The Alpha's Mother-In-Law's Forbidden Love (The Cresta Chronicles)

Ravyn POV

Ravyn stood in horror, facing Hades and Jude together.

"YOU'RE the walk-in?" she spluttered. "NO!"

Hades smiled with a hint of his arrogance. "You argued for mercy toward me--"

"DON'T," Ravyn snarled. 

Anneliese kicked the water. "Sometimes i hate being a witch."

"Me, too," Lilia agreed.

Jude growled. "Some part of me knew the truth, or suspected. Knew who you were. The clues were there. Memories I never should have had on my own. Erratic angry behavior. Coldness."

"And giving you magical powers even greater than Cyran's," Hades added blithely. "Don't forget that."

"Oh yes, because people will suddenly accept that." Jude paced along the lake shore. "They'll accept me as Alpha with you in my head!"

Cyran snarled, "So, once again, you make another Alpha go mad, Hades. Congratulations. What's next?"

Garnet's eyes snapped with indignation. "Do you really expect us to just leave you in Jude's body to eat his soul the way you did Melisande's?"

Hades held up his hands. "Melisande was a deeply unhappy woman, or I wouldn't have been able to get in."

"I'm happy," Jude said in a calm voice.

Hades studied him for several minutes. "I know. I think, oddly, that's why my soul chose to incarnate in you."

Garnet scoffed, "What, so you can be happy after wreaking havoc and destruction?"

Anneliese added, "I thought you just wanted to die ... to move on, and be released."

Hades floated near Ravyn, his eyes fixed on her. She resisted the urge to hide from his hungry gaze. "Let's be honest, I'll never be welcome in the Moon Goddess' palace, even after my little stunt trying to defeat her sister. So, I have nowhere to go, except to find a borrowed home. One that the Dark Goddess will never disturb. Jude isn't related to me."

His logic was nearly perfect. And she shoved him backward into the dream lake, but he levitated and spun around, a smile on his face. "I think I might actually enjoy being mated to you, Ravyn."

Behind her, she heard the sound of Anneliese and Lilia gagging. 

She spat, "I bonded with Jude Faolan, not YOU."

He spread his hands. "He and I share one body now."

Ravyn looked desperately at Jude. "Surely, you can get rid of him. Ask him to leave. You're stronger than he is. Stronger than he'll ever be, even at his height of power and influence."

She physically hurt. She could feel it in her body in Eirika's healing space. Her entire body ached, right down to her bones.

Jude could get rid of Hades. Of course he could. He could do anything. Hades had only lived inside him for a short time. 

"You can expel him," she said, grinning. "You can drive him out of your body. I know you can."

"We'll help," Garnet added, with a pointed look at Hades. Jude isn't the only place he'll be safe from HER."

Lilia wove a bubble of protection around Hades, its shining surface strong, yet delicate.

Hades spread his hands. "It's useless. In all the shifter lands, no one else could ever host me and shelter me like Jude. And I can make him powerful, the way he needs to be to defend his pack and family, so his mate will be safe."

In an eerie mirror of Hades, Jude spread his hands. "Our souls are intertwined."

Ravyn shook her head. "No. No. No."

* * * * *

Jude POV

He didn't know how to explain it to her.

He couldn't just ask Hades to leave. Deep down in his heart of hearts, he knew that he needed Hades. That their souls were meant to coexist.

But that was madness. Jude couldn't possibly share his body with Hades ... let alone his soul. And his wolf! What would happen to his wolf?

"But I don't want them intertwined," he added, smiling at the relief in her violet eyes. 

Hades held up his hands. "We already are, Jude."

Jude looked at Lilia, Ravyn, Anneliese, Kelara, and Talon.

"It's entirely possible," Talon said, making a sour face. "It would, of course, be helpful to know HOW Hades entered Jude's body."

"When we were all vulnerable, how do you think?" Garnet exploded.

Cyran scowled. "Hades, this is low, even for you. You do NOT borrow someone's body--"

Hades held up his hands. "He invited me."

"I think I'd recall that," Jude shot back, approaching him. 

Hades shook his head. "You invited me in a moment of crisis. Try to think back."

Jude did...

* * * * *

How dare the Dark Goddess impersonate Emer so cheaply!

In the Nightmare Realm, Hades grinned at him and Ravyn "And it was an idiotic move for me to meddle in your romance."

"Oh, I don't know. It made me more eager," Ravyn said with a quirky smile. "Sometimes, you need that little push to wake you up."

His Ravyn was amazing. She even empathized with Hades. They were all laughing together. Jude could feel the simmering rage from the demon.

Hades bared his teeth and shifted into his wolf form, or partly, at least. He grew red wolf ears, a throwback to his Crimsontail past, and a tail. He hurled silver energy bolts at the Dark Goddess. They dueled impressively, but Hades' astral body took a lot of punishment and he shuddered in pain. The demon stayed cold and beautiful.

Jude watched in awe as Hades bent back as the blast narrowly missed him by inches. "I can use this realm just as well as you can."

"Hades … I grant you your death. But not yet. I'm going to play with your friends first. Starting with Jude, the wayward widower."

A shimmering red shield surrounded Jude and everyone. Hades surged forward, leaving them out of the fighting. "Stay back, all of you."

Cyran sounded upset, and smelled distressed. "Hades … you expect us to just let you be her target practice and her victim?"

Hades felt a surge of emotion. "You've had enough of that for a lifetime, haven't you?"

"D*MN IT, HADES! Don't try to be a hero," Cyran roared.

Hades laughed joyfully. "This is my first time. Let me enjoy it."

The Dark Goddess' hands danced in a lethal pattern, and Jude screamed in agony as the shielded haven filled with the agonizing blue flames. Hades shrieked, "Let them go!"

Jude's heart ached to see Hades' astral body weakening under the Dark Goddess' assault. But he had bigger problems. He, and everyone else around him, writhed in pain.

Hades was worse off. Way worse. His connection to Melisandre's body was failing. His weary soul started to unravel. Melisande's body was going to die anyway. Hades had kept it alive for as long as he could. 

Hades looked at Jude appealingly, and for a moment, their hands touched. Hades privately thought to him, "I'm the only one who can beat her. I know her."

Jude thought privately, "What can you do? There's nowhere else to go. You take over any Sinsworth or Cresta and she'll know."

"But not a Faolan. I can live in you."

Hades was crazy. And Jude must be, too. After all Hades did, how could he be Hades' host? And how could he serve as an Alpha?

"If you don't, she'll just put me into someone else's body," Hades thought desperately. "I want to rest, yes, but my work's not done. PLEASE."

Jude howled softly, to signal his agreement. He didn't even think. Instinct and his wolf Arcturus made his decision for him. 

"Thank you," Hades whispered in his mind, just before his firefight with the Dark Goddess consumed them both.

Hades jumping into his body drove that conversation out of his mind.

* * * * *

Jude shook his head to clear it. "I lost that memory."

"A fake memory?" Ravyn questioned, razor-sharp.

"No." Cyran supported Jude's account. "I could see Hades doing that ... and I could see Jude agreeing for the good of shifters everywhere." 

"But I can't be Alpha with this going on." Jude said rationally, shocked at how calm he felt.

"Yes, you can," Hades urged him. "I've learned my lessons. I won't isolate you from your friends and family. I won't hurt you or your family--more than I have, anyway. I'll be a partner for you. I'll help you. And we'll both love Ravyn as no other woman has ever been loved. Jude, what do you say?"