Page 54 of The Alpha's Mates

“It’s time for you to go home.”

Everyone let out the breaths we were holding. “Home?” I asked, looking over at Soren.

“Not that home,” she said, sending Soren a beaming smile. “I knew her plan to include the three of you would make a difference.”

“What?” he asked.

She waved her hand and left that sentence to hang cryptically in the air. “It’s time for you to go to the place you were born.”

The blood drained from my face. I wasn’t ready for that. There was still so much to do before I went home and faced my father and brothers. The finality of her words settled on my shoulders, heavy and oppressive. I somehow knew she was right. I had to face them. Face whatever lay in wait there for me.

We all tensed as Celinda rose from her log. Her bones creaked in the silence as she walked around the campfire. She was zeroed in on Emma.

My friend cast me a worried look as the old woman approached her. I shrugged, unsure of what we should do.

“And you…” Celinda smiled. “Oh, how long I’ve waited for you.” Celinda reached out gnarled fingers and brushed them over Emma’s cheek. As soon as they made contact, a shock wave blasted through the cave, throwing us all backward off our seats.

I gasped as I stared up at the ceiling of the cave, trying to catch my breath even though my chest felt like a tree laid upon it. The crow was flying in circles, cawing in anger. Scrambling to my hands and knees, my eyes found Emma where she lay, still as a statue. My eyes widened with horror. Celinda was nothing but a pile of bones.

“Em!” I croaked, and hurried over to her side.

Her eyes were open, unseeing, a slow film of gold covering them. She didn’t respond when I shook her by the shoulder. Her future mates were standing nearby, unsure of how to help her.

Jessu rushed in, looking from the bones to Emma, shock covering his features. “What happened?”

“You tell us!” Griff roared. “You sent us in here and that fucking woman poisoned our mate!”

“We need to get her back to the village,” Atlas said, ever the voice of reason.

Holden picked Emma’s prone body up and cuddled her close as we all raced back to the safety of Jessu’s village. I fought back tears the entire way. If I’d known that going into that cave would harm Emma, I wouldn’t have let her come along. I watched as Holden placed her gently on a bed in the hut they’d been given.

“Celinda just…disintegrated,” I told Jessu, voice hoarse.

He sighed, meeting my eyes. “We had a theory.”

“Who’s we?” Griff demanded. Reign and Bane curled up next to Emma’s sides in wolf form, keeping her warm.

“Tellura, Vera, and I,” Jessu answered, his voice calm. “The oldest recorded shifter was three hundred and twenty years old.” We nodded. That was very well known information. “And humans have even shorter lifespans. Celinda was clearly older than three hundred.” He paused, waiting for us to pick up on his implications.

“You think she’s a Goddess,” Soren said, putting the pieces together.

“I don’t know,” he answered, aggravated. “She never answered our questions pertaining to who she was. Always just said that wasn’t for us to know. She was certainly more than a shifter. But what else could she be?”

“Why would a Goddess do something to Emma?” I asked.

“It was just a theory. We don’t actually know who, or what, she was.”

“And now we never will,” Calder muttered.

A coughing sound made us all fall silent. I rushed over to Emma’s side as she groaned and sat up.

“Ow.” She looked around, confusion written on her face. “When did we get back…” She frowned, cocking her head, staring at the wall as she trailed off. “Oh boy.”

“What?” I asked, putting my hand on her forehead. “What’s going on?”

“Her vessel,” she whispered, eyes glazed over in gold. She passed out again before I could ask her what she meant.

I shook my head and looked helplessly at Soren over my shoulder. “I don’t understand,” I told him. “What’s happening?”

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