Filed to story: Luna Riannon and Alpha Brayden Novel
“To help you with your choice, of course.” He couldn’t hold back his arrogance. “As well as with your life when you are finally where you belong – by my side.”
“You mean to blackmail me?” she scoffed bitterly.
“We don’t need to say that ugly word.” The God of Vengeance waved the folder before them, and Gideon charged, trying to get to it, shifting into his royal lycan form on his way to give himself a chance. Fenrir had already blessed him, and his magic was igniting inside. However, Vidar blocked his attack effortlessly and sent him flying across the room, knocking dozens of shelves with documents on his way.
Astrea decided against angering the spiteful god more and kept standing, eyes locked with her divine mate.
“That was rude”” he commented. “Now, do you have to be so stubborn? You can’t avoid the inevitable! This was always how it was going to end, and you are lucky I am allowing you to take a friend with you.”
“I’ll go if you-“
“No!” He interrupted her, raising his hand. His tone changed to a much colder one. “The time you could have asked me
anything is long gone! I am offering you the Asgardian crown and your divine status back, and you are still playing hard to get!”
She pursed her lips. Arguing with him was useless if this was what he was thinking.
“I am not playing at all,” she tried to reason, but he wasn’t-interested in listening to her.
“Choose, Astrea! The Queen or the Firstborn.” The words were soaked in venom. “I am counting. Five!”
The Dragonfly hectically tried to think of what to do. If she tried fighting him, both women would be dead. But he wasn’t letting her save a life. He was making her the executor of one of her two closest people.
“Four!” Vidar lifted his chin higher, looking down at her. He was letting her know that her memories did not give her any advantage. Between them two, he was a god and she was a mortal. They were no equals.
“Three!”
Panic struck her. She loved Nikki so much. She tried to save her all the time. Nikki was so young. She still had to experience so much. The poor girl barely got any taste of life.
“Two!” The God of Vengeance flexed his fingers, ready to summon magic and destroy what was so dear to her.
Gideon was running towards them, but she knew it would be for the best if he didn’t reach them in time.
Riannon was lucky to have him. Their love already was a source of so many modern legends. And their son… The family Astrea hasn’t had a chance to meet yet.
Right… Ria had a son. And she was a Queen of a nation. If she died, it would affect so many people
Guilt prickled her for thinking about all this. Those were human lives!
“One!” Vidar’s smile turned into a menacing one as he raised his hand.
“Riannon!” Astrea screamed, covering her face with her hands. The pain washed over her as tears streamed down her cheeks. “Let Riannon go!” She repeated the words, glaring at her mate. “Are you happy now?”
“Not really,” Vidar stepped closer and cupped her face, running his finger over her wet cheek and then licking it slowly in front of her eyes. “But I will be soon.”
He threw the folder at Gideon, and his eyes shifted back to his beautiful mate.
“Go!” Astrea said to the lycan king. “‘ll be fine.”
Gideon hesitated. Leaving her alone was a horrible thing to do, but at the same time, it wasn’t like he could have been of much help when deities were fighting.
“This one will be fine, but anger me again, and your wife will be not!” The deity’s eyes threw daggers at him, and the lycan clenched his fists so hard his knuckles turned white.
“I am almost done here, Astrea,” Vidar said, pulling her closer. “The mortals are going to war, and they will end this world and destroy each other for me. Just the way the Moonrise Kingdom had already done once. Only with the weapons and powers they have now it will be quicker and more effective. At least a thousand years will have to pass for this realm to thrive again after I am done with them.
Thanks to that, gods will replenish their powers, and I will rule them as their Saviour forever.”
“Why are you telling me all this?” She scowled at him, trying to distance herself, but he did not let her. It was unbelievable how much she hated him, yet felt all the tingles and sparks of the mate bond simultaneousy. It was the cruellest form of a curse and the sole reason for him pursuing her.
“I am tired of waiting,” he confessed, studying her face. “I want to hear the words from you, but I don’t want to waste any more of our time.”
She swallowed the lump that formed in her throat.
“Therefore, I want to speed up your choice making process too.”
Astrea didn’t realise what he was doing until it was too late.
Vidar leaned down to her face, his palm curling around her neck and down to the back of her neck and shoulder.
Piercing pain rippled through her, and she screamed so loudly that Fenir heard her underground, his heart hitching at the sound
She finally grew her claws and slashed his face, making the God of Vengeance let go of her, shocked by her actions
Blood dripped from his cheek to the floor as Astrea fell to her knees, feeling unwell.
“Too late!” the deity hissed, looking behind her. It took all Astrea’s strength to follow his gaze as searing agony coursed through her. veins, draining her of power at the same time.
Through her blurry vision, she noticed a dull glow right next to her, moving hectically. She narrowed her eyes to see it better, gasping when she realised it was a small glowing dragonfly.
“What did you do?” She whispered, her fingers moving to her back to feel the scorched skin where her dragonfly tattoo used to be just a moment ago.
“It was about time,” Vidar said coldly, watching her kneeling on the ground. She didn’t even remember how she fell. “It’s your last life, anyway. I decided to make it shorter to speed up your decision-making. After all, this dragonfly held you in this world, Astrea. Now, without Freyja’s gift, you have days, if not hours. Your connection with the dragonfly is severed.”
Fenrir and Warg were on their way to the underground cell, where Salome was detained until the Southern Alpha Convocation decided what they were going to do to her. By the local laws, she was under their full power. Although Fenrir hated leaving Astrea alone even for a moment, he also knew that Warg would get himself in trouble if he didn’t see the witch.
“She’ll be fine,” he commented, watching his creation pacing over the small elevator space.
“You can make everything fine right now,” the first lycan looked at him with his brows furrowed, that half-begging, half-expectant expression on his tired face. “No offence, Rir, but you can destroy this building, free our friend, take Astrea, and we can all go home.”
“I wish it was as easy as this,” the wolf god grunted. “If I do that, someone else will have to pay for these actions. We have already brought enough imbalance into this world, and although it always feels right at the moment, the feeling gets sour over time when I see the consequences.
There has to be another way. This world can’t take any more divine intervention anytime soon.”
“When did you start caring about the world? I thought you were done with it!” Warg folded his large arms over his chest.
“When I saw a future for it,” the deity admitted, adding, “and when I realised no one else gives a damn about any of it.”
“All I am saying is we could have destroyed that place, taken Salome and Astrea and returned to Solace,” the lycan frowned. “You can keep it safe for a few hundred years. I am sure.”
“And then what?” Fenrir’s jaw tightened. “Neither Astrea nor Salome will live this long, and what do we do then? When the world around Solace ceases to exist, what will our children do?”
Warg stiffened, searching for a reply. “I guess what I am trying to tell you is that the world is not our responsibility.
They were never kind to us.”
“Well, that’s on them,” Fenrir countered. “What does it have to do with me and what I choose to do? Letting them die will make none of us feel better. Trust me, I have already been down that road once.”
“Why don’t the mortals save themselves for once?” the lycan offered a disgruntled scoff.
“They did. So many times.” Fenrir sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Gods were choosing their champions for a reason, giving powers to those who were willing to make the necessary sacrifices. Those powers aren’t really gifts, Warg. The price for them is higher than any benefit they bring to their owner. What goes around, comes around.
This is why I don’t want to abandon them now when I am partially at fault. We may not have started it, but Vidar wants to wipe this realm clean because of what Joran and I did during the Northern war. Blessing all those warriors was a mistake. I knew I should have walked away back then. But-“
“It felt right at the time-” Warg closed his eyes, realising it was the end of the argument. They would have to find another way.
“Yeah.”
The elevator doors opened, and they walked into an immaculately clean white corridor. The southern prison for high-profile captives was minimalistic and well-maintained, just like they expected. The two men showed their permission slip from one of the southern Alphas’ to the guards and were led to the only door with markings on it.
Fenrir recognised magical-blocking runes at once; knowing that Salome wouldn’t be able to break out of there even if she tried.
One of the guards pressed a button, and a small window at the top of the door opened, revealing Salome sitting on the ground in a meditation pause. She didn’t even flinch at the sounds.
“Sal,” Warg rushed forward, but Fenrir held him in place.
Salome opened her eyes, immediately trying to blink away the tears that formed, seeing the two men.