“What do you mean, not gone?”
“It’s hard to explain. I mean, since I became Were, you know I’m…weird, right? Luca calls them my omega powers, but…Arlo can’t do some of the stuff I can do, you know?”
The car door of the CR-V slams shut, and the game of “Chase the Wolf” is in full swing—now with Finn and Grayson joining in, though they are all losing spectacularly.
Nix’s laughter rings out as Jay dives for Rowan-wolf, managing to snag a tuft of fur before missing entirely and landing face-first in the grass.
Grayson, too focused on closing the gap, gets a little too close to where Jay is lying on the grass.
Ever the competitive opportunist, Jay snags his ankle, sending Grayson sprawling with a yelp of indignation.
Clearly having enough and probably in desperate need of breakfast, Leo lets out a sharp whistle.
Rowan’s ears perk up, and without a hint of urgency, he trots over to the car, hopping into the back seat as if he’d been patiently waiting for someone to hold the door open.
“I may have noticed your superpowers, yes.” Gideon smiles, picking up the conversation where he’d left off and tweaking Nix’s side through his dress shirt.
Nix snorts. “Ha ha. That’s not what I mean. What I’m trying to say is…I can tell now that this stuff happens because of who I am to Them.” His voice softens as he continues, his eyes flickering with uncertainty.
“I don’t want you thinking I’m like…still…the actual Goddess or anything. That sounds weird…”
He shakes his head, a small frown tugging at his lips as he searches for the right words to follow. None seem to come, leaving him with the unspoken weight of everything he can’t quite express.
Gideon doesn’t think it’s weird at all.
Not when he thinks about all the times Nix has amazed him—denying alpha voice like it was nothing, climbing trees with ease, blowing up med bays, or being completely immune to Withers’s dark soul magic. And those were just the obvious signs.
The truth is, Nix embodies the Goddess’s magic—mind, body, and soul.
What Gideon doesn’t like is that Nix feels uncertain about how he—or even their mates—would react to it.
Not one bit.
“Fuck, okay,” Gideon says, exhaling sharply. “I don’t talk about this shit because I think faith is a personal thing.”
Nix interrupts before he can really get going. “But youdohave faith, right? That’s what your altar is for in your room, and you pray. There was all of Carnell’s talk about prophecies and stuff, too. I wondered why you don’t ever talk about it.”
Glancing around, Gideon searches for his other mates, his thoughts drifting back to when he’d first met the Goddess as a teenager. Their warnings and wishes had stayed with him, unfolding exactly as They’d said they would.
His faith had been strong enough that he had built his entire adult life around the truth of Their words, trusting Them even when it wasn’t easy.
The others were already in the cars and have left this moment to them, which is unusual.
Normally, they’d be pestering him to hurry—Rowan whining about food, and Grayson complaining about needing a shower.
But this time, no one interrupts. No teasing, no reminders; it is a moment out of time.
Gideon takes it as a sign.
Whatever this moment is, it demands his full attention.
“I have always believed in Them. No more after last night than I did as a teenager standing beside a lagoon, hearing that my mates would find me and that we would find you.
“Kitten, I don’t think you have tobeThem to feel their power in you. Their power is also in me, or Rowan, or Leo. That’s the nature of faith, and the nature of Their gifts to us as Weres. We need only to believe in Them, and They are with us. Does that make sense?”
His mate is quiet for a moment, watching a small cluster of ants marching along the driveway, following their leader into an anthill near his tiny toes—oblivious to the rest of the world, happily going about their lives, completely and utterly unconcerned.
“So I don’t need to know the exact how or why I’m like this? It’s okay to just be, and be happy?”
