“Come, my child.You have done a beautiful thing today, and I’m grateful to call you my own.”
Chapter 40
El
El breathedback life into her lungs as she gasped.Her eyes flew open, and her mates all jumped up.Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion.Her mind was in a fog as she met each of their eyes.She hesitated when she got to Ryan, who was now in his human form, their daughter snuggled in his arms.
“Destiny Neveah,” El whispered, her voice hoarse.
Nobody said a word, but Trip managed to nod his agreement, his eyes never blinking.Shawn turned then, and El followed his eyes, and saw his mother, lying still on the couch across the room.Tears filled El’s eyes.She gave her life.
“She sacrificed herself for me.”
Everyone turned and looked at the woman who had found a way to do the impossible.Herb stood quietly by her side, tears of his own streamed down his face.Shawn walked over to his mother’s body slowly.
“You helped her with this?”he asked Herb quietly.
“We couldn’t find a way to save her from being bound, so she decided to find a way to save El.We researched and meditated for hours until she noticed the prophecy never specified that El had to be the mother sacrificed.Everyone just assumed it was El.We just had to make sure your mother could pass through at the same time as El, so I kept her alive.As El approached her due date, I slowly backed off what I was doing, to help your mother grow closer to death.”
“The Mother let me see her.She looked beautiful.She wouldn’t let me refuse, and the Mother wrapped her arm around her and took her away as I came back to this body.I tried, Shawn, I tried,” El told him frantically.
“If there’s one thing I knew about my mother, it was that she would give her life for her children in an instant, and that’s what she did.She gave us all life.I wish I could tell her how much it means to me and how much I loved her.”
Shawn leaned down and kissed his mother’s forehead.Then he rose up and embraced Herb.
“Thank you for this.As much as I’ll miss her, I know this is what she wanted.”
“It’s all she wanted.I’m grateful I could help.”
“Can I hold our daughter,” El asked, as she wiped the tears off her face.
Ryan moved forward and lay her in El’s waiting arms.
“It’s good to see you again,” she told him.
“I love you.I love you so much,” he said, leaning his forehead against hers.
“I love you too.I love all of you.We must find a way to pay tribute to what your mother did for us today.She gave me something I never dreamed I’d have.”
“We will honor her first with a proper panther burial at her home unless you think she’d like to buried somewhere else?”Ryan said to Shawn.
“She would like that.”
The baby began to cry, and El looked down at her precious daughter’s face.
“Oh, my sweet girl,” El cooed.
“I believe she’s ready to try nursing,” Willow said coming out from the corner where El hadn’t even noticed her.
Willow’s eyes were rimmed with red, and her cheeks were moist.El reached out and grabbed her friend’s hand.
“I’m ready to try as well.I spent so much time making surethey’dknow what to do, I’m afraid I don’t know what to do now.”
“That’s okay, she knows.”
Willow instructed El what to do, and after several tries and some tears, El finally felt Destiny latch on.
“We did it!”El squealed with delight.
