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“Whatever it takes?” Flidae-Chella’s eyebrows rose over glowing eyes. “Ambitious.” She raised her arms and suddenly Reardon was thrown toward the front door. His body slammed into the wall and he slid to the floor in a heap of limbs. Everything hurt, as if his spine had been shattered to bits.
Brandy screamed and ran to him, immediately getting to her knees beside him. “Are you okay?”
He nodded slowly, taking a quick inventory of his physical state. Everything still moved so he assumed nothing had been broken, but his still-healing leg throbbed from the way he’d landed on it, and the wind had been knocked out of his lungs. He sat there and gulped down some air.
Flidae-Chella floated down the rest of the stairs, her form growing in size as she approached. She wrapped her hand around Parker’s throat and backed him up against the wall in the foyer. In his struggles, Parker knocked an expensive-looking vase off a small table. The sound of it exploding to bits as it hit the floor echoed in the otherwise quiet house.
“Please!” Brandy begged as she shot to her feet and ran to Parker. “He has nothing to do with your beef with Reardon. Parker and Chella are not a part of this. Let them go. And let my son go.”
Flidae-Chella glanced over her shoulder, and Reardon absolutely did not like the way she glared at Brandy. He got to his feet, but not fast enough.
In two seconds flat, Flidae-Chella dropped her hold of Parker, leaving him slumped over on the floor, and swept Brandy off her feet, pinning her to the hardwood flooring with one hand. With her free hand, she unleashed an invisible force that held Reardon back. He couldn’t get to Brandy. It was as if a stone wall—one he couldn’t see—had been erected between him and Brandy.
Flidae-Chella put her face inches from Brandy’s. “I am the goddess of wild things. I do not listen to what humans want. I do not listen to commands humans issue. This wolf made a grave mistake turning men to wolves for material gain. He was sent here as punishment. Not to find his soul mate.”
“So you recognize that Iamhis soul mate?” Brandy choked out, her hands wrapped around Flidae-Chella’s wrist as she tried to keep the goddess from crushing her windpipe.
Reardon pounded a fist against the barrier, but Flidae-Chella didn’t pay him a second’s attention. He didn’t exist to her at the moment. Only Brandy and her rebellious words existed, and Flidae-Chella wouldn’t be one to let those words go unchallenged. Reardon had never felt so helpless in all his life.
“It matters not if you are his destined partner. Reardon McAlator used his gifts to make men into feral killers. Not in the name of justice or truth or liberty. No.” Flidae-Chella shook her head, Chella’s hair swinging from side to side. “No. He changed them so his record of brutality would not be broken. He didn’taskhis men if they wanted to be changed. He didn’t ask me. He made a decision that wasn’t his to make. Now he must pay the price.”
“I will pay the price, Flidae,” Reardon shouted from his side of the transparent wall between him and Brandy, not even sure if he could be heard. “I will pay any price. Just leave these people be. Return Chella to Parker, and Dylan to Brandy.” He banged his fist against the wall again. “I’ll go willingly if you do not harm any of these people.”
Flidae-Chella finally looked up at Reardon, confirming she did indeed hear him. She released her grip on Brandy and straightened to an imposing height. A bright flash of light nearly blinded Reardon and when he could see clearly again, Chella’s body was on the floor beside Brandy’s. Flidae was back to her apparition form, a ghastly white mist surrounding her image.
“Perhaps taking you back with me is the only way to truly punish you, wolf.” She angled her head at him. “You’ve missed the point of doing something worthy, as were my terms. Finding your soul mate in this place, in this time, is still self-serving. You always wish to gain something.”
Reardon couldn’t argue with this. He did want Brandy. And Dylan. He wanted them for himself. He wanted to change Brandy so she’d be like him and enjoy an elongated lifespan, meaning she’d have more time to spend with him. She made him happy and he wanted that happiness. Desperately.
“Not that I owe you anything,” Flidae said as she looked to Brandy then waved her hands in front of her.
“Mom!” Dylan’s voice suddenly echoed from somewhere upstairs.
Brandy scrambled to her feet. “Dylan! Where are you, baby?”
“He’s upstairs. You’ll find him unharmed.” Flidae gestured up the stairs, a sly grin on her face. “Go to him or… stay here and claim your wolf. You choose.”
Brandy paused with her hand on the staircase railing. “What?” She shot a glance to Reardon, a crease between her brows.
“You can go upstairs and get your boy or stay right here and get your wolf. You can have only one.”
“These were not the terms, Flidae,” Reardon said.
“I can change the terms. I’m the one with all the power.” Her smile nearly glowed as she enjoyed her cleverness.
Reardon let out a low warning growl. “My patience for these games grows thin, Flidae.”
“Yourpatience wears thin?” Flidae shook her head, her mane of hair flowing like black tentacles about her head. “You don’t have to deal with unruly wolfmen.” She looked back to Brandy, who still stood frozen by the stairs. “What will it be? The boy or the soul mate?”
Brandy’s gaze slowly rose to meet Reardon’s, tears collecting in those beautiful blue eyes.
Reardon knew she only had one choice. “Go, Brandy. Dylan must have his mother.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
He shook his head. “No, I am.”
Before he could utter another word, the scene before him disappeared. He’d involuntarily shifted to wolf form and something tight encircled his neck.
