Chapter Seventeen

" A S I DID with Magnus's child, I took your offspring," Zane seemed to have said, but Savannah wasn't positive because her inner beast flailed so uncontrollably in her mind there was no way to know if she heard him correctly as he went on. "You were cursed and dangerous, so, sensing her so close to death upon birth and vulnerable to the evil inside you, I took her to keep her safe...took her to give her life."

She heard Zoey gasp from miles away as Zane's unfathomable words hung in the air like a fleeting nightmare caught in a brilliant, welcoming sunrise. Like the nightmare of losing a child mixed with a sensation of jolting awake, thinking it might have all been a bad dream.

"I don't understand," she managed hoarsely.

"Yet you will," came a deep voice. A man with white-blonde hair as tall and handsome as the Sigdirs, only dressed differently, emerged from the darkness, fell to a knee, and lowered his head. "Welcome, Bringer of Destiny. I have long anticipated you."

"Tréan," she whispered, certain he was the wolf shifter from ancient Ireland she'd heard speaking to Zane telepathically earlier. Positive he was, the more her inner beast felt him out. More certain still as she drifted his way and felt his thoughts expand within her mind.

Compelled and drawn by the respect he showed her and the flash of compassion in his eyes before he bowed his head, she rested her hand on his shoulder without a second thought. Without truly understanding why she did it, other than her inner beast being in a near frenzy and needing contact. Almost the moment she did, Tréan lifted his head, and his wolf eyes met her dragon eyes in a connection so intense his memories became hers.

More poignantly, his past washed over her so sharply that she nearly staggered back.

First, she saw many dreams that brought Zane, Magnus, Tréan, and Zoey together, leading Magnus back to his daughter, Aeda. Then she saw the connection Zane and Tréan had formed even earlier that no one knew about. A connection that had to remain a secret to protect a treasure.

The daughter of a Valkyrie.

"Freya," she whispered, biting back tears the more she followed Tréan's thoughts. She watched the moment Zane had placed the struggling premature girl into Tréan's arms over a decade ago to, how she was nurtured and cared for by great wolf magic to her many memories of being raised by wolves.

The Wolves of Ossary, to be specific.

Tears slipped down her cheeks as she watched a bright, inquisitive little copper dragon who was everything Zane had described his daughter to be—a lovely soul with bright eyes who charmed the wolf shifters despite being so very different from their kind. A dragon they nourished and protected like she was one of their own.

Then she saw the endless times Zane had visited her over the years, only ever telling Freya good stories about the mother lost to them both. Savannah struggled to breathe as more memories unraveled, and more tears streamed down her cheeks. Where some mothers might be furious that the doctors had been magically duped into thinking Savannah's child was lost, and then Zane hiding her daughter away for so long, she knew how terrible the curse was he'd hidden Freya from.

Moreover, she felt Zane's love for a child that wasn't his.

And just like in their last life, he had gone to great lengths to keep them safe. To call them his own if given half the chance. In this case, just like the last, he didn't have to. His love for his mate, and in turn, not just anything born of her but any life caught in the maelstrom that had been their destinies, was more than worthy of his dragon's love.

Memory after memory cascaded through her mind, not just of Tréan and his pack's incredible kindness caring for Aeda and Freya but more and more of the times Zane and Freya had shared. She felt the deep connection they had formed. One that helped Freya feel as loved by her own kind as she had been by wolves.

"Freya thinks you're her real father," she managed in a shaky voice, sensing Zane's need to touch and support her but terrified she might hate him for such deception. "And you never told her otherwise."

"No," Zane said, close behind her now but not touching her, his voice as fraught with emotion as hers. "Because, to my mind, human and dragon alike, she meant as much to me as you did...and as it turned out, I loved her every bit as much."

Savannah bit back a sob as another veil was pulled back, and she saw Zane look down into her daughter's newborn eyes for the first time. Saw how his human eyes grew moist as they connected with Freya's before their gazes shifted to their inner dragons at the same moment, and that was it. Whether they were blood-related or not, their inner beasts had bonded, and Zane became her father in every way that mattered.

Love had blossomed, and it had only grown over time.

Yet she felt Zane's fear that his actions would devastate Savannah like a spear to the heart. Felt his worry that she would never forgive him for keeping her daughter from her for so long. For letting her suffer the terrible heartache that had come when she had thought she'd lost her child.

"No," Savannah said, her voice wobbly with emotion. When she turned and looked into his eyes, she wasn't surprised to find raw emotion in his gaze. To see his inner human and beast warring to overrun each other as they looked back at her, desperate not to lose her. Desperate for her to understand they were only ever trying to save everything that truly mattered from the curse she carried within herself.

And she saw that more clearly than ever, even if he couldn't voice it, because, in the end, that's what it had been. While born prematurely, Freya might have survived, but Zane couldn't risk her daughter in the hands of the curse. More specifically, in Savannah's hands, given what she might've been capable of since the curse had ignited years before, seen clearly when she shunned him. Shunned him because she was in the grips of a dangerous power that could end a dragon's life within minutes.

"You saved her from me because I was cursed," she said firmly, needing all sides of him to understand all sides of her would never shun him because he was the best of not one world but two. She cupped his cheeks, surprised by the ever-so-brief flash of moisture in his eyes because men like Zane didn't shed tears. At least not until they gazed into their newborn daughter's eyes for the first time or were forgiven by her mother.

"You did what I couldn't, Zane," she went on. "And despite the years lost, I cannot tell you how grateful I am because you saved our daughter." She couldn't stop more tears trickling down her cheeks if she tried. "You saved her so I might someday meet and know her...and love her."

It seemed that was all he needed to hear because he pulled her into his arms, held her tightly as if afraid to let go, and murmured in her ear, "I'm so very sorry...and thank you."

Savannah understood all the words in between he couldn't manage and knew without question, as his lips found hers, they were fated mates in the truest sense of the word. Not just his dragon but his personalities, Midgardian and Múspellsheimr alike, would always keep her enamored with him. How could they not, given there were more layers to him than one would ever think by looking at him? He hadn't just been her savior in another life but a bringer of peace, just like Zoey.

More than that, he had been a father to Savannah's child in both lives.

"Freya's never shifted," she murmured when that realization hit. One she felt surprised Zoey and Magnus too. She pulled back, met Zane's eyes, and frowned, confused and sad for him. "Outside of those first few moments when she was a newborn, you haven't seen her human side because she shifted the moment you brought her back to the past."

"She did," Zane confessed, clearly pained about that, and she felt the same when he revealed why he thought that was. "I think it was her inner beast's way of staying with you somehow. She remained that way to pull you back to her, and when she was old enough to speak, she confirmed it."

" Mi dulce angelita ," she whispered, saying ‘my sweet little angel' in Spanish because her heart was already thoroughly wrapped up in the child lost to her.

Better yet, a child found.

"I need to go to her." She looked from Zane to Tréan eagerly. "I need to let my daughter know I'm here...I'm home."

"Are you sure you're ready to—"

"She's sure," Zoey cut him off, clearly seeing what had been kept from her in various dreams of Freya over the years. She took Savannah's hand and nodded in reassurance, her gaze moist. "You're going to be an amazing mom, sweetie. I don't doubt it for a moment. Outside of her father, you'll swiftly become what Freya loves most in this world."

While envious Zoey had been in contact with Freya long before her, memories of dreams opened up to her more by the moment, and she couldn't be more grateful for Zoey's presence in Freya's life. For the tremendous friendship she'd offered when her daughter was growing up around creatures so very different than her.

"Thank you, my friend." She embraced Zoey tightly, so incredibly thankful. "I love you, Zoey."

"Love you too." Zoey hugged her just as tightly. "So very much." She pulled back and met Savannah's eyes. "Are you ready for this?"

"More than you can possibly imagine, given I didn't know I had a child, let alone a daughter, less than an hour ago." She inhaled deeply and nodded before biting her lower lip. "And I can't tell you how right it sounds to say that."

"You're going to adore her."

"I don't doubt it for a second."

Savannah turned to Tréan only to find him no longer kneeling in respect and supplication but standing in a fashion that made clear he had no intention of letting her go to Freya just yet. More than that, he wore a grim look when he glanced at Zane. "It is time to tell her."

Something about his tone set her on edge and made her inner dragon go on high alert. So much so her vision hazed brighter red with her inner beast, and she ground out, "It's time to tell me what?" when Zane hesitated.

"While I don't doubt your reunion will go well," Zane said gently, as troubled as Tréan. "There is every chance—"

"No," Savannah gasped when a familiar chill rocketed up her spine. She looked from Tréan to Zane. "Tell me my daughter's not cursed too because she's my child? Tell me..."

She trailed off, unable to go on, when the truth slammed into her. Squeezing her eyes shut, she fought a wave of heartache she'd never experienced before. A heartbreak that had everything to do with her child being in harm's way because of her. Deeper pain still, because her daughter had inherited it through no fault of her own.

"Whether cursed or not, we will free her of it and bring her home," came Magnus's deep voice before his caring yet firm hand landed on her shoulder, and she opened her eyes to his. "That I promise you with everything in me as Freya is as much one of us as my Aeda, and it's time our offspring are back in our life." He nodded once, offering her the sort of strength only a fellow parent could. Better still, a fellow shifter who had lost then regained his child just like her. "You have my word, Savannah." His dragon eyes flared to life, and he locked his jaw in determination. "There is nothing any of us who love you and Zane will not do to bring Freya home safely."

She nodded in return, grateful for his support, before she inhaled deeply, worked desperately to see past her fear, gathered every ounce of inner strength she could muster, and looked at Tréan and Zane again. Two shifters, she didn't doubt for a second, would die to keep both Aeda and Freya safe. "So, what now? How do we lift the curse once and for all and bring our girls home?" She looked around in confusion. "And where are Rune and J?rn, considering they must have the answer, yet strangely, they're missing in action."

"Steering clear of it lest the remnants of the curse somehow sense them," Tréan revealed. "Staying clear until they are needed."

The way he said it made her narrow her eyes. "What does that mean, exactly?"

"Nothing you will much like."

As it turned out, he wasn't kidding.