Page 35 of Protected By Her Wolves

He yawned again before his eyes fell shut.You are my dream, Amara.

She wanted to answer, but fatigue finally hit her, and she felt like she could fall over and sleep an eternity on the hard floor.

When a strong arm wrapped around her, she let Hakon sweep her into his embrace. She reached up, grazing the stubble on his chin.I’m tired,she said through thought.

He kissed her forehead.Then sleep, my love.

And so she slept, comforted by the warmth and strength of his embrace.

* * *

Amara blinked at thegoddess Amara, her namesake, who sat across from her on the stone rim surrounding the shimmery black pool of water, misty vapors rising from the surface. Funny, how she didn’t remember how she got there. Usually, she met the goddess at the edge of Valhol and followed her to the mists. What was happening, and why had she brought her here?

The goddess looked into the pool, dragging a finger across the surface of the water. Amara was alarmed to see five very strange looking people, four of them huge men with silvery skin and what appeared to be devil horns sticking out of their heads. They were resting on a fur rug beside a hearth, a beautiful woman with bronze skin nestled between them.

The goddess dragged her finger through the pool again, this time revealing two wolves Amara vaguely remembered from her visits to Romania, the youngest gamma Albescu and his mate. Strange.

“You may not remember this dream,” the goddess said as she sat up and folded her hands in her lap.

Amara gave her a funny look, feeling very detached from her body, more so than the other times she’d visited the edge of Valhol. “Why not?”

The goddess slid her gaze to Amara and then looked away. “Because I’m not sure yet if I want you to remember it.”

“Then why did you bring me here?” She snapped, not meaning to sound so rude, but none of this made sense.

“There’s a reason we’ve blessed you and your children with these magical gifts.” She nodded toward Amara’s stomach. “Why many future Amaroki will be born with powers.”

Amara placed a protective hand over her womb. “Why?”

The goddess frowned down at the dark pool as the images of the two wolves faded. “Change is coming to the Amaroki. You may not welcome it, but you won’t have a choice.”

The blood in Amara’s veins turned to sludge. “What change?”

She frowned, turning her gaze to her hands fisted in her lap. “Many years ago, my mates did a bad thing.”

The moisture evaporated from Amara’s mouth. “They did what?”

“They enlisted a witch to help them to steal magic from powerful demons and cast their souls into the abyss.”

“What?” The Ancients stole magic from demons? Amara was just a naïve young human, and even she knew that had been a bad idea.

“We have reason to believe their souls have returned to the human realm.”

“Whose?”

The goddess frowned. “The demons.”

Amara thought of that Albescu gamma and his mate, and knew they were the reincarnated demons. Could that have been why the Albescus were so wicked?

She clutched her throat. “What will they do to us?”

“I don’t know yet. I will do my best to negotiate peace between us, but their need for vengeance may be too strong.” She paused, visibly swallowing. “And then there are other demons, worse demons.”

“Wh-what demons?”

The goddess stood, the folds of her dark robe falling around her like a cascading waterfall. “Stay close to your protectors, Amara. The darkness is coming.”

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