71

71
ChapterTwenty-SevenKatya“I thought he was
you,” Ezra blurts, unable to meet my gaze. I laugh softly, finding his
discomfort amusing, considering how much he had just enjoyed it. Mateo stands
before coming over to me and pressing his lips to mine. His nose moves down my
jaw to my neck as he inhales my scent, Ezra’s voice pulls him away from me.“I was expecting you
both to have done the deed by the time I got home,” Ezra scolds, folding his
arms across his chest.“We wanted to, but I
said no,” I told him. Though I wanted nothing more than to be with both of
them, I couldn't stop myself from waiting for Maddox to lose it, and I didn’t
want to put Mateo at any more risk.“I thought you could
maybe mark Mateo first?” I suggest. If he does, I won’t have to worry about
Maddox losing it because Mateo will be officially his as well.Ezra’s eyes flick to
Mateo before going back to me. “I will mark him, Kat. But you don’t need to
worry about Maddox. He hasn’t done anything yet, has he?” Ezra asks, and I
shake my head. “Then why are you worried?” he asks, stepping closer to me. He
wraps his arms around me. I inhale his scent when Mateo kisses my cheek softly.“Where is it?” Mateo
asks Ezra, making me look up at him.“My wallet, back
pocket,” Ezra answers, and Mateo reaches into Ezra’s pocket, retrieving his
wallet before walking off and out of the pack house.“Where is he going?”
I ask.“To go do something,
he will be back later.” His eyes glaze over for a second and I know he is
mindlinking before his eyes fall back on me.For the rest of the day, I watch Ezra work. Kora
still isn't talking to me, and I only get glimmers of her presence around them.
Yet, when she does press forward, she's nervous about something. She is
anxious, like she, too, is waiting for Maddox to break and lose his cool."Ah, this is
boring," I complain, as Ezra flicks through the pages of yet another
document on his desk. He constantly has a pile he can never get to the bottom
of, or if he does, he will find another stack of paperwork he has to sort
through and sign off on. It makes me wonder if he somehow got cursed by some
witch for being so grumpy, eternal work, or something. Or maybe I am the one
being cursed, since I have to deal with being bored to death waiting for him to
finish."I never said
you had to watch me work, go find something to do,” he says, looking at his
watch.I roll my eyes.
There is nothing to do around here. Hopping off the couch, I stroll outside,
deciding to go for a walk when Kora presses beneath my skin. “Run, please,” she whines, almost desperately. I glance at
the packhouse, knowing Ezra is too busy, and Mateo isn’t home to go with us.My skin ripples with
her need, and itches as she presses forward, with her urgency to be let free. “We won't go far, promise, just to the river and back,” she
vows. Something about it has me agreeing. I can’t deny her. This is the first
time she has come forward in ages. Stripping my clothes off, I give her
control. My bones snap and crack as I am forced to my hands and knees as the
shift takes over.Kora shakes out her
fur before stretching. She yaps excitedly before grabbing my clothes in her
mouth and darting into the trees, her paws flicking up the soft soil behind
her. Kora breathes in deeply, loving the smells of the damp earth and sap on
the trees. She slows as we get to the river to a more leisurely pace.When we come to the
small clearing by the river, she drops my clothes before walking over and
drinking from the flowing water. Her tongue laps at it thirstily. The sun warms
our fur, and she lays down next to the river when we hear something. Kora cocks
her head to the side, listening intently for whatever the noise is, before I
hear a voice I never thought I would hear in anything but my dreams."Hello Katya,” her voice is clear, calm, and almost serene
just like from my dreams.Kora gets to her
feet and spins to face the sudden intruder. She looks as regal as ever from
where she stands beneath the tree. Her long white gown flows to the ground as
she steps toward us, hair flowing freely, not a piece out of place, as if not
even the breeze can touch her. She stops in front of Kora, looking down at her,
long fingers reaching for us as she gently runs them through our fur."Hello, child of mine,” she whispers as if some hidden depth
lay beneath her words. Kora sniffs her hand, turning her face into her palm,
and licks her wrist. “My child of the Moon, I would like to
speak to your human,” she requests, her eyes glistening back at us,
saying so much yet so little of how she feels about us. Kora whines and steps
back, stretching out her front legs before she shifts back.I growl at Seline.
Our Moon Goddess, a deity, but to me, she is nothing but the woman that cursed
my family, generations of death, and endless pain caused by this one woman.“Ah,
ah, ah, don’t be rash, child, I am just here to talk and nothing more,”
she warns, and I glare at her. Turning my back to her, I walk over to where my
clothes are. Snatching them off the ground, I quickly slip them on while Seline
looks around at the trees and the river, breathing in the air deeply before she
sighs “I miss this, miss, this place,” she observes as
I glare daggers at her. She turns her gaze to me, a knowing smile on her face.
“I know you’re angry, I know you don’t understand the meaning
of this. I blessed you and cursed you with life and death, not the stink eye
child, so save it for someone else.”“Why are you here?”
I ask, making me wonder if this is why Kora wanted to go for a run so
desperately. Could she sense her presence in some way? Kora doesn’t seem
startled or scared of this woman that is responsible for the horror of my
ancestor's past.“Yes,
she could, I have been calling for her, that is why she has been absent,” Seline
explains, reading my thoughts.It shouldn’t
surprise me yet her answer somehow still does.“I
have been watching your family for generations, but you, my child, you are
different,” she continues. “Only one other
has caught my attention, he was the first to break the curse, the only one to
break it, but then made the wrong choices afterward, and it cost not only his
life but that of his mates.”Plagued with
confusion, all I can do is stare.Seline shakes her finger in the
air, giving me a pointed look. “But I have watched
you grow, morph into something more than your ancestors dreamed of, so I
thought I would throw you a bone if you will,'' she says with a smile.“You could always
break the curse, you created it, you can take it away,” I insist, walking over
to the boulder by the river and sitting on it. She shakes her head.Seline follows, yet
watching her it was almost as if her feet don’t quite touch the earth, yet I
can see her standing, the train of her dress slivering behind her. Yet it did
not stain despite the soil and grass being moist. “No, I
can’t. What’s done is done, only you can figure it out for yourself, but I have
been helping along the way, you just didn’t know it.”“Moon Goddess lady,
I have no idea what you are talking about. So instead of speaking in riddles,
just spit it out,” I grumble, becoming annoyed.Seline smiles like she thinks I am
amusing in some way. “You remind me of Marabella,
the fire inside you, you two are very similar, she had the same fighting
spirit, but her love trumped all, even in the end when she gave her life for
her son.” she watches me for a second and purses her lips, looking
at the water.I glance at it,
seeing my reflection, yet hers did not appear beside me where she stood.“Have
you figured it out yet? I can feel it just sitting on the edge of your mind,
trying to put the last pieces of the puzzle together,” she pushes, turning her
attention back to me and watching me curiously.I stare at her.“Love
that has no limit, jealousy with no bounds, pain of the worst kind, sacrifice
for the unworthy, and then death. They all go hand in hand with your family.
But you are the first to forgive, the first to accept all of it. No tricks, no
hidden meanings behind your feelings, you aren’t even trying to break the
curse. You just accept it, unfazed by the imminent death the others faced, you
don’t fear it.”Her words tug at
some part of me I can’t explain, something ingrained in what I perceive as my
soul. But she is wrong, I do fear it, not for myself but for my mates. The
damage it could cause them when I eventually meet my end.“It
doesn’t have to be that way, there is no end. There is also no beginning, just
a never-ending cycle, a loop, life, and death. You can’t have one without the
other, everything and everyone is soul, spirit, recharged, remodeled, and
returned to the moon, to the earth, infinite Kat. We are all infinite.” Seline
motions around her with her hands, a soft smile playing on her lips.“All this is just a
drop in an ocean, a mere speck of what we truly are. I can show you your future child or show you the past. Everyone has
skeletons in their closet, you just need to choose which ones you can live
with, which ones will haunt you a little less,” she advises.“What about your
skeletons? How many do you have?” I ask her.“Mine
haunt me every day, Marabella, Katherine, Josiah, they all haunt me. But you
haunt me the most because I have seen your future, and you were so close to
having it all. So close to something great, just like Josiah, but he chose
wrong, and he didn't realize it until it was too late,” she sighs, looking down
at me.“And why is that?
Why do I haunt you, Seline?” I challenge."Because
you're so close, I thought when I paired you with Maddox, paired Mateo with
Maddox, it'd end the same, but you've proven to be quite surprising, and Ezra's
love for him outweighs the bindings of his curse and yours. Call it your bone,” she says dismissively.“My bone, you tossed
me a bone? You make no sense,” I object.“Everything
will make sense, child, it always does. And to any curse or blessing, there is
a loophole. A way out, a way to even the playing field.”“Yeah, you want to
show me the way? A step-by-step user manual or a damn map pointing me in the
right direction! Or are you just going to dribble this nonsense?” I demand, and
she laughs.“Kora
is many moons old, she has been with each of you from the start, for the first
time in generations, I see hope in her. She believes in you, believes that she
will be set free, but ultimately it is up to you.”“Kora?” I ask, and
she nods.“Yes,
she has been here all along, denying what she always wanted for the sacrifice
of her human counterpart. I create the bonds, but it's up to the human to keep
them or throw them away. Mateo, the poor dear boy, has been through so much. He
has loved Ezra since he was fourteen, the bond forged when he was eighteen. His
love for Ezra twisted fate and changed the course of things, and he has lived
in silence since you came along.” I go to ask what she means when
she continues.“I can tamper with
fate, but ultimately, it’s the chosen mate that is stronger. Why do you think
we give them a choice to reject their mates? Choice, a choice outweighs
everything. Choice can alter the path of destiny.”“I don’t understand,
Ezra is my mate, so how can Mateo have three?” I ask, remembering his lost
mate.“Mateo
is bisexual, he always had two. Werewolves are two halves of a whole, the human
counterpart, and a counterpart of something much older. So mates are destined
with that in mind, Mateo is bisexual, which makes Ares is bisexual too. I can
give mates, design the path for them to meet, but it's not just the wolf, but
the human counterpart that decides whether they keep them.” her
words confuse me, yet don’t for some reason.I always believed
that our paths are destined, but is she saying we could deviate away from fate
by choice?“See,
that's where the loophole comes in, Ezra was always destined to be Mateo’s.
Ezra was also destined to be yours, you are the catalyst that brings them
together. Ezra couldn’t love Mateo without you, and couldn’t have him until he
realized loving you allows him to be able to return Mateo’s love.”“You make no sense,
Mateo was destined to be with another,” I point out, and she shakes her head.“Yes,
in a sense, I like to fiddle with fate, but she was never going to last. I
tossed her in to give Ezra a push toward Mateo, only then did Ezra realize he
could put his beliefs aside and love him too. That poor girl was a lost soul,
fate had other plans for her, and I knew Mateo would choose you over her.”“How could you be so
certain he would?”“Because
Mateo chose you the moment he laid eyes on you, he just didn’t know it, he knew
you were Ezra’s by your scent, he knew the very first day he met you, which at
first upset him.”Seline’s words make
me think back to the day I met him at the storage locker. Mateo seemed angry
with me, which had startled me at first. He kept glaring at me, even commenting
about my scent, then it was as if his anger with me disappeared altogether.“He
was jealous until he met you and really got to know you, forging the bond. How
else would he be able to kill his destiny if not for a chosen mate? How else
could he override that of his wolf’s instincts? He chose you, Kat, he chose you
above her because his forged bond was stronger than that of fate, that is the
gift of choice,” she says before pausing.So was I always the
second choice to Mateo? I wondered.“Don’t
doubt his love for you, Kat. He chose you first, chose you over her, and didn’t
think twice about it. Kora needs Ares just as much as she needs Maddox. The
question is when it comes time to choose, who will you sacrifice?”“Neither,” I tell
her, and she smiles.“Let's
hope that is true.” She flicks her wrist, and my surroundings
disintegrate around me, warping and twisting, making me look around frantically
when I find myself in the backyard of the packhouse. “Is this
the future you envisioned?” She asks.I feel confused
until I see myself walk out the back of the packhouse, two small children
following behind me as they skip along. A girl and a boy.“Twins
one for each mate, one cursed with death, the other blessed with life,”
Seline observes, and I watch as they play before I spot movement above from the
window. Ezra peers down at them, with a troubled look on his face as he watches
them play, making me tear my eyes away and back to the children. The girl has
dark flowing hair to her waist and resembles Ezra. However, the boy looks like
Mateo, with the same facial features, just softer, and younger.Looking at myself, I
watch them, though the light is gone, and I look hollow as I force a smile on
my face. I rub my mark on my neck, although it looks different. It is black and
stains my skin. I turn back to study Ezra in the window, he is now watching the
other me, though his eyes are dark, clouded with something before he turns his
back and walks away.I look at Seline,
trying to figure out what she is talking about. “Where is Mateo?” I ask her,
and she looks at me.“Everyone
has skeletons, everyone makes a sacrifice, and with every sacrifice you pay the
consequence. Just remember, not everyone deserves to be saved, Katya. One
sacrifice can change your entire future,” she warns before flicking her
wrist, and my surroundings disappear.I find myself
sitting on the boulder again, back at the river.“Make
sure you choose which skeletons you can live with, Kat. Some will haunt you and
those you love more than you can ever imagine."“I still don’t
understand,” I admit, trying to figure out this riddle she gave me, and where
exactly Mateo was?“You
will understand when the time comes, or I hope you do, Kat, for your mate's
sake and yours. Choices are something we all must make. Don’t make the mistakes
of our ancestors. They sacrificed wrong and in turn sacrificed themselves,
never sacrifice their bonds,” she warns, when I hear movement
in the woods, my ears perk, hearing a twig snap. Seline smiles when Ezra and
Mateo step out of the tree line, a look of relief flooding both their faces.“There you are, we
have been looking for you,” Ezra scolds with a sigh, only then did I pick up
their fear. Mateo’s face lights up when he sees me. And my heart breaks knowing
what the vision showed, yet I can’t think of any possible reason as to why I would
sacrifice his life over someone else's.“What are you doing
out here?” Mateo asks while glancing around, his voice sends shock waves
through me, and I throw myself at him, smacking into his chest. “Hey, what is
wrong? Why are you crying?” He asks, wrapping his arms around me, and I turn
back looking for Seline, only she is gone.I step away from
him, looking around frantically for her, but she is nowhere to be seen.“Kitty?” questions
Maddox, making me look at Ezra to find Maddox peering back at me. He looks
around, alert, looking for what upset me before his eyes fall back on me again.
“What is it?”I shake my head,
pressing my face into Mateo’s chest, and listen to the sound of his beating
heart. I can feel their confusion. Maddox gives Ezra back control, and he steps
closer, wrapping his arms around us and dropping his head on Mateo’s shoulder.“What is it, Kat?”
Ezra asks, kissing my forehead.“Nothing, I just
missed you both,” I confess. They won’t understand, I barely understand what I
saw. I just know whatever I did see in that vision cost Mateo his life, but
from the look Ezra gave me in the vision, I can tell I had taken his life as
well.