Chapter 143

Iris POV

For the intimacy we needed, we went up to the large room the hostess had given to Olivia and Jordan upon their arrival. I saw the four-poster, curtained bed was quite large and would serve us well.

Jordan was sitting by the unlit fire—the room was warm enough without it. When she saw us come in, she stood and made to leave, but my son’s wife asked her, “Please, stay. You can help us. You always help us.”

“As you like, Luna,” the beta said, which made me smile to myself. Jordan’s loyalty had been a gift from the goddess from the day she and Olivia had met, and I knew she appreciated that Olivia was showing her she was a member of the family.

I drew a small bowl and some green-blue sleepweed from my bag and lit the grass before putting it in the basin. Its sweet smell filled the room pleasantly, and I saw everyone relax just a bit.

“If you could sit on the bed,” I asked Elroy and then instructed him to let Olivia sit in front of him so he could put his arms around her—no small feat considering how big she had gotten. The pup would be here in a matter of weeks now.

I then had Claudia and Jordan join them on the bed before we took each other’s hands. It was perhaps the oldest ritual known to wolves: the joining of hands in a circle to combine our life forces and focus our strength.

“Do you feel your wolf now?” I asked Olivia.

“Yes,” she said firmly, and I knew how important it was to her that she could say that with confidence, but then she frowned. “She’s angry.”

“She has every right to be,” I said.

“Angry?” Jordan asked before obviously scolding herself for the question.

But I could see Olivia squeeze her hand reassuringly and tell her, “Emma caged her. That black magic-wielding jackal upstart caged my wolf.”

Jordan’s eyes went wide, but she didn’t ask any more questions.

“Tell us about your wolf,” I told Olivia, closing my eyes. “Tell us what she looks like.”

“She’s silver, clean-limbed, tall and proud and furious. She’s growling.”

“Accept her anger,” I said, “but don’t let it overwhelm you.” I opened my eyes and looked at my son. “Lend her strength and think of her wolf, how she looked when you married, what it felt like to run with her in the moonlight.”

Elroy closed his eyes, and I could almost see the energy flowing from him into her and their child within her.

I closed my eyes again, and I envisioned the silver wolf she described, a silver wraith-like form only a strong wolf could form. I also felt her anger.

And then I felt something new: an innocent source of wonder that felt like my son, Olivia, and someone else I hadn’t met. I knew I was sensing my grandchild and the power she held.

Oh, a she, I thought to the child. How lovely.

The child didn’t respond with words, of course, just with a sort of familiarity that meant she knew me without actually having met me. I sent her the love I felt at the thought of her before letting my granddaughter know I regretted having to turn to the stronger presence and the white-hot rage of Olivia’s wolf.

She kept me weak, the wolf thought. She hurt me.

Show us, I told her.

I felt the others now with us, watching while trying to stay calm as we stood inside a dark room where a young Olivia sat on the cold stone floor. A shadow was moving over her, and we felt everything as invisible chains wrapped around Olivia’s wolf.

I shivered at the metallic feel of them as though they physically touched my skin. I felt the wolf try to escape them, straining and clawing at nothing even as we felt the final embrace of those cold chains squeeze down tightly.

Everyone felt the pain of the moment, the despair of the wolf as it realized it was truly captured, truly caged. Then the wolf released us from the memory and sweet, blessed freedom replaced the nightmare. As one, we let out a breath.

I’ll never let anyone hurt you like again, Olivia told her wolf. I’ll kill them first.

I saw the wolf chuff in a pleased and forgiving response. I knew we were all remembering that Olivia had been a child at the time. Well, she wasn’t a child now.

Behind the wolf, there was a flash of something else, something being bent and then twisted. I opened my eyes and saw the others looking at me.

“What was that?” Elroy demanded.

I gently took my hands from Jordan and Claudia and got up to cross the room to my satchel. I reached in and pulled out a square of silk that I had wrapped around a silver hairclip dotted with small diamonds. It doubtlessly cost a fortune, but that wasn’t why I had taken it from Emma’s room.

I turned to the others and held the clip up. It refracted the light coming in through the uncovered windows, and I couldn’t help thinking it looked so innocent considering the guilt of its owner.

“Is that Emma’s?” Claudia asked.

“Yes.” I looked at Olivia. “Have you seen her wearing this?”

She nodded.

“Good.” I returned to the circle on the bed, put the clip in my own hair, and then reached to Olivia and Elroy for their hands. We grasped each other, and again I closed my eyes.

I had only before glimpsed the bright light of a fated mate pair, so it took me a moment to recognize the intertwining lines of two pair. In the middle, they had been split and reintegrated opposite each other. It made no sense.

Then it made all the sense in the world. I opened my eyes and nodded in satisfaction.

“Help me break the lines,” I told Olivia, who frowned but then nodded back. We closed our eyes, and I saw as our life force went out to the light beams and shattered them. Together, we guided them back into their true, straight forms, and I heard Elroy gasp.

My eyes open again, I saw him looking at Olivia in shock.

“That—is that you?” he asked, and I heard both pain and wonder in his voice.

Olivia smiled. “And that’s you.”

“Yes,” I said. “You’re fated mates. Emma twisted your destinies.”

“Denis,” Elroy said with certainty. “Denis was Emma’s true fated mate.”

“Yes, but she didn’t want him or the life he offered,” Olivia said. “She wanted you.” Her eyes flashed in anger. “She wanted my life, and she took it.”

“You’ve taken it back,” I said.

Claudia snorted in the deep disgust only a she-wolf could summon. I met her gaze, and we shared a moment of sympathy and rage that our children could suffer so horribly.

“I’m about to take a lot more than that,” Olivia growled.