Beyond Fate

After life

(Alisha pov)

I’m floating. Feeling nothing but peace, I thread my fingers through the warm water feeling as it ripples between my fingers, I stare up at the beautiful blue sky. I don’t know how I got here. I don't remember going swimming. I don’t remember much of anything trying to grasp at my memories are like treading through muddy water. I can't quite see them but I have a feeling nothing good happened.

I remember I was working in the harvest, I was exhausted, I’d worked all morning in the horrendous heat, the work had been back breaking unlike the others, the females had refused to serve me, one had poured water over my head when I had ask for it, I’d of complained but it had actually refreshed me......I feel light as a feather, no I really am floating...... seriously what had happened, how am I here......i’d gone to grab something I’d hidden in the barn..what though. I remember pain, so much pain but from what I can’t remember.why was this so hard.

I can remember tasting blood, my blood. Was I bleeding? Why would they put me in water? I heard birds chirping around above me. My bones felt like jelly. A calming peaceful aura surrounded me, making me lose my thoughts. I didn't care. I was too comfortable right now to worry about anything anymore..easily floating on top of water. I feel so at peace here.

“ Alisha!” Someone was calling my name. No I don’t want to wake up. I must be in a dream and mom’s coming to wake me from my bliss. No if I wake up I’ll be back there in hell.

“ Alisha!” The voice came again but I ignored them. I just wanted to float in my little slice of heaven. I lay there sloshing the water playfully with my hands determined not to wake up.

“ Ali stop dicking about we need to talk” the voice came again only this time it was as if the person was right by my ear, recognising the voice I shot up my eyes going wide.

I sat there bobbing out of the water looking around I see that i'm floating in the middle of a beautiful pond, the water is crystal clear and i'm surrounded by a vast forest full of lush green trees and wildflowers dotted around giving dabs of Colour to the surrounding green it’s the most beautiful place I ever seen. I looked towards the edge of the water to see the silhouette of a beautiful young woman with bright red hair, a woman I knew to be dead.

“Rose?”

(Mitchell’s pov)

“ Alpha, you need to let her go so we can help her,” one of the nurses said, trying to load Alisha onto the bed so they could try and save her life. She had been gentle at first with her words but now I could hear the irritation in her voice and I couldn’t blame her after five minutes of dealing with me being stuck in this daze of trying to believe what was happening was an awful dream anyone would be pissed off. I’d charged straight into the emergency room demanding they save her and now I was preventing that by having some kind of nervous break down. The staff practically had to prise my fingers off her in order to asses her injuries.

The nurses all dipped their heads probably in fear I would suddenly pull Alisha back to me. My eyes stayed glued to her unmoving body soaked in her own blood. How could they have done this to her?

“ She's not breathing, let's get a crash team now” someone shouted hitting a button on the wall, alarms started going off and about ten more people came rushing in surrounding Alisha. No. No this wasn’t happening.

“ sir you need to wait outside now” I felt someone put their hands on my shoulder gently pushing me out of the room but I couldn’t take my eyes away from the poor girl on the table barely clinging to life.

What had I done this was all my fault I’d declared her trash, blaming her for what happened to Rose and the pack had set about to end her life. I walked back into the waiting room sitting in one of the chairs, my mind racked with guilt as I stared at my blood stained hands. I leaned forward with my head no in my hands, how could I have been such a monster.

How could I keep my promise to Mina now if Alisha dies she’ll never forgive me and I’ll never forgive myself. Alisha had been treated terribly by this pack under false claims that she had been the reason Rose had died. The truth being that she was Rose's friend and she'd wanted Alisha to take care of Mina. I had failed her because I had listened to stupid gossiping pack members.I hung my head running my finger frustratedly through my hair,praying to the moon goddess she’d be ok.

“ Alpha if you want, we can keep you informed on the omegas condition, you need not hang around” I looked up to see the young man from behind the desk had come round to stand in front of me.

I didn’t recognise him though he looked to be about my age, he had slightly longer blonde hair that came down to his ears with white highlights running through it, he was toned but a little scrawny for a werewolf.

“ I’m not leaving till I know she’s ok” I stated the young man offered me a sad smile looking towards the doors I’d taken alisha through.

“ Sir I hate to say it but this has been a long time coming” he said, shoving his hands in his pockets but unlike the men that had done this to Alisha the boy only looked saddened by the knowledge of knowing this had been inevitable for alisha.

“ She's been here before?” I asked now curious, the guy seemed to know more than he was saying.

“ It's never been this bad before, normally it’s a minor injury, she's not been admitted since the night her father brought her in with a nasty head injury but that was years ago ” he sighed, Alisha had been beaten like this before, but why now, why this bad. I had a feeling but I hoped I was wrong.

“ How often does this happen?” I whispered. The boy looked over to the coffee machine behind his desk. He kept talking as he headed back there.

“ Every couple of weeks or so depends who’s path she crosses but I’m surprised they took it this far given who her parents are” he poured two cups of coffee bringing one back round handing it to me, I took it nodding at him.

“ Is that why it’s never this bad normally?” I asked, sipping the bitter coffee trying hard not to cringe.

The guy shuffled sipping his own coffee not making eye contact there was something he didn’t want to say.

“ Please just tell me,” I urged him. He looked uneasy and I knew I wasn’t going to like the answer.

“ it’s because she was always favoured by the alpha and Luna she was almost untouchable but when you banished her from the main house in front of the pack they took it that she was fair game” and there it was the confirmation I’ve been dreading, what happened was all my fault my first real decision as alpha and I had almost cost a pack member her life. She could still die. I couldn’t stand it.

This is all your fault she’s dying because of you, it’s your job to protect your pack. My wolf roared at me inside my head giving me a headache I deserved.

I didn’t answer him. I knew he was right. It was my job to keep my pack safe, to keep Alisha safe but instead I’d thrown her to the wolves. Literally.

I sat there letting myself wallow in my misery not wanting to leave. I owed it to her to stay, it was my doing that she was in here. I asked the guy behind the desk to alert her family to what had happened. I spent the next hour pacing back and fourth impatiently waiting on any word that Alisha was ok.

Just as I was about to storm back into the emergency room demanding to know what was happening one of the pack doctors appeared.

“Alpha” Dr Lynn the head consultant came out into the waiting room. She looked flustered her dark hair scrapped back off her face the woman was starting to become affected by the age of time her once flawless skin was now beginning to feel the ravages of time she was still an attractive woman for her age but her skin would never look the same. I wasn’t sure how old she was. Dr Lynn had been here so long she was a part of the pack's history, she had always been here. She looked to be in her late forties but I knew for a fact she was older than both my parents. My stomach dropped at the sight of her scrubs, she was covered in so much blood. Still, I shot to my feet the second I saw her eager to hear how Alisha was.

“ well?” I asked, trying to hide the panic in my voice.

Dr Lynn’s look didn’t give me much hope judging from the pained expression she had on her face.

“ I’m afraid we’ve done all we can, she has multiple broken bones including her jaw, trauma to the brain and there was some internal bleeding we managed to stop but we had to put her on life support…” she reeled off a long list of things that was wrong with Alisha and I couldn’t take it all in. I felt like I was going to vomit at the thought that my own pack members could do this to one of their own and be proud of it. When Dr Lynn said the words life support I knew it was bad but still looked at her confused like I didn’t understand her.

“ It's a machine that will breathe for her, for now anyway until her wolf has begun to heal but it would speed up the healing process drastically if she had a mate” I had no idea if she had a mate or not but if she did I’d find him.

Just as I was about to tell Dr Lynn such, the doors to the hospital opened and in charged a furious Johnny the moment he saw me his eyes glowed amber.

“ YOU!!” He shouted pointing at me accusingly and I’m certain that if he had the power to kill me with a look I’d be dead and buried by now. I saw two other figures running in just behind Johnny but I didn’t take my eyes off him.

“ YOU DID THIS, THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!” He roared right before he pulled his fist back and sent it flying towards my face.

(Alisha pov)

I stared wide eyed at the figure before me, my mind a wash with questions but when I opened my mouth nothing would come out. How was this possible Rose.here. What did this mean?

The beautiful red head seemed to understand my plight and started giggling.

“ Am I dead?” I whispered, not sure if there was any other explanation. The woman on shore just shrugged, still smiling as if it was no big deal.

“ sort of, you're in the in between, it’s a crossroad, kind of like a waiting room before you meet the moon goddess” she smiled, swishing her beautiful silk white dress around her waist.

“ some waiting room” I stated looking around again in awe of my surroundings. This place really did seem like heaven yet this was just the stop.in centre. before heaven.

I couldn’t quite take everything in but one fact didn’t escape me if Rose was here I had to be dead. A million things were going through my mind, how would my family take this, my poor Mina she’d be alone now and what about Nathan would he care I was dead or would he be happy to be free.

“ You up for a walk” Rose asked, snapping me back into the moment. I frowned looking down at myself still floating in the water.

“ I’m soaking wet” I said to Rose like she was crazy she hadn’t even brought a towel with her.

“ it’s heaven ali you don’t have a body here there’s no such thing as wet” she rolled her eyes like I was stupid.huh.

She was right as soon as I reached the shore I was bone dry. That was handy.

I was wearing a beautiful white silk dress matching Rose’s. She smiled at me holding out her hand. I didn't even hesitate to take it attempting to pull her into a hug, though it’s hard without a body.

It wasn’t like hugging more floating around one another. What was strange was I could feel her but I couldn’t.

“ I know this is a lot to take in, I was freaked out when I first arrived here” she said, almost knowing that this whole thing was messing with my head.

“ I don’t remember how this happened” I padded myself or at least I tried, my body appeared solid till I tried to touch it and then it seemed to turn into a weird formless mist.

“ You won’t, it’s like waking up from a dream...you were attacked when you tried to leave the barn’s, Kelly’s uncle and cousin orchestrated it” she said sadly as if telling me about the last episode of lost, sad and disappointing. I wasn’t sure why I was surprised to hear I had died at the hands of the pack or that it was at the hands of Kelly’s family. I shouldn’t have been. I guess I never thought they would actually take up arms against me themselves. I had known from the messages on social media the night of the ceremony they had wanted me dead but to actually go about killing me was something completely different.

“ I’m sorry about Mitchell Alisha, it’s not easy for him coming back but that doesn’t excuse his actions' 'Rose kept on talking while I tried to process that my own pack would kill me. I frowned at her, how did she know all this.

“ don’t be sorry Rose, we are only responsible for our own actions” I said to her. I didn’t want her to be the one apologising just because of something her mate had done that had probably led my pack members to believe they had the green light to execute me. That wasn’t Rose’s fault.

“I’ve missed you so much” I said, feeling myself welling up at the sight of seeing her again. I’d felt Rose’s absence so much the past couple of weeks without Mina to distract me.

“I’m still there Ali you don’t have to go far to find me” Rose smiled as we walked through the pathway of the beautiful lush forest.

“ Mina” I whispered and rose nodded.

“She’s growing up so beautifully because of you, you're doing such an amazing job with her Ali “ she beamed proudly. My heart felt like it might burst with pride at how happy she was with how I had raised Mina. But then I remembered.

“It’s not my job anymore….I lost her.....I’m sorry they took her away from me I promised you I’d always be there for her” I felt the tears in my eyes begging to run down my face.

“He’s just scared Ali, losing me almost destroyed him. He's scared of losing Mina too, of losing himself again” again? Did she know what happened to alpha Mitchell while he was away? She seemed to know an awful lot. Rose sat down on the grass crossing her legs. I did the same watching the wildlife move around us, seemingly unafraid.

“You have to help him see it’s ok for him to love her, show him how wonderful she is” Rose watched a squirrel come down from its perch on the tree close by petting it gently when it came to sit in her lap.

“I wish you could see how wonderful she is, I tell her about you all the time” Rose looked back up smiling brightly at me.

“I know, I see her, the moon goddess allows me to see visions of the living. It's strange, time has no meaning here. It often feels like I’ve always been here, that my life was like a beautiful dream and then I see visions of you and Mina playing together and I’m reminded that it was all real.” Rose went back to petting the squirrel, her red hair catching the sun like it always did making it shine like a ruby.

“It feels so peaceful here. There's no pain or jealousy or hate, just blissfully happy, it’s so freeing.” I sighed happily running my fingers through the grass taking in my beautiful surroundings. Maybe being dead won’t be so bad after all.

“You can’t stay here Ali” Rose whispered her expression now dead serious.

“What? why? Please don’t make me leave” I sounded like a child but I didn’t care I had just got here and now she wanted me gone.

“It’s not up to me Ali I’m just the messenger” rose stated putting the squirrel back on the ground allowing it to scurry back to its tree.

“Well go back to her and tell her I’m not going back to that hell no way, no” I said firmly, folding my arms so matter of fact. Rose huffed, getting up and walking away. I watched her back not really knowing what to do before I got myself up and ran after her.

“It's not your time yet” Rose said calmly when I finally reached her.

“ but they will just keep hurting me, your wrong nothing ever got better it only got worse, if you send me back they’ll just hurt me again” I was close to tears now as rose lead us out into the same pond I had first landed in when I got here but instead of sinking into the water we floated above it as if dipping our toes.

“ Alisha you need to trust me, trust yourself and trust in him, I know he’s hurt you but things are exactly as they should be” who was he? Did she mean Nathan? Alpha jerkface? Why did she always have to be so cryptic.

“ it would kill you to give me a straight answer wouldn’t it?” I glared frustrated but Rose just chuckled.

“No I’m already dead ” she giggled, stopping once we reached the centre of the pond. I could still see the crystal clear blue water below as I stood on top as if there were a glass screen across the top.

“ I don’t understand Rose and I’m only fifty percent sure this isn’t just a figment of my imagination and I’m going to wake up in that bloody barn in a pool of my own blood any second.” I said, I'm feeling on edge now. Rose took my hands in hers this time she felt more solid than before.

“ I know you're confused Ali but everything will make sense soon I promise, I wasn’t lying when I said I saw you happy and in love, you will be '' she smiled and I couldn’t help but scoff. If she honestly thought Nathan and I would somehow end up as some kind of happily mated couple in the end of all this, she had been living in the clouds way too long.

I felt Rose's hand stroke my face one last time before I felt myself sinking. I looked at Rose who smiled reassuringly at me. Her form wasn’t sinking; she was now standing slightly above me out of the water. I struggled feeling like I was in quick sand I looked at rose panicking reaching for her to help

Me but she was now out of reach the water now came up to my chest, was it possible to drown if you were technically dead.

“ It's ok Alisha trust me” was all Rose said she still wouldn’t grab for me when I stretched my arms out to her. Why wasn’t she helping me? I didn’t want to go back, wasn’t this how things were supposed to end, what more was there for me to do. How was I supposed to help a man who hated me bond with his child. More to the point why the f**k should I want to help him, wasnt he the reason I was dead.

“ one last thing” Rose chimed, interrupting my thoughts, I looked back up at her seeing she was now frowning at me with her arms folded like she could read my mind.

“stop living your life like I’m going to walk through the door at any moment, it’s time to let go Ali, think with your heart instead of your head for once” Rose expression changed instantly as she smiled down at me waving goodbye moments before my head was pulled under the water suddenly.

I was now unable to grasp at the surface, it was as if the whole paradise is been in had vanished, the water was no long clear and blue as it had been before, now it was black like tar pulling me under slowly, I couldn’t see anything, rose was gone as was the beautiful forest that had been, now there was just this darkness, I desperately tried to grasp for the surface not knowing which way was up any more spinning around feeling like I was in a washing machine every time I thought I felt something I was yanked away from it, I hung on for as long as I could knowing it was hopeless as I slowly slipped into nothingness.