43|Shadow of the Past

43|Shadow of the Past
~Serena~

Cora followed me, her fingers brushing my neck as she pulled my hair out of my face. My stomach wrenched, I heaved, and spilled out air from my guts. Pain drew a stripe from my gut through my throat, and I cursed inwardly as I felt another retch building in my belly.

Cora pressed a hand on my spine, rubbing my back up and down as she waited for me to empty my stomach’s contents.

“This is so embarrassing. I don’t know what’s happening to me,” I murmured, standing straight as I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. 

Cora didn’t mind that I’m a mess. She looped a hand around my arm and whisked me inside the house. “Don’t worry about it, honey. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

Declan and Alpha Oren were nowhere in sight when we walked back into the mansion. The tapping of Cora’s sandals as we headed for the wide staircase filled the mansion. My head reeled as I glanced up at the chandelier hanging from the ceiling. The exposed overhead beam on the house became blurry the longer I looked up. Even the afternoon orange glow passing through the large windows made my head hurt.

Dizziness was something new to me. As a shifter with fast healing, I haven’t been sick since I had my wolf. We don’t get sick at all, so I don’t know how to deal with nausea.

I’m grateful that Cora was guiding me. If she weren’t here, I would just slump on the ground and wait for the giddiness to pass.

We walked through a hallway before reaching a room. All I could remember were the natural colors of the house as Cora brought me into a bathroom. She guided me to sit on the covered toilet seat and got busy filling the tub with water.

“Do I smell that bad?” I thought, realizing that I said it out loud when Cora’s laughter bounced off the bathroom walls.

“No,” she murmured, checking the water temperature before coming back to me. “The water will help with the dizziness. Now, come on. Let’s get you in the tub.”

She helped me up and pulled my borrowed shirt over my head. Getting naked in front of Alpha Seth’s mom was the least of my concerns. The moment my toes touched the water, relief instantly crept up my skin. And when my body was fully submerged in water, a sense of calm enveloped me.

Cora sat on the edge of the tub. “Feeling better?”

I nodded, exhaling. “So much better. How did you know the water would help?”

“I know things,” she murmured, stood up, and opened the cabinet under the sink. She came back with a bottle of foaming bath, it was a lavender and chamomile scent. She put a few drops on the water, and like a child, I played with it until foam surrounded me.

“Do you know someone who met their fated mate?” I asked, hoping she could give me some advice to get through this dilemma without surrendering myself to this damn fate.

Cora’s demeanor changed. I hear a whisper of her past blowing through her thoughts. She looked thoughtful for a moment and stared me in the eyes.

“I did,” she said.

“You?” I froze, blinking at her as if a dust particle had gotten caught in my eyelashes. “You mean you and Alpha Oren are fated mates?”

Her smile was willful, sliding her gaze to the pale pink paint of the bathroom wall. “No. He is my chosen mate.”

Hope bloomed in my chest. This meant she knows a way around the mate bond. “How did that happen? How did you end up with Alpha Oren?”

Dark clouds loomed over Cora’s face, instantly eliminating the hope sprouting inside me. “Oren and I were lovers even before I found my fated mate. We promised to mark each other as soon as I got my wolf.”

I sat taller in the bathtub, patiently waiting for Cora to continue.

“You heard of the red moon ball every five years here in Fallenmist.” I nodded. “Oren and I planned to mark each other that night, but I found my mate in the ball.”

An ominous shadow of the past loomed over Cora. She was choosing her words carefully and choosing which part of the whole story she was willing to share.

I know the look of a dark past when I see one. And Cora was walking down memory lane just now. I reached for her hand; water slid from our joined hands to the porcelain tub down the tiled floor. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it.”

She placed a hand on top of mine, never minding the foam from the bath. “Oren and I haven’t talked about it since. We buried it in our past. No one even knew that I found my mate.”

We all have that story we didn’t want to share. It’s not that we were hiding it, but because it’s too painful or too traumatizing to bring back.

“You don’t have to,” I shook my head.

Cora swallowed a chunk of courage and squeezed my hand. “There were nights that I think about it, and if this would help you and Declan, I’m gonna share it with you, Heart.”

“Serena,” I said. If she was willing to tell me about her past, then it was only fair that I share a part of myself with her as well. “Please call me Serena.”

“Serena…” she sampled my name, a sense of intimacy binding Cora and me. She pulled in a huge amount of courage before starting. “That night, my mate gave in to the haze of the full moon and his desire to mark me. I fought him, but he was too strong. I ran away from him, but he cornered me outside the banquet.”

I squeezed Cora’s hand. She blinked away the pain of the past and continued. “He was ready to mark me, but Oren found me. We both tried to reason with my mate, but my mate wouldn’t listen. He’s not willing to let me go. So Oren did what he thought was the right thing to do.”

My feet turn cold under the water of the tub. “He killed him.” I mulled over Cora’s revelation. “But how did you survive? I thought your life would be forever connected with your fated mate?”

Cora pursed her lips. “Oren marked me the moment I fell into an agonizing pain of losing my fated mate without being marked.”

I swallowed all this information like a tall glass of vinegar. It left an undesirable taste in my mouth.

Cora continued. “We buried his body where no one would find him. Until now, that night has been haunting me.”

I know how that felt. She might not be the one who took her mate’s life, but Alpha Oren did that in her name.

Core blew a sigh. “I don’t regret what happened that night. I love Oren, and we had Seth. My family is everything to me, but I know one day the past will come hunting Oren and me, it will collect for our sins.” She turned her palm over, squeezing my hand. “Death is the only thing that could cut your ties with your mate. Do you hate Declan that much that you’re willing to let him kill himself just to save you?”

My entire body went stiff, my heart drumming loudly in my ears. “What do you mean?”

“Declan is smart, Serena. And he went for a run just a few minutes ago.”

Then I remember what Declan said in the car. ‘I would give up my life so you’d be free.’