Leviathan #2
Many believe that when mates die, they can, and often do, reunite later on in new bodies.
One thing that has become evident in my research is that, while true, there is a limit to this magical connection.
After approximately four generations, or one hundred years, this bond is almost always broken, and the soul is free to incarnate in a new body and find a different mate.
None of my research shows that the two souls ever find each other again after this timeframe.
This is part of the reason there is such a heavy emphasis placed on the ceremonies shifters perform to discover what soul lies beneath a current incarnation.
Whether any of this is true or not is an ongoing study being done by universities around the world.
The facts do show that shifters reincarnate, and at times will reunite with their loved ones in later lives, and after a century they will typically not find them again.
In the next chapter, I will begin discussing the effect Fated Mates have on the shifter communities as well as how they economically impact the—
The writing cut off abruptly. I stared at the page for several long seconds before looking at Rainier. He had the same worried look on his face.
One hundred years. I hadn’t heard that sliver of information before.
I thought back, recalling that fateful night when I’d found Naphele broken and bleeding in our house.
It had been nearly exactly a hundred years ago.
It had been warm outside, nearing spring.
We were probably only a few weeks away. My heart thudded faster in my chest, and an uncomfortable heat flooded up my back.
If this man was correct—and Rainier had said he was the preeminent scholar on all things shifter—then I was nearly out of time.
I wanted nothing more than to be with June.
I’d come to love her as much as I’d ever loved Naphele, but if she’d chosen someone else, then what other choice did I have?
Unless I was going to be alone forever, I had to find Naphele’s reincarnation.
I needed to do it sooner rather than later, it seemed.
“You know what I think?” The words tumbled from my mouth before I even realized I was going to say them.
“What?” Rainier drew out the word, sounding wary and worried.
“We said we need allies to fight the Red Maw, right?”
“Yeah.”
“And this journal says if I don’t find Naphele’s reincarnation soon, I never will. I can’t keep stumbling around the forest, hoping to find her. I need to go somewhere with a lot more people and see if that makes it easier.”
“Hang on. No way. No,” he said, his eyes going wide with understanding. “Not a good idea. I don’t think that’s smart.”
“It’s fine, Rain. I know what I’m doing. I’ll steer clear of her.”
“You want to go to Idlewild?” He looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Maybe I had.
“Yes. We need to make a…I don’t know…a diplomatic mission to them. Let the alpha know they’re in danger from the Red Maw and ask if I might be able to speak with the ladies in town. Someone there might trigger something within me.”
Rainier put his hand to his forehead. “Let me get this straight. You want to go to the town where your ex-girlfriend now lives with, and is mated to, the current alpha? You also want to ask that same alpha if you can go through some kind of dating mission in his town? Not only that, you will then tell that alpha that a rival all-male pack wants to attack them, and they need to partner with you? All while trying not to kill that alpha for stealing your woman, and not trying to win said woman back from that alpha? Did I cover all the basics?”
“When you say it like that, it sounds crazy,” I said, grinning at him.
“Because it is!” he shouted, throwing his hands in the air.
“Look, Rain,” I said, lifting the journal up.
“If this is true, I’ve only got a couple months left until she’s gone forever.
We did that ritual, and it proved June wasn’t Naphele.
I could live with that. I’d fully committed to leaving Naphele behind and living my life with June.
That all changed when she left me. She made a choice, and that choice was Anders.
It burns like acid when I think about it, but I can’t force her to love me.
Finding Naphele’s reincarnation might be my only chance at love and happiness. ”
Rainier’s shoulders sagged. “You read what that book said, right? It’s like we’ve been saying. You aren’t going to find a carbon copy of your lost mate. At best she’ll be buried so deep you won’t really see her. She’ll be the whispers and shadows of the person you knew.”
“My heart will see her,” I said. “There will be a connection. That’s all I need. We can work from there.”
“You had a connection with June too.”
We stared at each other for a long moment. Finally, I tucked the journal under my arm. “Take Stephen’s other stuff to the storage building. He’d want us to use it.”
I walked away without another word, unable and unwilling to accept what Rainier had said.
He was right, though, I had made a connection to June.
It had had all the hallmarks of a fated mate connection.
And if June wasn’t Naphele, then how would I know when I met the real thing?
That was a question I hoped I could answer in Idlewild.
Deep in my mind, a war raged, one side roaring and clawing for me to rush to Idlewild and try to drag June away from Anders. The other side told me it was over, and I needed to find Naphele.
And I didn’t know which was the right path.