by Meg Xuemei X
“Hundreds?!” I cheered, my eyes sparkling with interest and my voice no longer sounding harsh. “Uh, what kind of cakes in general?”
Dustin’s eyes also sparkled. “Allow me to show you? They’re all in the tea room.” He gestured to a side room at the front of the assembly hall.
“I’ll allow—”
“It could be an ambush, Cass!” Amber chose this moment to voice her opinion. I knew she was still upset at how the shifters had affronted me and wouldn’t want me to let go so easily for cakes’ sake.
“No one will be that stupid to ambush Lady Saélihn,” Dustin said softly, and there was no deception in his words. “I promise you, Lady Saélihn, the cakes are the best in the realm. I also prepared shifter brews that only Moonshine can make. They’re all local and fresh. I want you to try them and to hear your opinions.”
I could smell the sweetness and richness of the cakes and intoxicating drinks floating in my direction. The alpha had changed strategy toward me, and it seemed to be working.
I wasn’t very good at resisting temptations. Well, that wasn’t completely true. I’d resisted Apollo and Ares just fine and even lost my appetite for their godly cakes.
I eyed the tea room, then the shifters still bounded by my magic. I turned to gaze up at my mates through my lashes. They had millennia of experience. They knew what to do. They let me do my thing and be myself, but, when I was out of wits, they’d always step in. They complement me.
They were my forever safety net.
“You can release the shifters now, Cass baby,” Reys said with a doting smile.
I let go of my air magic, and the shifters all dropped their paws and claws to the ground, panting hard. They snarled at me, but they were held back by Dustin and Cadmar’s order to back down. Even if they wanted to attack, I doubted that they could bypass the flame I hadn’t withdrawn.
My panther prince snarled back, baring his big fangs. He wasn’t at all happy that he didn’t get to fight. My warrior team also growled back, their knuckles still white on the hilts of their swords. The tension remained so thick it muffled the aroma of the cakes.
I regarded the bear alpha strung up in the air. This whole time he had glared at me as if that could kill. If he weren’t upside down, his death glare might be more potent.
“You forgot to release my brother,” Dustin reminded.
“But he’s having fun,” I said. “I don’t think he wants to come down yet.”
Wyatt struggled in the air, and the ice penis sank deeper into his mouth.
“My brother will appreciate it if you let him down,” Dustin insisted.
“What if he doesn’t?” I asked. “I have my doubts.”
“Then you string him up again,” Alaric said. “Or you burn his hair off and make him permanently bald, as you did to the fae girl.”
Wyatt stopped fighting to get our attention. Evidently, it would humiliate him to no end if he went bald and had to wear a wig his whole life.
I winced. “I’m not a mean girl. That was self-defense. Ask Amber.”
“You might want to remove the dick from his mouth first, Cass baby,” Reys advised like a wise man. “So we can see what Alpha Wyatt has to say.”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass what he has to say,” I said, but I waved a hand, and the ice penis pulled out of his mouth by itself and dropped, bouncing a couple of times on the ground.
“Let me down!” Wyatt yelled, his purple lips trembling.
I bet he would never want to suck another cock in his life.
“Should we really let him down?” I asked uncertainly.
Just then, a white-haired female in a silver robe entered the hall. She was older and more regal than any other shifter present. She didn’t halt even when she reached where my blue flame held the line. My power had sniffed her out. She carried Earth magic that sang in my blood.
I dropped the flame to let her pass, and she nodded at me with an acknowledging smile.
“Grandma?” Wyatt called, remaining in the upside down position in the air.
“Priestess Irena.” Dustin bowed, as did all the other shifters. “I thought it’d be another six months until you came out of meditation.”
“And let you offend the goddess?” she asked chillingly.
The room turned to complete silence. There wasn’t even a hush.
“Can’t you all scent the strongest Earth magic you’ve ever encountered in your lifetime?” Priestess Irena asked. “You’re all shifters. Your shifting power and all its benefits, including hearing, smelling, speed, and strength, come from Earth. So where have you put your noses to use, up your shifter asses?”
I roared in laughter, but I was the only one who laughed so loud in the hall.
I liked the priestess.
“Even her laughter is full of Earth magic. This planet hasn’t seen magic of this kind for an eon,” Priestess Irena said. “She showed you her fire, and you still have no idea. Instead, you almost attacked the Earth Goddess’s one and true daughter. If she had let you, you would have all died. She wouldn’t even have to lift a finger to finish you off, which is reserved to kill the alien gods. Her mates would have done the justice.”
“We wouldn’t go down without a fight,” Wyatt said.
“You never learn, do you, Wyatt?” Irena sighed. “You could have handled this nicely and with grace. Your goal is the same as Goddess Cass’s—to overthrow the Olympian gods and take back what’s ours, what is Earth’s. Give Goddess Cass what she needs, and you’ll have your rewards. But no, you just had to be an ass.”
“I asked her to convince us she is what she says by proving her power,” Wyatt grunted. “I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”
Irena hissed. “You, quiet now before you make things worse.”
“Since Alpha Wyatt is your grandson,” I said, grinning at Irena, “I’ll let him down to the ground.”
I flicked a wrist, and my air magic let go of Wyatt. He flipped in the air and landed in a crouch. The bear was heavy but surprisingly swift. He stayed where he was, though, not intending to come an inch nearer to me, though he still glared at me.
Irena dropped to her knees outside the wall of flesh that was my mates and their warriors.
“Goddess Cassandra Saélihn,” she said. “We’ve waited centuries for you.”
Now I was afraid that she’d say something about oracle or prophecy.
“The prophecy has said you will be the wild card,” she continued, “but we’ll throw our lot in with you nevertheless. You’re the only hope for Earth.”
I pushed through the wall of my mates and reached her. “Irena, you never need to kneel to me.” I helped her up. “You’re older than me. I’m actually sixteen going on seventeen. In human years, I’m twenty-three going on twenty-six. My timeline is different than yours, but I’m still younger. And I’m not Earth’s daughter.”
Her eyes widened. “You must be. The prophecy can’t be wrong.”
The shifters around us shuffled uneasily like they were disappointed or something. Wyatt broke into a half-grin—the dude didn’t want to be in the wrong in front of everyone.
“I’m Earth Goddess’s granddaughter,” I said.
Grandma had revealed herself to me. She’d come to my aid while I was tormented by the sadist god brothers in Apollo’s lair and walked me through breaking free of the gods’ imprisonment. Later on, Goddess Demeter had also confirmed my Earth heritage.
“My mom, who I denounced, is a diabolic bitch.” I threw my thumb at my mates. “Ask them, and they’ll agree. They rescued me from her cage several months ago.” I looked around at the shifters, who now all looked at me in a different light. “I’m still hunting Jezebel. She doesn’t have my power, but she might have some nasty spells up her sleeve. So take heed when you meet her. And if any of you sniff out any trace of her, be sure to inform me right away.” I then grinned at Irena. “Every family has dirty laundry, including a god’s.”
She nodded. “What do yo
u need from us, Goddess Cass?”
“A path—” I said, and my words were cut off by Wyatt. The alpha had suffered enough humiliation. He wouldn’t let go easily.
“Not that fast,” Wyatt said. “If you want to crown yourself with the goddess title—”
The priestess, Dustin, and Cadmar all growled at him now, and some shifters grunted.
I pulled Earth power from the land, and the ground beneath us rumbled. The assembly hall shook violently. A side wall of stone and wood toppled. The shifters nearest the wall dashed away from flying rocks, rubble, and splinters.
“Look at your fur, shifter dudes,” I said.
I drained the color from every shifter, including the three alphas, except for Irena. The shifters whimpered in apprehension and distress, but none of them dared to make a move toward me.
“Your shifting magic comes from Earth, from my realm,” I said. “Earth gives you the gift, but I can take it all away. I can leave you stuck in one form and you’ll never be able to shift again. Any volunteers for me to demonstrate my Earth goddess’s power?”
No one volunteered, but a quarter of the shifters knelt down to acknowledge my status and pay respect. The rest didn’t know how to react.
“This is my Earth,” I said, my eyes glowing as I wheeled to scan them. “This is my land! I call my own and it answers.” Wind swirled around me, and blossoms burst from the wood all around the hall. Ivy vines reached me from the ground and twirled around my arms. “Can any of you call Earth and make it answer to you?”
For the first time, I was completely taking ownership of my past, and I acknowledged my heritage for all to see.
“I don’t need your army,” I said, my voice colder than ice and full of power. Everyone in the room couldn’t help shivering, except my mates. “I have enough force of my own. I could just take whatever I wanted, but I came here to ask politely and bring expensive gifts for you, because my mates asked me to be nice and diplomatic since they respect you. What did you offer me in return? How did you show the Earth Goddess your gratitude for her gift of shifting?”
More knees dropped.
“We offended the Goddess’s true granddaughter,” Irena said. “We’ll amend.”
Now the three alphas dropped to one knee in unison. “We’ve seen it with our own eyes. You’ll have our allegiance. Where you point, we’ll go. Even if it’s death, we’ll follow. We’re now your people. We’re your swords.”
Then all the shifters dropped to their knees.
My mates smiled at me, doting and prideful.
And my heart burst with gratitude. I was wild, and they never intended to tame me. They didn’t put any set of rules on my head. They let me ride the wind with my awkward wings and flew beside me.
They flipped a middle finger to the society and all its social expectations for me.
I knew I wasn’t that nice. I wasn’t anyone’s normal, average woman, yet my mates had no desire for me to be anyone else but me.
“Well, in that case, we can have some cakes first before we talk about our secret mission in a more cozy setting,” I said as I pulled all Earth magic—fire and wind and blossom—back into me and allowed the colors to return to the shifters.
Relieved gasps rose in the hall.
I turned to my mates and batted my long, lush eyelashes at them. “Do you think we still have time for cakes and local brews? Dustin promised hundreds of them in the tea room. At least, we should inspect them. If any cake is particularly good, we’ll need to get the recipe for Boone.” I wheeled to Dustin. “As for the recipe—”
“Anything you need, Goddess Cass,” Wyatt answered for Dustin in a grumpy voice.
I waved at them. “Call me Cass. Well, time is of the essence. Now, will you be kind enough to show me to the tea room?”
16
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It turned out that Priestess Irena had been keeper of the sacred knowledge, and her female side of the line had been entrusted with the task of waiting for the Earth Goddess’s descendant to claim entry to the Rabbit Hole—the shifters’ most sacred place, where only the Earth Goddess’s bloodline could enter.
“The vision of the oracle has come to pass in my generation,” Irena said in tears, her aged, thin hands trembling.
Stuffing an apple pie to my face, I nodded. I got her. Her waiting wasn’t futile. I showed up. But I was done talking. I was busy and distracted by so many cakes.
My mates cut in, comparing notes, asking the priestess who else knew about the Rabbit Hole. After all, the messenger to a death deity—either to Hades or Pluto—had first informed me of the Rabbit Hole. This whole thing could be bogus or a trap the gods set.
Caution was good, and I left caution to my mates. I was impulsive and reckless in all things, but they were the careful planners and strategists.
There were only my mates, Xihin, Hector, Celeb, and Amber with me in the sunny, wooden tea room. On the shifters’ side, the three alphas and Irena sat across from me with an array of cakes between us.
Our warriors guarded the door. Alaric had created a sound-barrier for extra precaution.
The alphas’ eyes widened when I reached for another cake. I’d eaten only thirty-one.
I rolled my eyes. “I’m hungry,” I said in half-truth. “It takes a lot to maintain this goddess’s body. And you might wonder how I stay fit while consuming all the sweets.”
Cadmar nodded soberly. Now they were convinced that I was a goddess, no one wanted to contradict me anymore.
“My metabolism is faster than yours,” I explained. “My friend Amber here has slower metabolism, so she never eats more than three cakes.” I felt sorry for her, but there was nothing I could do for her. “If I take a sip from a god, then I don’t need to eat for a week. But unfortunately, I no longer have a god in my cell.” I regarded Wyatt and let unholy hunger surface in my eyes. “If any of you let me drink from you, then I’ll eat fewer cakes. I’m at the top of the food chain. I can eat and assimilate anything and anyone.”
My mates tried not to laugh.
“Eat as many cakes as you want, Cass,” Dustin said. “There’ll be more. I personally guarantee it. There’ll always be an endless supply of cakes for you in Moonshine.”
They didn’t want me to drink their essence, then.
I let disappointment show on my face. “I’ve never tasted a shifter. I’m kind of curious, you know. Well, will any of you refill my brew? My mates need another drink as well.”
While Wyatt couldn’t rise quickly enough to bring pitchers of brew, Irena darted her gaze between my mates and me. “Only Goddess Gaea’s direct descendant can enter the Rabbit Hole. Even my ancestors and I, the assigned high priestesses, haven’t been granted access.”
“What happened to those who weren’t allowed to enter?” Lorcan asked.
“Some were incinerated instantly, and some were shred to pieces,” Irena said. “It’d be worse for a vampire, High Lord or not.”
Wyatt smiled viciously.
“We’ll enter,” Lorcan said quietly. “We’re bonded to Cass. Where our mate goes, we go.”
But I was suddenly alert. “No, Lorcan—”
“We go where you go,” Reys said.
Pyrder grinned at me. “There’s no chance you can get rid of us, Cass baby.”
He had shifted to his fae form so he could drink the shifters’ brew, the best kind.
Anxiety speared me, and I put down the half-eaten cupcake on my plate, no longer having an appetite.
“Don’t worry about us, sweetheart,” Alaric said. “We’re in this together, and we’ll never leave your side.”
17
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Priestess Irena led us through the maze of an ancient forest to the Rabbit Hole. It wasn’t made by any rabbit, though, and it wasn’t exactly a hole.
The entrance was made of layers of standing stones, spreading out like rippling rings, and large enough for two people to step inside.
“The Rabbit
Hole refers to a portal into a different realm,” Irena said. “It is also boundless in the extremities of time, immeasurable in its capacity, perpetual in its own right.”
As if I knew what that meant! But I tried not to yawn at her profoundness.
I halted at the entrance, gazing up at my mates, struck through by fear, not for myself but for them. I wouldn’t survive if they didn’t make it. I’d been heartbroken when Apollo tore me away from them, and if any of them perished, my soul would shatter.
“We’ll be fine, dulcis,” Lorcan said. “We’re all bonded to you. Your blood flows in ours as ours flows in you.”
He reached for my hand, but Alaric beat him.
The demigod flashed me a devilish grin, sending my heart fluttering on wings.
“Shall we, sweetheart?” he asked.
We had to go through. This was the next step in the war against the gods. I bit my lip. “Let me step in first and I’ll let you know if the coast is clear.”
“Not a chance, baby,” Reys said behind us. “You won’t go alone, and you won’t go first.”
Hadn’t I praised them that they let me run wild?
I sighed in resignation. “Give me your flaming sword, then.”
Alaric handed his to me first. I slashed the blade across my palm, trying not to wince at the burning pain. Then I returned the sword to the demigod.
I would enact a blood ritual in my own right and by my own rules to shield my mates.
When my blood dripped to the soil beneath my feet, I raised a hand and spoke a secret language of my heritage, declaring my birthright.
“No door on Earth shall shut me out, and my bonded mates follow me,” I called. “No force on this Earth shall harm us.”
I felt a tug of deep magic from the Earth. It accepted my offer.
My mates and I filed through the entrance, Alaric first, though I was right behind him, then Reys, Lorcan, and Pyrder, our hands holding one another’s in a chain.
Our warriors, seer, the priestess, and three shifter alphas looked on solemnly from outside the ancient ward of the Rabbit Hole.
An unexpected icy wind, more terrible than a winter storm, whirled toward us and swept us under its force.
