“Seriously, have you ever thought about ourissuesin that department?” Nate asked. “Everyone here is either a relative or an angel, and we don’t even have internet, while you and the three are just doing it like rabbits every day.”
What the fuck was I supposed to say to that? My lashes fluttered at Zava.
Their father cleared his throat, looking as embarrassed as I was. “It is a good thing that Heaven will take us in then. There are…uh…possible… There are people there that are not your relatives or angels.”
The boys high-fived. “Yes!” Nate stalked to the door. “I’m going to tell the rest. They’ll freak out when they know we’re going to get lai… I mean, going to Heaven.”
“Wait! Who said we’re going anywhere?” I turned to Zava. “Are they even going to take usallin?”
His throat bobbed with a swallow, and then he sighed. “Just the three of you.”
I swore in abundance. Typical Heaven behavior. The cursed passion and the Lightborns only and not even Zava. “No way in Heaven we’re going.”
“Belle, we need to think about the children’s best interest.”
“I am thinking about that. I’ve been thinking about nothing else since I’ve had them, even before I had them. Heaven doesn’t get to make demands now. They aren’t granting us a favor, an opportunity we have to jump on in case they pull their offer.Theyneedus.”
I paced like an angry animal. “Where the fuck have they been when you’ve been begging them every single day for thirty years to help us? When Damien was standing inches away from us daily, whispering his filth in my ears? When I was fighting my own soul, my own skin so I wouldn’t listen and get dragged back to Hell?” Emotions got the best of me at the end. “Now they want to separate me from the rest of my children, from you?” I wiped the tears that were falling against my will. “No, thank you. We’ve been taking care of ourselves all this time on our own. We will continue to do the same.”
“I have to agree with Mom,” Raphael said.
Nate kissed my forehead. “Me, too.”
I leaned into them, grateful for the support. “Tell them I’m not going unless they take us all, Zava…andgive you back your wings.”
He blinked, shaking his head. “Belle...”
“In fact, don’t go to them. They come here.”
He stared at me like I’d lost my mind. “You want the Council to come here, to our house?”
“Yes. You don’t work for them anymore, why would you beg at their doors or deliver their messages? They can hear us well from here.” I looked up as if I was talking to Heaven. “You want me on your side, you know what to do. Unlike you, I won’t close my doors in your faces when you visit.”
Chapter 41
Belle
She should have been ours, my queen.
I bolted upright, the sheets of my bed wrinkling underneath my jerking movements, the wolves stirring next to me.
She’s nothing like Vixen. Her dark side fits the role she’s meant for. A daughter for the king and his queen.
I bent my knees to my chest and buried my face between them. “You think you can still tempt me with this shit?”
The familiar sounds of a shift crackled next to me, and Kayden woke up in his human form. “What are you doing up, sweetheart? You okay?”
“Yes. Go back to sleep.”
He wiped a hand over his face as he lifted my chin. “Is he talking to you again?”
“Yes.”
“That fucker. Just go to sleep and ignore him. If the wolf sandwich isn’t enough to get you to sleep, tell me what else to do.”
“It’s been two days since he got her, and every moment has been like a dagger stabbing my soul. The callings, the heaviness, it’s like invisible hands grabbing me by the ankles and the hands and the hair, dragging me down to…to where I should be.”
“You should be here. With us, with our family. That’s the only place you belong to, Belle.”
