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Part One
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2024-09-18 00:17:52“Kai…” I managed out a whisper. Death touched my soul and I blinked.
Three women sat beside a well. I didn’t recognize this place, but it was breathtakingly beautiful. The women had no faces, yet I felt like I knew them. I had to prove myself for them to reveal their faces to me.
“These are the Norns, they can either bless you or curse you. To change Kai’s fate, you have to honor each of them and perhaps they will reveal to you what you seek most.” Death’s voice was low.
“Where are we?” I asked him, looking around.
“We’re beneath Yggdrasil in Asgard. You have a choice to make, give them what they ask, and they will reveal the past, the present and the future to you. Refuse them and be cursed.”
I walked up to the three women and I bowed before them. In this place, I had no standing, Alpha or not, and to offend them would have consequences. Urdr, Verdandi and Skuld each placed a hand on my head, and I was taken back to the past. I saw Karani, I could feel her, hear her and the pain tore at me. I saw the truth of what I was in her eyes and it blinded me with shock.
Verdandi showed me the present and I smiled briefly. Adara, Kai, Christian, Malachi, James. The people I loved most in this world. I saw her then, angelic, beautiful and I knew that I loved her too, in that moment I wanted to protect her. ‘How did this happen?’ I wondered and Urdr took me back and I could hardly believe what I saw.
Skuld gripped my head and I tasted fear, my own fear. She showed me the future and I couldn’t prevent the tears from rolling down my cheeks. This wasn’t too far ahead in the future, Kai was still a baby, crawling and laughing. I saw the dreadful things that awaited me if I didn’t get their blessing. I saw Kai in the clearing, Adara unable to take his heart from his chest with me and I couldn’t breathe.
I started choking and I was back in my office, gulping for air. Death sat down in front of me, and my hands were shaking. I couldn’t speak and I tried to swallow and comprehend everything I’d just seen.
“I don’t understand,” I said to him and he smiled sadly at me.
“The choice is now yours. You can change his fate by changing yours, give what the Norns ask of you and you will succeed. Now, I have somewhere to be, I do have a full-time job, you know.” Death laughed at his own joke. He disappeared as quickly as he had appeared.
“Holy shit.” I realized that facing Adara would be worse than what the future had in store for me if I couldn’t get her to believe me. I picked up my phone and I called her.
“Where are you?” I asked her when she picked up.
“I was just about to head back home. I forgot my laptop.” I heard annoyance in her voice.
“I’ll see you there in a few minutes.” I grabbed my keys and headed out of the hotel and drove home. My heart was beating so fast that it drowned out all the other noises and my nerves overtook me. I parked in front of the garage and saw that the front door was open.
I walked inside slowly and smelled Malachi, then I got the other shock of my life. A woman was sitting on the kitchen counter. Malachi had no shirt on, and they were kissing. “Take it upstairs, Dad.” Malachi instantly looked up and he looked somewhat guilty, she turned her head towards me and I got another shock.
“Oh, hey, Superstar,” Jessica said to me and I had a million questions that I couldn’t ask now. I had bigger problems than my best friend making out with my father. I shook my head to try and erase that image from my mind.
“Adara’s on her way home. Either get dressed or take it upstairs.” I opened the sliding doors and stood on the patio. After a few minutes Malachi joined me, his shirt on now.
“Are you okay? I know this is a shock, I was planning on telling you about Jess…” The look on my face had his words falter.
“I don’t care, Dad. I have bigger problems. I’ll speak to you after I’ve told Adara.” Her car came up the driveway and I walked around the outside of the house and opened the door for her.
She smiled at me and I wondered briefly how long that smile would last. I took Kai from his car seat and we went inside. I stopped just before we reached the front door.
“I just found Jessica and Malachi making out in the kitchen. You might want to bleach all the counters.” Adara started laughing at me. I loved her laugh.
“Making out? Like teenagers?”
“He was already shirtless, thank the gods she had all her clothes on.” Adara laughed again and walked ahead. I gave Kai to Malachi and told him we needed a minute as I took Adara into the study, the only place in the house where we couldn’t be overheard.
I took a deep breath and started the conversation. “I have to tell you something, a few things, actually.”
“Okay, this doesn’t sound like a good conversation.” She still had a tentative smile on her lips, one that would disappear soon.
“Adara, just know that I love you. I would never intentionally hurt you. I really need you to keep an open mind and believe me.”
The smile on her lips disappeared and she didn’t answer me but sat down on the couch instead. I sat down next to her and took her hand and then I started telling her everything I knew. I should have switched my emotions off, but I wouldn’t let her feel these emotions alone.
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“Death visited me earlier. He took me to a place where I saw three old women, they’re known as the Norns. They see the past, the present and the future. If you’re worthy, they will show you and give you a chance to change your fate.”“Who’s fate? Yours?”“I have a daughter.” Her eyes were wide with anger, but she controlled her voice.“How old?” I knew this was the make-or-break moment.“She was born the day after Kai.”Adara slapped me harder than I thought she could and stood up. She grabbed the first thing she could find on my desk and threw it at my head. The solid steel wolf statuette connected and cut my cheek open. She wasn’t looking at me, she was crying as she grabbed whatever she could find, and I had to turn my back to her.“Adara! Enough!” I yelled at her as she slumped to the floor and sobbed. I bent down in front of her and just held her.“Let me just tell the story. This is as big a shock to me as it is to you. I never cheated.” She didn’t lift her head and I continued
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I emptied half a bottle of Scotch in the time it took James to arrive at the house. I was exhausted and I was scared. I wouldn’t admit that to anyone, but I was. I had no idea what awaited me because I hadn’t even known witches existed.James and I finished the bottle as I told him my story. His eyes held disbelief and the expression on his face was one of utter shock. I left nothing out, I told him everything. He didn’t interrupt me once and for that I was glad. It was hard enough to tell the story twice in one day.I hadn’t slept yet and I knew my eyes were red-rimmed from lack of sleep. I had spent the night looking at Christian and Kai as they slept in our bed next to Adara. Christian saw it as having a sleepover and he loved it.“I don’t know what to say. Witches…shit”“Tell me about it.” I rubbed a hand over my face and sighed.“And Jessica and Malachi? I didn’t see that one coming.” I smiled at the way he said it, the slight frown making it more comical than it was. “What are y
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I gave the pack a moment to settle down, to digest everything I’d told them and let them come to terms with what they’d seen from Jessica. It was a lot to take in and a lot to understand. Once I did that spell, there was no going back, I’d be a half breed.“Dezrael will be coming for Kai because he is my first-born.” I had yet to tell them that I was a half breed.“Why is she coming after Kai?” Frank asked.“Okay, guys, now I’m going to tell you another secret that I only recently found out and then if it’s your choice, I’ll step down as Alpha if that’s what you want.” They all looked at me and I could see the confusion in their eyes.“This sounds worse than a witch coming after your son.”“Karani was a half witch and that makes me a half witch too. She chose her wolf life over that of a witch. Dezrael’s fear is that Kai will draw on Karani’s power one day. She wants Karani’s power for herself and she will try to claim it through my daughter which she thinks is my first-born.”There w
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Malachi glanced at Jessica every so often as he drove towards her house. It had been a long day and the time was creeping closer to midnight. She’d been quiet ever since they left the house and he wished she’d say something.“Jess.”Jessica knew exactly what he wanted to say. Malachi was loyal to a fault, always pushing and putting everyone else first. “No, I’m not going to do it.”“Why not?” The tension in the car was thick and Malachi exhaled slowly as he felt the familiar rise of irritation that could and would turn to anger in the blink of an eye.“You have no idea what you’re doing, he has no idea. That spell I mentioned, I’ve never done it and I don’t know of any witch that has successfully completed the spell.”Malachi remained quiet as he pulled into the garage and Jessica climbed out of the car and pulled the side door open. Malachi gritted his teeth when he noticed that she had yet again failed to lock her doors.“Jess…don’t walk away from me.” Malachi put his keys down on t
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Malachi halted in the doorway as Jessica lay motionless on the bed, the cups falling from his hands as his breath hitched in his throat. She wasn’t breathing and she had no beating heart. Malachi swore under his breath as he looked at her, wanting to touch her but not being able to.It reminded him too much of Karani’s lifeless body and it physically hurt, deep in his soul because he had no idea what to do. He hated feeling powerless and clueless and it didn’t happen often that he did.Malachi could feel his emotions tumbling about, his heart rate slowing, his skin growing cold as fear gripped him. He couldn’t lose her, not like this, not for something he asked her to do, something she hadn’t wanted to do.Malachi stood rooted to the spot, a low buzzing sound in his ears. Jessica was his second chance at life. He’d realized it soon after that first night he’d spent at her house, even with no imprinting bond keeping him to her, he loved her completely.Jessica gasped and her eyes snapp
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