Page 116 of The Alpha’s Heir

The men hustled to get Katrina and her son inside, making them comfortable, and I turned to stop Roman before we climbed into the vehicle.

“Thank you for coming back,” I said.

“Did you think I wouldn’t?” He pulled me close, stealing a moment as the rain and chaos rained down around us.

I wanted to kiss him, to rejoice in the fact that he was here and alive, but I remembered what Ares had said.

“Your father…” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.” Roman shook his head. “We both did all we could to prevent this, but it was always going to end up this way.” He lowered his face until our lips were a breath apart. “And my consolation is that I know my father would’ve loved you too.”

Did he say he loved us? My wolf yipped.

I smiled against Roman’s lips. “When we get a minute alone, I’m going to show you just how much I love you too.”

“Why wait?” His lips captured mine in a tender kiss, stealing a moment.

“Mommy, look!” Charles’s little voice said. “The sky is breaking.”

I broke away from our kiss, staring past Roman’s shoulder as I tried to make sense of what I saw.

A giant hand shot straight down from the clouds.

I screamed as the fingers wrapped around Roman’s chest and he was torn straight out of my arms.

41

Roman

My human brain couldn’t comprehend what was happening, but it tried hard to rationalize it. Something had grabbed me, and I was flying through the sky so fast I couldn’t even scream. Whiplash turned my vision into a blur, and then I landed against a pole of sorts, which I clung to with all my might.

It was a metal rod, high above Ethica. Lightning flashed again, illuminating the entire city below.

I leaned to the side, trying to assess the situation. Black soot and burn marks scorched the area beneath the antenna. My stomach had been left somewhere on the ground with Meg, but I still had enough guts to swallow back as I realized I sat on top of the media tower that the lightning had already hit, no doubt the catalyst behind the destruction of the power grid.

Then the floor dropped from under me, and I was falling instead of flying.

This time, I found the voice to scream.

I landed hard on a tiled floor with my rifle digging into my back, and sucked in a shaky breath, grateful to be alive, as I rolled to the side.

The entire room was white. The walls, the tile, the ceiling that had no hole and no rational explanation as to how I’d fallen through.

I blinked to clear my vision, crouching low as I took in my surroundings.

Male laughter filled the room, echoing off the walls and vibrating along my skin.

I grabbed my rifle and spun around, taking aim as a man materialized from thin air.

Not a man. A god.

The one I’d seen a glimpse of through the window of Helen’s house. Meg had called him Ares, and if that was the case, what the hell did the god of war want with me?

“Such a crude instrument.” Ares nodded at my rifle. “Effective, though.”

I thought about shooting him just to see if I could paint these walls red, but if I were a betting man, I’d say gods probably didn’t bleed.

Slowly, I lowered my weapon.