“Okay,” an amused voice says. “You can have me. But all of our lifetimes, not just one.”
His presence warms me from the inside out. I dare not even move. But suddenly my hands are engulfed in his. I can feel him at my back, blazing so much hotter than the fire in front of me.
“I’ve been searching for you everywhere,” he whispers.
I squeeze my eyes. “Thank you,” I whisper to the gods.
I open my eyes as he turns me and see green eyes and red hair that catches the fire’s light. That devastating smile I remember so well steals my breath from my lungs. I stumble into him, grabbing his shirt.
“Jarek,” I whisper.
“Did you miss me?”
I throw my arms around him. He smells of roses and candles. But there’s a scent of steel and leather as well. I pull back, looking in the crowd.
Jarek lets me go and, with a knowing wink, whispers. “Turn around.”
I whirl and stare up at him. I reach out slowly, touching my fingers to his chin.
“Mordecai. Oh, Cai. Are you real?”
He smiles. “I am.”
He moves before I can, wrapping himself around me, picking me up off my feet.
“Found you again,” he whispers.
I bury my face in his shoulder, one hand tangled with Jarek’s.
Wolves howl in eerie celebration, and the fire burns snow-white. I feel a blast of heat so strong it feels like ice, but before I can wonder, it’s gone.
Jarek is pulled into our hug, and I laugh.
“You found me!”
“In every life. Together,” Mordecai whispers.
“Together,” Jarek says.
The gods are here.
We live again.
Kaida
Aged 25
The child in my arms reaches up with pudgy little fingers, grabbing my hair, with arms that don’t have enough strength to pull. She’s all fat folds and enormous grey eyes.
I love her so much, and I’ve only just met her.
“You cannot have her back,” I say and glower at my aunt Rae, who simply shakes her head in amusement.
“Kaida, you cannot keep your brother’s child.”
“Sure, I can. He can have another one; this one is mine. She’s so cute. Look at those gorgeous eyes and that little mouth,” I coo at her, and she blinks at me.
Lucian chuckles and shifts in his chair. He is glowing. One of the things that changed when the war ended was the ability for male omegas to carry children and female alphas to impregnate them. In previous times, it was rare, but these days, it’s much more common. The great change that occurred when the Resistance overthrew the Beta’s Path changed the very makeup of the world.
