Chapter 128 Return
Chapter 128 Back home
"There's no way to check how they did it," Alpha Fineasta says, his voice defeated. He darts his eyes toward the space where Cat stood, his posture rigid. "Is that...?"
"Our High Priestess? Yes," Kade replies, his voice heavy with pride as he draws nearer.
Alpha Fineasta gasps, his stature shrinking.
"How? How can she manifest such... such divinity?"
"She is a High Priestess of the bloodline," Naville points out, moving closer, her own wounds glowing with a dull, magical light. A deep scratch mars her neck and forehead, but she is standing.
"She carries the Sky Stone. Her mate was in danger. It would be ridiculous if she sat still while we were being butchered."
She gestures to the carnage.
"The Human-Alphas are dead. The source is severed."
"Zephyra," I whisper, the name feeling like a prayer. My heart swells with a mixture of awe and desperate relief. The wolf didn't just fight; she eradicated. She wove through the swarm with a fluid, predatory grace that belonged to a deity, not a beast.
"I think we should take the dead human and..." Kade begins, then stops, looking down at the half-shifted wolves lying in the cooling ash.
"Whatever these things are, we should take them to the High Priestess," He continues, while I Struggle to my feet. My ribs scream in protest, and my blood continues to leak onto the cold stone, but I stand.
"What? To bury them?" Naville asks, her voice sharp.
"To save them," Kade insists.
"They're dead, Kade. Burnt, broken, and hollowed out," Fineasta snaps.
"Her Majesty fought with worse than these at the Proving," Kade argues.
"She knows the secret of the transition."
I reach out to my mate through the bond. Zephyra?
Evander! Her voice is a beacon of light in my head. A smile sets on my face—a fragile, beautiful thing.
I'm fine. Cat saved us. I listen to her heave out a deep, shaking sigh. I feel the warmth of her relief hit my arm like a physical touch. I look up. The sun is starting to set, painting the cave entrance in shades of bruised orange and gold.
"And she raised those who were dead in the Proving," Kade continues, his voice pulling me back to the present.
"You think she can raise these?"
"NO. We're not taking them," I cut in before Fineasta can argue.
"What? Why?" Naville’s voice pitches high with frustration.
"She's pregnant," I roar, the force of it rattling my own teeth.
"She will absolutely not be using a power that drains her life force even when she wasn't carrying our heirs. We are leaving them here."
Silence stretches, thick and heavy. The soldiers move to carry the injured, their faces somber.
"I'm sorry, Alpha. I didn't think about the strain," Kade says, his head bowing.
"We can keep them in stasis through wolf-heat. Freeze their bodies in a cycle until she delivers," Fineasta suggests, his political mind already calculating the utility of the remains.
"That could work," Naville adds.
I don't answer. I just stare at the spot where Cat’s blue light vanished, the phantom cold of her presence still lingering on my skin.
"She saved me," I murmur, more to myself than to them.
"That's our Queen," Fineasta says, a hint of genuine fear and respect in his tone.
"She saved us all."
I have no strength left to reply. I look toward the southern horizon, toward the palace where she waits, and I know that whatever war is coming, it has already lost. You cannot kill a King who is protected by a Goddess, and you cannot conquer a woman who holds the stars in her hands.
"Load the survivors," I rasp, my voice gaining strength with every passing second.
"We’re going home."
I limp toward the truck, my gaze fixed on the distance. I can feel her through the bond- steady, happy, and frightened. I can also feel the twins, flickering like two tiny, strong stars within her womb.
I don't just want to go home; I need to get there before the adrenaline fades and the reality of what just happened sets in. I have a debt to repay to the universe, and a lifetime of names to pick out with the woman who just moved mountains to keep me breathing.