Beyond Beta's Rejection

Harper

Three days later

I laid in bed with the covers over my head. I had spent the last three days crying. I cried for Andrea, and all the demon bloods who had been injured in the battle that had gone on while we were in the Neverplain. I cried for all the sacrifices and the losses, but mostly I cried for Colton. He did what I was meant to do, and I knew now he would suffer for it. The throne in Hell would remain empty and the Horsemen would punish those that helped me try to overthrow them.

The battle had already ended when we returned to the earth plain. Tommy told me that they were overwhelmed and losing until my army attacked. He told me that I should be proud of my people, because they were the reason that Midnight Moon was still standing. I wanted to be proud. Hell, I wanted to wrap my head around having all these people ready to lay down their lives for me. But I couldn’t right now. I couldn’t get past the hole in my heart and the grief that I felt.

I heard the door go and pulled the covers in around me.

“Dammit Harper,” Elias swore as he yanked the covers off of the bed.

“Hey,” I protested and tried to grab for them.

“No, you have wallowed enough,” he said and reached his hand down. I looked at it and then back up at his face.

“I can’t,” I said. “I said I would protect them, but I didn’t.”

“Of course you did,” Elias said. “But you won’t if you spend the rest of your life in bed.” I knew he was right. I knew I had to keep going, anything else was an insult to those who had given their own lives for me. I sighed and sat up. Elias smiled and reached his hand out again.

“Come on baby,” he said. “I am with you and always will be.” I nodded and climbed off the bed. I went to wash three days of grime from me in the shower and dressed myself. I knew I had to face the world. But there was one person who I needed to face first.

Elias and I walked hand in hand onto the third floor. We stopped outside the door and I knocked.

“Do you want me to come with you?” Elias asked, and I shook my head. I needed to do this by myself. The door opened and Alice appeared. She smiled at us both and bowed her head slightly to Elias.

“Is she here?” I asked and Alice nodded. She opened the door for me to enter and gave me a hug.

“I will leave you two alone,” She said before leaving and closing the door behind her. I looked into the room and saw Caroline sitting at the table. Once again she had the cards and she looked like she was studying them.

“Well, come over and sit down, dear,” she said, and I smiled. I walked over and sat in the chair next to her.

“Caroline I…” I didn’t know what to say. She had lost the last member of her family that night. Her only son, gone.

“Oh, don’t you worry, dear,” she said as she looked up at me with a smile. “He chose to give his life for yours. I am proud of him for what he did.” I felt tears prick my eyes as she spoke. I reached out and took her hand and she smiled again.

“I am proud to be loyal to you my Queen,” she said as she squeezed my hand.

“I don’t think I am much of a Queen,” I said. “That chance has passed us by now.” Caroline chuckled.

“Has it?” she asked with a twinkle in her eye. I furrowed my eyebrows at her and she grinned. She pointed to the three cards in front of her. It was the same oracle deck that she had the other day. I read the words on the cards. The first one read Rejection, the second read The Path and the third one read Shattered Soul. I looked up at Caroline with a puzzled expression. I had seen plenty of cards but none with those names before. Caroline pointed to the cards.

“Your journey is not yet over, my dear,” she said. “The wheels are already in motion in that one. You will have a reason to visit Hell once more.”

“How?” I asked. I wasn’t about to volunteer to go down there.

“Oh my sweet girl, it is written in your fate. It always was,” she said. Then she pointed to each card as she spoke. “Beyond the rejection, down the path of the tainted b***d, to the land of the shattered souls…” she looked up at me and smiled. “Is where the queen will find her throne.”

***

One Month Later

It had been a month since everything had happened. Elias and I took a visit to meet his parents. They were both so welcoming and his mother told me that she had heard from her own demon and planned to swear loyalty, although her demon seemed happy to stay where it was for now. She gave me the details of the shields that her witch friends had created for her in case my witch wanted to look at it.

I gave the details to Brianna when we got back and she was excited to find out more. I knew that something had happened in the battle. She told me that one of the demon bloods was from her hometown. This just confirmed that there was more to her coven than just divine witches. Brianna had been instrumental in helping the pack and the town to recover including helping Louise to break the bond with Damien a week after she had given birth to her beautiful baby daughter. Tommy confirmed that baby Alissa was in fact a future Divine Warrior. He could tell the way that he could tell when I was born. It begged the question of how it was happening since I was still alive and well. Drake had travelled back to the Order along with Aaron and Katie to try to find out. He had also taken the words that I had told him from Caroline. She claimed it was a part of her vision, and would come to fruition soon enough. I wasn’t sure I was too happy about it. But it would be a problem for another day.

This week we had more important things to do. Later on in the week Tommy and Louise would finally complete their bond and Tommy would become the official Alpha of Midnight Moon, and Louise would be his Luna. Elias had made arrangements to hand over the title of Alpha to all eight packs that he owned. He felt that it was necessary being that right now he was neither a demon b***d or a werewolf. Both his wolf and demon had helped Colton take War to Hell. Elias seemed happy to have just himself in his body for the first time in his life.

Before all that though we had been working at getting the demon bloods who had remained settled in the town. Tommy invited them to stay after what they did to protect the town and many of them chose to do so. But some of the former members had chosen to leave too. Alice finally agreed to see Damien, but it was only to tell him that she was leaving. The day after her and the twins left Midnight Moon. Tommy assured them that they always had a place here, but I could tell from Alice’s face that she had no plans on returning.

Both Damien and Samual were escorted back to the Council, and both remained under arrest. Samual had asked for me to visit him before he was taken but I had refused. What would I say to the man who tried to kill me? Drake assured me that Samual would be stripped of his name and spend his life in the cells, along with Damien.

The fallout from what happened with Brighid was much greater. Drake said that many at the Order were divided. They were confused and felt betrayed by Brighid. He reported that they had found journals and other things that pointed to Brighid’s involvement with the Circle for over a hundred years. I was curious about one thing and asked Drake about it. Brighid had mentioned a nephew. I had no idea what she was talking about, but it stuck in my mind. It was Aaron that found out who her nephew was. He was the fae that I had killed on my mission with the Council, the one before I came to Midnight Moon. I didn’t lose sleep over that guy and I wouldn’t over Brighid either.

But after a month of cleaning up from all the mess of the six months before, and probably the ten years before that, I finally felt like things were starting to calm down. Elias and I had decided to stay in Midnight Moon for a while. I wanted to spend time with my friends and enjoy not having to fight for a change. Marcus had stayed with us of course. He had spent time with Brin, of which he had been secret about, but I felt that there was some sort of healing going on there. Or so I hoped. He still refused to talk about Lily and would clam up if we tried to talk to him about it. I was worried about him. He certainly didn’t seem his usual cheerful self. Elias assured me though that Marcus would talk when he was ready to, and he knew we were there when he was ready.

Today was the day that we moved into our new apartment in the town. It would be nice to get out of the pack house. Louise was all mother bear, and it was a little overwhelming. I was sitting outside Howlers as the early spring sun poured down on me as Elias joined me. He smiled at me as he sat down at the table and placed my diet coke next to me.

“The apartment will be ready in an hour,” he said, and I nodded. We had chosen to have it decorated before we moved in. I knew that Alex and Brianna were moving into the same block. It seemed a little fast but I could tell that Alex was smitten by Brianna, and she was with him. Although I could tell that Brianna had been distracted of late.

I saw Brianna drive into the car park and climb out of her car. She looked around, and I waved so she could spot us. She came rushing over to the table with some papers in her hand. She seemed oddly excited.

“I figured it out,” she said.

“Well, hello to you too,” I said with a smile.

“Oh yeah, hi,” she replied. “But I figured it out. This is important. I thought something was weird when it happened, and that I had done something wrong. But it turned out that I hadn’t.”

“Brianna,” I said, and she stopped and looked at me. “Breath between words.” Brianna rolled her eyes but smiled.

“Sorry, but I thought you needed to know,” she said.

“Needed to know what?” Elias asked.

“Why it didn’t work with Marcus,” she said. I raised an eyebrow at Elias and he shrugged.

“Why what didn’t work?” I asked and Brianna huffed. She took a deep breath and started again.

“The ritual,” she said. “The soul anchor. Marcus didn’t follow you guys through, like he should have. At first I thought it was because he had let go of Elias’ hand and broken the connection. But it’s more than that.”

“Well, what is it?” Elias asked.

“The connection broke because there wasn’t a soul to catch onto,” Brianna said and my eyes widened.

“Wait, what?” Elias asked.

“Marcus, he doesn’t have his soul,” Brianna said. “It must have happened when his mate bond broke. The impact of it broke his soul too.” I looked between Elias and Brianna and felt a horrible feeling in my stomach.

“We need to get his soul back before he rots inside without it,” Brianna said.

“Well, where is it?” Elias asked and Brianna shook her head. I took a deep breath. I knew now what Caroline was talking about when she said I would have a reason to visit hell again.

“I know where it is,” I said, and they both looked at me.

“It’s in the land of the shattered souls.”

THE END