Chapter 68

Aurora

I see Jaxson.

In a strange way, he seems taller, more full of muscle, and settled into a new age. He isn’t young, but he could be in passing. He has light hair, longer than I’ve ever seen it, cascading down his neck in thick, tight curls. He stand with his hands in his pockets, wearing a suit adorned with a single red rose hooked onto his pocket.

He is smiling, overjoyed really, and the wrinkles from his grin mask the ones sewn into his features from being a cold, powerful Alpha’s son. He is practically bouncing in anxiousness, grinning ear to ear, as I feel my body stride toward my mate.

I know he is my mate. I can feel it in this scene more than I ever thought I could feel it. My wolf knows it, too. I feel the pull that brings me closer to him. It’s only now, in this moment, that I see hundreds of wolves adorned in gala attire, standing around us both as I meet my mate in a field, the only place capable of holding this many people at once.

“My mate,” he says, grabbing for me, pulling me into his arms.

I look down, seeing a long, sheer gown with white lace and sparkling jewels encrusted down the hem. Suddenly, I realize where we are, what is happening, and I couldn’t be more giddy. It’s our mating ceremony. It’s the time we get together as mates, as fated soulmates.

I laugh and cry all at once, so overjoyed.

He drags his lips against my cheek, speaking softly. “Look around. Everything we need is here.”

I look up, perplexed, to see the field empty, just me and my mate together; fated forever.

“Are you ready?” he breathes. I nod in anticipation, in utter excitement. “I mark you, my mate.”

Everything goes blurry, goes dark, and I still feel the love as I drift off from the scene.

Jaxson

I am delirious with confusion. I’m staggering around, like a limp pup with one leg, bloody and purely exhausted. I want to collapse, hell, my wolf wants me to fold in and just lay down, but I can’t. I keep stumbling forward with every painful drag of my wounded leg. I don’t know how I got this way, or what it’s going to take for this nightmare to end, but one thing is clear.

This blood isn’t mine; it’s Aurora’s.

I can smell it. I can smell her. Maybe that’s why I am pushing forward, trying to find my mate, wandering through the darkness, through these unfamiliar woods, without a single memory of what has happened to us both.

There’s a cry, a whimper so light in volume I almost miss it. It freezes me in place, hearing her cry out again, louder this time. I trail over to the sound, seeing my mate laid out in the dirt, sitting up against a tree. She doesn’t move. She doesn’t even lift her head up.

Her hair is long again, silky but dirty with blood. That same blood pools against her chest, into the fabric of her torn shirt, and I notice that she has a cut from her shoulder, down past her hip with a few stray cuts on her thigh. She’s a strong wolf, a survivor unlike I’ve ever seen before.

I can tell she won’t survive these wounds.

I sit beside her, pulling her to lean on my chest, in my lap, collapsing into my hold. She doesn’t speak, and she doesn’t even acknowledge that I am here, but I can tell that what little is left of her spirit is thinning already. She’s near the end now. I could try to save her, to heal her, but I don’t have the power.

Instead I refuse to let her go alone. I sit back, head tilted toward hers, pressing my lips to her temple as we slowly drain from this world, ready to release our troubles once and for all. It’s sad, and I want to sob, but I keep it quiet for my mate. She deserves peace. She deserves to rest easy without interruption, so we rest into eternity, together.

Selene the Moon Goddess

My sweet mates. It was perhaps my best work yet. I relish in their love, in the love that they will grow into, and the love they had in the past. Everyone around them thinks I’ve made a mistake pairing them together, and it’s a little amusing to watch them all gaze at the royal brut, the Alpha’s son, love a petite common girl from a normal pack, living a once normal life.

I had to shake things up. Certainly, I am positive I did just that.

I could see what the world was turning into, and I knew what would happen if I let it continue. There is only so much toiling I can do with my children, and how I could ever protect them from what the world was coming to. I could see the war on the horizon and it’s still there, I just need my hopefuls to win it once and for all.

So I had the two unlikely lovers matched. They were practically made for one another. They were made for this. I never thought it would come to this type of situation, to this war, and it’s terrifying to watch play out, but if I have my way, I will change the trajectory of this nightmare.

My adorning mates. I love them dearly. I knew I had to make them opposites, to show them both the lives they weren’t living, and it has been my first couple of a royal and a commoner together. It shocked them, to say the least, but it is for the best. They will change the world.

They will have to endure the most stern hardships first. It’s out of my hands, now. I don’t control life and death, I only control who needs who to feel completed. I think I’ve done my job in that context. They will be the strongest mating pair yet. They will be mates, too. I know Aurora Hunter has her moments of doubts, but Jaxson Knight is a persistent prince.

They are seeking answers, all the same, along with other wolves all over the world, from every pack imaginable, and they want a vision. They want truth, they want solutions, and some want to feel close to the source of power. It’s flattering.

Tonight I focus on them, and them alone. They are my muse, my hardest project, and they can live this life they have formed now to runaway from the truth, from their destiny, but it will only last for so long.

Jaxson is strong, mentally and physically. He has known pain of losing a woman he loves and I don’t want him to go through it once more. I need him to know what is coming if they don’t straighten their act and stay out of the fight. They have to be in the fight, no matter if he needs to protect her at all costs or not, they are meant to partake in the war of the century.

Aurora, my little fighter, she doesn’t think she has the strength to accept what it true. She has been through worst, and she deserves a future of happy, joyous love, and I need her to feel that for at least a moment. She needs to know there are no mistakes here. Jaxson loves her. They are fated. She will know love unlike any there has been before the two of them.

Right now they are at a crossroads. They are furiously trying to find themselves and figure out the dynamic of being with a mate, and they have every right to do so. They just don’t have much time. There are some creations made out of pure evil, formed by hate and envy, and I cannot stop those types of energies. It just so happens that one of those creations is set on ruining my perfect pair. I would stop it if I could, and I would, but I just cannot.

Xander Knight is a furious energy, hateful and angry. I have plans for him. He won’t heal though, and he won’t change easily. He has been through so much, seen too much, and it’s never going to be enough to stop him from his collision course.

The only answer is my sweet mates, my unlikely pair, who lay out on the beach near a dying fire below, staring up at the sky, at me, all the while wondering if I am watching them right back. They want answers to their pasts, to their pains, and I give it to them.

They might not like it all. I’ve grown used to that criticism. But somethings have to be said, have to be shown. I cannot change their destinies, but I am certainly cheering them on from above. I send them their visions, their answers, and hope they receive them as warnings.

I give her what she needs to heal. I give him what he needs to prevent.