34
“As long as either side holds a grudge, it won’t end” I exhale heavily and rub my temple with my free hand as a headache begins to ache inside. None of this feels real, much like a daymare and yet I can’t waken myself up from it at all.
“Then why haven’t the fates done anything? I mean you, you’re right here, and wasn’t that the whole point of the prophecy? To unite us, to end the wars, but it’s been months and yet we still fight and there’s no signs about what you are meant to do to be any kind of war-ender. It just feels like none of it was true.” Her words silence me and I’m ashamed to admit that this is a thought that hasn’t crossed my mind in months. So wrapped up in my new life, by Colton’s side, that I never stopped to think about what that prophecy implied I was meant to be. She’s right though. They said I would redress the balance and bring peace, but I have no idea how. Looking at this situation, I am not qualified to even begin to know how to put this to rights.
I need a manual on what to do to make that come about, but the fates are great at giving you nothing, and twisty turning endless roads to walk first. What with this recent turn of events, the vampires are not high on my list of possible friends and certainly not about to sit down and figure out a peace treaty with them. They just took my mate, my family, and my pack away from me, and turned them into mindless angry killers looking to end their own.
“The fates, if you haven’t noticed, are inherently vague and slow to do any kind of anything. I mean I was eighteen years old before they did a single thing about me and my gifts. Maybe it will be another eighteen before I get some sort of sign as to how to end our wars.” I bite it out harshly, a glimmer of resentment surfacing even though I know I should not doubt the higher powers.
We both sigh and she grips my arm tighter, her breathing shallowing and I look up to see what has her gasping. I spot them too. The dark figures of a combined pack of some fifty or more wolves moving through the fog as one fluid unit. Heading away, towards the mountain and it’s obvious even from here that the most familiar figures our mates and our sub pack are leading the way. Still leaders even under a spell. It’s a sight that crushes me.
We both stand stock still, held breaths, as we watch them disappear into the fog and my heart sinks as I lose sight of him. A fire emerging in my stomach and burning in my chest as rage builds from heartbreak.
“Screw the fates. Screw vampires…. We won’t take this lying down. We WILL get our pack back, our men. What’s the point of being some kind of hybrid with gifts if I stay in here crying over this. You’re right. I AM something special and maybe us pursuing this witch and doing what we need to do will change something… if not, at the very least, we get our mates back. We make her help us and we prioritize our pack above all.” There’s a tinge of anger in my voice and I stand up rigidly, letting that despair turn to icy determination, that pain turn into stubborn decision, much like so many months ago when I left to go run free alone in the mountains and forests to find my own path. Wasn’t that when the fates started to give me nudges of help. When I let my decision and instinct take over and went looking for myself for some kind of solution to my predicament.
“Chica, if anyone can get us through this, then it’s you. My Luna…. You have yet to shine and your time is coming.” Meadow’s soothing words calm my fire a little and I smile warmly, gently, her way. I cuddle into her one more time and lay my head back down on her shoulder which is level with mine, adoring my best friend and not knowing how I would have coped had she been out there too. It doesn’t bear thinking about.
“You know, I used to think I was better alone. Stronger. I see that I was wrong and it’s not about doing things alone. It’s about relying on others, being strong together. Heroes in stories they never do it alone, they always have friends… family…. Sisters, a sidekick. I think WE can get through this, together! If I’m going to shine, it won’t be because I’m doing it all by myself.” There’s some comfort in knowing this time, no matter what, I’m not alone.
“Damn right. Isn’t that what packs, family, best friends are supposed to be there for. You know I got your back, Hemara, always. We will do this together.”
“First we both have to rest and as I’m not good at sleeping alone since Colton marked me, maybe you could stay here tonight. I’m sure you haven’t slept alone since Cesar and you mated up, right?” I point out, knowing that all day I have been dreading tonight and the loneliness of the lack of his presence, it’s why I have been standing here staring at the night instead of braving that big bed, and the tears fill Meadow’s eyes.
“Not a second apart since I fell head over heels for that asshole. He drives me crazy; you know. When we fight, damn do we fight. It’s not pretty, but I would die without him. Literally, given, you know… marking and all.” Meadow laughs lightly through her weary teras and I smile at her humor and her attempt to make light of this. This is one of the reasons I love her so much. “He’s the best thing that ever happened to me. I love him so damn much; it wasn’t just imprinting… I always had such a crush on him, even before I turned. He’s my stability, my rock, my safe place. Cesar is my Papi, and my heart doesn’t beat when he’s not here.” Cesar is all of those things to the pack too. Always mature, parental, solid, and unwavering, and I could see how the fiery Latinos could be insane when they clashed. Meadow’s temper and Cesar’s aggression, which he has shown on the battlefield many times. I bet they clash like thunder and lightning, sparking the air around them and self-combusting with the boom. Probably in the same way they meet in passion and why they still act like hazed lovers after years of being mates. What they have is rare.
“Colton is my everything too. There’s no life without him. We can’t fail.” We both fall silent once more, both sharing the bittersweet pain and lost in the same agony of reality, pining yet unable to do anything about it.
The fog is still out there, hanging like an unwanted smell around our land, cloying and clinging to everything we can see, and I let out a breath in exasperation.
“How did the spell work on the truck go with Sierra?” I left them to it this evening while consoling many people in the town hall when I brought them up to speed on what was happening. Never in my life had I been more crushed with the weight of responsibility than in that moment when I realized without Colton here, all hopes, and eyes, were pinned on me to lead.
