Chapter Eighteen

Z ANE WAS BEYOND relieved Savannah had forgiven him for taking Freya yet just as fearful about what their daughter still faced. How terribly dangerous it might be for her.

"So you're telling me Freya's curse has been repressed in ancient Ireland?" Savannah wiped away the last of her tears, stood up straighter, and rallied the strength and courage he'd always appreciated when she looked from Tréan to Zane. "And there's no way to know what might happen once she's back here and around her own kind in this era? No way to know what the curse will do? Worse still, no way to know if our little girl could very well become the unseen enemy everyone thinks I am right now?" She shook her head and notched her chin. "Absolutely not . We can't risk it."

"Yet she cannot remain with the Wolves of Ossary forever," Zane said gently, hating it as much as her. He glanced from Tréan back to Savannah. "As it stands, Tréan and his people are putting themselves at great risk keeping her there now that your curse is lifted."

She frowned at Tréan, clearly worried about not just Freya but Aeda and his people. "How much risk?"

"I cannot say, nor could our medicine woman," Tréan replied. "All we know is something seems to be shifting in Freya even she doesn't appear to sense. Either it's because the curse is reigniting inside her now yours has been snuffed, or it's simply because she senses you getting closer to her."

"I'll go with door number two," Savannah managed, showing admirable levelness when Zane knew her inner beast railed in fear. "And if it turns out to be door number one, we need to get her back here so she doesn't harm the wolves I know she loves."

Tréan nodded once in thanks before surprising Zane with his devotion. Or, better put, the love he'd clearly come to feel for the girls. "I will return and help however I can as King Ulrik once did for my people."

"You've helped so much already," Savannah said softly, clearly touched but also no fool. One didn't have to be half-wolf to sense just how powerful Tréan was, so any help he could offer them would be much appreciated. "I accept your offer. Thank you. I'm sure it would comfort Freya knowing you're there if things become too difficult for her."

A small smile flickered across Tréan's face before it vanished, telling them he was pleased by her words.

"Let us go reunite her with her mother, then." Tréan urged them to follow him down a tunnel Zane had traveled countless times over the years. "Then the girls will, at long last, return to their rightful home."

Everyone followed him for a short time before Savannah slowed, clearly sensing their daughter despite still being in a place magically caught between tenth-century Norway and ancient Ireland.

"I should greet her in dragon form." Savannah sounded certain. "Our beasts should connect first." She looked at Tréan. "Would that be possible? I know your kind is okay with Freya, but she's still a relatively small dragon, and I'm not."

"No, you're not," Tréan agreed. "But you're also not a male dragon." He shrugged at Zane. "As you've long known, they might be okay with your human side, but I suspect they might be alarmed by your dragon half."

He understood but could admit he'd wished he had been able to shift over the years so his and Freya's inner beasts could have met that way. Yet he knew soon enough, with much anticipation, she would be coming home, and they would not only meet as dragons but fly and hunt and do all the things dragons did together.

"So it's all right if I shift?" Savannah said.

"It is." Tréan urged them to continue walking. "As I suspect my pack, especially the females, would like to see what Freya's mother looks like. See the dragon that birthed her."

Not needing to be told twice and clearly realizing the tunnel had morphed ever so slightly as they grew closer, Savannah shifted into her lovely beast. Almost immediately, her pupils flared, and she inhaled deeply, undoubtedly picking up her daughter's scent. Having longed for this moment, Zane remained close to her, his beast rooted solidly in her mind, supporting her in any way he could.

"She's just ahead," Savannah's dragon murmured. "I can feel her, and she's so...incredibly beautiful."

She was, and Savannah saw it firsthand when they neared the exit and she laid eyes on a young copper dragon sitting beneath a mighty oak with little Aeda, who was fully human.

Clearly sensing Savannah's approach, Freya stopped chatting with Aeda and went perfectly still. Just as Savannah had done, she inhaled deeply and looked in their direction until her eyes locked on her mother for the first time.

Rather than race to their daughter and wrap her up in her wings like Zane knew Savannah wanted to, she exited the cave slowly and lowered herself until her belly and chin rested on the ground. She did what any good dragon mother would do when meeting her offspring for the first time. A means to become as unintimidating as possible and let Freya approach her on her own terms rather than the other way around. Let her feel in control rather than afraid.

Even though he sensed Freya wanted to look at him, too, she couldn't seem to take her eyes off Savannah for a long, drawn-out moment before a low purr rumbled inside her, and she cocked her head. Undoubtedly sensing their connection and recognizing her, Freya said the sweetest word he knew Savannah had ever heard.

"Mother?"

"Yes, Freya, it's me." There was no missing the incredible emotion in Savannah's wobbly internal voice. "My name is Savannah, and I'm your mother."

Shy by nature, Freya hung back a moment before her own curiosity and emotions got the better of her, and she inched forward, studying Savannah's dragon with big, smoky gray eyes that were nearly the same brilliant shade as her mother's. "Truly?"

"Truly." A fiery tear trickled out of the corner of Savannah's eye. "And I can't tell you how much I've missed you, Freya. How glad I am to finally meet you, my daughter."

" It really is you," Freya said, her internal voice as choppy with emotion as her mother's. Her eyes welled. "Isn't it?"

Savannah had no chance to answer before it seemed Freya didn't need any more convincing because she rushed over to Savannah and rubbed her neck against hers. Battle-hardened warriors or not, there wasn't a dry eye when Savannah's dragon keened in pleasure, wrapped her daughter up in her wings, and met Freya's purr of pleasure.

What Zane wouldn't give to wrap them both up in his wings at last, but he fought the urge when he spied so many wolf eyes watching the tender exchange from the shadows. Wolves that deserved better after all they'd done for him and his kin over the years. However, he could be with his family in human form, so he rested his forehead and hand against Savannah's folded wings and closed his eyes. Felt the extreme pleasure of having both his mate and daughter so close at last.

Yet it seemed his pleasure would only grow when, moments later, he wasn't touching Savannah's wings but her human arms. Better still, her arms were no longer wrapped around a little dragon but a young girl who would turn eleven winters old in the spring.

He felt everyone's awe, from wolf to dragon, as he joined Savannah, and they sank to their knees. Joined her as they looked at their daughter for the first time together. She looked so much like Savannah with her big smoky gray eyes and thick mass of long, crimson-tinged dark brown curls that she took his breath away. Yet still, as if her inner beast recognized him as her true father, there were several small lines shaved into one eyebrow to match his and little talismans representing his inner Múspellsheimr and Ancient woven into several small braids identical to ones woven into his own hair.

"Hello, Freya," Savannah whispered, her voice hoarse with emotion as she cupped her daughter's cheek for the first time. "Hello, my beautiful daughter."

"Hello, Mother," Freya replied, her eyes widening a bit at what it felt like to use human vocal cords for the first time. Her wondrous gaze drifted to Zane. "Father."

He felt the impact of her gaze as strongly as his mate. Understood at that moment, she was the same soul that had been with him and Savannah since the beginning. That hers, whether masculine in that life and truly his, had returned to them in this life. Moreover, her dragon had hidden it from him until the time was right. Hidden it from him because she wanted to be with both parents. Wanted to show them that though she might have begun in darkness, she'd ended up in light, because he had stood by her mother. Loved a child he could have rightfully shunned.

"Freya," he said softly, cupping her other cheek, caught up in emotion. Privileged and thankful she had found her way back to him. Them . "Daughter."

No other words were needed as he wrapped his family up in his arms and held them close to his heart. Loved like he had never loved before. Knew, as he had in both their past and present life, he would do anything to protect them. They belonged to both sides of his human half, Midgardian and Múspellsheimr, and without doubt or uncertainty, very much to his dragon half.

After they held each other for what would never be long enough for him, they joined the others. Aeda took precedence as she and Freya raced into each other's very human arms and embraced one another that way for the first time. Everyone smiled as the girls connected in a way they never had before. He and Magnus nodded at each other and smiled, understanding the two girls were very much sisters in their own way and that their families would likely be spending ample time together in the future, whether Aeda was dragon or not.

All the while, wolf eyes watched from the darkness.

"They are worried about her," Tréan said into Zane's mind. "Yet also very happy for her."

"But most of all, they're sad she will be leaving soon," Zane replied, having a sense for the way wolf shifters thought, and, in the end, it wasn't all that different than dragons. They loved and protected their own.

And Freya and Aeda had very much become their own.

"Yet they cannot be subjected to me much longer, can they?" Freya said, having clearly caught their telepathic conversation when she should have been unable to. Her sad gaze went from the forest to Tréan and Zane. "I need to leave now, don't I?"

"We all do," Aeda added. Her sad gaze went from the woodland to Freya. "If we stay, they might get hurt."

That's when every dragon present realized Aeda was special, indeed.

She wasn't merely human but a seer like her grandmother.

Clearly already understanding how special her best friend-turned-sister was, Freya didn't ask the adults if she was right but merely frowned. "Why?"

Aeda, unfiltered as only a child could be, shrugged a shoulder and answered matter-of-factly before they could say things more gently. "Because you have been cursed since birth." She cupped a hand around her mouth and whispered as if they couldn't hear her, pointing at the wolves. "And I think they have known all along."

This time, when Zane and Magnus glanced at each other, it was with an inward sigh. More family time indeed with two daughters who would clearly take the lead every chance they got. A lead they had never shown Zane over the years when he visited, but here it was.

When he and Magnus looked at Zoey and Savannah, they shrugged and shook their heads, seeing things just as clearly as their mates.

"So you understand it is time to go, little ones." Not surprised in the least by their behavior, Tréan crouched and smiled at them. "You understand it is time to save your kind and release all curses once and for all? To be with dragons once more? To be Viking once more?"

Somehow, Zane wasn't all that surprised to learn Tréan knew more than he ever let on. But then, as he knew, his Lycan friend was indeed powerful.

As if they understood how important this moment was, Freya and Aeda sank to a knee much like Tréan had in the cave when first meeting Zoey, then Savannah and lowered their heads in respect, both saying, "We do, Uncle."

"Then rise, knowing you will always be part of my pack, and..."

All dragons felt the impact of how strongly Tréan had come to care for their offspring when his voice broke off with emotion, and he held out his arms, only for the girls to rush into them and embrace him tightly, first as a man, then as an enormous white wolf moments later.

Zane, Savannah, Zoey, and Magnus backed away as too many wolves to count melted out of the darkness and surrounded Tréan and the girls before he, too, pulled away and allowed them to brush against the girls with both affection and unmistakable sadness. When they melted back, more wolves came but far fewer, clearly those higher ranking in their pack under their alpha, Tréan. Wolves who had rarely shown their faces over the years.

And all clearly cared as much about their girls as Tréan.

The females came first, rubbing up against the girls before two mighty males, nearly as large as Tréan. Zane had only seen them a few times but knew Tréan trusted them with his life. They were, in dragonly terms, his second and third commanders.

They turned dark, glittering eyes full of wolf shifter magic toward the dragons, a clear warning that they would seek them out and suffer death gladly if it meant keeping the girls safe before they allowed embraces from the girls who were both teary. The wolves never shifted to their human form but stood like silent, stoic sentinels, all at attention behind Tréan, then all the others fell in behind them, a wide swath of not just protection but love and support for the girls as they, at last, joined their kind.

"Is Tréan coming?" Savannah wondered, smiling when Freya slipped her hand into hers as they entered the cave.

"He is," Freya answered sadly. "Once we are out of sight and..."

Aeda, who had been holding Magnus and Zoey's hands, joined Freya and took her free hand before Zane could, explaining in an equally sad voice what was happening.

"They are bidding us...pack members, goodbye in the way of the Wolves of Ossary," Aeda said softly. Respectfully. "They will watch our spirits vanish into the darkness, mighty warriors both, and then howl their farewell. Let us know they will always be with us."

Though Freya sniffled a little, she stood up straighter, much like Savannah might, and notched her chin, determined to remain strong as they made their way deeper into the cave. "They will also let us know they are proud of us and we have earned our standing within the pack. They love us as much as we love them, and we are always welcome back. They are us, and we are them." She swallowed hard. "We are one."

The girls were right because moments later, a symphony of echoing howls began that touched the soul in a way none of them expected. A chorus of mournful wails mixed with righteous pride that affected human and dragon alike. A chorus so synchronized and heartfelt there could be no doubt the girls had been beloved right from the beginning. No matter what happened, they had another home to go back to if things went terribly wrong in their era. An era they swiftly reentered once Tréan caught up with them, and they discovered what awaited on the other side.

Moreover, they discovered the mayhem getting ready to unleash.