Page 66 of The Awakened Wolf

Odin grabbed the next rock above him and pulled. He was farther up this time, but still not free of the water. The thought of him getting free, of him winning and ruling the world, of all the little girls—since there would be no more pups—with no agency…no personhood. Their minds helpless to the powers of men like Damian. And I knew how the heroines did it.

They were willing to give everything. Their very last drop of blood, their last breath of air, their last moment on Earth, to save the ones they loved. Even the ones who weren’t born yet.

I swam his way, huffing, each pull of my limbs feeling more like a dream and less like reality. I only had the energy for one last try. I crawled up onto a rock behind him and grabbed the laces in the back of his old-fashioned trousers and tugged, groaning. I pulled so hard they came down, puddling around his ankles. Odin looked down and roared in outrage.

He threw himself back into the water, dragging me with him. “There is no place for the Mark of Chann in the new world!”

He grabbed my head with both hands and forced me under. I gulped a breath before he did, and used the power of that air to drive my foot into his crotch as hard as I could. Through water, it wasn’t as hard as I wanted, but he let go of my head. I popped back up, gasping, and he grabbed my wrist, yanking me to him—teeth bared like a wolf.

His hand around my wrist was like ice and vice in one, cold and so intense it felt as if he could rip my hand right off. I had no idea what I thought I was going to do. I had no wolf, no strength. I was a human woman with serious injuries. What power did I have to take down a demi-god?

I pushed him away with my free hand, struggling to keep him from grabbing that one too. A glint of light caught my eye as my ring caught the moon. I made a fist and drove it deep into Odin’s empty eye socket. There was no disgust, only terror at what would happen if I didn’t succeed. I slammed every ounce of my weight into that punch seeking an end to this madness. My ring sliced through the softness at the back of his eye and into his brain.

Lightning cracked.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Thunder. Pain. Searing, crushing pain. More pain than I’d ever experienced—more than any human body could stand. And I knew what it meant. My body was dying.

I was dying.

I blinked, closing my eyes against the brilliance of the blue sky above me. A heavy scent of jasmine and honeysuckle filled my nose, tugging a thread of memory that wound through the pain, drawing me forward to Leto and the Yonder Fields. And yet, the sensation of Sebastian cradling me, his cheek pressed to my hair as he rocked me in his arms, was just as palpable.

A shadow loomed over me, blocking the sun, and I sat up and opened my eyes. A wolf with blinding white fur, long legs, and a refined muzzle stood over me.

Leto.

Beside her stood another white wolf whose blue eyes were oddly familiar, and my heart leapt. “Mother?” I cried, tears springing to my eyes.

“No,” Leto said. “This is not your mother. Look closer.”

The disappointment that flooded me nearly overwhelmed the pain I’d been holding at bay through sheer will. And then I did as Leto asked, fixing my gaze on her companion’s eyes… and it hit me. I was filled with an urge to call to her as I had my mother, but I had no name for her besides my own. I reached for my wolf, and she pressed her muzzle into my hand with a soft whine.

“Am I dead, then?” I asked. “Is it time to cross over to the Yonder Fields?”

Leto shook her massive head, and a soft breeze flared her mane. “Yonder Fields is not for humans. You cannot cross over unless you’re reunited with the rest of your soul.”

The tears brimming in my eyes slipped down my cheeks at this news, and I nodded in resignation. I’d known this was a risk when I plunged my fist into a demi-god’s face. That I might not just die but be left adrift. No life with Sebastian. No reunion with my mother. No Yonder Fields at all. “I’m sorry I failed you, my Goddess.”

“There is time yet,” Leto said. “For you have sent my beloved grandson back to his grave.”

“What?” Though I was elated to have a shred of hope, it was wrapped in deep confusion. “Did you say beloved?”

Leto nodded. “Odin was the tenth pup and seventh male of Chann and his first created mate, Zella, who were very prolific. Marrak’s mate, Neoma, bore only six pups, all of which were females, but for Fenrir. By the time Odin was conceived, Chann’s older sons were already producing pups of their own and each had the ability to create their own mates from humans, whereas Marrak’s children had to rely on Chann’s children to create their mates.”

Chann lorded this over his brother, and in a fit of jealousy, Marrak bit Chann’s mate. It did nothing to her, but stripped her unborn pup—Odin—of his wolf. To prevent Odin from becoming a servant to his wolf brethren, Halo blessed him with incredible mental powers—making him the first Beta—but this only made things worse. Odin grew to hate his family. He took a human mate who bore him a son, but his brothers conspired and bit his mate, turning her and the child into wolves. She left him and joined the pack as one of his brother’s mates. His son grew up to become the father of the Beta bloodlines.

Odin swore revenge upon the Sons of Chann, but was ultimately defeated by Fenrir, the Son of Marrak. The truth was erased from the Old Stories so that Odin’s descendants would never rise against the Alphas. So, yes,” Leto finished, “Odin was my beloved grandson, but the wrongs done upon him do not excuse the wrongs he would have done to the world.”

“He wanted to make all the Betas humans,” I said, “so they could use their combined powers to create a world where humans worshiped him?”

Leto nodded. “And you stopped him, so please don’t say that you failed.”

“But Kiana and I were supposed to work together to do more with our gifts. Now the Mark of Chann is lost again.”

“Perhaps not yet.”

An agonized wail tore through the air, seeming to rent the essence of Leto’s dreamworld itself. My sister’s scream shook me to my core and the pain in my body roared to life as I returned to reality, where my physical self was still doing its best to die. A white light appeared over the ebony waters, blinding at first and then softening into a familiar form.

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