Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 92232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
He shakes his head and continues. “She’s in danger. They are after her, not the ones who took her from me, but the hunters. I felt them coming for her. I should be the one there to protect her. It should be me,” he roars the last sentence in anguish.
“We will find her, my brother, but I need you to reel it in.”
“I can’t go through this again. Not this time, not with her,” he says brokenly.
Reilly has been through as much loss as I have. To have the power of life and death, but the one time you’re needed, you fail—that’s a heavy burden to bear.
“I don’t understand. Who are these people? How do they know how to hinder me?”
“I do not know, but I am sure we will find her.”
“I don’t even know her name. I felt she was in danger, and I went to her. She knew who I was, but I never got her name. Why does she keep slipping through my grasp? Why does love taunt me like this?”
“Is this the same mate you recognized before?”
“I do not know. I don’t see how that could be possible, but…. We only get one, so would it not have to be?
“I only felt her the first time. I caught her scent for but a moment in the past. It was a bit different this time. Gods, she’s beautiful. I have to find her,” he says and stumbles over to an overturned chair.
He rights it and flops down into it. It’s still not safe to get close, but I can feel him reeling it in. Aravos, our gate troll, enters the room.
I look up at him. He never leaves the caves. It is his job to guard the supers’ entrance on the lower level.
He drops to one knee, shaking the room with his size. Slow and cautiously, he bows his head to me, then Reilly. I nod for him to speak.
“Master Reilly, you have a visitor down at the gate,” Aravos says.
“Who is it?” Reilly says dejectedly.
Aravos holds up his hand and opens it. Reilly’s birth tags hang from Aravos’s thick, huge palm. Our birth tags are one of the only gifts we can say we have from our father. The other might as well be a curse.
They are chains with gemmed charms hanging from them. Within the gems are pieces of the blessed iron used to cut us from our mother’s womb.
We all have them and have worn them from the time we were boys. Reilly jumps from his seat and grabs the birth tags from Aravos.
“Where is she?”
“I asked her to wait at the gate when I was told you were in crisis.” Aravos doesn’t get his words out before Reilly vanishes from sight.
“You are all mated now. I will only allow coined entries. Make sure the brotherhood knows. You feel me?” Aravos says.
I turn to him and find him staring at me intently. He may be a troll, but he’s earned his patch like all the rest. He wears his Immortal Iron Brothers cut with pride too.
“I feel you, brother. Rock will be informed to enforce the new rule and get the coins out to the captains to make sure they are distributed.”
“Will it be your crest?”
I create the coin in question and flip him the first of its kind. It’s a mix of my crest, but I add a time dial. I’m not sure why. It just feels right as I craft it.
He stands and bows his head. A light portal appears and he walks into it, traveling back to his post. Trolls are solitary beings. We don’t see much of Aravos if we’re not looking to pass through the gate.
Looking around, I shake my head. This place is a mess. I wave a hand and things are back to the way they were, good as new. Crisis averted. I return to my mate and our attic date.
Charlie
“Hello, sister.”
I rush into the open arms of the woman in front of me. Lee Ann has been in this clubhouse for three days and this is the first time I’m getting to lay eyes on her. Venus bursts into tears as my sister takes me into her embrace.
Without question, this is Yanique. We are both sure of it. She has the same face, same aura, same presence.
“She hasn’t changed a bit. I can feel her power,” Venus sobs.
Lee Ann releases me and looks me in the eyes. She cups my face and smiles. Her gaze drops to my belly and her smile grows wider.
“You did it, sister. You got him here, but you didn’t follow our other instructions. You didn’t let go.”
“I got confused. I tried, but my heart was so heavy. When it was time to step through, I got confused and couldn’t leave,” Venus pushes through to say.