Chapter 17

Alpha after slamming into me with a hug was more affectionate than usual after she caught back up with us. And with me dying in front of her a little...

Yeah her clinginess was excusable, to say nothing of her emotions after dealing with her estranged aunt were weighing on her. So I didn't have any problems having the blond hair elf leaning against me as I rode in the front of the carriage heading back home.

"Jake, should I have killed her?" Alpha asked me softly and I held in the grunt at the gut wrenching question.

Like really, how in the fuck should I answer that? Was I pissed at her for taking one of my Godhand lives, kinda but not really due to Ereshkigal giving me a lap pillow to recover my soul I didn't lose anything.

The pain of death? Getting your heart blended into mush by the magical sword was a fairly quick death so I didn't hate her for the pain, as I didn't even hate Herakles for literally ripping my arm off and beating me to death with it in his version of training.

So to sum it all up. Did I hate her for killing someone who was messing with people and wanting to end the fight after I caused a fuck load of property damage... No not really honestly.

Maybe my disregard of being killed has to do with her being Alpha's aunt who was willing to stalk the entire world for years looking endlessly for her niece but another part of it was certainly my realization that death sucked true, but after dying dozens of times and getting my shit kicked in by Scathach on a daily basis I had grown past hating someone who beat my ass like a bongo drum.

"I know she loves you Alpha," I said quietly as I slowly squeezed Alpha against me and she sniffed as her hands that were closed together tightened. "I... Yeah my approach went horribly and that forced a fight and the fight got to destructive so she did what she had to do." I spoke frowning as this was obviously a rather difficult topic.

"I will support you in what you want to do Alpha, but I know for a fact that she loves you even still. So if you want to reconnect with her just know that when I get stronger I am going to spank her ass like a drum for putting her sword through me." I joked making Alpha chuckle and although I couldn't see past her long blond hair I could feel her smile as she leaned her head against my shoulder.

"Ahum." Alpha softly agreed as her tightly clasped hands uncrossed and one reached over to hold my other hand that wasn't holding the reigns to the horses.

"Lady Alpha is being lewd!" Delta's outraged voice cried out as she pulled open the window that separated the front of the carriage from the interior and then she halfway crawled out of the carriage's window as she tried to separate our hands.

"Alpha how can you hold Jake's hand first?! We had a promise that I would hold hands first and you would get the first kiss!" Beta cried out almost sounding like she was in tears but I as I looked back in surprise I saw her blush cherry red before she ducked down out of sight with her embarrassed cries ringing out as Eta blearily looked up before rolling over to put her back to the noise.

'My god Delta was literally being a smaller dog getting jealous of their male and female humans flirting' I thought wryly as Delta successfully separated our hands and then as she looked to pout or say something to me, she screamed in primal fury while Delta and Alpha were fighting over the status of who could hold my hand a silent predator had struck.

It was the personification of the saying 'A mantis is stalking a cicada, but it doesn't know there is an oriole behind him.' But in this case, the hidden danger was the silent Zeta who was now smugly sitting on my lap with her cat ears ticking my chin as she leaned against my chest fully relaxed as she watched the scenario pass by.

To say the least, the trip back home was loud and heartwarming as the more social members of Shadow Garden played off one another to cheer up Alpha from her issues with Gamma and Epsilon coming out of their shells and getting to know the more relaxed Beta, and Alpha. While also coming to an understanding about the smug cat that was Zeta and the hyper murder puppy that was Delta.

"So you plan on staying at the church now to train for the future troubles coming in the future?" Beta asked after we got back to the church and I nodded as I had all of the 'Seven Shades' or leaders of Shadow Garden and at this time I didn't need an entire army of seven hundred plus gaslit orphans though I had no doubt that with Alpha's efforts, we would reach that number, especially with how we were in the open.

So I was going to stick around and consolidate my power. And train for when canon is supposed to really roll around and soon after that deal with how a whole new set of gods, assholes, including a world-eating dragon, a vampire that wants to close the world in eternal darkness, a mad dragon-born, and of course the events of Oblivion which included two and a half gods reaching into the world to fuck with it and of course the lesser catastrophes...

'Gods Serana better be worth all this trouble.' I thought wryly as I helped Gamma out of the carriage so she didn't fall straight on her face as she fell just standing up from her seat in the carriage.