Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 78069 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78069 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“I’ve been waiting to meet you all for so long.” He sounded as if he was a descendant of Apollo, the god of poetry and song.
“We have been waiting too. It is good to see you well,” Farica said, her gaze eating up the handsome omega. “We have a lot of questions for you.”
“That is why he’s here. He has the answers I have been searching for my whole life.” Taleb responded. He motioned for his mates to sit on one of the love seats while he sat between them. “What is the prophesy, and will it ever come to pass?”
“You said you are the prophesy.” Wick stood at the front of the room with Justice, their guards standing directly behind them. “Meaning…?”
“History has shown us that the prophesy will always reveal itself when needed. Vampires and shifters are natural enemies, and it is instinctive for you to distance from each other over time. But,” Orion stressed, “if the divide becomes too great, mayhem, rivalry, and war always follow. And then he will resurrect again.”
“The sorcerer of strife,” Taleb said grimly.
“Yes. Like now.” Orion eyed each of them as he spoke, his voice seeping with emotion that kept them riveted and on the edges of their seat. “Your species has never been more divided before Wick came to Justice.” Orion smiled beautifully. “And so it began.”
“How old are you?” Adres asked, remembering this man. Wrath was correct. Adres had rescued him when he was just a boy.
“You remember me now, dark warrior.”
“I do.” Adres frowned, trying to understand.
“I am two hundred and forty-six years old.”
“How is that possible? Shifters, especially omegas, don’t live that long,” Justice said.
“There’s a couple reasons for that, Alpha. One, there is no growing old and weary in the fairy lands. And two, most of all, I am ageless, because the blood of a Titan god courses through my veins.” Orion motioned towards Adres.
“Everything that has happened has been with a specific purpose. My parents were the leaders of the NorthStar pack. My father was an alpha, and my mother a fairy omega. One of the few that were left in the world.” Orion’s tone dropped several octaves, and so did the entire mood of the room. “I was only twelve when my home was raided by a rogue coven of vampires. My entire pack was being murdered before Adres and his brothers appeared.”
All eyes were on Adres, but he was focused on Orion. Now that Adres was whole and had his memories back, he remembered that night as if it had happened yesterday. The curse in him at the time was only a hundred years old, still fresh and wreaking havoc on his life. But Adres had wielded his magical plague like a weapon and had gone after feral and corrupted vampires without mercy.
How could he have forgotten those eyes and the hope and freedom that radiated from Orion’s core when Adres had shoved the small, bloody wolf under his cloak and protected him with his shields? And even though Adres couldn’t pull from his goodness and light at the time, he just knew without question that he had to save Orion. “He was beaten and wounded when I found him. His entire pack was killed, so therefore my brothers and I thought he was as good as dead. Even around the wickedness inside of me, something deep within told me to save him.”
Against his brother’s wishes, Adres had bitten into his wrist and placed it to the pup’s mouth and let him drink. “I healed him with my blood enough to survive the ride on Război’s back all the way to the Monstrous Reef and beyond.” Adres could feel Macauley in his mind reliving the memory with him. He gripped his beloved’s hand for his strength. “I gifted the omega back to the fairies, and in return, they gave me back part of my light that had been shaded by the sorcerer.”
Before Adres had left the fairy lands, he recalled how Orion had reached for his soul with his—perhaps so he’d be able to find him again—but he’d come up empty. The small wolf had whined for him not to go, but Adres didn’t turn around, knowing he would never be permitted to stay. “I prayed he would be safe and that the fairies would give him a good life.”
Now there he was. Strong, gorgeous, mated, and magical.
“If it was not for a horseman, I would be dead by now. He took me to the only place I would be safe. I had already gone through puberty, so my scent would have gotten me killed or taken long ago if I wasn’t hidden away.” Orion touched Taleb and Henry’s cheeks. “I did not know it then, but the prophesy had already begun. The fairies had never seen a horse god, a vampire, risk their life for a shifter. We prayed to the Mother, and it was almost a year before she came and told me my destiny.”