AIDEN’S POV
“GET YOUR HANDS OFF OUR MOMMY!” The identical twins right in front of me said before one of them kneed me really hard.
My jaw dropped as my mouth hung open but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t bring myself to say anything because I was too stunned, too taken aback.
“Are you okay, mommy?” They asked and I watched as they both turned towards her to make sure that she was fine, Haylee flashed them a smile and nodded.
“Mommy is fine,” she assured them, stroking their heads and not taking her eyes off me for a second. My heart ached, I felt like I’d been stabbed really hard in my chest.
The misery of losing her still haunted me and I felt the permanent sorrow that I’d learned to live with begin to weigh me down.
Touching her had ignited something in me and I felt as though a fire had been stoked in my heart. I have never felt so lonely, so heartbroken and also so shocked in my entire life.
Haylee is the Luna of the Ragnar pack, she is Haylee Wolf and not just that, there are two boys right in front of her and they’d called her ‘mommy’.
No, there’s no way. There’s no way these two boys are her kids. Haylee was barren, she could never have a child.
My chest tightened as memories flooded me, almost rendering me immobile as I looked into her eyes and saw the fiery determination in them.
She looked as if she had messed something up but there was a lot going through my mind and I needed to sort through all of those emotions first.
I needed time to process all of this. A pain squeezed in my heart as I watched her with the twins and coupled with that pain was an inexplicable feeling of emptiness and an excruciating feeling of guilt.
“Haylee—” I murmured, my voice barely a whisper as I ached with an inner pain. Terrible regret assailed me as I tried to swallow the lump that lingered in my throat.
Whatever I wanted to say next got stuck in my throat with the lump as terrible regret assailed me, gnawing away at my confidence.
Her face on the other hand was full of strength, shining with a firm and untroubled peace, she was ready to face me with all she had.
“I’m sorry boys,” I apologized, laughing as casually as I could as I knelt in front of them, both their gazes were hard on me and for kids their age, they emitted a tremendous amount of aura.
“I wasn’t bullying your mommy,” I forced the words out and my throat immediately felt parched as my heart pounded in my chest, “your mommy and I are old friends.” I added.
My eyes hurt so bad as I blinked back the tears that threatened to well. I couldn’t believe my eyes, I reached out to touch them and I felt a tremendous pull towards them.
The resemblance was uncanny, I felt like I was staring into a mirror that reflected my own self, it was as though I was looking directly at the younger version of myself.
There’s no mistaking it. These kids are—
“How old are you boys if I may ask?” I forced a smile as I asked, my heart thumping even louder now, I could hear their heart beating in tandem with mine and I could almost smell their blood.
I can feel it stronger than ever. My wolf was excited and there was an unusual sense of peace and warmth engulfing me.
“We’re five years old.” They said in unison, smiling at me and I couldn’t hold myself back from pulling them into me and holding them so tight that they winced.
What have I done?
It all started making sense and even though I fought as hard as I could to keep my tears at bay, I couldn’t stop my heart from sinking into my stomach and shattering.
Goddess, I’d ruined my own life with my own hands. I’d sent Haylee out of my pack without a valid reason.
“You have to bring your heirs back to the pack, Alpha Aiden.” The words of the priest back home rang in my head as I blinked back tears and stiffened.
At first I thought that he was out of his mind and didn’t know what he was talking about. Haylee was the only person that could have given me an heir but she couldn’t get pregnant.
I never thought she was pregnant before she left because she was regarded as a barren and three years of us trying to have a child led to nothing but I was wrong. I really had an heir and not just one but two heirs and I’m holding them in my arms.
Haylee had given birth to two boys after leaving my pack.
The feeling was surreal, I never want to let go of them, ever but I had to so that I could talk to their mother.
“Are you crying?” One of the twins asked and the other laughed, “you are a strong, grown man, don't cry or people will think you’re weak.” The other said amidst laughter while wiping my tears.
“I— I’m sorry.” I apologized, I had tried so hard to control myself but I couldn’t, not when I’m being completely overpowered by my own emotions.
Standing on my feet, I faced Haylee who still had a hint of hatred towards me shining in her eyes, “the boys, are they mine?” I asked and she frowned, her brows drawing together as she pulled the twins towards her.
“Mommy, is this man our daddy?” One of the boys asked as they both gazed at her, waiting for an answer while I did the same.
“No. He’s not.” She responded, her eyes not leaving mine as she deadpanned and although the boys seemed disappointed, they readily accepted the answer.
“I never want to see your face ever again, Aiden,” she said firmly, her voice void of any kind of emotion and the light that was once in her eyes was completely gone.
“Leave me alone and I want you to leave Ragnar pack too, I have nothing to do for you, no help to render so get out of here or I’ll have you thrown out.” She added, turning away from her but I couldn’t just let her go.
“Haylee, listen to me—” I pressed, grabbing her wrist and holding onto it before she could get away from me. I could feel the twins’ innocent bloodthirst and fiery anger was vivid in their eyes when I looked at them.
“Mommy is fine, both of you go find Aunt Scarlett and ask her to come here.” Haylee smiled at the boys, showing no sign of weakness.
I know this doesn’t make any sense, I shouldn’t be doing this especially in front of the kids but I couldn’t hold back, I needed answers and I need them now.
“Okay mommy!” I watched as they scampered off even though I knew that they would rather stay and protect their mother from the creepy man bothering her.
“Aiden, let me go.” Haylee sneered, her eyes turning red but letting her go without getting an answer was the last thing I wanted to do.
“I can’t, Haylee, you know I can’t,” I responded, the air between us was tense, electric and it felt like a clash of alphas as we glared at each other.
“I have every right to know whether or not those boys are mine—”
“SO WHAT IF THEY ARE YOURS!” She snapped, clenching her teeth. I could tell that she was furious, “so what if they’re yours, Aiden?” She repeated, her eyes conveyed the fury within her as she broke free.
“You have a right to know?” She scoffed, laughing, “you mocked me, Aiden, you called me a barren to my fucking face and you told me you never would have gotten married to me if you hadn’t pitied me!” She continued.
Her words were laced with the pain from the betrayal that she has had to carry for five years and the reminder of it broke me too.
“Did you forget? Did you forget how you fucked her in our matrimonial room, ON OUR MATRIMONIAL BED!” Her voice was getting louder now, so loud that it reverberated through the hallway.
“HOW DARE YOU?!” Bitterness sharpened her voice as she sneered, “you insulted me in front of her, you berated me and you have the nerve to say you have a right to know whether or not they’re yours?” She bursted out laughing although the laughter lacked humor.
“Leave Ragnar Pack or you’re not going to know what hit you when I’m forced to make you leave.” She threatened, flashing me a look of disdain.
“Haylee don’t—” My voice trailed off when I felt a very great bloodthirst behind me, the aura was intimidating, ruthless with a commanding, unyielding authority that overwhelmed me.
“STEP AWAY FROM HER!”
Aiden's POVAnd the scent of my son slices through the chaos like a blade, sharp and unmistakable despite the sour-sweet smell of shadow magic and spilled blood. I keep pushing my way through the squirming crowd of creatures, my Alpha instincts targeting the one source of those prints pushing on away from the main battlefield.“You’ll make this for me too easy Aiden,” Arielle’s voice drifts back to me, taunting and malicious. “Going right where I want you to go.I tune out her words, focusing on the warmth of Lior as it gradually leaves me. With every step I take, I get farther away from Haylee and Kael, farther away from the ritual circle where Xavier has his last, best shot at ultimate power. The rational part of my brain is screaming that this is a trap, that I’m being led away from where I’m needed most.But the dad in me doesn’t give a hoot. My son is out there, scared and by himself, and I don’t care about anything else.A shadow beast leaps at me from my left, and I rip into it
Haylee's POVSeeing Aiden vanish into the midst of the bedlam, chasing Arielle and our kidnapped son, is like having half of my soul torn from me. Every survival instinct in me is urging me to go after him, to leave everything behind and fight to get Lior back. But Kael’s small hand squeezes mine, pulling me back to what’s really real.“Mom,” he says softly, but his little voice is filled with a strength that shatters me, “we need to trust Dad. He'll bring Lior home."I ease myself back into my chair, and then look down at my surviving son — my brave, impossible boy who’s at this very moment trying to comfort me when he’s the one who needs comfort. His eyes are hazel like Aiden's but are determined despite the impending flood of tears.“You’re right,” I murmur, giving his hand a squeeze. “We’ve got to stand the line here.But, easier said than done, hold the line. United, the pair are able to balance the ritual's magic using Lior's strength, and now the energies are starting to scatte
Aiden's POVHaylee’s war in her own mind against her father rends my heart, but Xavier’s evolution gives me chills. The bastard has been outmaneuvering us at every turn—we've been doing nothing but playing directly into his hand."The ritual's giving him strength," I snarl to Marcus, who is standing frozen next to me as Xavier's physicality starts to swell and twist. "He never meant to heal the rift. He needed us to fish open it wider.”Marcus's jaw clenches. "Then we break the circle. Stop the power flow."“And run the risk of losing control of the boys’ powers completely?” I shake my head grimly. "Look at them."Kael and Lior are swathed in very clear supernatural light; their young faces are intense, scrunchy with concentration as they struggle to control the sort of forces that might rip holes in reality. If we interrupt the ritual prematurely without a shutdown procedure, it could destroy them.“There’s got to be a better way,” I mutter to myself, mentally racing through every pi
Haylee's POVMy heart breaks into a million pieces as I behold the grotesque version of my father staring back at me. Though they are sickly transfigured by the shadows, though those unnatural things are writhing through his silver hair, I can look him in the eye and see the man who taught me how to howl at the first full moon. The man who hoisted me onto his shoulders and carried me when we hiked in the forest because I was too small to tramp along with the rest of the pack runs.“Papa,” I whisper, and the word rips itself from my throat the way I imagine flesh would.“My sweet little moon,” he says once more, taking a step toward our circle. It is in that same gentle voice that he spoke to me when I scraped my knees as a child, wrote me letters when I slept whipped by nightmares, held me that time I cried over my first broken heart. "You look tired, sweetheart. You look like you have the weight of the world on those lovely shoulders.”A ripple passing through my concentration at the
Aiden's POVMy heart actually burns like molten metal in my chest, I am so filled with a fiercer pride in Haylee as she takes control of the ritual. This is the woman I fell in love with — not the shattered, broken mate who left me five years ago, but the true Alpha who will emerge from the Legion and whose powers I can already feel waking up to protect what is most important to her.” She strides around like I haven’t seen in years, every gesture has purpose and power.The metamorphosis is stunning. Where she once catered to others, now she commands as if by natural right. What she once wavered over, she now has full confidence in going for it. This is who she was meant to be all along, and I hate myself for ever making her think she had to be anything less than that.But when I see Xavier step out of that nightmare rift in his warped state, I almost lose it completely. Every Alpha impulse in me is telling me to bust up the circle, shift into my wolf and rip the bastard to shreds with
Haylee's POVThe energy transferring from my hand into his is coursing liquid fire through my veins, but I still make myself keep my grip, even as every motherly instinct in me yells to shatter this circle and snatch my boys up. The energy exchanged between us is unlike anything I have ever experienced--raw, primal, and frighteningly limitless. We hold the very power of life in the palm of our hands and the weight of controlling it so wobbles my hands, even as I focus.“The circle’s holding,” a straining, ancient voice calls out, from Elder Patricia. Her wrinkled brow is sweating, and I realize how much this ritual is costing her time-punished body. "But barely. The dimension wall is attacking us.”I see the clenching of Aiden’s jaw as the Devourer King strides toward us, his enormity warping the reality around him. Smoke and dust rises in the air as the monster moves, and even the very air itself, recoils at his approach. All of my mate's muscles are tense with the urge to attack, to