by Tabke, Karin
Like Frankenstein after the electrical storm, new life surged through the wolf. His eyes narrowed. “You have awoken the beast,” he said menacingly, and threw his hands at the three of them, sending lightning bolts straight at them. They separated to dodge them and when they did Fenrir jumped into the air and focused solely on Falon, lighting her up with one jagged bolt after another. One struck her in the shoulder and, as if she had been hooked, Fenrir continued to rise into the black of night, reeling her in to him.
Rafael jumped up, and grabbed her right arm, Lucien her left, and pulled her toward them, but Fenrir’s power was too much. He continued to rise, pulling her with him, drawing her deeper into the turbulent sky.
“Release me!” she commanded. Wild wind tore at her hair; ripping her father’s amulet from her neck. Her hands clamped numbly to Rafe’s and Lucien’s, but she felt them slipping away. Rafe grabbed her leg, Lucien her waist, refusing to let go, but even the power of the three was not enough to stop Fenrir from dragging her skyward.
“Return to the ring!” Falon commanded again but her words were swept from her mouth by the wind before they were heard.
Rafe! Lucien!
Falon, Rafe said, grasping her waist with his left arm. Take the Cross and give it your best shot.
As she grabbed it from him, Fenrir struck it from her hand with another lightning bolt.
He laughed, and pulled her higher, faster. Her eyes teared, blinding her.
Fenrir roared furiously at the same time her body stopped its ascent as if she had been anchored to earth. His tyrannical hold on her loosened.
“My God,” Lucien and Rafe said at the same time.
Forcing her eyes open, and willing them to focus, Falon looked down and her heart literally stopped. From the ground, like a ladder, holding on to Lucien and Rafael were hundreds if not thousands of Lycan.
My God. Ghost walkers. Those that had been slain had risen.
Emotion mushroomed in her chest. The enormity of what she had done stunned her. She could not speak or breathe or even hear or feel, she was so overcome with awe.
An ethereally beautiful woman with Lucien’s smile and golden eyes handed her the Cross. “Destroy him, daughter, so that we may live.”
Falon choked back a sob, unable to process what was happening, but her instincts guided her. She nodded, and took the sword. With her alphas and the ghost walkers anchoring her, omnipotent power emblazoned through her. This moment in time churned to the speed of a slow-motion reel. It was why she had been created. What she lived for. Her destiny. She would see it done!
Rising above Fenrir, Falon lunged, plunging the sword deep into his heart. “You lose!”
He howled in furious pain. His enormous body writhed and jerked against the steel, shaking Falon like a rag doll. But she held on, digging the blade to the hilt into his black heart. She came face-to-face with him, eye to eye; his dank, hot breath singed her cheeks.
“You lose all,” she sneered as his heartbeat shuddered against the blade. “And now . . .” She reached into his chest with her left hand, and pulled out his beating black heart. “You don’t even have a heart.”
Holding it up, Falon shouted, “Come, take his heart, Witch! Take it and never return!”
Gilda’s gleeful cackles swirled around them as the wind shifted. The specter of the druid witch appeared. Hands outstretched, she snatched the black heart from Falon’s hand.
“The price is paid!” Gilda cried as she whirled away to a place Falon could not fathom. And did not want to.
It was time to finish what fate had set into motion. With both hands she withdrew the sword from Fenrir’s chest. Raising it high above him, in a wide two-handed swipe, she separated Fenrir’s head from his body and watched it fall to the ground, turning to dust before it landed.
It was over.
For long exhausted moments, Falon stared at the ground and the dust that once was the terrible wolf Fenrir.
It was over, she told herself again.
Her brain could not process that information. For so long the fear of the rising affected everything she did. Everything she felt. Knowing in the back of her mind that no matter what she did, it would not matter because she and the ones she loved would not survive.
But they had survived! She laughed. They had survived!
“We won!” she cried, looking at her beloved alphas. Throwing her arms around them both she cried, “We won! We’re alive!” Emotion overwhelmed her, and with it the tears started. “We’re alive,” she sobbed, unable to keep it all in.
“Yes, angel face,” Lucien said, hugging her tightly. “Thanks to you, we’re all alive.”
“Brave, brave, Falon,” Rafa said, kissing her forehead. “You are amazing.”
“Let’s go home,” Luca said.
“Home,” she breathed. “Yes, home.”
When they settled back to the ground, the battle of evermore was over. Slayer dust and abandoned swords littered the field. Blood saturated the ground. In wonder, Falon saw that not one Lycan life had been lost.
How could that be? She witnessed Fenrir’s slaughter of hundreds. Had they risen with the others? Did it matter? What mattered was—they had all survived.
Falon stood back as she watched the emotional reunion between Rafa, Luca, and their parents. They cried like little boys, hugging and kissing them. It was heartwarming and heartbreaking to watch. Her hand slid to her belly. It was what she wanted for her child. A loving solid family. Something she’d never known and something her alphas had longed to have returned. Tears, those damn tears, stung her eyes again. It was beautiful to watch them interact, touching, caressing, kissing, and hugging. Tamaska could not keep her hands off her sons, and Arnou, so much like Rafael, could not stop smiling and wiping at his eyes.
Like Rafael and Lucien, the packs swarmed around their long-lost relatives. Petra nudged Falon’s bloody hand, and leaned into her as if to say, “I haven’t forgotten you.”
Rubbing her behind her ears, Falon was grateful for the friend.
“Falon!” Rafe and Lucien called, pushing through the crowd. She smiled and ran to them, caught up in their embrace.
“C’mon, angel face,” Luca said, kissing her nose. “Rafe and I have some very special people we want you to meet.”
“It would be my pleasure,” she said, smiling so wide her face hurt.
“They already love you,” Rafa said, a lilt in his voice she had never heard before.
As they approached, Falon slowed her pace. Naked was not how she envisioned meeting her alphas’ parents for the first time. Tamaska felt her discomfort and took the soft doeskin tunic from her shoulders and slid it over Falon’s head.
“Is that better, Daughter?” she asked warmly.
It was the second time she’d called Falon that, and the second time emotion tightened hard in her chest.
The great alpha Arnou extended his hand. She took it. It was big and warm like his sons’. Then he pulled her gently into the fold of his arms and hugged her. “Our prayers have been answered,” he said with a smile in his voice. “Our family is complete now that we have a daughter.”
Overcome with emotion, she didn’t know what to say so she simply nodded her head. Her prayers, too, had been answered. She had a father she could respect and a loving mother who would sacrifice her own life for her children’s. She was part of a family that would never cast her aside.
She had found her place in the world, and for the first time since she was born, Falon knew who she was and where she belonged.
It was good to be home.
Epilogue
Eight months later, Vulkasin compound
IF FALON WASN’T in so much pain, she’d laugh at the way the three alphas, Arnou, Rafa, and Luca paced nervously at the foot of the bed she shared with the two of them.
Tamaska’s eyes, so much like Lucien’s, twinkled. If any of the pack witnessed the fear in any of their alphas’ eyes, they would be shocked.
“What is taking so long?” Lucien demanded of his mother. “It’s been two days!”
Rafael stopped his pacing long enough to swipe his hand through his golden hair. “How long does it take, Mother?”
“Tami?” Arnou quietly asked.
Falon looked at the serene beauty. She was the calm in the craziness that ensued after the rising. It was as if no time had passed. Arnou had been alpha when he was killed; he resumed the role without one stumble or grumble from the pack. Respectfully both his sons stepped aside. But Arnou was not about to take the pack responsibility solely on his shoulders. Rafael stood to his right, while Lucien stood on his left. Falon and Tamaska together before them. They were as united in heart and spirit as a pack could be. Never once had Falon doubted that Arnou or Tamaska would not lay down their lives for their sons or their sons’ chosen one.
If she had felt a sense of belonging to Vulkasin when she was with Rafael and Mondragon, when she was with Lucien, she had no true understanding of what a real family was until the packs reunited under Arnou and Tamaska.
There had been joyous celebrations for a month. And as Falon was two weeks past her due date, so, too, were the pack females. They waited only for the Vulkasin heir to be born so that their babies could be born, too.
A sharp pain shot across Falon’s belly. She cried out in surprised pain. It was not a contraction. Tamaska’s knowing eyes caught and held Falon’s. “Take deep cleansing breaths, Falon, and slowly exhale.”
Falon nodded, the pressure of the baby’s head making her want to push him from her. “It’s time to start pushing,” Tamaska said, just as Talia came in with more clean linens.
Rafa and Luca scrambled on either side of Falon, nervously wanting to touch her but afraid to. “Each one of you put your hands beneath her knees. Talia, support Falon’s back. When I say, push, you lift her knees and press them to Falon when she pushes.”
The brothers looked at each other, then at Falon, and exhaled. “Ready, baby?” Rafa asked.
Before she could reply, her womb constricted painfully.
“Push, daughter!” Tamaska urged.
Talia’s steady hands supported her back as she rose; gritting her teeth, Falon pushed. As the contraction waned, Falon lay back in the bed. Luca slid the sheet back across her naked body and leaned into her, taking her hand into his. “What can I do for you, angel face?”
“Nothing,” she gasped as another contraction quickly built.
“Push,” Tamaska said, and once again, with Talia to support her back and her two alphas supporting her legs, Falon pushed.
She pushed for hours. Her tired, naked body was sweat-soaked. When either Luca or Rafa tried to soothe her with cool compresses or words of encouragement, she pushed them away. She didn’t want to be touched or cajoled; she wanted the baby out!
“The head is crowning, Falon,” Tamaska said. “Give me three more big pushes.”
Exhausted, Falon tried. This time, Talia took a knee, while Rafe supported her back. As a team they pushed. Falon strained, bearing her teeth, and screamed as the baby’s head pushed out of her. Panting heavily, the next contraction came slamming through her almost before the last one ended. She screamed again as she pushed.
“The head is out,” Tamaska said evenly. “Two more pushes.”
“I can’t,” Falon gasped, falling back into Rafa’s arms. “Too tired.”
“You can do it, Falon,” Rafa said, gathering her up.
“You killed Fenrir, you can push a baby out of you,” Luca chided.
The contraction seized her belly. Rafe lifted her as Luca and Talia pushed her knees up and toward her. “The shoulders are out,” Tamaska cried. A second later she happily announced, “We have a granddaughter, Arnou!” The baby’s lusty cry startled them all. “A beautiful, blond granddaughter.”
“Let me see her,” Falon whispered, anxious to meet her daughter. Her body continued to contract.
Falon caught the disappointment in Luca’s eyes. He had hoped she would bear him a son, but it was Rafa’s seed that struck home that night in the pond. And while she was sad for Luca, her heart was overcome with happiness.
A grinning Rafa took the baby from his mother. He kissed the little mite on the forehead, and with tears in his eyes he looked down at Falon as he laid the warm baby on her chest. “We have a daughter, Falon.” As he leaned over to kiss her, warm tears dropped on her cheeks. “Thank you, my love, I will treasure her always.”
As their lips met, another painful contraction gripped her. Falon cried out, holding her daughter to her breast. “I feel like I’m still in labor,” she said, fighting the urge to push.
“The afterbirth must be delivered. I need you to push one more time,” Tamaska said.
Taking the baby from her, Rafa handed his daughter off to his father as he took Luca’s place at Falon’s knee as Luca moved to her back.
Luca’s concerned golden eyes caught and held Falon’s.
You would tell me if something is wrong? she asked him, feeling as if something were wrong.
I would never lie to you, angel face.
“Push!” Tamaska commanded.
Falon pushed with the little bit of strength she had left in her. But when she heard another baby’s cry, and not that of her daughter, adrenaline spiked through her. She pushed to sit up.
“We have a black-haired grandson, Arnou!” Tamaska announced, holding the lusty baby boy up for all to see.
“My son?” Luca asked in disbelief.
“Two babies?” Falon asked in more disbelief.
Tamaska smiled and quickly tended to the baby, before she placed him on Falon’s chest where his sister had laid just minutes before.
“Two babies, Falon,” Talia said happily. “I have a niece and a nephew!”
The only emotion that overrode Falon’s shock was her joy.
Twins! A Vulkasin daughter and a Mondragon son. Lord help them all!
Helping Falon to sit up, Rafa gently took his daughter from his father and set her in the crook of Falon’s right arm while Luca set his squalling son in her left. Tamaska continued to do what midwives did, while Falon smiled through the happy tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I love you both so much,” she sobbed, barely able to speak. She gazed in wonder at her perfect daughter, and then at her perfect son, and wondered what she had done to be so blessed.
Luca leaned in, and kissed her. “Thank you, my love, for such an extraordinary gift. I promise we will not allow him to be the butt head that his father is notoriously known for.”
Falon smiled. “I would have him no other way.”
“I suspect his older sister will keep him jumping through hoops,” Rafa laughed. “She may be blond but I’ll bet anything she’ll be as demanding as her mother.”
“I’m not demanding!” Falon defended.
“Had you not been so demanding, my love, we would not all be here today, together as a family,” Rafa said. “There are no words, Falon, to express to you how grateful I am that you decided to steal a sandwich that fateful night one year ago.”
She smiled as she thought back to the night she met Rafa, the night her life changed forever.
“Nor can I.”
And with the birth of the Vulkasin twins, a rash of other births followed. All told, sixty-three babies were born within a week of the twins to pack Vulkasin, the most powerful Lycan pack in the world.
And while they were enjoying their peace and prosperity, another Lycan gave birth at the same time the Vulkasin twins entered the world. This one knew no comfort of family or warmth of shelter. Alone, she gave birth on a cliff overlooking the churning Be
ring Sea.
When the once regal Lycan laid eyes on the half wolf, half human creature that emerged from her womb, she howled mournfully at the full moon. Damning every Vulkasin, she swore eternal vengeance on them.
The babe mewled, the sad, sickly sound stirring the maternal part of her that wanted nothing to do with the abomination. The babe continued its sad little cry and she could ignore it no longer. Taking it into her arms, she brought it to her breast, and he latched on to a nipple, suckling greedily.
From the ashes around her, a terrible specter rose hovering above her. Protectively, she tightened her arms around the babe and looked up.
“He is mine!” she hissed at the familiar but unwelcome form.
“Only because I gave you my seed,” the specter countered.
“Leave us!” she commanded.
“Return to your pack, Anja. Give him what I never had.”
“They will shun him! I will raise him here, away from the pitiful stares and mocking laughs.”
The specter rose higher. “Then he shall know my pain and it will be his legacy!”
* * *
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About the Author
Karin Tabke is a full-time writer who draws on a lifetime of stories and backdrops that few outside of the law enforcement community ever see, let alone hear about. Controlled chaos now reigns supreme through the pages she writes, where hot heroes serve, protect, and pleasure from page one to the end. Visit her at www.KarinTabke.com.
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