Hendrix slowly helped Millan sit on the ground so Halo could get a better look at her. Kneeling at her side, Hendrix looked back up at me with desperation in his eyes.
“They wanted me to kill her… Said it was supposed to make us stronger. Strong enough to kill you.” Hendrix looked us directly in the eyes. “I watched Naheem damn near go rogue after he killed Clair. He cried for days. Then Darius became filled with rage when he took the life of Monice. He hasn’t smiled since.
“Mateo… he’s… he’s a fucking monster. When he took Joy’s life, he didn’t bat an eye. Not a fucking tear in sight. In fact, that sick bastard smiled when all the life left her eyes. He didn’t give a fuck about his mate.
“I stalled as long as I could. I never cared that much about being a part of the council. My dad wanted this more than me. I just went along with this dumb shit, but when it came to killing my mate, I refused. We knew we couldn’t fight them alone. They’re stronger now. We tried to sneak out last night, but we got ambushed by some nasty-ass chameleon shifters. There were so many. We got away but not without harm.” Hendrix looked back down at Millan.
Halo’s hands were glowing white as they ran up and down the length of Millan’s battered body. “She’ll be okay. She needs to rest,” Halo said after several minutes of tense silence. She looked over at Hendrix with a peculiar expression before she spoke. “Who was the Dark Mage they came into contact with?”
“How did you know it was a Dark Mage?” Hendrix sounded shocked.
“Killing your fated mate is a Dark Mage spell. It is not a common spell that any Mage uses, and it’s not common for a shifter to know it on their own, so that means a Dark Mage had to tell you about it,” Halo answered as she helped Millan stand to her feet. Millan looked a little better than she did initially. “She’s going to be okay, but she’s going to need to rest before her animal can fully heal her body,” Halo said while looking at Hendrix.
“I never met the Dark Mage. Only heard her voice at times. Her voice… it wasn’t right. It seemed so evil.” Hendrix shook his head.
“Dark and raspy. Almost like your worst nightmare coming to life and speaking to you,” Bellamy said while stepping around us to speak to Hendrix.
“Yeah.” Hendrix nodded his head at Bellamy. “You’ve heard it too?”
“I have,” Bellamy replied, then Halo.
“Me too.”
“Meeny is rotten to the core. Where she goes, destruction follows.” Tiny’s voice came from above. We all lifted our heads to see her slowly descending from above us. “You’ve all heard her and resisted her lies. Fate is pleased.” Tiny smiled once she was eye level with us.
“Who is Meeny?” we asked. No one had mentioned this new being.
“The sister who betrayed Fate and us. She is the reason Teeny is in the Far Plains. Her heart is darkness. Her soul is filled with so much hate that it distorted her outward appearance that was once graced with beauty. Now, it’s as ugly as her soul.”
“She’s working with the Tsar?” Bellamy asked what we were thinking.
“Can evil really work with evil when they both want the same thing? One will eventually realize two can’t win,” Tiny said with a confident smile.
“She came to us first,” Millan weakly spoke up. She looked at all of us. Then she rested her head on Hendrix's shoulder, closing her eyes.
“Who is us?” we asked cautiously.
Taking a deep breath, Millan opened her eyes. “Carmen, Alexis, Fallon and me. The Mates of the Council. She told us men were weak and said if we killed our mates, we’d have everything our hearts ever desired, but we had our hearts desires- our mates.” Millan looked up at Hendrix, sharing a look with him. “We told her no. She laughed at us and told us we’d regret our decision. I never thought her words held any truth to them.” Sadness filled Millan’s voice as her eyes closed again.
“Kenzo, we haven’t always seen eye to eye,” Hendrix spoke with his eyes locked on me. “When Mateo spoke of overthrowing you, I should have said something sooner. I honestly thought he was talking shit like he’s always done. My mistake was not taking him as seriously as I should have. For that, I will always have regrets. Maybe I could have saved their mates.”
“Have no regrets. Everything happens for a reason. While you mourn their deaths, fated mates rejoice because of the life they can bring, for in the Sanctuary of Life, mates can only reproduce when a fated mate loses their life at the hands of their mate. It doesn’t happen that often, so many mates long for the completion of their family. Three mates' dreams of having a family will come to pass now. What is done for evil, Fate makes good,” Tiny warmly replied to Hendrix.
His face of regret quickly changed to one of understanding. “Fate never fails. I should have known. We have no place to go. Is there somewhere we can stay until Millan is healed enough to travel?” Hendrix asked with determination on his face.
We looked at Cree, and he looked at us like he was asking if we could trust him. I wanted to say yes. Hendrix looked like he’d been through hell, and he didn’t seem like he was on any bullshit. However, with all this crazy shit going on around us, who was to say all this wasn’t a trap? I really had no idea what to say. I didn’t want to risk Cree’s pack if this was a setup. We shrugged our shoulders. It was his call whether he wanted to allow them to go on his packlands.
“Yes. Come with us to The Sanctuary of Life,” Tiny replied before Cree or I could say anything. “Fate has a place for you to rest.” Relief washed over Hendrix’s face at Tiny’s words. “Come. We have a long journey ahead of us.” Tiny nodded as she floated ahead of us.
Cree and Halo were the first two to follow behind Tiny. I nodded for Millan and Hendrix to go next. Then we followedbehind them. Bellamy’s hand slipped in our hand to our surprise. She looked up at us, winking playful. A smile spread across our lips upon seeing our mate be so happy and content with being around us.
“You know I really didn’t like you when we first met,” Bellamy snickered while looking up at me with a beautiful smile spread wide. “But you’ve been growing on me over these last few days... when you aren’t being an asshole.”
“We’re never an asshole when our mate is involved. You can get whatever you want from us.”
“As long as it doesn’t involve another male shifter?” Bellamy teased in a joking voice.
“Correct. We don’t share our mate. You belong to us.” I shot Bellamy a serious expression. There was no joke about that. Sharing Bellamy was out of the question. Any male shifter who got close to her would lose his life if he tried any funny shit.
