Reclaimed By My Alpha (Natalia and Andrei) novel Chapter 587

Natalia’s POV

Cold, wet ground rushed up to meet me. I gasped, tucking my arms, and braced myself for impact.

Thankfully, the bed of moss I fell onto was soft and plush, and although it knocked the breath from our lungs, I heard no cries of pain or snapping of bones. In fact, the cold damp of rain was welcome against my face as I laid there. It was a reprieve after the heat of the place we had just spent days in.

A moment later, it hit me.

Andrei.

I scrambled to my feet and turned, spotting two figures laying in the moss a few feet away. “Andrei!” I shouted. “Max!” I rushed over, dropping to my knees. Max was coughing but awake, and Andrei was laying there, staring at the sky with his arms spread wide and a look of awe written across his face.

His gaze snapped to me.

“Natalia.”

He sat up, just barely, and threw his arms around me. The force of it pulled me down to the ground with him, but I didn’t fight it. I collapsed willingly into his arms, sobbing so hard that my body shook with the force of each one.

“F–Five years,” I managed between gasps. “I–I thought… I was so afraid…”

“I know. I know.” He stroked my hair, buried his face in my neck, and held me impossibly close. I could hardly breathe, but I didn’t care.

Andrei was alive. Five years of separation, five years of constant fear and grief, and all this time, he had been…

Alive.

We pulled back just enough to look at each other. I cupped his face, brushing my thumbs over his cheekbones, letting myself just feel him for a moment. I studied him like a cartographer studies an old map. The lines around his eyes. The gray hairs at his temples. The familiar bridge of his nose that I had seen every day for five years in our children, thinking I would never see it on him again.

He was here. Goddess, he was here.

And he almost hadn’t been.

“I almost killed you,” I said, my voice strained from how tight my throat was. “She almost made me.”

Andrei furrowed his brow. “Who?”

“The Moon Goddess.” Max sat up, still coughing, but seemingly unharmed. “I felt her there.”

Andrei whipped his head around to look at our son. His eyes widened for a second time as the realization hit him that Max was no longer a tiny six year old, but nearly a teenager now.

I wanted to give them a moment. They deserved it.

Gently, carefully, as if afraid Andrei might shatter if I moved too quickly, I extricated myself from him and stood. I moved a few steps away, giving them space.

They both sat there for a moment, on their knees in the moss, just staring. Andrei looked at Max like a piece of art he had never seen before. Max looked at his father with such calm certainty that it stole my breath away.

Then, Andrei had Max in his arms, holding him just as tight as he had held me, rocking him back and forth and smelling his hair

and murmuring under his breath and squeezing his eyes shut so tight I had to look away to fight the tears.

+25 Bonus

“Dad” Max’s voice was muffled by Andrei’s chest. He clutched Andrei’s shirt with his small fists. “I knew you were alive. I always knew it.”

Andrei just held him tighter until Max coughed again. Only then did he release him, although he kept a hand on his shoulder.

He looked up at me. “Jane and Hope…?” he whispered.

I nodded, laughing tearfully. “They’re home. Waiting for their papa to come back.”

Andrei made a sound that I couldn’t quite describe.

Slowly, he stood. I rushed over, giving him my arm for support. He tested his weight on his legs as if not quite sure if they would work. They did.

“It’s all such a blur,” he muttered, running his fingers through his hair. “I remember this dark force taking over me, and then …” His voice trailed off. He looked down at his hand, at the red dirt caked between the lines of his palm, then glanced up at me.

“It’s a lot to explain,” I said. “I’m not even really sure if I can explain it myself.”

Andrei said nothing. We both looked up at the sky, gray with clouds that pattered a light rain onto the ground, from which it felt we had just fallen. I wasn’t sure how any of it was possible. How we were standing here now, alive and unharmed. How, despite the rain, the sun was still shining from behind the clouds. The wind was still blowing. The mountains still stood, and the ground was still firm beneath our feet.

It made no sense. The Moon Goddess and that demon, whatever his name was, had been battling in the red sky mere moments ago. I thought for sure that the world was ending, that the gods, in their eternal clash, would forget about the trees and the birds and the wind and would just focus on destroying each other at the expense of everyone and everything.

But here we are, standing in the middle of a mossy forest, unharmed, with the world still spinning as calmly as ever.

“Where are we?” Max asked then, breaking the silence.

I looked around and scratched my head. The surroundings were unfamiliar, although the terrain didn’t seem too far off from where I had initially entered through the portal to the underworld. “Good question,” I said, “but we’ll figure it out. First, though, we should find a spot to rest for the night. I’m sure we all need it.”

Max and Andrei both nodded at the exact same time. The similarity in their mannerisms, despite having spent five years–many of Max’s formative years–apart, made a smile stretch across my lips.

I moved closer to Andrei and laced my fingers with his. He squeezed back, still staring at me, at everything, like it was some kind of strange dream that he feared would dissipate at any moment.

“He told me to kill you,” he whispered. He looked at me imploringly. “I remember that much. That… thing inside my head. He told me to kill you. But I didn’t want to. Not really.”

“I know.” My fingers tightened around his. “The Moon Goddess told me to do the same. I couldn’t. I refused.”

Andrei’s lips twitched. “So we both defied the gods,” he muttered.

I nodded. It was a terrifying thought, defying deities, especially the one who had given us our wolves to begin with. But in a strange way, I was glad I had. Because Andrei was here now. And I was not going to live out the rest of my days knowing that I had gone against my heart for the sake of being a goddess’s puppet.

Just then, the wind picked up, splattering more cold rain across our faces. I shivered.

Max pointed off into the distance. “I think I see a light out there,” he said.

I followed his finger, where indeed, something golden and bright and inviting was shining.