The Bear and His Water Goddess [The Shifters of Freedom Springs 4] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Maia Dylan

  “Sweet Jesus,” Neve whispered in shock at the sight of the woman who stood before her. She was so thin, she was almost skeletal, her skin was an ashen gray color and she walked slumped over with her arms wrapped tight around her middle. Her hair, what was left of it, hung in matted ropes around her face, and had obviously been hacked at by someone.

  “I have looked better, but I will live,” Olwen said as she closed the gap between, them her gait slow and shuffling.

  “Goddess, what the hell did that bastard do to you?” Neve wrapped her arm around her, and froze in horror at how frail Olwen felt. Neve could feel the bones in her shoulders and back protruding.

  Olwen sighed. “If it is all the same to you, Neve, I would just as rather not talk about it. Now, let’s get back and end this.”

  “Go my love, live life. I will love you forever, and will never stop trying to make my way to you.” Neve heard a male voice echo down the link she shared with Olwen, her telepathic powers obviously heightened in this hell hole as well. She watched as Olwen closed her eyes, but not before Neve caught the grief and pain that shimmered there, even in the terrible light of the dungeon they stood in.

  “Olwen—”

  “No, Neve,” Olwen stopped her and then turned physically toward the vortex. “We must end this and save the Earth realm.” Neve nodded, but couldn’t help feeling distressed at the thought of leaving Rohan in this place.

  Neve half led, half carried Olwen to the vortex, and then stepped back through. Just as they entered the space between the realms, Neve felt a great heave on the belt she held gripped in her hand and she and Olwen fell from the vortex and out onto the ground before the Pagan Stone. The vortex folded in on itself as soon as they appeared within the Earth realm.

  “Liam! What the hell!” Neve asked breathlessly from her place by his feet.

  “Shit! Sorry!” Liam knelt lifting her to her feet, and both of the gently assisted Olwen to stand. “I felt a huge yank on the belt when you stepped through, and I panicked. How in the hell did you get to Olwen so fast, you literally only just stepped into the vortex.” Neve breathed easy for the first time since she had left his side when he pulled her into his arms.

  “Holy shit! It felt more like twenty minutes to me,” Neve whispered.

  “Time moves at a different pace when you travel between realms. That is why you feel that wrenching feeling when you step through the rift. I never thought I’d see this realm again,” Olwen’s voice broke the spell and Neve turned in her direction. She stood, leaning on the Pagan Stone, staring out over the forest below. Her face was a heart-wrenching combination of sorrow and joy. “To stand here, and see the sun and the sky…”

  Olwen turned to look in the opposite direction and cried out when she saw the carnage of the battle that had been taking place. Her gaze moved across the frozen figures of the other Elementals and stopped when she reached the point where Aeron and Agnes stood. “Argon! I should have known she would be a part of this. Oh gods, how she must have truly hated me.” Neve’s jaw dropped open when she realized that Agnes was in fact Olwen’s sister, the one who had betrayed her all those centuries ago. “All of this! All the pain, and the suffering, the death and the destruction, all of it can be laid at your feet. Yours and that demon that stands beside you, and for what? For your own selfish vanity and pride.” Olwen’s voice broke on the last word. “Or was it mine? If I had simply given in, perhaps—”

  “Oh, hell no,” Neve snapped with a frown. “You don’t get to think that. You chose Casey, Ariana, Fiona, Liam and me as your warriors. We gave you everything we had to give over the past twelve months to save our realm from that crazy fucker and bring you back here where you belong. You will not think that way!”

  Olwen took in a deep breath and stood tall, her shoulders pushed back. “You are right, I am sorry.” Olwen reached under the Pagan Stone and Neve heard her mutter a few words, and when her hand came back out, she held a staff in her hand. It looked like a gnarled wooden tree branch, and it held a clear stone in the top of it. “Stay here until I call for you, and then drop the cord that you used for the hand-fasting.”

  Olwen stepped through the force field, and stumbled forward. When she stood in the center of the field, she started to swing the staff around her. It was honestly like something out of a Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan movie and Neve couldn’t take her eyes from her. But soon, Olwen moved at such a speed, she was a blur.

  “Holy fuck,” Liam said in a voice filled with awe as the world around her began to blur as well. Shadows within the blurring scene began to move, and Neve got almost nauseous at the sight of the world whirling around them. Olwen then stopped and thrust the staff into the sky, and a bright blue light flew from the heavens and directly into the stone of the staff. The world exploded in a burst of blue light so bright, both she and Liam cried out and shielded their eyes.

  “Now!” Neve heard Olwen’s shout and she dropped the belt. Liam gripped her hand and they ran out into the field as the light started to wane, not knowing what they would find, fearing the worst, but hoping for the best.

  Chapter 10

  “Do you honestly think that I never had an end game in this little battle of ours?” Aeron’s voice rang out across the field as they ran onto the battle field. Neve was struck by a strong sense of déjà vu. Somehow, Olwen had managed to turn back the hands of time. “How typically vain, and deliciously naive of you all. You have never had a chance to beat me. From the very beginning I’ve had a—now what was that quaint little human saying—an ace up my sleeve that meant failure was never an outcome for me.”

  Neve and Liam both came slamming to a halt when they finally caught sight of Olwen. Gone was the decimated shell of a woman that they had rescued from the Otherworld, and in her place stood a woman that personified the name goddess.

  Her hair, now long, fell in a tumbled curly mess to the middle of her waist and she wore a white shift dress that had long sleeves, and a hemline that dropped to the ground. She looked a whole lot more healthy than she did just moments before. Her skin glowed, and it looked like her weight had returned to a more healthy level. The only thing that remained were the cross hatch of scar tissue over her skin. It was no longer pink and puckered looking, but looked to have healed as much as it could. It now looked like faint white lines across her skin.

  “Failure is the only outcome for you,” Olwen’s voice rang clear through the field.

  “Holy shit!” Casey squealed as she pointed at Olwen, Liam and her. Neve shot her a grin and a quick thumbs up. Neve cast her gaze over the group that now stood grinning at them. Maggie and Fiona both waved at her, and Ryan stood with his arms wrapped around Ariana, very much alive. It was so damn good to see them alive.

  “Olwen!” Aeron spat, his face turning that interesting shade of purple that was fast becoming Neve’s favorite color. “How the hell can it be that you stand here in this realm?”

  “I would have thought it was quite obvious. Neve and Liam have completed the prophecy. You have lost, Aeron.” Olwen walked forward. Neve expected her to stop as soon as she drew level with the other Elemental’s but she kept walking toward the rift.

  “Kill her! Kill her, Aeron!” Agnes yelled shrilly.

  “Why, sister dear, I would have thought you’d have liked that honor for yourself?” Olwen snapped as she moved closer to the rift. Aeron’s army became restless, and they began to surge forward.

  “Olwen!” Ariana called out a warning when the floating bastards started to break formation and head in her direction, but her warning was not needed. Olwen swung the staff she carried in a circle above her head and every single one of Aeron’s army disintegrated in a hail of ash and pungent sulfur until it was only Argon and Aeron left.

  Neve saw Aeron’s gaze flicker to the rift and knew he was planning on leaping back across and into the Otherworld. “Casey!” She yelled as she called the lightening to her, and fired it into the ground at Aeron’s feet, holding him in place as Casey closed the
gash in the Earth.

  “Who do you all think you are?” Argon screamed as she gestured at all of them. “You are nothing but fodder for my sister. She used you all to do her bidding, to pull her out of the Otherworld. You are nothing to her! Aeron, would have ruled over this land and given you the servant existence you were made for!”

  “Jesus Christ!” Fiona snarled back. “Can you actually hear yourself? What in the hell do you mean the servant existence we were made for? You are just like that douchebag standing next to you. You think that just because you come from another realm that you get to just toss your weight around and tell us what to do? Hell the fuck no! We want nothing to do with either of you. Olwen, can I fry this bitch extra crispy?”

  Argon moved in Fiona’s direction, but again, Olwen waved her staff and Argon was held immobile. “There is nothing I would like more than to see you do exactly that. But after all that she has done all the suffering she has been responsible for, mine and everyone I have ever loved. I think the honor of that should fall to me.”

  Olwen lifted the staff above her head and Neve knew the killing blow was about to be thrown at the bitch who had claimed her mate. Although she was a little pissed off that she didn’t get to deliver the killing blow herself, she was more than happy to watch the whore evaporate.

  “Wait!” Argon cried out, her eyes locked on her sister. “If you wish to ever see Rohan alive”—Olwen flinched at the mention of the man she loved—“then you will not kill me. Rohan is still alive, Olwen. I have him in the Otherworld and if you kill me, you kill him, too. I have bound his life force to mine. You may kill me, but you must live with the fact that you would have also killed the man who has suffered more than any other man in this world because he had the misfortune of falling in love with you!”

  Olwen’s eyes glowed a brilliant blue and if Neve didn’t know any better she would have thought the goddess was a shifter. “What did I ever do to you, to make you hate me so damn much?”

  “Rohan chose you!” Argon screamed, spittle flying from her mouth. Gone was all pretense of manners and goddess like behavior. And in their place came the petty jealousy of a woman scorned. “I was the more beautiful! I am the older sister. He should have taken my hand in marriage as father wanted, but instead he turned to you. You who are nothing in comparison to me. What have you got that I do not? I should-”

  Olwen spun, throwing her hand out, and back slapping her sister into silence.

  Casey smirked. “Apparently, she has a fuck off great big back hand.”

  Olwen grabbed Argon by the throat and pulled her close. “And I have the love of the man you have coveted since we were young. What you and Aeron have failed to understand in all these years, is that once you have given your heart to someone, and they give you theirs in return, there is nothing left for anyone else. Aeron tried to take what was not his, and now he is dead, his heart has a very small number of heart beats left. You have tried to take what is not yours and think that by binding his life force to yours that will somehow save you?

  “Go. Go back to the Otherworld, like the demonic bitch that you are. Three days hence from now, I will be coming for my man. Argon, as of this moment, you are number one on the list of people I will kill. It’s a pretty short list to be fair. At this stage, there are only two people on it.” Olwen’s unnatural gaze flew to Aeron, as she touched the end of her staff none too gently to Argon, Aeron snarled with frustration from the other side of the field. “Problems, Aeron? You will find that in this realm, I hold all the power, and thanks to my last two warriors, you no longer have yours.”

  Neve looked over and almost laughed at the comical look of anger, shock, and frustration on the god’s face. “What’s the matter little man? Feeling a little inadequate?”

  “Shut up you, whore,” Aeron spat at her, and Neve simply grinned. “Your bear was already mated, how in the fuck could you get him to take notice of you? You are nothing! What magic is this?”

  “This is no magic,” Liam spat out, his bear clear in his voice, as he walked toward Aeron. Neve noticed the ridged line of his back and the way his hands were clenched tight. “Neve is my fated mate and that is something that you took from us. I would have just killed you for that. But you made me fucking watch while you killed my friends, and you put your hands on my woman, which is something I can never forgive. Now, I warned you I would take your fucking hands and I promised my bear.” Claws burst from Liam’s hands that were quickly covered in fur.

  “Leave some for us, brother bear,” Ryan called and Neve turned to see all the Winters brothers walking toward Aeron with feral looks on their faces. Neve turned not really wanting to see what they were going to do to Aeron.

  She turned and walked over to Olwen, who had used her powers to draw Argon to her. “I have known that Rohan was in the Otherworld for only a short time now. He has been talking to me since you convinced him to cross into that realm to look for me, but I have not been able to hear him until now. If you have linked his life force with yours, I know I cannot kill you now, and that you must return to the Otherworld to ensure you both live. But know this. I will be coming for Rohan just as soon as I am able. I will take your fucking life essence as my own and take back what has always been mine.”

  Argon’s eyes glittered with murderous intent, and Neve knew she was plotting something evil for Olwen’s return. “She won’t be coming for you alone either, bitch. She will be bringing the power of Water with her.”

  “Earth stands beside her, too,” Casey said as she stepped up to Olwen’s left.

  Fiona stepped up to stand behind Casey’s shoulder. “Fire is looking forward to frying your skinny, skank ass and all the fuckers who stand with you.”

  Ariana moved to stand behind Neve. “Air never likes to miss a party and this sounds like it’s going to be a doozy. We’ll all be there, Argon. All the power of the Elementals will be coming for you. And you had better hope and fucking pray that Rohan is alive when we get there, because if he isn’t, you won’t like what we do to you.”

  Aeron’s screams were suddenly cut off, and the area around the Pagan Stone was filled with the feral sounds of wolves snarling and growling. Argon’s gaze flew to where Aeron had last stood, and terror filled her eyes. “You see what Aeron’s actions brought upon him?” Neve stepped into Argon’s personal space. Yes, she wanted to intimate the bitch, but she also wanted to make sure she heard every syllable of the advice she was about to give. “By his very actions, he brought about his own end. He thought himself superior to all in this realm. Do not make the same mistake. Olwen is coming for Rohan. And she is bringing her Elementals with her.”

  * * * *

  Neve groaned as she was slammed against the wall. Her heart began to pound at the feeling of being completely surrounded. “Liam, my mate,” she whispered at the feeling of his lips against the sensitive skin of her neck. “Fuck me, my husband. Take me now.”

  Liam lifted his head to grin at her, and Neve felt her pussy gush at the heat in his eyes. “I love hearing you call me your husband, almost as much as I love to hear you tell me to fuck you!”

  After the battle at the Pagan Stone, they had headed back to Maggie and Kingi’s for their usual celebrations. Maggie had pulled out a couple of bottles of champagne and the conversation turned to the hand-fasting. She and Liam had told them all about the ceremony itself and then her little rescue jaunt into the Otherworld.

  “What was it like?” Casey asked.

  Neve winced. “I didn’t really see a lot of the realm itself, just the um, well, cell that they had Olwen lock in. I was able to summon lightening from that realm so I figure atmospherically there are a lot of similarities. My powers were like exponentially stronger there, and I had mad control skills that I don’t have here.”

  “The elements are the same there as they are here,” Olwen said in a soft voice. “But it strengthens your powers, just as mine are intensified here.”

  “I can’t wait to see what we can do when we
get there!” Fiona squealed, clapping her hands together. The room filled with growls.

  Olwen smile broadened at the sound. “I know you all want to protect your mates. But unfortunately the portal was claimed in my name, so only my Elementals may cross over.” Liam had been beside himself when he thought that he was going to letting his wife—wife!—go back to that realm again without him. He had been bordering on cocky when he found out he would be the only one of the men who would be able to cross through the portal.

  “How did you know that staff was there under the Pagan Stone?” Liam queried, and Neve had to admit, she was wondering that herself.

  “Who do you think put it there?” Olwen said with a small smile.

  “Why can’t we go back now and make sure that bitch doesn’t have any time to hurt Rohan more than she already has?” Fiona voice the question that had been plaguing Neve since they returned.

  Olwen sighed sadly. “There is nothing I would love more, than to go back and bring him back from that place. But the portal can only be opened once in every moon rising. So I will be able to open it tomorrow. If you are willing to help me, we will go for my Rohan tomorrow. It will take us a couple of days to walk to where I believe he is being held.”

  There were murmurs of hell yeses, and bring it’s as the Elementals pledged themselves again to their goddess. Neve could tell that she was tired and emotional after the day she’d had. Hell, Neve would never know how she had been able to resist killing Argon when she had the opportunity. Neve’s gaze fell to Liam. She guessed if Liam were being held and threatened by Argon, she would wait to kill her, too. But the bitch would pay big time when the time came.