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Shocked, I realize I’m crying. I let the tears flow freely, carving paths of pain down my face. They fall off my chin and onto the earth, watering the grass with my agony.

I fight to catch my breath. Try to calm the hell down because this—losing my shit—isn’t helping anything. Idril needs me to be strong. If not for myself, then for her, and this shitty godsdamned position I somehow put her in.

When I open my eyes again, I have to blink to clear my sight. Then I have to blink again because⁠—

There are… flowers.

Fates-damned flowers. Where there were none, sprouting between my hands. Beautiful blooms with velvet-dark petals, unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The color is a deep purple, so dark it’s almost black, laced with veins of iridescent lavender, cobalt, and silver snaking their way through the bloom.

The stalks shimmer a deep, forest green. The leaves are darker still, edged with a muted silver light.

And they’re glowing.

I’ve never seen anything like it. They’re something from a dream, or a memory of a world I’ve never seen.

“…Idril.”

As her name falls from my lips, the flowers turn toward me. Their petals unfurl slowly, like her name is the sun. For just a moment, her Omega scent seems to radiate from the center of the blooms. I breathe it in, like it’s the air I need to live.

Please, I pray desperately. Please let me wake up. And let my brothers get their heads out of their asses before they ruin any chance they have of ever earning her forgiveness.

I’m suddenly exhausted. My limbs are too heavy, and my eyelids refuse to stay open. I drag myself back to the Oak and fall against the trunk.

There’s nothing to do but wait. Wait, and pray. And stew in the knowledge that I failed her. That the males I trusted to keep my Mate safe, have betrayed me.

Just as surely as they’ve betrayed our Omega.

Somewhere out there, in the real world, my body sleeps, and my Mate bleeds alone. When I think of what Idril’s going through, a new sense of purpose fills me. Hardens me.

Changes my DNA one atom at a time until finally, I’m able to take a full breath. Then, I start planning.

There’s one thing I know, with absolute, unshakeable certainty. When I wake up, I will destroy every one of my Bonds except the ones tying me to Idril. I’ll leave nothing behind but shattered loyalty and the smoldering remains of the pack I’ve called family for hundreds of years.

I smile at the thought.

They won’t even sense me coming. They’ll expect the male they knew. Their packmate. Their brother.

That male is dead.

I died the moment my gaze first locked with Idril’s, and was reborn in that fucking basement. With her blood on my skin, and the bitter scent of her pain filling my lungs.

I’m coming for them, but not as their brother. As a male with a purpose: delivering the justice she’s been denied her whole life. As a warrior who’s already chosen his side. As an Alpha ready to burn down the world to protect what’s his.

And gods help them.

Because I won’t.

Chapter 31

Daxen

“Phones ringing!” Silas sing-songs, obnoxiously chipper this evening for someone whose only job is to follow me around like a puppy nipping at the heels of his master.

He strolls past the door where I’m posted up in my library at HQ. Vae sits across from me, coffee in one hand and a book in the other. Both of us have been stuck here for hours, reading and re-reading children’s fables that Riven insists are full of “vital” information.

Last I checked, both Calla and Daniella are still glowing and sparking, but haven’t had any more prophetic rants. Calla was still at HQ in Chicago, trying to piece her memories together, which Ford says is slow going. Riven moved Daniella to one of his safe houses, where he claims to be “monitoring her.”

Knowing him, that probably means he’s watching her from cameras in rooms that she isn’t even aware of. He’s the most paranoid asshole I’ve ever met.