“What did you pray for?”
Jarek laughs, and I turn, really paying attention to him. He’s so completely opposite to Cadel and Mordecai. His attitude and his disposition, butthere’s something soothing about that. He bounces up onto a rock and peers around the room, balancing on just the toes of one foot.
“Nothing. I didn’t want to risk it.”
“I didn’t either,” Mordecai admits, though I can hear his annoyance.
Cadel shakes his head. “I don’t know who I am. I’m not praying and sending something to someone I don’t want to hear it.”
I walk deeper into the temple and find the back half has collapsed on itself. Yes, this is reality. The gods are gone, and the temples are abandoned. Soon, we won’t exist either, but we have to try.
Chapter 9
It's my choice
The Winter Alpha
A thousand years before the Night of Falling Stars
“Sit down, Alpha.” The calm command rolls off me with no reaction but a curl of my lips.
I ignore the ancient omega and continue pacing. I’m not sure where she came from, but I don’t want her here. The blizzard is blowing, and my temper is in every blast of its shards of ice. I don’t want to sit down; I want to scream and roar and break things.
“Sit!”
I whirl on her, but she doesn’t react; she just stares at me. A sheet of snow and ice on a vicious wind should make this omega flinch. When everyone else fears the storm, she alone risks it all to sit with me.
Why?
“What’s wrong?” she asks in a softer tone.
What can I tell her? That no matter where I search, I can’t find the omega who was supposed to meet me. It’s like she’s just gone. But gods don’t just disappear.
It’s not possible.
Two thousand years. She’s been gone for so long she’s almost a forgotten memory. My heart won’t forget her.
Our silence weighs heavily. I cannot tell her about the omega because I don’t know anything to tell. We knew each other for a few short weeks, but even a day would have been enough to know she was mine.
“Alpha, I have a story to gift you, but I’m not going to sit here until spring comes. So, sit your ass down and listen so I can get on with my work.”
I reluctantly throw myself down on my ice throne and grip the armrest hard enough to shatter the ice. The bubble we are in pulses out, but the storm pushes it back in. White snow, sleet, and ice batters, but nothing can touch us in here.
“What could be so important that you traveled all the way out here in this?” I throw an arm at the storm raging around us, my sarcasm heavy in my words. I just want to be left alone.
“It’s important for you to know that I don’t make the decisions; I just know when I need to say what needs to be said, and right now, this story must go to you.” Her careful wording pricks at my senses, and I scowl at her, wondering what she’s going to tell me.
She hesitates, touching her index finger to her lips twice.
I growl, but she ignores me, refusing to be rushed, even though the howling wind roars with my impatience.
When she does start talking, she’s so quiet I almost miss her first few words.
“Many years ago, the human world was struggling. They couldn’t find their balance; alphas were getting too strong, omegas too few, and wars waged. The gods assembled with the High Alpha, High Beta, and High Omega. And they put it to a debate.”
“Sounds like them. All they do is talk.” My snide comment comes from years of watching the same pompous gods sit and make the same decisions over and over. All the wrong ones.
“Alpha!” she chides, but I can see a hint of a smile playing on her lips.
