you had perished from the earth. You are ours, Arie. We will always hold you close to us and never part from you.”
“You, and our rog,” Rager amended, his palms dragging across her belly reverently. “The Mother has truly blessed us. We have regained our mate, and our den will have new life greeted within it soon,” he murmured. All four of his glowing blue eyes lifted and met her gaze. “Thank you, rya, for keeping our little one safe despite everything you faced.”
“If it weren’t for the help of the doctor—uh, healer, I don’t know what I would have done,” she admitted. “I was so scared.”
“We will secure the wellbeing of this human who aided you. That they attempted to safeguard you and our young, they have earned our gratitude and protection,” he assured her.
Kyx and Warol voiced their agreement, but that faded to a gasped sound of awe. Arie looked over to see what captivated their attention and smiled.
Just behind them, half-hidden behind a mass of curtains at the back of the stage, the great icon of the Mother, which had been transported from the temple for the occasion, sat enthroned, a huge veil covering her face as a multitude of arms pushed out from her torso holding the holy symbols of her governance. Her veil and dress were the brightest hue of red, and green jewels dripped from her neck and wrists.
“The Mother,” Arie breathed. “She holds all the multitude of life within her hands and nurtures them at her breast.”
Arie bowed before the image, feeling the weight of the Mother’s presence suddenly, more than she ever had. A presence that was familiar that she had felt many times before, most immediately during the sentencing of Edwar. Arie wondered for a moment how much of that was her and how much was the Mother. Until that moment, she would have laughed if anyone had suggested that the goddess had orchestrated events to suit Her purposes, but now her awareness seemed to unfurl from its tight bud in her conscious mind. The maternal grace seemed to settle all around her. Was this how Felicity once felt beholding the eternal being of the goddess? Some part of her suddenly understood.
To her surprise, the Ragoru also inclined their heads in respect to the image, their hands clasped in front of them. The wide-eyed expressions on their faces showed they too were under the power of their own experiences of her magnificence.
At long last, the power retreated and Warol snapped his jaws excitedly, letting out an uncharacteristically youthful yip.
“Did you feel that? The Ragoru possess no great images of the Mother and the Fathers, at least none within our memory, but I could swear that I felt the Mother of the Ragoru here with us.”
Arie nodded. “Yes, I felt Her too. I have no doubt now that she is the same, and she has been working to bring her children together for our mutual salvation. We had but a small part to play in all of this, but an important one, I think, was orchestrated by her hand. Everything that has passed was to tear down the Order that kept our kinds apart.”
“Mother would love all of this if she were here,” Kyx said, his face relaxed into a smile.
Arie’s eyes widened. “Your parents! How could I have forgotten about them? Did the huntsmen get them too?”
Kyx shook his head. “They were taking another route to our territory. My guess is that they are waiting in a cave at the border for some sign of us. No doubt my fathers are going to be quite distressed that they missed all the excitement.” He chuffed with amusement. “My mother may be a bit alarmed when she sees me,” he added with a wince, “but she will forget her unhappiness when she learns of the events that have transpired and news of our rog growing within you.”
Arie leaned her head against his shoulder and wrapped her arm around his thick upper bicep as his lower arm curled around her. She took one last long look at the icon and let out a long breath, releasing the last of her fear and anxiety. She smiled up at all three of her mates.
“I think I’ve had enough of this place. Let’s get out of here.”
Without a backward glance at the ruin of the mansion, or the bodies strewn throughout, they left the House of Anwar. The moment her foot stepped on the gravel outside the gate, Arie’s heart lifted, and she truly felt free of her grandmother’s hatred and malevolence that had seemed to taint the entire premises. Her mates surrounded her like an impenetrable shield as they walked into the night. There was just one thing left to do and then they would be going home.
Chapter
Forty
The crowd in front of the temple was massive. Maddi hadn’t been jesting when she’d said that every man and woman of the Citadel would be present. A smoke plume rose from the remains of the Order’s headquarters and the house of the First Elite. Arie hadn’t learned until that morning that the Guild had ransacked both buildings and let them burn through the night as a silent testament to the coming change. Arie suspected that that message had done more to motivate the people to attend more than anything else ever could have.
The citizens looked up at Arie and her Ragoru with mixed expressions of fear, apprehension, and curiosity. They murmured among themselves, a loud drone of voices mingling together, but no one made a threatening move toward the temple steps where Arie and her mates stood with Maddi, Cyrus, and his chief officers. No one seemed unreasonably afraid.
