I hissed with all the force of my anger. “You can’t lock Aric away just because you expect me to breed with your son!”

The crowd whispered feverishly. Omar glared, resenting me for calling him out. “Aric has broken the law, he will be punished. And there is nothing you can do about it.”

“Yes, there is.” I shifted Aric out of the room. The whole damn place was a giant rock. No way could they stop me.

I surfaced near the entrance as the entire hall erupted in turmoil. My loved ones clashed against the guards, urging us to escape. Aric broke from my grasp. I leapt to grab him but he pulled away. Each time I tried, he dodged my hands, averting his pained expression from mine.

“Aric.”

He bowed his head. “No, love. This will only make matters worse.”

Aric allowed himself to be taken by the guards who rushed us. I watched, unmoving as they hauled him before Omar. Another were appeared behind me. I felt his presence, but didn’t fight him. He didn’t grant me the same courtesy and threw me against the stone wall. I cried out in agony from my still-healing body.

The guard abruptly released his hold. I stumbled away from the wall, hunched over in pain. Aric had him on the ground by his throat. “You may take me, but you will not harm my mate!”

Aric rose slowly and placed his hands out in surrender. Two more guards arrived as the one on the ground slowly staggered to his feet. Another marched up to me and motioned me forward with his assault rifle, careful to keep his distance when Aric glanced back. “This way.”

Almost all of our party had been restrained, including Tye. They stopped struggling, when Aric stood by Omar and heard his words. “I accept my punishment willingly. My only request is a moment to say goodbye to my mate.”

Destiny jumped in the air, shaking her arms and feathers. “The lion will mate with the tigress!”

Omar ignored her. “You may bid her farewell, but make it quick. You’ve already wasted enough of our time.”

The guards stepped away from us. Aric gathered me in his arms. “I’m sorry, but this is the only way.”

“But the lion is to mate with the tigress.” Destiny’s voice held a strong note of confusion, as if no one could understand her.

My tears ran so fast I could barely see him. “Please don’t do this. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Forgive me, my love, for failing you once more.” Aric kissed me until he was wrenched away at Omar’s request. His sad and beautiful brown eyes stayed on me as the guards escorted him toward a small door in the corner of the room. I fell into Shayna’s and Emme’s arms. After all we’d endured, why was this happening to us?

Destiny stomped her neon-pink boots against the floor as she bolted after Aric and the guards holding him. “You can’t do this. The lion is supposed to mate with the tigress!” She blocked the door with her body, her gaze whipping between me and Aric. “A new evil is coming. And only their children will be strong enough to stop it.”

The room stilled as Destiny’s latest prediction struck us like a slap. The problem was, she didn’t completely make sense.

Aric’s brows furrowed deeply as he struggled to understand. “I’m a wolf,” he told her slowly.

Destiny threw her hands in the air, regarding Aric like he was the crazy one. “Don’t you know ‘Aric’ means ‘Lion of God’?”

Chapter Thirty-six

It turned out even the President of the North American Were Council was afraid to mess with Destiny. After a lame apology for the “unfortunate misunderstanding,” he ordered his guards to release Aric.

Destiny had predicted that “the tigress and the lion will mate” a couple of months ago at the gala. The second part of the prophecy had been “their children will be the ones to keep the world safe from evil.” That’s not what she said this time. She made it clear the world needed our children—mine and Aric’s—against a new evil that would soon rise. I couldn’t be sure if she’d done it to help us. But she’d made it a point to look at me when she dropped her latest prophecy bombshell.

Aric and Eliza retained their pureblood status, but after the deplorable way they were treated by the were elite present, it failed to hold the same prestige it once had. Omar gave Aric and me his damn blessing to be together—and holy hotness, we couldn’t bolt from were central fast enough.

My head nuzzled against Aric on our drive to the airport. “It was wrong of you to keep me in the dark.”

He gathered me closer. “I wanted to spare you. I never imagined Omar would be so dishonorable.”

Eliza stroked my hair. “But Celia’s right. You should have been honest with her, son.”

“Mom, look at her. She still hurts. She’s not like us.”

At first I scowled at him for singling me out, but then I chuckled when I realized what he meant. “You think I’m a wimp.”

Aric blinked back at me. I laughed again, knowing I was right. He couldn’t grasp that I’d always been a fighter—even before I’d gained my strength and my ability to control it. One of my earliest memories was when I was three. A big kid shoved me on the playground. My ingrained response was to shove back. And damn, hadn’t I spent my entire life doing as much?

The drive to push back harder and not take any shit earned me both respect and fear. Apparently, though, it wasn’t enough to impress my werewolf mate or my guardian angel master vampire.

Aric rubbed my arm. “It’s not that I think you’re a wimp. You’re just…”

I batted my thick lashes at him. “Yes?”

“Delicate,” he finished.

Koda and Shayna cracked up in the front. “Shit, Aric. If you don’t want to end up on the couch tonight, you’d better watch what you call her.”

“Yeah, dude.” Shayna turned around just to wink. “Be nice and count your lucky stars. Some werewalrus could have made you his bitch tonight.”

Eliza cleared her throat to cover her laughter. “Watch your language, kids.”

“Sorry, Miss Eliza,” they told her through their giggles.

—

Aric escorted me to Misha’s house to pick up my belongings. I tried calling Misha to tell him I was moving out. He wouldn’t take my calls or respond to my texts.

It didn’t take me long to gather my things. Like Aric’s quarters at the Den, Misha’s residence had never been my home. Aside from some clothes and a few belongings, there was nothing else to pack…except for the box on the bed.