Fated Redemption (Kindred of Arkadia Book 8)

by Alanea Alder

Without any further explanation he held the diner door open and they walked inside. They hadn’t taken a couple steps when a small body launched itself at Rhys. Moe smiled at his bewildered mate as he was strangled by their Alpha Mother. He looked around the diner to see that Rebecca, Sebastian and Ashby had pushed three tables together to hold the car seats with their sons nestled inside, and they sat at the table between the room and their children. “I’m so happy to see you out of the coven house and with your mate!” Rebecca bounced, jerking Rhys’s head around. “Becca,” Aleks said cautiously. She whirled around, still partly dangling from around Rhys’s neck. “What? He’s addicted to shifter blood, I’m the only one safe around him.” The declaration fell flat in the diner with a giant thud. Moe looked over to Rhys, whose mouth was twitching. Ashby slapped his hand to his forehead, shaking his head, and Sebastian rolled his eyes. It was Liam who broke the silence with his laughter. Rebecca looked around, confused. “What?” She looked to Rhys questioningly. “Nothing, ignore them. I’m happy to see everyone too.” He kissed her cheek.

“I have something to tell you. You are not Mary’s father.” The sound of Peyton’s daytime soaps drifted into the hallway. Moe knocked and heard the sounds of Peyton scrambling for the door. When it swung open, Peyton’s eyes were misty. “So Connie turned out to be a slut after all, huh?” Moe asked, and handed him a to-go box. Peyton’s head bobbed. “I knew she had a thing going on with Derek. She is going to break Steve’s heart!” Peyton actually looked worried for the fictional Steve. “I bet she contracts a disease,” Rhys said. Peyton’s eyes widened. “That would make sense! She has been complaining about her head hurting after the drug lord kidnapped her.” Peyton looked deep in thought. Moe turned to look at Rhys, who winked up at him. “Okay, we’ll leave you to it. Enjoy lunch.” Moe waved. Peyton just nodded absently and shut the door.

Rhys looked around and smiled. He was behind a bar again, he felt like he had returned home. This, he could handle with his eyes closed and one hand tied behind his back. He had just finished setting up behind the bar the way he liked it when he heard a throat clear. “Excuse me, barkeep.” Rhys turned around and smiled. Rian and Damian had taken seats at the bar. “What can I get you, gentlemen?” “Thank god, a real bartender,” Damian exclaimed. “I love Peyton to death, but he couldn’t make a drink for shit. Where is his tweaky little self anyway?” Rian asked. Rhys pointed to where Peyton was chatting with Gina and Cecelia at a corner table. “He’s much better suited as a waiter. He looks happier.” Damian nodded his approval. “He reminds me of a guy I know from Purgatory. Micah was constantly dropping glassware, but insisted he wanted to be a bartender. Roman would damn near cry at the end of every month when we had to shell out money for more glasses.” Rhys laughed. He looked over and Rian was watching him with a strange look on his face. “What?” “You look like you again. Maybe being in your natural ‘habitat’ helps.” “He’s not a damn zoo animal, Ri!” Damian gave Rhys an apologetic look.

To his left he heard women’s laughter. He turned to see his mate flexing for the group of older women and they were catcalling and cheering him on. Rhys laughed out loud at the spectacle. “Leave me alone!” Peyton’s frantic voice had Rhys turning to see what was going on. While he had been distracted ogling his mate, the wolf beta Glenn had come in and was harassing Peyton. He was seated at a booth and had a hand wrapped around Peyton’s upper arm. Gina and Cecelia looked scared. Rhys bit back a growl. “Rhys, darlin’, can I get a cup of boiling water for some tea?” Rian asked, his usually playful eyes, serious. Grinning evilly, he went over to the hot water dispenser and filled an entire water glass full of extremely hot water. “Here you go, Rian.” “Thank you, darlin’.” Rian stood with the glass and walked over to the booth. Damian slid off the barstool and quietly walked the long way about the bar so that he was standing behind the booth unseen by the wolf. Rian, however, made no efforts to hide. He swaggered right up to where Glenn was shaking Peyton around like a puppet. “Come on, you little slut. I know you must have missed me.” Glenn growled. “Hey, Peyton, when are you coming by to take my order? Oops!” Rian acted like he tripped over one of the chairs and the tall glass of scalding hot water was flung into the beta’s face and completely saturated the man from eyebrow to groin. The beta immediately released Peyton who ducked behind Rian and roared out his anger. He cock...

“Becca, go upstairs and lie down, I’ll be there soon,” Aleks said as if he were talking to a ledge jumper. “No way! I have to defeat the Red ones. Die! Red! Die!” There was a pause. “But, if you’re coming home, can you stop and get me some cookies? Love you, bye bye!” she said sweetly, which added a whole dimension of scary to her color induced death rant. Then the line went dead.

“Two witnesses are enough to be banned. Finn, can you help me drag his ass to the perimeter? I have some rope in my truck.” Duncan grinned at his younger brother. “You can’t mean to drag him with your truck, it’s not humane!” Salsiby protested. Finn’s head swung around and the look he gave him had the man stepping back. Rhys had to avert his eyes, he had never seen a more murderous expression. “Neither is he.” Finn growled low. “Damn, you learned ‘The Look’ from Pa. I’m jealous.” Duncan bent over and grabbed Glenn by the ankle.

“Now Peyton, honey, you don’t have to be afraid. You are family. If anyone tries to hurt you again, you just coming running to my store. I may be smaller and weaker than most shifters, but I have a double-barrel shotgun behind the counter.” Miranda gave the startled man a hug before patting both David and Daniel on the head.

“Okay men. Time to kill shit.” David grinned at Peyton bumping shoulders with the smaller man. “Let’s kill some fucking zombies!” Peyton exclaimed. David, Daniel, Emmett and Duncan’s eyes widened and they busted out laughing. “Y’all are a bad influence.” Rhys laughed. “We know,” they said together. “God help us from the twins,” Rhys said. The four men looked at each other. “Which set?” Emmett asked. “All of you.” “You do know we have two more sets coming up in the ranks. Landon, Lucas, Matthew and Merrick,” Duncan offered. “There goes Arkadia,” Moe said, wiping down tables, a smile on his face. “Rock on!” Emmett said.

“Doc says now that we know what we’re experiencing we can take steps to prevent it from getting that bad again. Postpartum depression usually only occurs in the first three months, so hopefully we won’t see it get this bad again,” Kate said, then turned to Rebecca. “What on earth possessed you to drink so many espressos?” Rebecca shrugged. “I felt better after the first one, so I figure the second and third one would be amazing. I kinda lost track of time after the third one, then the colors started attacking me.” Rebecca closed her eyes and shuddered before laying her head back down on the table.

“Anywho.” Abby looked up at Aleks. “I’m Abby Wright, college roommate. You are?” She held out her hand. Aleks smiled warmly and shook hands with her. “Aleksander Arkadion, mate and husband.” He grinned. Abby’s smile died on her face. “Arkadion? The Arkadion? The Alpha?” She turned to look in horror at Rebecca, who was now happily dipping her fries in ketchup and munching on them. “You made her the most powerful female in the paranormal world? What in the hell is wrong with you?” she demanded. “Hey!” Rebecca yelled.

Liam leaned over and wrapped his arms around Aleks rubbing his back. It went on for a minute and Abby caught Kent giving his mate a curious look. “Aleks, I’m here for you.” Liam breathed into Alek’s ear and continued to rub circles on the bear shifter’s back. “Uncomfortable yet?” Liam asked, grinning wickedly. Aleks yawned and lay his head down on the bar. “Rub lower, I did my rounds today talking to everyone in town, my lower back is killing me,” Aleks said, sounding half-asleep already. Liam stopped and looked at Aleks, disgusted. He turned to where Rian and Damian were catching up with Bethany and Asling. “Rian, I need you to babysit Aidhan more often. Aleks is exhausted and is not responding to any of my well-thought-out digs.” “Let me get this straight. You want me to babysit BooBear so that Aleks will get more sleep so he is awake enough for you to torture?” “Yup.” Liam nodded. “Okay.” Rian shrugged.

“Here ghostie, ghostie, ghostie,” Rebecca called out. Sebastian, Ashby and Giddey edged closer to Abby. Rebecca turned and looked at them, her face beaming. “We should split up, we’ll cover more ground that way.” “We’re going to stick with Abby,” Ashby squeaked. “Yeah, she’ll need our help upstairs looking at all the rooms.” Sebastian explained. Bullshit, y’all are sticking with me because I’m not inviting ghosts to start up conversations. “Good idea. I got down here covered. Now, if I were a ghost where would I be?” Rebecca turned and started taking pictures with her digital camera. “On that note, let’s go, boys,” Abby said, and started up the stairs.

“Oh god.” Aleks’s voice sounded strangled. Rebecca looked around her eyes wide. “I see dead people,” she whispered. “Keep that shit over there,” Rian yelled, moving his seat back a few inches. “No. Absolutely not! I forbid it! You get into enough trouble with the living!” Aleks ranted. “This is so cool!” Rebecca laughed, ignoring her mate’s utter meltdown. “I wonder what your range is? What kind of parameters are involved. I mean do they have to be dead for a long time? Can you just stand over a grave and be like ‘Come out, come out, wherever you are’?” Abby asked. Her scientific brain taking over. “We can try the graveyard later.” Rebecca was practically shaking with excitement. “Like hell!” Aleks growled.