The Cursed Shifters - Mateless

The Fall

Throwing herself into the mountain of pillows on her bed, Shiloh got comfortable and opened the book. The first sentence read like a fairy tale and her heart plummeted straight for her stomach. This was going to be someone’s fairy tale idea of what transpired, not the truth. All fairytales have a grain of truth in them though, right? A moral or something that provoked the creation of them, perhaps the truth is buried within the story. Perhaps the whole thing is just a fairy tale and there are no answers to be found. “It’s a good thing I like to read.” She mumbled to herself and began again.

‘Once upon a time and many years ago there was a prideful and foolish Alpha. He was strong and intelligent, and he formed a great pack that no others would rival. As his power grew so did his pride and through his pride, he became foolish. He believed there was no one more powerful than he. He believed himself above the Goddess and her many blessings, he saw her gifts as cuffs. A mate was nothing more then shackles keeping him bound and doting on one woman, a way to cage his beast. This Alpha’s name was Jacob, and he was very foolish indeed.

                           Aloha Jacob held a grand ball to honor himself during the estival solstice, believing himself the sun, greater and brighter than the moon and therefor greater than the Goddess.  This was a grave insult, but the Goddess is kind and forgiving of her children, she overlooked the matter. The ball was glorious, Alpha Jacob shone bright in his clothes inlaid with gold to shimmer like the sun and all in attendance were in awe of him. Exactly what he had intended. They feasted and laughed and danced the evening away, as the large grandfather clock in the ballroom struck midnight a figure emerged from the double doors on the stairs to enter the ball. The first to notice was Alpha Jacob, as soon as her scent of lilac and morning dew filled the room he looked up and his wolf started thrashing inside him.

                           She was glorious, if Jacob was the sun, she was the moon. Her white hair fell in loose curls down her back with the sides upswept into elaborate twists at the crown of her head. A dainty headband of silver and crystals rested in front of the intricate knot and seemed to cast moon beams from every faucet. Her lithe figure was draped in a gauzy light silver gown that sparkled and shone with every breath she took. This woman was without doubt his equal, the moon itself placed in a body to match his burning heat with the cool embrace of night. She scented him then and looked to where he stood, when their eyes locked, he was floored, her eyes were so dark they could be black, but they shone with light and joy, under her cute, upturned nose her lips were a full pout of petal pink with a perfect cupids bow. This woman had to be modeled after the Goddess herself.

                           Everyone in the hall had noticed her now, largely because Alpha Jacob was standing transfixed. As his wolf noticed the male eyes upon her, he began to rage again, wanting to tear them all apart. Jacob began to walk through the room, headed straight for the stairs and the beauty that waited atop them, he heard the whispers as he passed. “The Alpha has found his mate.”  Was prominent on the lips of most present but a few whispered, “Finally someone to occupy him from conquest.” Still others spoke of what he feared, “His mate will calm him, tame the beast, he will change.” By the time Jacob had reached the top of the stairwell he had remembered who he was and what he believed.

                           Alpha Jacob leveled cold unfeeling eyes on the beautiful woman in front of him, “What is your name woman?”

                           “My name is Larissa Night, you are Alpha Jacob Fang and you are my mate.” Her voice was like the song of a nightingale, exactly what you would imagine coming from her lips.  Larissa, daughter of the moon, how very fitting for her he thought.

                           “I Jacob Fang, Alpha of Crested Moon pack, reject you Larissa Night as my mate and banish you from my lands. I sever all bonds to you and owe you no loyalty or care.”

                           Larissa cried out in pain and collapsed to the floor, her breathing was shallow and her pale skin somehow paler still. As Jacob looked down at her he felt the fire spread within him, it started in his chest and flared outward until his body was consumed by it. He felt as if he was being burned alive, but he refused to lose consciousness and show weakness in front of the many wolves present. He clenched his teeth, his wolf gnashed and howled, and he burned from the inside out. Finally the flames subsided enough for him to bellow for everyone to get out, successfully ending the ball.

                           All present just watched as he burned, there was nothing they could do, and most were in shock. Rejecting your mate was unheard of, mateless males would go insane and to refuse a gift from the Goddess was an unthinkable insult. What had he done? Did he think himself too strong to succumb to the howls and rage of his wolf? Rumors began to spread that Alpha Jacob was a mad man, that he had built an empire he would leave without an heir to run it. The whispers spoke of how he would fall and soon after everything he built would crumble to chaos and ruin.

                           Jacob heard the whispers, and he made a decision, he would marry. The people were right, he would not live forever, and he needed an heir, but he would not marry a wolf. In his office he drew up a letter to the Summer Court requesting one of their fae girls to be his bride. In his mind he was seeking the exact opposite of what the Goddess had given him. A fairy girl made of summer sunlight and heat, sun kissed and golden blonde, another rebellion, another insult. His beta believed he should seek out his Goddess given mate, but the sentimental fool did not understand the risk and lacked the nerve to continue approaching the subject. Word was sent out through his pack that he was seeking a mate and would provide an heir; this calmed his people.

                           Two weeks passed without word, then early Sunday morning, with the sun rising at his back a messenger appeared. He carried a letter from Keenan, lord of the Summer Court, when Jacob took the letter in his hand it was warm as if it had been sitting in the sun on a hot summer day. He imagined that was what the embrace of a Summer Court girl would feel like and broke the seal in haste.

‘Alpha Jacob,

                                My daughter Haru will wed you and provide you heirs but there are stipulations from both myself and my daughter. The first is mine, fae are long lived, she will outlive you by hundreds of years, upon your death my daughter is to return home. If she chooses to stay to watch her child grow and return later that is fine but she will not live out her days with the wolves. I do not see this as unreasonable, and your people will not have use for her after your death.

                                The second stipulation is from my daughter, she requests the heart of your mate be presented to her by you. She says she will not marry a man who belongs to another and even rejected the woman could return for you. Should you choose your given mate in that instance it is an insult she would not suffer. The heart of your mate for the hand of a Lady of the Summer Court.

                                                                                We await your response,

                                                                                                                Keenan’

                                Jacob looked to his beta, cold as death, and simply said, “Bring me my mate.” Beta Glen couldn’t read the letter the Alpha had received, he had no idea why the man suddenly wanted his mate. He could only hope that the Summer Court had rejected the proposal and he was going to accept his true mate now.

                                Glen left immediately, Alpha Jacob had told the woman she was banished from pack lands, where would she go? Did she have a pack of her own she could be in? Perhaps one of the packs up in the Mountains, the snow-white hair could be an abnormality from living in those frosty peaks. Glen began asking those he encountered if they had seen the woman or if they had seen what direction she had headed when she regained consciousness and fled that night. His search took him through the mountain packs, across the western planes, and south to the packs of the swamplands. After a year of searching, he was returning home empty handed, walking through the forest of his pack’s land under the full moon a shimmer of light caught Glen’s attention. Walking toward him was Larissa.

                                “I heard you have been searching for me, Beta of my Alpha mate.”

                                “My name is Glen, Alpha Jacob told me to find you. Will you come with me to see him? If you do not agree I will have to take you.” Glen spoke calmly but the woman was almost as intimidating as his Alpha, but she looked so frail and beautiful. Her presence was unnerving.

                                “I would like to see my mate again; I will go with you.” Her words were short and simple but sounded like a song. She did not speak again, nor did he, they walked in silence through the packs forest. Dawn was breaking as they stepped out into the field of grass that divided the packs town from the forest, still neither spoke. Through the town and up the stairs of the pack house silence surrounded them, like a bubble of serenity.  

                                Before he opened the door Glen turned to her, “Lady, I do not know what the Alpha wants with you, I only followed his command. I tell you now if his intentions are not good, run.” His words were treason, but he could not hold his tongue if it meant the harm of the beautiful, serene woman he now stood with. She simply nodded and turned toward the doors. Glen threw the double doors open and the two of them stepped in, he had already linked the Alpha and let him know that he was on the grounds with the woman so he knew Alpha Jacob would be prepared but he did not expect armed guards to grab her as soon as they stepped inside. Alpha Jacob strode in, the epitome of self-righteous arrogance and grasped the woman by her chin roughly. He tilted her head back and stared down at her.

                                “My bride has requested your heart, Larissa.” Glen gasped as he realized why he had been sent to find her and Jacob’s attention shot to him. “Dismissed, get out.” Glen backed out the door and Jacob refocused on Larissa. “Your heart is the price of her hand, and it shall be paid this night.” Pulling a gold hilted dagger from his belt he placed the tip on her breast and pressed enough to draw a bead of blood. “Hold her tightly men, this will not be pleasant.” The men braced and he pushed the dagger into her chest, it was slow work oozing malice that Larissa could not comprehend. Jacob’s wolf raged inside his head, tearing at him and wailing that he was killing his mate. Jacob used the pain of the internal assault to fuel his resolve as he cut her heart from her chest. He pulled it from her, and it beat in his blood-soaked hand, once, twice, then stopped. He gestured for his men to remove her body but no sooner then he did it crumbled into a pile of shimmering dust. All the men were shocked, mouths agape, hands covered in shimmering powder.

                                Jacob turned from them, “Sweep that up and throw it out.”

                                He went to his rooms and placed the heart in a box before going to wash up. Once cleaned and dressed Alpha Jacob took the box containing the heart and headed straight for the Summer Court where he presented it to Lord Keenan and his daughter. As Haru gazed at the heart in her hands it began to change, first it turned color, from the red bloody organ one expects to see to a pale lifeless blue as if all blood had been drawn from it. They watched in horror as it continued to change hardening into what appeared to be a crystal. Haru was left holding a light blue crystal heart, eyes wide she looked first to her father then to Alpha Jacob, her betrothed. The terms had been met, she had to marry the Alpha, but what had they done?

                                A week passed in a blink and Haru and Jacob were mated under the mid-day sun. Nothing strange had occurred leading up to the mating ritual and nothing amiss happened during the ceremony. Jacob had all but forgotten the events of one week before and the omen it was sure to be until the reception in the great ball room, when a woman with raven hair, black eyes, and a gown made of pure moonlight appeared in precisely the place Larissa had stood atop the stairs. The entire hall went silent.

                                “Alpha Jacob of the Cresting Moon pack, you have committed a grave sin and added an unthinkable insult.” Her voice was cold but without feeling, it washed over every person in the room and the multitone was ethereal. Everyone knew the Goddess stood before them. All but Alpha Jacob dropped to their knees, heads down, as they realized who she was. “My daughter asked to be your mate, she was a gift to you, the only Alpha to ever mate a Goddess. You insulted us both with your rejection. This was not enough for you; you have taken my daughter from me and for that sin you and your bride will pay. You will never father children, you will have no heir, your empire will fall.” Jacob looked as if he would object, and Haru dropped to her knees in despair. “I am not finished, no wolf present spoke out to spare my daughter from you, your men who held her will die in three moons. As consequence to those who stood by as you rejected her no wolf shall ever again find their mate.” Mateless wolves, mothers thinking of their children wailed a broken howl at the decree. The Goddess had cursed them all.

                                She strode through the doors, walking the path her daughter had once taken to leave the house, feeling her in each step. Through the town and across the field she was almost to the forest when she heard steps racing behind her, turning she rested her black, star speckled gaze on Glen who heaved and panted for breath.

                                “Goddess… please…” He had not caught his breath enough to speak. “Please do not… curse us all for our fear of the Alpha. My son is an infant, he had no part in it, your curse will cut his life short.”

                                “Glen, you are the one who spoke for my daughter, you told Jacob to accept her and not seek another, you told her to run.” She looked kind and contemplative now, a stark contrast to the cold intent she presented in the ballroom.

                                “I did Goddess, she was serene and peaceful and beautiful, I could not bare his harming her.” Glen spoke true, running as he had was a torture, but Jacob had used his Alpha tone and left him no choice.

                                “Because you cared to try I will give you a way to break the curse, a riddle as the Fea Luna’s people love so much.” Her voice changed again to something you would hear from a fortune teller, “When the fae wolf finds a mate and what was taken is returned mates will find their place.” With that she turned into the forest and upon her third step twinkled into moonlight.

                                The Goddess had spoken the truth, the Alpha and his Fairy Luna never had an heir and his empire fell to chaos and ruin. His Luna fled back to her people when the madness set in. No one was able to stop him as he tore through his empire bringing the fall, he had tried to avoid in search of a mate he had taken from himself.

                                I have searched the world for the fairy wolf the Goddess spoke of to break the curse but to no avail. I am old and my son has already succumbed to the madness. I beg of you, whoever you are, you have found my journal, find the fairy wolf and save our kind.

~Glen

                                Shiloh put the journal down on her bed and took a steadying breath, this was what they needed. A firsthand account detailing everything that had happened. Why had no one looked for this ‘fairy wolf’? Why did no one know now what had happened to cause the curse if this book existed? She had questions, questions only someone with Alpha privilege might know. She was going to have to talk to Terry again.