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“So why bring me here?” I ask, growing angry as I pace. “For a little chitchat? To measure up the man who loved your daughter?”
She sighs once more. “I will allow your anger since it’s understandable?—”
“Fucking thanks,” I mutter.
“But do not make the mistake of aiming it at me, wolf. I brought you into this world, and I can end you just as well,” she warns.
“I’m already dead!” I shout, turning to face her, and then I slump. “I’m dead, and she’s alone. My brothers are alone when they need me most.”
“You worry for them, not for yourself,” she murmurs, watching me.
“Why worry for me? It’s them I should worry about. They are alive and alone and probably angry and scared. Quinn has lost so much.” My shoulders slump. “Is she okay?”
“She is hurting, but she is not alone,” the god offers. “You have given a lot in your short life, Jai, to lead you here.”
“I also made some terrible decisions. I wasn’t a good person,” I admit.
“But you have the power to be,” she replies. “You already started to. Quinn healed you—not just your wolf, but your heart too. She took your hate away and offered understanding. She blurred the line between hunter and wolf. She did what was never done before. She loved without limits or restrictions, and that is the best type of love. Destinies are tricky business, but even I did not see you three coming. You changed everything for the better. I couldn’t have done this in a million lifetimes, even if I wanted to. I’m tired, Jai, of watching my children be slaughtered simply for being blessed. I am so very tired.”
“What are you saying?” I ask, beyond confused.
“We gods offer choices. Quinn is blessed, and that world needs her and the change she represents. It needs her steel backbone and soft heart, but she needs you. She is lost. Part of her is missing, the part that makes her so easy to love and follow. Even the strongest need someone to lean on every now and again, I’m beginning to understand. I have seen it myself, a revolution of love changing even the gods. Quinn’s soul issplintered, and I do not like that. She needs to be whole for what is to come for her, so she may rise to the station I have chosen for her—to lead and keep our people safe. I am offering you a choice, warrior, for someone who has given so much in the name of love. You can go back. I will send you to be with her, at her side for eternity, but there must be a sacrifice. Death demands payment, and not even I can change that.”
“Anything,” I offer without hesitation before swallowing. “As long as the price is paid through me and nobody else.”
“Even if it means your life? Think carefully,” she cautions.
“I will not make the payment on behalf of anyone else.” I nod. “I pay it or not at all.”
“Then you are exactly the man I thought you were. Redemption, Jai, and second chances are so hard to come by, but you deserve one. No one else will pay, but you will. I will take your wolf from you. You will walk by her side, and you will be her human. She loved you as such before, and she will again, but you will never be one of us. When the time comes and you join us once more, you will be reunited with the beast inside.”
I grip my chest. Even now, I can feel my wolf. He has been with me since my parents died, so in a way, he was my constant even when I didn’t know he was there. I just found him, just freed him and found my place, but it means nothing without her.
“Yes.” I nod, even as it pains me. “Take my wolf, just send me back to her. Even if I am half the man I was before, please just let me be there to love her.”
“As you wish, warrior.” She stands. “Brace yourself, for this will hurt. It will tear your soul into pieces.”
I try to, I really do, but nothing could have prepared me for the agony of when she presses her clawed hand to my chest and digs, clawing into my soul and dragging out my wolf. My screams echo across her lands, my back bowing as I roar.
My wolf fights for purchase, tearing me apart as I feel my soul rip in two, and then she lifts her hand away, and floating in a glowing ball in her palm is my wolf.
“Sleep now, warrior,” she commands.
The last thing I remember seeing through bleary eyes is her glowing finger pressing to the middle of my forehead.
I fall backwards and wake with a jerk.
My body is cold, and my eyes hurt as they open to see the moon, but this time, it’s farther away. The air smells fresh, like it just rained, and sobbing reaches my ears.
For a moment, my body is just . . . quiet. I don’t feel whole, and it is obvious my wolf is missing, as if there is a gap in my soul where he belongs, but the crying has me sitting up when I realise I am on the stone bench. I swing my legs out from under the tapestry that covers me, peering down at Quinn where she kneels.
My brothers kneel at her back, one hand on either shoulder, their faces also streaked with tears.
Stumbling from the stone, I drop on my knees before them. “Baby?” I croak.
Her head snaps up, her eyes widening as she stares at me. Those bright orbs glow with such pain, and tears stain her cheeks in a way I never want to see again.
Reaching for her, I cup her cheek, letting her warmth infuse me and bring me back to life. “Shh, baby, I’m here. I’m here, Quinn.”
