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He was here. Hunter was still alive.
Mates.
My eyes flow open, fire burning in their depths. There was a surprised cry, a clatter of metal, and then I was free.
“That’s impossible.” Damien’s shocked face when he saw me free myself from the wall was like a drug. “You can’t be…I killed you.”
“Next time, I suggest you make sure I stay dead,” I snarled. His eyes glanced toward the control he’d set down on a nearby table. “Don’t do it.”
Idiot didn’t listen. Fine with me. The chase was more fun than just slitting his throat with my claws. He barely had time to move before I was on him.
When did I get so fast?
“Please…” I tilted my head to side as he begged me. “Please don’t…I’m sorry…she said that if I killed you, she would get back what you took from her.”
“And what did I take?”
“My power.” A growl came from the doorway. Snapping Damien’s neck should have been more satisfying, but I realized that he had just been a pawn. Licking my lips, I turned to face the woman who had made my life a living hell.
“Hello, mother,” I crooned. “But I guess that title doesn’t really fit for you, does it? Maybe I should call you my captor instead. After all, you did trap me inside your mind for thousands of years.”
Lizzie’s resounding chuckle was mirthless.
“Well, if the benevolent Moon Goddess hasn’t finally made her appearance. Have you enjoyed your time as a human?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Iunderstood it now.
It was almost comical how biblical it had nearly become. A god sacrificed on the altar of sin. Pathetic, really. I was still trying to sort through the new information that had catalogued itself in my mind. Everything had been separated before by a thin partition that had come crumbling down the moment I realized what I was.
Who I was.
Freya, Warrior Moon Goddess of the Seventh Kingdom.
I’d been stolen from my home in the dead of night, shoved into the mind and body of a feeble human woman. They’d called upon me. Conjured me. They wanted to win a war, and I agreed to help her under one condition. That she let me go when the war was over. She’d agreed, but I should have known the greed of man.
The battle had been fought and won. I’d transformed them into magical beasts, and they had come out the victors. It didn’t stop there though. Together, the pair became the scourge of their country as they killed and bit and turned unlikely humans to be just like them. I begged her to let me go. To convince her brotherto let my lover go. No manner of begging got me what I wanted. Over time, she learned to suppress my voice within her and access the darker abilities that were not meant for a human body such as her own.
She began to experiment on the creatures I’d created in order to stop the ticking clock. I missed my home and my mate. The only time I could see him was within my dreams. A hollow promise. Then he’d come up with an idea. His host, the brother, had come to repent, but the damage was already done. Neither of us could leave the mortal plane for home. We’d spent too much time away, and the gates would be closed. There was only one thing we could do—be born into new hosts. If Lizzie gave birth, my essence, my soul would cling to that new birth, and I would be free. She would lose the abilities that had been bestowed upon her.
“Why all the subterfuge, Lizzie?” I questioned the pathetic shifter. She was barely even that any longer. Her form had been mutated by the serum she’d created. The serum that had been turning members of her pack into degenerated alphas. They couldn’t shift because they had poisoned the wolves’ souls within. “Why the pretense when you had every opportunity to turn me in? I know now that Jediah and Jonah worked for you. What was the point?”
“Because I wanted you to feel how I felt every single day,” she sneered. “I set it all up just right. I searched the world for your mates. Raised them. Cared for them. All so I could watch as you fell for them and bonded with them. Then I could come in and take every single thing from you. Just like you took from me.”
“I’ve got to hand it to you,” I shook my head in disappointment, “I was ready for an all-out war. But you can’t even see that what you created is on the verge of falling apart. It’s an unsteady house of cards, Lizzie, and I’m about to blow it all down.”
“You think you can just defeat me? I’ve won. Just because you survived doesn’t mean I can’t make you suffer.”
“I told you that the consequences of what you did would come back to bite you in your ass,” I snarled at her.
“I was wondering when you would start to remember.” Granny smirked. No, Lizzie. It was becoming hard to keep the personalities straight. They were still trying to meld together. “Who knew that the powder would work so well? Hadn’t meant for it to split your mate into two souls though. That probably had something more to do with my brother, the fool. It’s nice though, for you to be able to see them one last time before I make sure his soul never comes back. But first, why don’t we show them who they really are? They have been waiting centuries, after all.”
With the flick of her hand, the controller that had fallen from Damien’s grasp activated.
“No,” I screamed, thinking that the contents contained silver. The boxes at their feet burst open, and a shimmering dust spread across their bodies. But it wasn’t silver…
“Hemlock. Poisonous to humans, but when used in the right dose, along with a little magic, it opens up old memories. Or, in this case, a past life.” My chest heaved, my heart pounding as I watched my mates take in the powdery substance. They both coughed, unable to get away from the magic.
