Reborn (Shadow Beast Shifters Book 3)

At some point, Shadow got us both dressed again, our friends well and truly having seen every naked inch of us as we dealt with the fallout of losing Angel. It was something I’d have joked with her about, but now, I just got to feel her absence stabbing in my chest.

“We should check the Nexus,” Lucien said, reminding us that this wasn’t quite over yet. “Dannie may be reborn, and we need to assess her threat level.”

This broke through my grief. “Maybe I shouldn’t have released the power?” I asked, looking between Shadow and the others.

My mate shook his head. “She’s no match for us without the stone, and it was too risky to hold that much energy.”

That provided some relief, and I thought of what might happen when we saw her again. “I hope she doesn’t choose to return,” I admitted. “Because I’m not sure we can allow her to remain free. Not with her need for power.”

“Her rebirth should strip that away,” Shadow said, “but I agree that it would be best if she didn’t return.”

The others nodded, all except Reece, who had drifted over to stand before Angel’s armor. Armor none of us had been able to bring ourselves to touch yet. I watched as he reached down and pressed his hands to the gold-and-bronze piece, and then it vanished. I had no idea where he’d sent it, but I hoped back to the wall in her home. That was where it belonged.

Reece’s eyes met mine, and even though his face was expressionless, his eyes were fire. He wasn’t okay, even if he was hiding it somewhat better than me.

“We should go now,” Shadow said, giving us all the distraction we were searching for.

He opened the portal into the Grey Lands, which really needed a new name. Since my rebirth, where I’d risen with the Nexus, it had been slowly returning to its former glory.

With not a scrap of grey in sight, these lands were now a run of golden fields and mountains, cut through by red rivers. Beautiful and powerful… It felt whole again.

“How is it that you don’t need to stay here in the Nexus?” Lucien asked me. “Your rebirth created you into another Nexus goddess, right? Are you bound to it now?”

“No,” I said, knowing the truth of it. “I still belong to multiple worlds. It’s what makes me different to Dannie and allows me to exist in multiple places. I may need to return here at times to keep it all in check, but this is not my only home.”

Earth, Honor Meadows, the Library of Knowledge. All equally as important as this land we stood on now. “There is no other like Mera,” Shadow said, his eyes locked on mine. “And there never will be.”

Even my broken heart flip-flopped at the depth of emotion in his voice.

We moved closer together, and our hands joined as we made our way up to the Nexus itself, still at the top of a gently sloping hill. As we closed in on it, a sense of calm and peace washed through me. The relentless hammering pain I hadn’t been able to lock away eased just enough that I could take a deep breath and not feel like my lungs were being compressed.

Shadow’s constant presence at my side helped as well, and I found myself pressing harder into him as we crossed under the beautiful stone gates. As we stepped to the other side, the Nexus power flared, which I felt intimately within myself.

“Dannie is returning,” I said with a sigh. “I feel her power.”

The others took it seriously, spreading out in a circle around the streaming lights emerging from what I was coming to think of as the Nexus birth pool. It was in the middle of a grove, gold and red blossoms surrounding it. As the air grew heavy and thick, a figure shot up into the air, coated in the Jell-O-like substance, bright fiery wings shooting out from either side of them.

None of us broke formation or relaxed, waiting to see which version of Dannie we were about to get. Would it be the power-hungry, angry, untouchable version who would have destroyed us all in her need to control? Or would it be the Dannie I’d known before the stone?

And would it make a difference either way?

The light around the figure was bright and blinding, and even with my preternatural sight, I couldn’t manage to make out what version of her was landing. It wasn’t until I caught sight of fire-touched wings, which looked an awful lot like mine, that I faltered. The Dannie from before could shift into a phoenix, but she’d never worn her wings as I did.

The flutter in my chest hit me, and I took a stumbling step forward. “It’s not Dannie,” I whispered, my throat closing over as I started to run. The light faded, the Jell-O disappearing as soon as I slammed into Angel, and she wrapped me up tightly. We remained like that forever, and as our pack and family closed around us, I finally pulled away. “How?” I asked, unable to say more.

She smiled her beautiful smile, and I took a moment to examine her. Her eyes were the same, only slightly more fire-touched. Her hair too, which was now heavily streaked with red and gold. And the wings—the largest change of all—were still angelic in shape, with some fire and phoenix in there as well. Those wings wrapped around us, hiding her naked form.

“I was reborn,” she trilled in the musical voice I’d never expected to hear again. “Honor Meadows have their own afterlife, but I never went there. I went to yours because of our bond.”

Shadow made a sound over my shoulder. “It makes sense,” he said. “You’re warned never to bond with one outside of your brethren, no doubt because it can disrupt the natural order of life, death, and… your afterlife.”

Angel nodded. “Correct. And Mera is so powerful that it was her world I was pulled into, instead of my own. But it allowed me the choice of rebirth. A choice that any who are born of the Nexus are given.”

I shook my head. “I can’t believe this.” My voice broke. “I was just given my greatest wish, and yet I did nothing to deserve it.”

Angel hugged me tightly again. “You deserve it, my friend. You were willing to sacrifice yourself as well. All of us were.”

As she pulled away, she wove clothing across her body, tucking her wings behind her to reveal the most human outfit I’d ever seen on her. Jeans, a shirt, and sneakers.

“I think my wings can even—” she started before closing her eyes, and there was a pop as they vanished in the same way mine could. For the first time, she almost seemed petite without the statuesque angel wings.

“Wow, you were reborn,” I said with a chuckle.

“At least our bond remains,” Angel said with a true smile. “You will always have me as family, and I’ve been given a second chance at life, reborn from the sins and tragedy in my past. I will never forget my family, but I don’t wear their deaths around my neck any longer.”

It might have been my imagination, but I thought that her eyes flicked toward Reece’s for a split second before both of them cut the contact. Angel looked around at all the others then, finally realizing we were all at the Nexus. “Wait! Did you all know I would be reborn?” she asked.

“No,” Lucien said with a shake of his head. “We were waiting for Dannie. Seeing if she chose to be reborn.”

Understanding crossed Angel’s face. “Ah, right. Well, you have nothing to worry about. Dannie has chosen to remain as part of the Nexus; her energy was dispersing as I exited, and with this one act, she’ll keep the balance better than she ever could have in a vessel.”

I wasn’t the only one to sag in relief, but I did make sure I wrapped my arm around Shadow to offer whatever comfort I could. “I’m sorry, beast man,” I whispered to him. “I loved her too.”

He returned my hug, holding me long enough that I knew it hurt him to lose his mother, no matter what she’d done to deserve it. Thankfully, she had made the decision, and now we could try to remember the best parts of Dannie.