Challenged by Fate (All-Seeing-Eye Book 2) Read online

  Challenged by Fate

  Renee Shearer

  Copyright © Feb 2019 by Renee Shearer

  All rights reserved

  Cover @2019 Harper Wylde

  Editing @Ali Shearer

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places,

  brands, media, and incidents are either the product of

  the author’s imagination or used fictitiously

  The author acknowledges the trademark owners of various

  products, brands, and/or music references in this work of fiction.

  Which have been used without permission.

  The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized,

  associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced

  or used in any manner whatsoever without the express

  written permission of the publisher.

  Except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Preface

  Blurb

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

  Author Notes

  Also by Renee Shearer

  Dedication

  Dedicated to my husband, thank you for always believing in me

  no matter what crazy or insane idea I throw your way.

  I love you more than I could ever possibly say.

  Preface

  WARNING: This book has foul language, sex, and violence. Recommended for 18+ readers. Also this is a Reverse Harem, meaning our girl DOES NOT choose between her men. Read at your own risk.

  But seriously I hope you like it!

  Blurb

  How do you find and kill a Goddess when she can go anywhere?

  Ariana’s world is turned upside down. She thought the curse was almost finished. But time is running out for her to bond with all her mates, and she is missing one. Gray is in the clutches of Rowena, the goddess who calls herself Fate. She issued a challenge for them, one they will have to answer as Ariana and the guys race to find him. Problem is… He’s no longer in their century! How do you find someone who could literally be anywhere in time and space?

  When it’s all said and done, who will save who?

  Can they defeat Rowena or will she prove to be to strong? Will Ariana and her guys succeed in time before the curse kills her? Or will she end up leaving her daughters to grow up without their mother?

  Prologue

  Rowena

  1512 AD in the Realm of the Gods

  “Nemesis what are you doing? This will not work! Mother and Father will be angry and strip you of your powers.”

  She watched as her sister Clotho, one of the three Fates, paced back and forth in her chambers. Clotho was dressed in her usual black and silver robes, the hood was pulled down and her long, luscious grey-silver hair hung to her waist. Her eyes of sapphire burned with an inner fire and her movements where graceful and lithe, even when she was agitated, like now. Clotho had high cheekbones and full red lips, with her eyes slanted and lined with kohl, hers was a fierce beauty. Her youthful appearance was so unlike what the humans saw, they saw nothing but an old crone.

  She envied her sisters. Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos did not want more than what their Mother and Father had designed them to do. Clotho spun the thread of fate for the humans, Lachesis weaved the thread of the humans lives, while Atropos cut the thread when their time was up, sending the mortals to their afterlives. But Rowena longed for more. She wanted love, and happiness, to not be feared all the time by the humans, and to finally get away from Zeus.

  Frustration swam in her blood making her tone sharper than she intended, “I told you not to call me that anymore Clotho. I have adopted a human name, I am Rowena now. I’m doing this because I love him, Samuel is mine and I will marry him!” Rowena sat on her bed in a huff, crossing her arms, she stared at her sister getting slightly dizzy from Clotho’s pacing.

  Clotho spun around, angrily pointing a finger at her. “No he is not! I have spun his thread and I have seen his mate, it’s not you sister. We are destined to have no one.” Looking weary, Clotho suddenly slouched down on the couch at the end of Rowena’s bed. “Nothing good can come of this! Why won’t you give up this foolish endeavor? Besides we have it much better than the humans. Would you really give all of this up?”

  Standing up from her bed she started to walk around her room, inspecting it with a critical eye for the first time in her long life. With its view of the clouds and far below of earth. The tapestries that hung on the wall on either side of her massive fireplace, depicting scenes of the gods in battle. Her bed was a huge four poster with translucent sheets of silk hanging down. The marble floors were spread with woven rugs of black and gold, her colors.

  In fact, gold was spun into everything, making it shine. Everyone loved her room, saying black and gold went so well together, it only made her feel sick. Even her bed had golden thread spun into the sheets. To everyone else it was a beautiful room, but to her, it was nothing more than a prison. A gilded cage.

  She was sick of pretending she was fine, pretending that Zeus had not defiled her. He had wanted to lay with her and she refused him, but he insisted. Hounding her day and night. In a fit of desperation, she had transformed herself into a goose and flew to the far edges of the world. Zeus had pursued her even then and disguised himself as a swan, where he mated with her when she was too weak and tired to fight him.

  From that union, she had laid an egg with their daughter Helena inside. To add insult to injury Zeus then ordered Hermes, the God of Travel, to take her daughter and give her to a filthy human to raise as punishment for running from him. That was centuries ago and still she could not let it go. Her heart still broke thinking of her sweet daughter raised by weak humans.

  Rowena was the Goddess of Retribution and yet she could not seek vengeance on the one person she wanted too. Zeus, the king of the gods. She hated him with a passion that burned like the fire from a thousand suns, but could not go after him. At least not in any direct manner. To do so would mean a true death for her, however, she could go after what he held dear. There were few things Zeus paid attention to, but the one thing he always favored was his precious All Seeing Eye.

  Her lips curled into a sneer, she hated them just as much as Zeus. A family line graced with power and gifts equivalent to that of a Gods’, passed down each generation, until a new Eye was needed. All because one lucky human had managed to be in the right time at the right place.

  Shaking off her thoughts, Rowena turned to her sister, “You know why I cannot give this up! My gift needs to seek vengeance on him and it will not stop until it has. Until then I will marry Samuel and have the happiness I deserve! And this is nothing more than a fancy prison, sister. Don’t you see that?”

  “How are you going to get revenge on Zeus? It’s not possible, so just give it up! Why are you doing this? You hate the humans, yet you are willing to marry one-- I just don’t get it sister.” Clo
tho implored her one last time completely ignoring her question, but Rowena was having none of it.

  Slashing her hand through the air, she finally let her mask slip. She let her sister see the rage seething underneath the false calm she portrayed. “I hate most humans, but Samuel is different, he would never betray me. He loves me. As for Zeus, I will find his All-Seeing-Eye and I will curse her. Such is my nature sister. She has far too many gifts, and that cannot be good for the world.”

  She didn’t care if it took all of eternity. Her heart cried out for retribution, and she would grant it. No matter the cost.

  “But… but we need the Eye! They are charged with keeping the forces of good and evil on an even ground! If one side was to win over the other there would be nothing but chaos! Is that what you want Nemesis? Chaos?” Clotho’s distress was evident in her voice. Rowena’s heart tried to tell her to sooth her sister, but she ruthlessly squashed it down. She refused to let anyone stand in her way, even her beloved sister.

  Rowena glanced sharply at her sister, she just didn’t get it, none of them did. Well, she would show them, show Zeus, just what happened when you messed with the Goddess of Vengeance! They would all feel her wrath, and if it brought hellfire and chaos down on their heads, then so be it!

  “Stop calling me that! I am Rowena and I will do this. You and the others cannot stop me!” With a flurry of her skirts, Rowena vanished from her bedroom.

  Chapter One

  Ariana

  Present day

  Ariana slowly opened her eyes, basking in the warmth of the sun streaming in through the windows for a moment before everything came crashing down around her. Her breath caught in her throat as she remembered Gray was taken by that bitch.

  With a gasp she shot up in the bed, looking wildly around the room, as if she would be able to spot him. Like it had all been a very bad dream.

  Please for fucks sake, please let it be a dream!

  Instead her gaze crashed into Roman’s; when she saw the anger and sorrow in his hunter green eyes, she collapsed in on herself. Tears streaming down her cheeks as her heart was crushed under the weight of her grief. She had just gotten her daughter back from that maniac Danny, who turned out to not be her friend Danny at all. But instead was the Monster from her past, who she had thought she killed when she was seventeen.

  Ariana had made sure that bastard was dead this time-- by taking off his head. Now that twat Rowena had taken Gray…only god knew where. When will we get a fucking break? I just want to rest and raise my girls in a safe and secure world. Is that too much to ask! Ariana raged inwardly at the universe, hoping someone would hear her.

  As strong and muscular arms wrapped around her, Ariana clutched at them like a lifeline. Gone were the days she flinched from her mates touch, and her insecurities. She loved all of them and they loved her.

  A fresh bout of tears streamed down her face as she sobbed, “I never told him I loved him!”

  Roman’s arms stiffened for a moment before wrapping more securely around her and hauling her limp form into his lap. She cried into his shoulder holding onto him for dear life as her grief threatened to tear her apart.

  When Zoey was taken she hadn’t cried, because she knew they would find her and get her back. They had immediately gone into action. But this… this was so much different. She didn’t know if they would find him, if he would still be alive. If they didn’t find him, she was dead. Not only would her girls lose one of their new fathers but their mother as well.

  Ariana cried for them, Gray, and herself. Roman didn’t say anything, he just rocked her gently until her sobs finally turned to whimpers.

  Roman pulled out of her arms and held onto her shoulders, looking deep into his eyes she saw all the love and tenderness she needed to see. “It will be okay Ari-Lass. We’ll find him and make that bitch pay.”

  “But where is he, Roman? How will we find him! She could have taken him anywhere!”

  “Ari-Lass,” Roman stroked her cheek and wiped away her tears, “Don’t forget you’re the All Seeing Eye. You can do a lot of shit that I have never seen.”

  “I know, but, what the hell did she mean by she is Fate? Does that mean she’s a goddess? I thought all that shit was a myth! How the fuck can I fight a goddess?”

  Ariana stared at Roman, his long red hair just brushed his shoulders and she loved to run her hands through it. His neatly trimmed beard that was surprisingly soft, high cheekbones, and full lips. He was sin personified, and she couldn’t stop looking at him. Looking for answers she knew he couldn’t give. He didn’t seem worried, which helped calm her down a bit.

  Roman smiled gently at her and hugged her to him one more time, his voice rumbled in her ear as he spoke and sent shivers down her spine. “Easton is already on it. Have a little faith in us and yourself, Ari-Lass. Now come on lazy bones, time to get out of bed and shower. The girls want to see you.”

  Sniffling, Ariana tilted her head up and swiftly kissed Roman on his lips, and slowly got off the bed. “I’ll try. But we had better find him fas… why am I naked!?”

  Looking around the room she tried to find something to cover herself up with. Standing Roman grabbed her hands, forcing her to calm down once again and look at him.

  “Ari-lass you shifted into a fucking dragon after Rowen…” he quickly amended what he was going to say when she growled at him. “That bitch took Gray. Don’t you remember? It was quite spectacular, flames jetting up into the sky, your red and black scales blazing with the sun.” He chuckled as he got a faraway look in his eyes and Ariana’s mouth dropped.

  “Ummm… no. I don’t remember that. Why don’t I remember that? I need coffee.”

  Shrugging, he turned her around and guided her to the bathroom that joined her room. “We used to have a cup waiting for you, hoping the smell alone would wake you. And you probably don’t remember because you let go of your magic all at once. It was a pretty powerful blast Ari-lass. Which is why, when you shifted back, you didn’t have any clothes on. You were already unconscious by that time. Freaked all of us the fuck out. Again.”

  Choosing to ignore his censure, she asked. “How long have I been out?”

  She could practically feel his hesitation in telling her. “About a week. Ye nearly depleted all yer magic. Turning into a dragon is not something ye just do, lass. Ye have to work up to it. Ye could have died, right then and there.”

  The fact that his Scottish accent was more pronounced and he had slipped back into speaking like he was from a different era, showed just how affected he was. Roman only talked like that when he was upset about something.

  “Why didn’t anyone dress me?”

  He shot her an incredulous look, “And cover up all yer beauty? Also turns out dressing an unconscious person is harder than it seems.”

  Shaking her head, she frowned, she looked inside herself for her magic, it was there, a lot less than before though. But nowhere near depleted as Roman had said. What was strange was that it seemed less wild, more settled.

  As she looked deeper she could actually see her magic. It was like a kaleidoscope of different colors all wrapped around each other forming a ball that sat right next to her heart. Well, shit. That’s new.

  She had never been able to see her magic before. Mesmerized by the colors, she didn’t notice when Roman turned on the water in the shower, or when he lifted her up and set her under the spray.

  She shrieked as the still cold water hit her. Giving an evil chuckle, Roman slipped out of the bathroom leaving her alone with her thoughts as finally the water heated up.

  She had shifted into a dragon and had no memory of it! Ariana hoped she didn’t do too much damage and that her girls were okay. That was the last thing she needed, to traumatize them with her powers. Ariana wanted to show them how to be strong, and independent. Not flip out every time shit hit the fan. Parenting fail on that one Ari. She closed her eyes and let the now hot water slice over her head and face, all her muscles started to relax. She ne
eded a plan, Ariana and the guys had to find Gray and at some point she needed to cement her bond with the guys. But that could wait for another day since she still had a little under seven months left.

  How do you find someone who is a goddess? Ariana needed to call Alaina again, see what she knew about the Goddess of Fate. Or whoever the hell she was.

  Opening her eyes Ariana saw a huge spider dangling in front of her nose. “HOLY SHIT!” She shrieked as she quickly lurched backwards and to the side. Hitting the side of the tub she tried to grab onto the shower curtain to steady herself and instead managed to rip it, taking it down with her to the floor.

  She was laying there stunned, staring at the ceiling, when the door burst open and all the guys were suddenly filling up the space. Roman had his purple flames at the ready, Jayden’s hands were already turned into the claws of his tiger. Mateo had his twin swords out, and Aiden’s eyes were that of his wolf. A blue so deep and bright that it almost hurt to look directly at him. Easton was standing at the back holding Zoey, a blue protective sphere around them.

  “Mama!” Zoey squealed happily as Avery pushed her way to the front of the group.

  Putting her hands on her hips, Avery looked down at her, “Spider?”