Then finally the moment came—her breath caught in her chest as her entire body detonated in a fury of unleashed pleasure. It permeated every single cell of her being, making her feel as though she had been lifted from her reality and flung into the heavens as she screamed her pleasure for the world to hear.
She could feel her mates follow her over in their own orgasms, their muscles tightening, bodies wrapped around hers. Corrine must have grabbed each of their hands because she felt her fingers twined around theirs, the three of them connected in a way that was truly divine.
When she opened her eyes, it was to both of her mates, the warm golden eyes of her cougar and the sky-blue eyes of her wolf.
“From now until eternity, love.” Braxas kissed her before letting Gabe do the same.
As Corrine lay in the arms of the two men she never dreamed could be hers, she knew that the Goddesses truly did have a plan for them all. She had learned that despite the pain of her journey, if she held fast to what she believed in and stood up for what was right, then the rewards would be far greater than she could ever have imagined.
Epilogue
Braxas couldn’t stop smiling after the night he and Gabe had shared with Corrine. They had made love to her several more times throughout the night, and as promised, one of those times had been under the soothing waterfall. He cursed the morning, wishing they didn’t have to leave, but Grahame would be waiting for them at his house to take them directly to the village to meet up with the others.
He knew they did not have much time to linger in the Fae Realm, as important pack matters required their almost immediate attention. Before they left, the rogues who had been transported to pack property, had shifted their allegiance and were given temporary sanctuary. Some rogues had managed to escape amidst the chaos, but whether they’d rejoined his cousin Zayden and his cowardly sidekick Nyx, still remained to be seen.
Braxas knew his cousin well enough to expect him to regroup. The fact that they were able to gain access to Dark objects also had him concerned. Something much bigger was headed their way soon. Braxas could feel it. He only hoped that they would be ready to face it together.
He wasn’t at all surprised that the rogues who’d defected to their side knew very little about the objects obtained. A few of them had heard rumors though about an underground market that was held in constantly changing locations, and they were puzzled as to why shifters would seek out weapons in the first place.
What was surprising was finally getting to see some of the effects their new triad mating had produced. It seemed that Braxas’s pard had responded to Gabe’s Alpha authority as they responded to him. It was the same with how Gabe’s pack members responded to Braxas now. Before the exchange of blood between himself and Gabe, the pack and pard simply acknowledged the other’s authority as a form of respect and allegiance. They were truly unified now. He supposed it would work much the same with having two Betas and so forth in the chain of authority, but his theory would have to be tested later when his brooding Kat returned.
His fierce Beta had been hurt pretty badly, and yet, he knew she was out there, already on his cousin’s trail. He suspected that her immediate disappearance into her work might have also had to do with her reaction to the two High Dorum and theirs to her. He made a mental note to get to the bottom of that with her when she returned. He’d reassure her that they could be trusted. They both may be arrogant know-it-alls, he thought—especially Alak, but he knew they were also good men.
He, Gabe, and Corrine ate breakfast quickly and then packed up their things after reluctantly getting dressed. Grahame was already waiting for them before the turnoff to his house. He failed miserably at hiding his knowing smirk.
“I trust you had a pleasant evening?” he asked.
“I imagine ours was a bit more interesting than fishing,” Corrine saucily replied, making all three men chuckle. “Will you be meeting up with Ishaya there?”
“Indeed,” Grahame said.
Healthy this time around and without taking too much time to rest along the way, they were able to make the journey in a day and a half. As they entered the village, it seemed to be abuzz with activity. Villagers headed in every direction, stopping to talk to their neighbors. There hadn’t been so much activity the last time they had been here.
“There have been whisperings from the Goddess, more so of late,” Grahame remarked on the scene. “There must be some sort of development.”
It certainly was quite the development, Braxas observed when they finally arrived at the only two-story structure in the village, that upon closer inspection, turned out to be a meeting place for the Dorum council.
It looked very much like someone’s house from the outside, the face of the building comprised of inviting yellow brick, trimmed grass and bushes, colorful flowers that Braxas had never seen anywhere else other than this side of the Veil, and a paved walkway leading up to an ornately carved wooden door. Inside, however, the small foyer led into a grand room with high ceilings and a candlelit chandelier. Instead of pews, there were rows of either cushy looking chairs or couches facing the front. There was no podium in the front of the large room, only more comfortable looking couches.
Though the place actually looked like it would be a very relaxed meeting place, the atmosphere in the room was currently anything but at the moment. Loud arguing voices rang around the room, some for, some against, and some undecided, though it took a few moments for Braxas to see what all the fuss was about.
He heard Corrine gasp just before she ran up to the first-row seating area where Erica and her men currently occupied one of the couches. He and Gabe began to make their way up to the front of the room, and as they got closer, it all became suddenly clear.
Erica sat with a baby in her arms. Leo huddled close on one side of her, and Ben, who sat on the other side of her, was also holding a baby. By the pale gray tone of the children’s skin, he guessed that these must be the orphaned twins they’d been told about.
He saw Erica looking down at the bundle in her arms, then glancing at the other bundle with a besotted, dreamy look upon her face. She seemed not to be paying attention to any of the proceedings as her men, as well as Alak and Aeron, argued passionately, in favor of the trio adopting the babies.
“Our Goddess has willed it so,” Aeron declared to the crowd.
“Do you dare to go against her will?” Alak asked the opposition.
Braxas noticed how even though the opposition still looked obstinate, they were not unaffected when the two High Dorum spoke. Braxas equated this to how shifters responded to their Alphas.
“We cannot allow these Dark Fae children to be raised by their kind,” said one angry woman, pointing a finger at Erica, Ben, and Leo, her tattoos moving across her arms as she argued. “Our Goddess is the one who separated us from their kind. Did she not?”
“And with good reason,” added a man sitting next to her. “They are selfish beings. Our children should be raised by their own kind.”
“Selfish?” Alak roared. “That woman,” he pointed at Erica, “nearly sacrificed her life, and did sacrifice her ability to bear children in order to protect her people from a tyrant. Those men beside her are shifters, not Fae, and yet they nearly died as well for the Fae cause.”
“The time for separatism to come to an end is upon us,” Aeron added. “It is time for us all to band together if we are to survive what has been foreseen.”
“I am inclined to agree with you, cousins,” came a soft-spoken voice from the back of the room.
“Thank you, Aneena,” Aeron said.
But it appeared that their cousin had more to say. “Though I agree with you about bringing our peoples together, including shifter kind, and I have no doubt as to the bravery and selflessness of Lady Erica and her mates, nor do I question their ability to be good parents, they have no experience with our kind.”
Braxas saw no judgment in her eyes, only a deep sadness for these children. Braxas remembered
hearing that she was the one who had saved them and blamed herself for not being able to save their parents as well.
“Our Goddess told you to bring the Queen and her Kings of the Light Fae here to the village so that we may begin to bring our people together. She told you to show them the babies, to place them in their arms, and then what? How can we be sure that this trio is the right choice to raise these children? How will they know how to deal with their gifts when they emerge?”
It was Erica who answered, her voice barely above a whisper, but nonetheless sure in her response. “Because I already feel them in my very soul. They are our fate.” And then, as any loving mother would, she leaned down and softly kissed the head of the baby she was holding, before doing the same to one that Ben held.
The End
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