“How hard was it to leave Phoenix back with Mam and the rest of the family?” Heath asked River quietly as we walked slowly down the hill to the site of the shamans circle.

“Harder than I would’ve expected, you know? He’s barely five weeks old, and I’m already leaving him with a sitter while I go off to save the world? Gee, I make one hell of a father.” River giggled.

“Trust me, I know exactly how you feel. Don’t forget, we’ve all had to do it on our quests. Not to mention all of each other’s missions too. It’s not like most of the things we’ve done have exactly been baby appropriate, you know?” Heath commented reasonably.

“Right. I never realized how much you were all sacrificing for this before I had to leave my pup back in Dublin so we could fly here to the Isle of Skye; it definitely isn’t easy.”

Heath reached out to take River’s hand as they walked. “No, it’s not easy. But look at it this way, this should be the final one and things will be put to right finally.”

“That’s precisely what I’m holding onto. Damn, I never would’ve expected for parenthood to turn me into such a ball of mush.” River said.

“Why do you think they say that having a child is like watching your heart walk around outside your body? I don’t care whether you’re going to work a job at the corner market or go on a mission to save the world, it’s fucking hard to go off and leave your baby behind.”

“Speaking of babies, I noticed that Lulu wasn’t sporting feathers today. What happened there?”

Heath groaned softly. “The little shit won’t quit shifting. This last time, when she shifted back the feathers didn’t come along with her. I guess I can be thankful for that?”

River nodded. “It makes sense, she starting to get hair finally. I mean, she’s had that downy red fuzz for a while, but I noticed it’s thickening up and growing a bit longer.”

Heath spoke with a voice full of pride. “Honestly? I think it’s all the shifting she’s been doing. It jumpstarted those follicles into finally doing their job.”

I smiled as River chatted with Heath, appreciating the normalcy of their conversation in the middle of this epic fucking moment. It was nearly sunrise, and we were trying to accomplish this during that magic moment that occurs when the first glow of light hits the horizon.

After nearly three months, we’d finally managed to locate all thirteen rocks—in all their current renditions. I carried a pouch with the variety of different rocks, stones, and even charms like Heath’s arrowhead and Cody’s cross.

It had been a long road getting here, but we were finally going to close the portal once and for all. After a lot of study, a few visions, dreams, and intuitive flashes–we were pretty sure we knew how to make this happen today.

Once we reached the bottom of the hill, all the murmurs of conversation around me ended as we all spread out in a big circle around the portal. I turned to Tau.

“Since it was your ancestor that led the original circle at the portal’s opening, I think you should be the one to lead us while we close it.”

Tau shook his head. “No, I think the goddess chose each of us and our pairings for this reason. This job was always yours to do, Jun and I did our part already.”

I looked around at the other members of the group, but to a man they all nodded in agreement. Kent spoke up next.

“I think the fact that you don’t feel like you’re the right one for the job is what makes you the perfect person to do this for us. And Tau is spot on when he says that the goddess wouldn’t have chosen you and River for this shit if you weren’t the ones meant to do it.”

River walked over and wrapped his arm around mine. “Come on, alpha. Let’s get this shit done, so we can get home to Phoenix. Our pup is way more exciting than some ancient magical circle and an old Fae portal.”

Before opening the pouch I wore at my waist, I turned to Cody. “I believe you have custody of the dagger?”

“Cheers, mate. Of course I have it. Trust me, I’ll be glad to not be responsible for this thing anymore.” Cody pulled a leather pouch out of the inner pocket of his jacket.

“I think that since you and your mates were the ones whose mission recovered that dagger, one of you should be the one to wield it tonight.” River said quietly.

Without hesitation, Cody turned to his alpha mate, Kontar. “Since I have a well-known aversion to the site of blood, I’ll just let my mate take it from here.”

“It would be my honor to assist,” Kontar said quietly before he carefully pulled the dagger from the leather sheath that Cody held. He looked over at me expectantly, as if waiting for the next instructions.

“We all know what needs to happen now,” I said gravely. “I will pass each of you the stone from your line, and you’ll hold it in your left hand while holding your right palm up for Kontar to cut with the dagger. Once your blood is flowing, squeeze it onto your stone until it’s been absorbed.”

Pointing at the imaginary bull’s-eye spot in the dead center of this monolithic stone circle, I continued. “We’ll start with me. Once I’ve set my stone down, the rest of you will pile yours with mine.”

We’d all agreed to this before coming here, but somehow it felt it important to restate what would happen in this moment. I didn’t have the ceremonial words of my ancient ancestor, so I was pretty much just winging it now.

I walked around the circle, pulling each person’s family heirloom out and handing it to them before returning to my place beside River. Holding my dad’s rock in my left hand, I held my right palm out for Kontar.

Despite its age, the silver dagger sliced through the flesh of my palm like butter. Everyone watched as I clenched my fist and allowed my blood to drip onto the rock I’d found in my dad’s old collection.

River gasped as the rock did just exactly what it was meant to—it absorbed my blood without leaving so much as a blemish on the outside. I lifted my palm, and licked over the abraded skin to speed it’s healing while I walked silently over to the area where the portal awaited.

I set the rock down on the ground in the center of the circle, then moved back to take my place next to my mate. River had already had his palm sliced and was dripping his blood on the stone that had been passed to him from his alpha father.

Just as I’d done, he licked his palm as he walked to the center of the ring and set his stone down with mine.

One by one, every member of our pack followed our lead. Clark and Kent, Peter and Parker, Heath and Sean, Dimi and Ethan, Tau and Jun, and finally Kontar and both of his mates, Ansh and Cody.

I watched as each set of fated mates stepped forward with their offering of blood in stone. This night had been over two years in the making for the original members of our pack, and nearly a year for the rest of us. It had indeed been a long journey coming here, so that this moment was almost anticlimactic.

As Cody placed the final piece on the pile, a brilliant white light began to glow from the center of it, its beams flashing out from the crevices between the rocks. Cody quickly stepped back to join his mates, taking both of their hands as his eyes widened at the sight before us all.

The portal itself, previously only seen by those of us with the gifts to see it, glowed in stark relief. The light spread out as the pile of rocks lifted and formed themselves into a perfect arch. The air inside of it this newly formed arch looked thick and hazy with swirling rainbows visibly moving through its currents.

The small area that had been previously mended with the Phoenix feather, sparkled like a mended seam that had been stitched with glittering rainbow colored thread.

As the swirling rainbows moved over the area, the the scar began to fade and disappear until the portal became a solid structure–at least, as solid as air can be. Even if the air was as thick as rainbow-hued molasses.

Once the formerly ripped area was completely healed, the portal began to fade along with the white light. There was a light humming sound, as the rocks vibrated then the portal disappeared from view as each of our offerings flew directly back at us, each one landing softly on the ground in front of its owners feet.

We all began to talk at once, excitedly gushing over what we just seen and experienced. The air around us smelled fresher than before, like the sweet, cleansing fragrance after a spring rain.

I felt River’s hand on my arm before I heard him speak. “Come on, guys. We can discuss this on the way home. I don’t know about all of you? But I’d like to go cuddle my baby.”