“Micha?” She called out as she ran through the forest, the first contraction swept over her. In agony, she stopped, and clutched a tree, trying to catch her breath. She wished she could shift, it would be so much faster than being on these human legs, trying to carry the heavy weight of her unborn babies. Micha quickly came to her, picking up on her distress and using the bond to find her.
“Where have you been, my love?” He says, grabbing her arms as she leaned heavily on him.
“In the village, we should go,” she tells him, and they start the trek home, back to the caves in which they lived away from civilization. However, with each step, the contractions grew stronger, and each step became harder to take.
“You sure you weren’t seen in the village?” Micha asks when he could hear the chatter of men, bouncing off the trees and making the forest go silent. “Marabella, were you seen? Why were you in the village?” He asks her, looking around frantically as pain tore through her belly.
Marabella didn’t have the heart to tell him she also loved another, he would never understand the torment she was in, but as the night came and her contractions got worse, her worst fears came true.
They found them, she was even more shocked when she picked up the scents of her kind, also helping the humans hunt her and Micha, and her unborn children while she labored.
“Push, my love,” Micha tells her, as she lays with her legs spread on the fur rugs in the cave from my previous visions. I could not bear the thought of watching her lose Micha again, I already knew the outcome of this vision and was glad when the dream fizzled out before I was forced to witness it again, moving on to the next, yet I couldn’t understand why I was being shown this.
I watched Katarina be burned at the pillar in the town square, only this time with better clarity, her heart filled with sorrow as the town’s mayor came out, she loved him and couldn’t believe he would harm her in such a way as he ordered his men to tie her to the pillar. People threw things at her and dragged her to the stage surrounded by wood.
She thrashed and kicked, trying to escape them, but it was no use, another man who I knew was her mate also was dragged to a sandstone block, his arms tied behind his back, the deafening bloodcurdling scream that left her as she watched them behead him. His head rolled on the ground, the Mayor sneered at her, enjoying her pain, it was vengeance for rejecting him.
Village folk laughed at her anguish, and called her a witch, cursing her out while the Mayor, a man who appeared to be in his thirties, watched in anger. Hatred filled his heart now, even while destroying her, she still loved him. I watched the dream play out as she looked for her brother in the crowd, the relief she felt upon seeing him as she willed him to go and protect her child and keep her hidden.
He nods and walks off, turning his back on her, and that was the only comfort she felt, knowing he would keep her daughter safe as her mate ordered them to burn her alive. All because she couldn’t return his love, she couldn’t love him and keep her mate, if only she met him first because he too was a werewolf, both men were. I could tell by their scents, she felt relief knowing the bond wasn’t severed completely, he rejected her rejection. Her child would live on without her, and she stared up at the sky. She took comfort in knowing her child was safe and in knowing that as he watched her die, he would feel her pain, all of it, as if it was his own.
The dream warps and twists, and I watch generation after generation sacrifice themselves for those they love, only to lose in the end anyway. Jealousy, the Moon Goddesses’ words, come back to me.
This is what jealousy is capable of, how it goes in hand with death. My grandmother was the only one that accepted her mate, but couldn’t mark him because she was pregnant. My grandfather was accepting of him for her. He loved her enough that he accepted him, though her untimely death couldn’t be helped, as she haemorrhaged and her heart gave out while giving birth to my mothers. Leaving two men to raise twins became too much for her other mate, knowing they were not his, as he turned his back and walked out the door, not returning and leaving my grandfather to raise both girls.
Tears slipped down my face. I had no doubt they were mixed with my emotions too, and I watched my biological mother explain to my father she had another mate. Her excitement died out instantly as he growled at her and called her a whore. The way her heart sank at his words as if he had just stabbed her. My father looked the same with his black hair, only younger, yet his eyes were not soft but hard as his anger engulfed him.
He demanded to know who it was, demanded an answer, and I had never seen this side of him. I would never have pictured this sort of rage to fill him. Katherine rubbed her bump, which was me, though it was only small, and I could tell she was in the early stages of her pregnancy.
“You will not fuck another while carrying my child, tell me who it is,” My father growled at her, but she refused to submit, refusing to give him up. The dream shifts, skipping ahead, and I could feel my mother’s panic as my father found him. He was a pack warrior, new to Jackson’s pack. Two of Jackson’s men helped drag him before her. Jackson watched with an evil glint in his eye as he ordered my mother to reject him, or he would die, granting his Beta’s wish.
My mother, not wanting to watch the man she loved die, did as they asked, even though it killed her. Killed pieces of her soul off that she knew she would never be able to get back, leaving a hole in her soul that could never be filled.
The vision skips ahead, and it was the day before they were due to be wed, my mother Shirley was coming home, and I could feel Katherine’s excitement. Shirley walks into the house, and Katherine jumps up to introduce them to each other when they both speak simultaneously, the heart-crushing feeling when they call each other mate.
Katherine looked at my father as he embraced my mother, and she felt like she was dying inside as she watched him claim another but denied her the same right. He had her other mate banished, while not only was she forced to accept her mate had another too, but that other person was her twin sister, making it impossible for her to decide. The two very people she loved in this world were also killing her internally, while she longed for the love lost.
She couldn’t bring herself to punish her sister, she hated my father at this moment, how dare he claim another when he made her give up her mate. Yet was expected to accept this, and if it were anyone else, if his other mate was not her sister she would have demanded he do the same, but she felt she owed my mother this glimmer of happiness. She felt guilty for what my mother endured because of her, because of the curse bestowed on her.
I was seeing my father in a new light, seeing everything with clarity as the darkness enveloped me again, washing over me and sending me numb, my father was a hypocrite.
I finally understood what the Moon Goddess meant when she said she threw me a bone and was trying to help. Generations of mates separated because of jealousy, strangers refusing to accept each other, and costing my family their lives and hearts.
I noticed all the first mates from my vision were men of power, men of dominance, and possessive beasts unwilling to allow another man in, unaccepting of another. Then there was me. I had two mates, but unlike previous generations, Seline didn’t pair me with strangers, she paired me with best friends. Their friendship and love outweighed the curse upon the women in my family, forging bonds between them stronger than that of fate. I chuckle at my newfound clarity. Mateo’s love forged a bond between them, Ezra’s love for his friend outweighing his anger and jealousy, what started as friendship turned to something more, something magnificent, and that was the bone she threw me. She gave me a fighting chance.