The Chosen One Universe Volume Three: An MM Paranormal Fantasy Shifters Series

by Macy Blake

  He moved, standing— no, he wasn’t standing. Was he floating? Sawyer shook his head, trying to clear it, even as the landscape around him changed. Was he in heaven? There certainly was a lot of white. Pillars and temples, fluffy clouds. What even was happening?

  And then Byakko bumped against him, grounding him once more in reality. Sawyer gasped and grabbed his tiger. “Take me back. Byakko, I left them alone and vulnerable. I was the only thing keeping them safe. Take me back. I have to help them.”

  Byakko didn’t move. He simply shook his head and pulled away before darting between two of the buildings and disappearing from view. “Byakko!”

  “Why am I not surprised that you made it look like some weird Greek god version of heaven?”

  Sawyer’s heart skipped a beat. He knew that voice. He turned slowly, scared to even breathe. “Mikey?”

  “About time you got here. Fuck, baby brother. I’ve been waiting forever.”

  “Mikey!” Sawyer ran for his brother and grabbed him. It had been too long. Way too long. “Wait… what the hell?”

  “Yeah. Tell me about it.”

  “No, really. Tell me,” Sawyer said. “How are you here? Why are you? I don’t understand.”

  “Neither did I. Apparently, your Mother is a bit of a meddler.”

  Sawyer still didn’t have a clue.

  “She made sure you had the people you needed around you. She might have flubbed up in my case, though.”

  “How so?”

  “She didn’t think I’d see Palinourous first.”

  “I know you’re speaking English. I understand the words, but I have no clue what you’re saying. I think I hit my head. Or maybe I’m dead? Oh shit, am I dead, Mikey?”

  Mikey laughed and gave him a noogie, holding Sawyer’s neck and rubbing his fist over his head until Sawyer yelped and managed to break away.

  “What the hell?”

  “Such an idiot. No, you’re not dead. Welcome to the god realm. I guess that’s what you call it. I don’t know. It’s all a bit hazy.”

  “But… I don’t… how are you even here?”

  Mikey wiggled his eyebrows. “Apparently, Sissylt, or Cecil, or whatever his name is now, isn’t the only demigod in your acquaintance. Man, Asher’s gonna flip his lid when I tell him. And Quillon… the research will be epic.” Mikey sucked in a breath and grabbed Sawyer’s arms. “How are they? How are my mates?”

  “They’re okay. Good, considering. They’re with you all the time. We’re—” Sawyer’s breath hitched, and he pulled Mikey against him again. “We’re taking good care of you. I have to go, though. My mates are in danger, Mikey. I left them and I don’t know. I just don’t…Mikey.”

  “Shit. What happened?”

  “Palinourous. He came after us with these djinn creatures, and I was supposed to kill him, you know? I hadn’t figured out how exactly, but I knew the metal would talk to me when I needed it. I can’t…I left them alone.”

  “Sounds like both of us need to go home. I’m ready to go home, Sawyer.”

  It took Sawyer a moment to think when everything swirled back to his mates lying on the ground around him. “Okay. I don’t… why can’t you?”

  “Rumor has it, if I see godly-you back in our realm, my head will explode. Or something.”

  “Shit. Your powers.”

  “Exactly. Great for identifying a random shifter or a hot dragon mate, not so ideal when your baby brother ends up being a god.”

  “But you’re here because… you’re also a god?”

  “Grandson of one, apparently. You know all those myths you love so much where the gods can’t keep it in their pants? Yep. I’m the product of one of those. Or, well, my dad was? Or something? The Mother isn’t all that great on details.”

  “She likes being vague.”

  “Understatement. Okay, so let’s get us both home. How did we get here, anyway? I wasn’t exactly conscious when it happened.”

  “We need to find Byakko.”

  “Um. Byakko?”

  “Giant white tiger. He’s my guide. Dammit, why did he just dump me here and run? Byakko!”

  “Aren’t you like, his boss?”

  “I don’t think anyone is his boss.”

  “Let’s go find him then. And while we do, catch me up. No one will tell me what’s going on down there. What have I missed?”

  Mikey couldn’t be subtle if he tried. Sawyer clearly needed to be distracted from thinking about his mates. His skin crawled with fear. What had he done? He led Mikey in the direction Byakko had run toward as he began rambling about things that weren’t what he thought about most.

  “Well, Nick is the big thing. Our brother is totally an alpha and has about thirty kids in his pack. Remember what happened to Henry?” Sawyer waited for Mikey’s nod. “Well, Palinourous experimented on a bunch of other kids, too. Nick rescued them. Oh, and he’s mated to a hellhound. So there’s that.”

  “Whoa. A guy goes into a coma for a couple months, and both of his brothers power up.”

  “Pretty much.”

  “I like how you started with Nick, though, and not how you ended up here. What happened?”

  Sawyer couldn’t think about it. There were too many twists and turns in the story. He’d missed a thousand clues and taken them down so many wrong turns. It was his fault. He’d failed. He turned away, staring across the landscape that seemed too perfect to be real. Because it wasn’t real. It was his imagination. He understood it, even if it didn’t make a ton of sense.

  “I messed up. Again.”

  “How?”

  “I think… I think my mates are….” He couldn’t breathe.

  “Sawyer!” Mikey grabbed him and shook him. “Look at me.”

  “They weren’t moving, Mikey. They weren’t moving. Draco didn’t… he didn’t answer me.”

  Sawyer could barely think of the ramifications. He couldn’t.

  “Breathe with me, little brother. We’re going to get you out of here, and we’re going to get home to our mates.”

  Sawyer gasped and clung to the hope in Mikey’s voice when he barely had any of his own. “I tried to save them. I tried. There were so many of them, though, and they came at us from everywhere. And my mates were fighting, and then I realized what they were doing. They were protecting me. But I should have been protecting them. That’s the joke of it all.”

  Mikey stopped and stared. “What do you mean?”

  “We thought they were guarding me. That was their mission, right? The Chosen One and his guardians. Keep me safe and I’ll save the world. It was another heaping pile of bullshit.”

  “How?”

  “I took my magic and hid it away, Mikey. I did something crazy, and I took most of Palinourous’s magic, too. And then what did I do with it? I thought it would be a brilliant idea to give it to my future mates. To divide it up and give it to them to keep safe until I could come back and save the day. They were guarding the magic, Mikey. But they thought they were guarding me. It’s so stupid. It’s all just a game. A joke. But the consequences. I…I think they’re…”

  “Welcome home, my boy.” She appeared beside him as a glowing ball of energy, but she quickly formed the familiar figure he’d grown used to seeing.

  “Mother.”

  “We must work fast now, Sawyer. There isn’t much time.”

  “My mates.”

  “They live. They are with the Jerricks. But Palinourous is on a rampage. He managed to pull some power from your mates, but you were craftier than I imagined. Very sneaky, my boy. Very sneaky.”

  “I… I don’t…”

  “What did he do?” Mikey asked.

  “The magic ricocheted back to the guardians. I don’t know what you did, but that’s what you saw. That’s why they fell. The magic came back to them and took them down. You are a force to be reckoned with.”

  “Mother—”

  “It’s time to end this, Sawyer.”

  “I don’t know how.”

&nb
sp; “Focus, my dear, on the beginning and the end. That is the key. It’s time for a do-over, wouldn’t you say?”

  She smiled and touched them both, cupping their cheeks in her hands. “It’s time to go. Be brave, boys. Michael, I expect you to continue keeping your brother safe. No matter what, he’s still your baby brother.”

  “What?” Mikey said. “He’s a god now. He could actually kick my ass if he wanted!”

  But she was gone as quickly as she’d appeared.

  “What?” Mikey asked Sawyer.

  “I don’t know. How can you keep me safe if you’re in a coma? And if you aren’t in a coma and see me and your head explodes? Because, Mikey, I seriously cannot handle that. For real.”

  Mikey got the strangest expression on his face, and then he smacked himself in the forehead. “We’re such idiots.”

  “What?”

  “I only see you the first time, Sawyer. Remember? I only see the true form the first time.”

  “Yeah. And you haven’t seen me yet.”

  “Really? So I’m not looking at you right now. In the god realm. Being not my regular dorky human brother, but all godly and a little glowy if I’m being honest.”

  Sawyer glanced down. He might be glowing a little. Only a little. He certainly wasn’t sparkling. Well, maybe a tiny bit. Then the words sank in. “You’ve seen me.”

  “Do you think? Will it… work? I mean, we grew up together, so I’ve literally seen you a million times, but never once you had powers again. It was always null-Sawyer. This is crazy.”

  “I think the master meddler struck again.”

  “Hot damn. I can go back, Sawyer. You can’t hurt me now. And, not gonna lie, I’m gonna need you to go away for like twelve hours. No, make that a whole day. Maybe two. Please tell me I’ve got one of those IV things in me keeping me hydrated.”

  “What?”

  “I haven’t seen my mates in forever, Sawyer. I’m gonna get my brains fucked out. Oh… huh. That’s probably a poor choice of words, considering I’ve been sort of brain-fucked for… how long have I been here again? Too long. My mates.”

  “That’s what you’re thinking about right now.”

  Mikey gave him a look. “Dragon dick is magic. That’s all I’m saying. I know you know this. Because Draco. Your dark knight. Uh-huh. You know all about the magic in their pants. Asher told me that all dragons are like cat nip to their mates.”

  “Well, maybe. A little.”

  Mikey laughed. “Sure, Sawyer. I’ve seen the way you look at him, and that was before. Trust me. You are just as lucky as I am. But tell me something. How exactly do you manage all nine of you? I mean, it’s hot in theory, but in practice, that’s a lot of arms, and legs, and dicks, and holes. The math hurts my head.”

  “It’s not math, jerk face.”

  “Pfft. Pretty sure you need to be a master of geometry at least to get all those angles figured out.”

  “Shut up.”

  Mikey grinned. “There he is. Now let’s get back to our mates and put a stop to this once and for all, okay? I’m tired of the drama. I just want to love on my mates and see you and Nick happy— wait. Did you say thirty kids?”

  Sawyer laughed and put his arm over Mikey’s shoulder. “Just caught that, did ya? And I don’t know. It could be more. They don’t sit still long enough for me to count.”

  “Yeah. Nick, though?”

  “He’s really good with them.”

  Mikey smiled, and then looked away. Another bright flash appeared, and the mother’s stag galloped up beside him. “I think… I think I’m going back now. I’ll see you soon, baby brother.”

  “Mikey?”

  His brother squeezed his hand before he and the stag faded away. Sawyer tried to hold on, but within seconds, there was nothing there. “Mikey!”

  “There’s no need to yell.”

  Sawyer yelled and spun around to find his sisters standing behind him. “What the hell!”

  “Such language. Do you talk to our mother with that mouth?”

  Sawyer snorted. “She doesn’t let me get a word in edgewise.”

  Mitra laughed and they all moved closer. “Some things never change.”

  It was easy to smile with them, but the moment didn’t last. “Speaking of never changing. I failed. Again.”

  Anuket smacked the back of his head.

  “Ow.”

  She scoffed. “We all failed then. I thought… I thought you had it.”

  “As did I,” Mitra said.

  Sawyer sank down onto the ground and his sisters sat beside him. “I thought… I thought I had to kill him,” Sawyer confessed. “I… tried. But—”

  “That is not you, little brother. You are not a death bringer. We should have known that. We are as much to blame as you are for allowing you to go down that path.”

  “I don’t know what to do. I tried taking his magic. That failed.”

  “Did it?”

  Sawyer glared at Anuket who held up her hands, asking without words for him to wait.

  “He did not win, so you did not fail.”

  Sawyer growled. “I need to go check on my mates.”

  “You need to figure out how to fix this,” Gaia warned. “You will not do your mates any good if you cannot.”

  “Rub it in. Thanks. That makes me feel so much better.”

  “Aww,” Mitra said. “Does the baby brother need coddling? Is he feeling sorry for himself?”

  Sawyer growled again. “You aren’t helping.”

  “Sawyer, we’ve been helping since you made this ridiculous scheme. We’ve guided you and watched over you, even when we should not have. We believe in you. But you do not believe in yourself.”

  “You removed yourself from existence, took away a key component of our magic, of the balance we struggle to keep, and yet, we are still here,” Anuket said softly. “Our world is in chaos, and our very existence is being threatened. You know the others will come, baby brother. You have to know this. The old ones are eager to resume their power. Our mother cannot hold them off forever.”

  “Tiamat,” Sawyer mused. “I wondered about that.”

  “She’s not the only one. The old ones handed down their powers to our mother. But if she cannot hold this world together, they will take it all back.”

  “No pressure or anything.”

  Gaia leaned into him. “We must figure out how to stop him.”

  “I know. But I need for you to tell me now. Tell me why I did all this. Explain it. There are too many pieces missing and I can’t put it all together. I’m going to make the same mistakes over and over again if I don’t know. He’s getting stronger. I think… I think I only have one more chance.”

  His sisters shared a glance and seemed to come to some sort of agreement.

  Mitra reached for his hand. “You have always been full of joy, but stubborn. Independent. Eager to please yet determined to succeed in your own ways.”

  “They are wonderful qualities for the god of mating. But our brother was always jealous of you. He wanted more power. He is ready for the next generation to rise, and he wants to be the next ruler of us all.”

  “He wants to be the new Mother. Father. Whatever. You know what I mean.”

  “Yes. Traditionally, the role has passed from mother to daughter. But Palinourous didn’t want to follow that tradition. He wanted to take over for our mother, just as she took over for her mother before her.”

  “Huh. I didn’t know that.”

  “Our mother knew his temperament wasn’t right for the role. Besides, she’s not ready to step down. Even now, when she’s supposed to be letting us rule, she meddles.”

  “And are we mad about that?”

  Gaia smiled. “More annoyed than mad. Our mother wants us to make mistakes, and yet, when we do, it can cause greater riffs than we imagine. So she meddles. Always meddles.”

  “Palinourous began to act out, trying to manipulate our mother into making mistakes. He is very clever. But our mothe
r does not rule because she is weak or stupid. She allowed his foolishness because she thought he would grow out of it. He did not.”

  “But you, sweet brother, when you learned the extent of his schemes, you decided you would defend her.”

  “That… sounds like me.”

  “Hmm. And our brother was always so jealous of the special bond you shared with her. He wanted to use you against her. He nearly succeeded.”

  They shared another glance.

  “Tell me,” Sawyer said.

  “Our brother trapped you in the human realm. He planned to force you to expend your energy and destroy everything in your path. Our mother would be forced to intervene, and then Palinourous would have the ammunition he needed to take over. The old ones wouldn’t allow it, you see?”

  “Because when you’re in the human realm, it takes a lot of energy to stay in a safe form,” Sawyer mused. “And you can’t stay long. That’s why he had Byakko. He somehow got him away from me?”

  “We do not know how. You never shared it with us. But you were dying and would have taken the human realm with you. Our mother prepared to intervene. There was nothing we could do. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and you would stop at nothing to keep our mother safe.”

  “That also sounds like me. So instead of letting my power build and explode or whatever, I divided it up and gave it away. And stole some of his while I was at it, to weaken him.”

  “Yes.”

  “But why all the subterfuge? Why the secrecy? Why can’t you all just tell me?”

  “I do not understand your thinking on this point, but you were very convincing. You wanted to see it all with fresh eyes, perhaps. Not be jaded by all of the history you shared with us. With him.”

  “That doesn’t sound right.”

  Mitra shrugged. “You merely made us promise, Sawyer. As you were fading, you made us all promise.”

  “So taking his magic isn’t the answer. And killing him— well, I don’t think that’s the answer either. What’s left? What other options do I have?”

  “I don’t know. But the old ones are stirring, Sawyer. They grow tired of the imbalance. With both you and Palinourous out of commission, the human realm has weakened. Our magic only works when all the pieces are in play. It is a balance that must be maintained.”