Alphas Divided Complete Series (14 page)

Chapter 23

Emma continued to 'see,' through Reine's eyes, how Ziva slowly started to break apart, bit by bit.

Ziva was full and ripe with Galen when Reine announced that she was also with cub.

Reine was thrilled beyond belief to be carrying Henry's baby. She 'saw' immediately that she was carrying a girl, and that her name would be Emma.

Emma, still unconscious after killing Ziva in real life, felt Reine's joy in carrying her before she had been born. She somehow knew she was experiencing all of her mother's memories while wounded badly from her gunshots, but she couldn't feel that pain here. Here, sharing her mother's memories, she only felt joy and love as Reine conveyed to her how much she had wanted and loved Emma from the very moment she'd known of her existence.

Ziva, though, was not happy at all.

Ziva had already lost a lot of herself when she was raped by some unknown mist-man shifter and left carrying Elam, but Reine hadn't known any of that when she and Ziva were both pregnant together.

Ziva also lost a bit more of what little sanity she had left once her clean start as an Alpha's wife had been dashed when Reine became Alpha instead of Thomas, and now Reine's cub would hold the prestigious spot in the pack that her and Thomas's cub, in her opinion, had been destined to have. All of that, plus pregnancy hormones again, so soon after carrying what she'd considered a 'Devil's spawn,' only sped up Ziva's crazy.

One day, Reine was coming back from an unsuccessful hunt, and had taken a moment in the bushes just off a well-used path to throw up.

Reine was still bent over, her first trimester hormones making her throw up daily, when Ziva stopped near her on the path.

"Morning sickness is a bitch, is it not?" Reine asked as she stood up, trying to use the moment to bond some with Ziva, her brother's mate.

"How the hell would you know? Your wolf blood protects you from most of it. I threw up way more often than you do." Ziva said, as Reine straightened up, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Ziva, look. I'm not sure how it is that we've gotten off on the wrong foot, but you are my brother's forever mate. We are about the same age, newly mated, and both carrying our first cubs. Surely we can start over, become friends. If there was anything I did to make you dislike me, I do wish you would tell me. I'm sure I meant no harm."

"Our first cubs? Right. Our first cubs."

"Are you all right?"

"How did you manage to beat Thomas in the challenge?"

"I'm sorry?"

"It has never happened before, ever, in our history. You had to have had help. Did the mist-man come to you? Is it his child you carry? Or are you one of his children? That would explain everything, wouldn't it?"

"Ziva, what are you talking about? Are you feeling all right? Let me take you back to your den."

Reine reached out, taking Ziva's elbow and aiming her toward the pack.

In a quick flash of movement, Ziva pulled a knife out from some pocket of her skirts and managed to cut Reine across her forearm before Reine could react.

Ziva's knife was aimed at Reine's midsection, Ziva thrusting and stabbing the air in front of Reine. Ziva was off balance and bulky from being heavy with child herself, and trying to plunge the knife into Reine's stomach.

With a loud growl Reine shifted into her wolf form and threw herself at Ziva, knocking her down into the bushes, pinning her there with her wounded forepaw, and growling and snapping her jaws just millimeters from Ziva's face.

Her brother's pregnant mate or not, no one was allowed to treat Reine that way. If Ziva had been a wolf, Reine would have torn her throat to shreds, and no one, not even her brother, would have said anything about it.

But Ziva was human, and pregnant, and brand new to this pack. She'd also recently lost everyone she'd ever known, and was surging with hormones.

Reine decided she would spare Ziva's life, this time, but wanted to teach her a lesson so that Ziva learned exactly how her new pack's Alpha would be treated.

Reine shifted her weight, intending to claw Ziva and leave a scar she would carry with her forever as a reminder of Reine's generosity in letting her live.

As Reine moved to mark Ziva, something shifted deep down behind Ziva's eyes.

Reine thought she saw insanity there. Fear, rage and more than a touch of desperation rolled off of Ziva, filling Reine's snout with the sour stench of it a second before Ziva started to speak.

"Kill me, Reine. Kill me and this cub, or I will kill you! One way or another, only one of us can stay here. You would be doing me a favor, really."

Touching Ziva as she spoke so fiercely made Reine's 'sight' kick in.

Two possible outcomes flashed, as usual, through Reine's vision.

In the first, Reine saw Ziva coming after her again, scar notwithstanding. But this time, Ziva would go after her by attacking Emma instead. Emma was a young cub in Reine's vision, so young that she was no match for Ziva. Ziva killed Emma, in flashes so grotesque that even as just a possible future, it made Reine sick to watch.

She saw the pack not being entirely sure it was Ziva who did it, even though her scent was on Emma's body, because Ziva swore she was trying to protect Emma, not hurt her. But Reine knew differently. Reine saw herself going after Ziva then, ripping her throat out right in front of the entire pack in a murderous fit of grief and anger.

She saw doubt in Thomas's eyes at Ziva's guilt, and a wedge being driven between brother and sister. She saw Thomas fading to nothing, grieving his mate, and some of her pack doubting her actions as an emotional, protective new mother, tearing her pack apart from the inside.

The second possible outcome followed quickly on the heels of the first. She saw herself leaving this pack, with Henry and her unborn cub. She saw Emma being raised human, and even noticed that all of her visions down this road included Henry and Emma, but not herself. She wasn't shown when, or how, she'd die, but she didn't see herself in her cub's future.

But she did see Thomas being a good Alpha after she left, her pack staying intact even if angry, confused and unforgiving of her for leaving. She saw Ziva pulling herself somewhat together, once she'd left, and Emma eventually returning here, to find happiness and peace as an adult wolf with a family of her own.

She made her decision, standing there in the woods over Ziva. It wasn't even a tough decision, in her eyes.

Stay, and live to see her cub die, her pack divided, and her brother eaten by grief. Or go, and know her family would be safe, even if she herself wasn't a part of it.

In that instant, Reine chose her cub's life over her own.

She never told Thomas, or anyone else, why she left. Henry tried to get the information out of her, but she didn't have the heart to tell him that in one future he lost his child, and in this one he was destined to lose her. She just didn't have it in her.

She briefly thought of staying, and trying to change the future, but she knew she just couldn't gamble with her cub's life like that. She'd rather gamble with her own.

Chapter 24

Emma woke, her mother's visions still fresh in her mind.

She stretched her body tentatively, to help wake herself up, and was rewarded with dull aches and pains. She glanced around, groggy, to realize that she was in her own cabin, tucked into her own bed. Elam was beside her, propped up on his side, watching her wake.

"How do you feel?" He asked.

His face was full of love and concern, with no sign of being pissed at her for killing his adopted mother.

Emma realized that he probably had no way of knowing that she was also his real, biological mother, born from a rape by a shape shifting mist-man, and that outside of insanity-laced ravings, Ziva had never admitted that to anyone outside of her original pack, before spilling her guts to Emma and Kate just before trying to kill them. That was assuming that her ravings could even be trusted as truth, Emma thought.

"Honestly, I don't feel too bad. Wasn't I shot? Twice? Am I on some really good drugs or something, not to feel like hell? Or am I still dreaming all of this as well?"

"As well? What have you been dreaming about?"

Emma wasn't quite ready to talk about that, she wanted to mull everything her mother had shown her over in her mind before exposing everything to the light of day. She had no interest in everyone thinking she'd lost her mind in addition to being shot.

"How did I get here? Did Ziva really shoot me?"

She asked as much to change the subject as to find out the answers.

"Yes. According to the images you were rapid-firing at me, she did. According to Kate, as well. I carried you here, on my back. You gave me quite a scare, you know, passing out at my feet like that, covered in blood."

"I'm sorry. Ziva. Is she...?"

"Dead? Oh, yes. You took her down just like I taught you when we were hunting."

"Elam, stop. That sounds so... Don't you care that I...?"

"That you defended not only yourself, but Kate too? From an insane mad-woman who admitted everything from being raped and abandoning me to killing the people who took me in? The same crazed woman who was determined to kill you both as well? Emma, I can't be angry about any of it. You saved Kate. And more importantly, to me anyway, you saved yourself. Ziva was right, it would kill me to lose you. I love you, Emma. More than anything."

"Wait, how did you know? I didn't even start trying to throw visions at you until right before Ziva tried to kill Kate."

"That can't be right. I started getting images right before you were knocked out in the hot springs. Talk about an attention-getter, Galen and I were preparing for the pack meeting when I saw you and Kate in the spring, and then boom, I saw Kate's face in alarm right before your mind went blank. Damn Em, I was so grateful when you opened your eyes again. I was able to see where you were then, and Galen and I headed toward the cave instead of the hot springs."

"How is that even possible?"

"I don't know, the pack connection, I guess. I saw a lot after that. Things you couldn't have known about. I saw Reine and Thomas's Alpha Challenge. I saw Ziva growing up, getting raped. I saw her order Kate to kill you, and Kate refuse. I saw everything."

"So you know that Ziva..."

"Is my real mother? Yes. And that she doesn't know who my father is, except for seeing him materialize out of nowhere? Yes. I'd imagine that he was a shape shifter, like me. Our history's stories don't often have anything nice to say about their kind. About my kind."

"But I still don't understand how...Oh! I got all of those images from my mother. She had the same affinity for visions I do, I got the ability from her. She must have thrown them at you, to get you to come help us. Or from Ziva, when she touched me."

"However they came, I am grateful. We never would have known what happened, or where to find you, otherwise."

"I thought you were angry, finding us like you did. You two were growling so fiercely. I shifted to tell you, to explain, but that is all I remember."

"We were growling to threaten whoever held our mates in danger. I had flashes, and I passed what I could onto Galen, with our pack connection in our wolf forms. He just followed me, he had some idea what we'd be walking in on inside that cave, just not every detail about everything. You shouldn't have shifted into human form. That was why you passed out."

"Does Galen understand? That I was protecting Kate, not attacking his mother?"

"Yes, Galen knows everything. Between my connection and Kate, he had no real chance to misunderstand. He is grateful to you, for saving his mate. I'm sure he will be by once you have fully recovered to tell you so himself."

"Why don't I feel worse? I'm sore, but I don't feel anything like I'd imagine someone who's been shot should feel. You said I passed out because I shifted?"

"Shifting from wolf to human compresses everything you are. When you shifted all that wounded wolfness into your smaller, less capable human form, it was like squeezing out a sponge. When you squeezed yourself like a sponge, so to speak, you lost a lot of blood, very quickly. So you lost consciousness. Your wolf blood helps you to heal, though. That is why you don't feel as badly as you think you should. Plus Ziva was only carrying a .22 derringer. It only held two small bullets, although you took both of them."

"How long was I out?"

"A couple of days."

"Mom showed me why she left. She left for me. Did she send you those visions, too? While I was unconscious?"

"Some of them. I checked in to make sure you were all right."

"Ziva attacked her. Did you see that part? Way back when they were both pregnant. Reine with me, and Ziva with Galen. Reine almost killed Ziva back then, but she saw those future possibilities, and she left instead. Ziva accused my mother of carrying the shapeshifter's child, too. Or of being one of his 'spawn' herself. Ziva was already crazy, even back then. She saw Ziva killing me, and dividing the pack. She also saw that by taking me away, by raising me human, that everything would work out, but that she wasn't in that future. My future. She saw a future where she survived and I didn't, and she chose the future where she didn't exist, but I did. She saved me, before I was even born. And then she saved me by sending you to me."

"You saved yourself that time, Emma. You saved yourself, and Kate. You saved me, too. If anything had happened to you, if Ziva had killed you instead of the other way around...

Ziva was right about that. Losing you would have killed me. I know we've just started, and I know our bond is still young, but I love you more than anything, Emma. I've loved you since the moment you crested that cliff with your dad and Kate, and tried to protect them from Galen's wolf by putting yourself between them and ordering them not to run.

I loved you even then, before the first time we touched at that bonfire and I watched images of us, together, flit across your face. I couldn't see what you 'saw' back then, but I knew it had to be good. Your eyes glowed with heat, and you blushed red hot. I wanted to claim you as my mate right there. When Galen and Kate mated so quickly, I was jealous. I wanted that to be us."

"I wasn't ready then. I was still getting used to finding out werewolves were real. But I will admit that those flashes at the bon fire were hot."

"Oh yeah?" Elam teased her, leaning in and kissing her lips. "How hot?"

Emma smiled against his lips, enjoying the pressure of his kiss. She deepened the kiss, running her tongue softly over his bottom lip and pressing inside.

He kissed her back, softly, opening his mouth to hers.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, and tugged him closer to her, opening her mouth wider. All of the danger and emotion from her adventure needed to be released, her body barely hurt at all and she found herself wanting Elam, needing him to make her forget everything she'd been through, everything she'd learned, just for a little while.

She needed to reconnect, to him, to life. The more they kissed, the more she needed. She fisted her hands in his hair, and threw her head back, exposing her neck to his mouth.

"Emma, we shouldn't. Not yet. Take some time to recover first."

He said the words in a strained whisper against the soft skin of her neck. It was almost like he was trying to convince himself to leave her alone, so she could heal.

But she could feel the hardness of him as she pulled him closer, and she knew that he was what she needed to heal, not time.

He tried to pull away, but she didn't want him too, so she answered his forgotten question.

"How hot were my visions by the bon fire? You mean my visions of wrapping my legs around your waist as you pressed me up against the cave wall? Oh, they were hot as hell. So were the ones where we were naked, rolling around on the skins there in the cave.

Take me there soon, Elam. Please. I want to erase the bad memories of Ziva in that cave, when I was tied up on those furs. I want to make new memories there, with you, and to remember that cave instead by rolling around naked with you on those furs. I want you between my thighs on those furs. Will you? Take me there? Will you help me remember that cave in a good way again? As the place where you bury yourself between my thighs, again and again?"

"Hell Emma, I'll take you there now. You are making it very hard for me to let you rest. Just say the word and we can go this very minute."

"Oh, no. Not yet. Rolling around with you in that cave will have to wait."

"Are you hurting?" Elam pulled back to look at her, afraid to hurt her more than she was already hurt.

"I just meant that I want you now, silly. Taking me in that cave will have to wait. Because right now I want you to take me here. Now. In this bed. I can't wait long enough to go to the cave with you, my love. I need you inside me now."