MATED TO THE ALPHA AND HIS BETA - Season 5 Episode 32

Gabriela 1

I warmed my hands around a mug of hot tea, but I didn’t want to take even a single sip. Xander had explained to me, quickly, that he and his mates would be leaving with Stella, but the twins and I would stay behind. “You might have asked me first,” I said in a low voice. “Rather than simply springing this on me. No warning.” “We have to move on this now, Mom. Sorry, but you’re our only option. We have to get Stella out of here for her protection. She’s far more powerful than the twins and far more at risk from the High Council.” At those words, a pain sliced into my heart. “The High Council. When will they ever stop causing us so much trouble? Is it so much to ask that they simply leave us alone? Never mind.” I waved a hand for silence, my voice rasping. “I know the answer to that. Probably more than any of you.” I didn’t want to feel such disappointment that my plans were being struck to the ground before I even had

the chance to put them into action. I didn’t want this selfishness. With a heavy sigh, I put my face in my hands. “Where is Stella?” Mason stepped up to answer that question. “Right now, she’s in the temple of the Moon Goddess, preparing herself.” “A Celestial needs to make offerings to a Goddess?” asked. Lanie had been talking to the twins, but now she appeared with a bag slung over her arm. “Even a Celestial can use as much protection as she can get.

Gabriela, I know this is hard. We wouldn’t ask you to do this if we had any other choice.” “Where are you going?” I studied the mug. The steam wafted up, bathing my face. My vision blurred again. This time from tears. Xander cleared his throat and took the seat next to mine. He pushed the mug out of the way to press both of my hands between his. He waited until I looked into his eyes, but although his mouth opened, he still didn’t speak. “You have your father’s eyes. Did I ever tell you that? Not the color, or even the shape. It’s the look in them Xander. Orion looked at me that way every time he asked me to do something he knew I wouldn’t want to do I shook my head and pulled my hands from my son’s grip. “I never thought to see my own son looking at me the same way.” “We’re taking her to Fallen Crest,” he said. 1/2 Chapter 432 I couldn’t hold back my gasp of shock. “That’s…” My words stuck in my throat. I pushed away from the table and got up to face all four of them. They were talking to each other through their dam ned mind link. I could sense it. I wrapped my arms around me against the sudden chill. “Fallen Crest is the dead city,” I told them. “Nobody goes there. It was forbidden by the High Council ages ago-” “As if we give a single tiny f uck about what the High Council wants,” Lanie said. I shot her a look so fierce she winced. “It was forbidden by every High Council or Leadership Court or Noble Senate of every single supernatural kind that has such a governing body. Every. Single. One. It’s the only

thing that everyone has ever agreed on in totality. You can’t go there.” “We have to. It’s where Stella says she will be safe,” Lanie shot back at me with her wolf blazing in her eyes. “By the Moon and the stars above, how? The Moon Goddess herself abandoned Fallen Crest. It’s nothing but a wasteland, inhabited only by the dead, and if you go there…” I stabbed my finger at each one of them. “You’ll all be dead, too. You might as well simply slice off your own heads right here and now. Save me the heartache of wondering what has happened to you.” “Mom. Don’t be hysterical,” Xander began, but I whirled on him. “You watch your mouth,” I snapped. “Your father used to speak to me that way, and I didn’t put up with it, from him. I tolerated a lot, but never that.” Zane got up from the table to take away my unused mug. He poured it into the sink. When he turned back around, his gaze was sympathetic but strong. “Lanie’s had a vision from the Moon Goddess, and Stella has confirmed that Fallen Crest is where we have to go. There’s more than our lives at stake. If we can’t get Stella safe from the High Council, the entire world is in jeopardy. If you take a minute to think about it!” he said, “I know you’ll be able to see that. Because you know them. You know what they’re willing to do.” The tension in the air between all five of us popped like a balloon stuck with a pin. And, like a stuck balloon, I deflated. I sat back at the table with my hands folded. The life I’d imagined only an hour ago would have to be put on hold for the greater good. It wasn’t the first time I’d changed my life to help save the world…but by the Goddess, I prayed it would be the last.