Chapter 72
What forever looks like
The New World- Nine hundred years after the events that saved the world
Kaida
Age twenty
A purple and black butterfly dances past me, and I spin, following its path, smiling as it disappears in the crowd of people who don’t even notice it’s there.
I’ve always loved purple butterflies. I like to chase them and watch where they will lead me.
But today, I’m a wolf on a mission, and not even a purple butterfly with a wandering flutter can tempt me.
“Kaida, don’t go far.”
“I won’t!” I blow a kiss to my mother, who puts one hand on her hip and the other to her eyes, shielding them from the bright sun. The sky is a perfect shade of blue, so deep and cloudless that it looks like it goes on forever.
Past the tents, stalls, and crowds of laughing and talking people, I can see thick smoke from the fire rising high into the air. I focus on it and press my fingers to my chest above where my heart is thudding.
I slip easily into the throng of people moving around the festival. The wild mix of alpha and omega scents are toned and suppressed by the calm betas, making it bearable for everyone. There are people from every part of the country here, people who have travelled for weeks just for today.
I bounce on my tiptoes, swinging my plait of snow-white hair over my shoulder and tugging it when I get caught behind a group moving really slowly. Part of me wants to push through, but there’s no rush. There will be plenty of time for me to get it done.
An alpha growls, but a beta strokes his arm, and he calms instantly. Two more people press into the couple, murmuring. The alpha rolls his eyes, but it’s his expression that has the same pure affection I see on my dad’s face when he looks at us that makes me forget to keep moving.
There’s a tug inside, a deep yearning and longing for the promises that were made in dreams.
Those bleak memories I have of a place called Foreen linger but only in my mind and our histories.
The Beta’s Path has been gone for hundreds of years, and we’ve made sure it stays gone.
The world with its hatred and laws against alphas, omegas, and packs has been completely buried. Yet, I remember it so clearly.
The world is changed and for the better. Wolves trot through the crowds and shift to people, hugging friends and family they haven’t seen in ages. People don’t care what someone's designation is, just who they are underneath. Everyone is a wolf, and that sorts out a lot of arguments.
I haven’t seen this many people turn out for the Annual Day of the Gods in years.
The crowd shifts forward slowly, and I finally see the tops of the flames.
Another few minutes, and I see the line for the Walk of Gods.
It’s a spiral path made of white stones, black stones, and red stones.
Each path is pressed against the other, and they spiral to a spot right in front of the raging bonfire.
It’s from there that you can offer your prayer to the gods.
If a god so hears you, the fire will change colour.
I clench my hand around the prayer I’ve written on a slip of paper. I’ve never prayed before, but today feels right. My thumb smooths the paper even as I smile. I had a dream last night of a woman with silver hair who walked by my side and told me that I needed to come here.
Packs and families like to walk the paths together, and I’ve done it with my family in the past, but this year, I’ll be walking alone. There is something specific I need to ask.
All around the spiral path are golden carvings of the symbols of the gods.
I see fire, a wolf, a snowflake, an eye, stars, and a flower.
They glitter, and people walk up and touch them, leaving their offerings.
But above all of them, standing as large as a wolf, is an elegantly carved crescent moon.
I’m about to turn away when my gaze returns to the snowflake. For a moment, I’m caught with crushing and devastating sadness, but I can’t remember why. Snowflakes mean nothing to me.
My brother waves as he walks past, breaking my line of sight and hiding the carving.
His white hair is as distinctive as mine.
He stands with his hands in his pockets before abruptly turning and disappearing from view.
I watch him go, wishing I could ease his dreams. The nightmares have afflicted us both since we were children, though I don’t think he remembers as clearly as I do. I don’t know that he knows who he is.
Maybe that’s a good thing.
I stand on the white pebbles, my chest tight, my palms sweaty. I look down at them and then ahead of me. The person in front of me exits the spiral, and I take my first step. It takes forever to travel the seven circles before I stand at the fire, staring up at it. The heat bathes my skin.
I’m twenty this year, an adult. There’s only two things I want. I look down at my prayer. It’s the most important prayer I’ve ever had. The one that haunts me.
“Please, gods, just this once.”
Dear Luna Omega, please let me find the alphas from my dreams. Let us have a lifetime to love each other. No more bad dreams.
I toss it into the fire.
It sparks, and the fire turns white. The crowd screams with cheers.
I gape up at it. The gods are listening to me.
The plumes stretch high into the sky, dancing and sparking with glittering light.
I stare into the flames and see the lives I’ve been dreaming about.
The past from so long ago, that epic love and horrible fates.
All of them, but this time is different. I can feel it.
I close my eyes. “Please, please. Just this once. Just one lifetime. Let me have them.”
“Okay,” an amused voice says. “You can have me. But all of our lifetimes, not just one.”
His presence warms me from the inside out. I dare not even move. But suddenly my hands are engulfed in his. I can feel him at my back, blazing so much hotter than the fire in front of me.
“I’ve been searching for you everywhere,” he whispers.
I squeeze my eyes. “Thank you,” I whisper to the gods.
I open my eyes as he turns me and see green eyes and red hair that catches the fire’s light. That devastating smile I remember so well steals my breath from my lungs. I stumble into him, grabbing his shirt.
“Jarek,” I whisper.
“Did you miss me?”
I throw my arms around him. He smells of roses and candles. But there’s a scent of steel and leather as well. I pull back, looking in the crowd.
Jarek lets me go and, with a knowing wink, whispers. “Turn around.”
I whirl and stare up at him. I reach out slowly, touching my fingers to his chin.
“Mordecai. Oh, Cai. Are you real?”
He smiles. “I am.”
He moves before I can, wrapping himself around me, picking me up off my feet.
“Found you again,” he whispers.
I bury my face in his shoulder, one hand tangled with Jarek’s.
Wolves howl in eerie celebration, and the fire burns snow-white. I feel a blast of heat so strong it feels like ice, but before I can wonder, it’s gone.
Jarek is pulled into our hug, and I laugh.
“You found me!”
“In every life. Together,” Mordecai whispers.
“Together,” Jarek says.
The gods are here.
We live again.
Kaida
Aged 25
The child in my arms reaches up with pudgy little fingers, grabbing my hair, with arms that don’t have enough strength to pull. She’s all fat folds and enormous grey eyes.
I love her so much, and I’ve only just met her.
“You cannot have her back,” I say and glower at my aunt Rae, who simply shakes her head in amusement.
“Kaida, you cannot keep your brother’s child.”
“Sure, I can. He can have another one; this one is mine. She’s so cute. Look at those gorgeous eyes and that little mouth,” I coo at her, and she blinks at me.
Lucian chuckles and shifts in his chair.
He is glowing. One of the things that changed when the war ended was the ability for male omegas to carry children and female alphas to impregnate them.
In previous times, it was rare, but these days, it’s much more common.
The great change that occurred when the Resistance overthrew the Beta’s Path changed the very makeup of the world.
And people embraced it and changed with it, walking out of cities filled with bloody reminders to start new villages that evolved into new homes.
Governments were set up, like what we used to have in the old days before the fall of technology.
Police were granted the power to protect and keep lawful order.
But their hierarchy of wolves added another dimension and gave the vulnerable a layer of protection.
Omega became a sacred word, protected and cherished like they’d been before those dark times. Alphas, omegas, and betas live in harmony now. We remember the past, but we don’t dwell on it.
The great Resistance leader, Bear, led the world into adopting a policy of community, where differences are celebrated, and uniqueness is viewed as a vital part of our prosperity.
In this world, your designation is unimportant; it’s the strength of your deeds and actions that shape how you’re viewed.
Alpha Bear brought peace after he won the war, and that peace is still powerfully embraced and defended.
I am so glad they chose him, he did a better job than I could have dreamed.
“You two make the most perfect babies,” I say to them and brush my thumb over this brand new beta’s fuzz.
Lucian's smile softens, and he looks up at his alpha, my twin. Walker brushes his white hair back and puts a hand on his omega’s shoulder. I don’t know who he’s more proud of; Lucian or my darling niece.
Their story was instant love. One of those that you rarely see. They met, and by dinner, Lucian was packed and ready to come home with us, a bond mark on his throat.