Mates Haunted by Memory

Chapter 1

Creon

Raven Hollow Wolf Pack Territory

I’ve always been a creature of the winter.

The sort of soul delighted by a chilly breeze and a thick blanket of snow that quietens the world.

So most people assume that Yule has to be my favorite holiday.

Some would guess Halloween since the veil between worlds thins and magic is more afoot than ever.

They’d be wrong. I was a creature of the winter but even those of us who have learned to embrace the darkness occasionally want to step into the light.

Maybe I only loved midsummer because the Raven Hollow Wolf Pack made such a big deal about it.

I loved seeing the wolves thrive. I loved watching Silas leading the ribbon pole dances and Kodiak educating the young ones about how wolves used to live even though he’s a bear.

Like me, he’s only part of the group by mateship.

Though, Midsummer has always held a darkness for me.

Even back home, when my mother was alive before, it held a darkness.

My mother was fond of kidnapping an elf from another clan or a dragon who wandered too close to her territory and sacrificing them to some unknown summer god.

Of course, it was this time of year that I met Uriel too.

My true-mate. The name I didn’t speak anymore.

The name I couldn’t even say to my therapist. It was said by everyone that time healed all wounds.

That was complete and utter bullshit. Even now that I was happy with my chosen mates and children, Uriel had left a gaping hole inside me.

Instead of packing it with festering hate and a thirst for vengeance, I eventually packed it with love and a knowing that as an elf I might outlive everyone I knew.

That would be a long time to descend into madness and I never wanted to go back there.

While we were getting ready to leave the house, Kodiak got a call that someone needed an emergency Alpha Talk meeting.

The kids were already at the festivities except for the youngest who was in a carrier on Silas’s chest. So, we kissed our big, strong bear goodbye and he promised to meet us in the village square as soon as he could.

Silas longed for him now as we walked the winding tree-lined path to where the festivities were.

I always missed each of them when they weren’t around, but sometimes I wondered if Silas and Kodiak pined for me as they pined for each other.

“Of course, we do,” Silas flashed me a confused look, picking up my thoughts over the group link. “You’re just not around to see it.”

It made sense. I had never felt more loved than with my guys.

Even during my short time with Uriel, he had been a bit distracted.

Back then a snake-bellied wolf named Brone led things.

He had given Uriel an omega named Hans and they even had a pup together.

I never knew Uriel killed Hans and tried to kill Baby Zeke until years later.

The latter only survived because Uriel’s twin brother Barry put an end to him before he could drown the baby.

I was told that Barry killed him because he was jealous or something.

Over the years, I’ve forgotten the exact lie, but the untruth was enough to drive me mad.

“You okay?” Silas asked. “You’re quiet today.”

“It’s my quiet time of the year,” I said.

Silas knew my story. I’d met him and Kodiak when we were on opposite sides of a war.

“Let’s do something silly!” Silas said, rearranging the binky in the baby’s mouth before he could spit it out onto the dusty path. “Do you want to hit the fortune teller’s tent? Kodiak will never go with me!”

I almost said no. Most true seers didn’t like what they saw when they looked at me.

I was blood marked in more ways than one.

Something about me always made them see my past instead of future.

Once upon a time, I thought perhaps that was because I didn’t have a future.

Now, I figured the true-mate link was the easiest for them to latch onto.

I might’ve said no and offered to walk around with the baby while Silas had his fortune told but recently a seer had told me my mother was reborn. That was future-ish.

The dragon woman had expected me to be alarmed.

Only, I feared my reborn mother as much as I feared the pup that Silas carried.

The greatest blessing of death was that you forgot everything that came before if it was done right.

So, if she was right and my mother was out there somewhere, she’d be maybe a toddler.

Maybe not even that old. She was probably still suckling on her carrier’s teat.

I hoped her parents loved her. I hoped whatever life gave her this time around was enough to bring her peace or at least enough to keep her from going batshit again.

“Are you thinking so hard because of what that dragoness said about your mom?” Silas asked.

“Partially. Partially about the universe at large,” I shrugged. “You’re right. We need to do something silly. Lead the way to the lady of fortune.”

Crowa, Kodiak and Silas’s sixteen-year-old daughter, snatched the wolf pup from us as soon as she spotted us.

She was at the age where puppies intrigued her and she asked questions about what made good parents and what to look for in a mate.

Some people told their kids to wait for their true-mates.

We never did that. I knew more than most that the promise of a true-mate didn’t mean life would be happy. Nothing on any world was ever promised.

Crowa ran off with the baby to the face painting station and Silas took my hand.

His warmth spread through me as he waved to several people.

He was a good leader, and his wolves loved him for it.

We all tried our best to ensure our pack members had the best and happiest lives they could.

Sometimes I found Silas pacing at night, pondering what else he could do for these wolves that so looked up to him.

The village square was covered in booths and tents all surrounding the ribbon poles and the place where the bonfire would be tonight.

There was a short line in front of Madam Ove’s tent.

So I held our place in line while Silas went to buy some cotton candy.

He was back before the line even moved. Slowly, over the course of an hour, the fortune teller inside the worn, grey tent worked her way through all eight of the clients in front of us.

We entered the tent, Silas still eating his blue and pink spun sugar on a stick.

The glow of the candlelight inside the confined space made it almost impossible to see Madame Ove’s face.

Fortunately for our senses, she hadn’t bathed in pheromone blocker spray as was the habits of many seers at such events.

The fortune teller, sitting behind her round table with its crimson tablecloth, was a tiger omega whose eyes would’ve given her away even if we couldn’t have smelled her scent.

Madame Ove grinned at us. A flash of sharp, white teeth flashed in the glow of the candles as she gestured for us to sit down in the folding chairs on the opposite side of her little round table.

“I have been expecting you,” she said. It’s what they all said but we were here for the silliness, so I didn’t comment on the cliché.

“I have traveled very far to see you.” Her big, golden tiger eyes shined on me.

Silas had the urge to swat her with his cotton candy but held it back.

“I’ve come to this place just for you. Someone who has harmed you has been reborn. ”

“Yeah, my mom,” I said, leaning back in the chair. I wasn’t surprised that rumor was making the rounds of seers and fortune tellers.

As my eyes adjusted to the flickering light, I saw that she wasn’t dressed like a stereotype. The tigress wore a broad-shouldered, grey pinstriped business suit.

“Not only her. The one who has harmed you the most,” she said, peering into my eyes. “Uriel.”

Silas growled and I rolled my eyes. She wasn’t the first to try this route.

Everyone knew Uriel’s name. It wasn’t like the story of his crimes had been kept under wraps.

I still had researchers, historians, and writers reaching out for interviews.

We had staff to screen those calls now, of course, but every once in a while, one of them slipped through.

I put my hand on Silas’s knee. I didn’t want to kill the tigress but if she struck at my guy, I would.

In many ways I wasn’t so different from my mother.

I was a bit prone to violence and had a short temper but mine was honed and refined.

A single strike of magic was enough for me to take someone down, but I only struck over people I loved and outside of my mates and kids, I could count those people on my fingers.

“You can growl if you want. I wasn’t the one who shat him out,” Madame Ove said, leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs.

“I’m not a grifter. I’m not here for money.

You can ask those who came in before you.

I’ve even refused tips. I came merely to warn you. He’s back and he knows who he is.”

“How would you even know that?” Silas growled, slamming down his half-eaten stick of cotton candy on the table. It rattled and I caught a candle before it tipped over.

“Because I see shit whether I want to or not,” she shrugged.

“Let’s just go---” I said, but Madam Ove grabbed my wrist.

“You were the top the first time you were with Uriel because he was afraid of hurting you,” she said, her fingers digging into my wrist. I sat back down.

I hadn’t told anyone that not even my mates.

It didn’t feel important. Sex was sex. As long as it felt good and didn’t do harm, who cared who put what where?