Lost and Found

The Mate Bond

Katrina POV

He had called me beautiful. No one had ever called me that before. I couldn’t meet his eyes as my heart jumped into my stomach. I felt butterflies, and did my best to stuff them back down. I wasn’t ready to confront a feeling like that. So instead I distracted myself with my surroundings as he set up our lunch. He didn’t push, and I was grateful. I wanted to reciprocate his feelings, but I didn't know how. I didn’t trust myself yet.

We sat down on a blanket and began to eat the sandwiches he had made for us. This was my favorite part. I knew a story was coming, and with a place as stunning as this, I knew the story had to be good.

He chuckled when he saw my apprehension, and began. “A long long time ago my great great great grandfather fell in love with the moon.” I watched his eyes as he began. His eyes were my favorite, they were so expressive. I could almost feel his emotions through them when he spoke like this. “He had been running from his past, and stumbled upon this lake. This was before there was a waterfall, only a cliff-face and this small empty cave. He had stopped to take shelter for the night when just as he had heard a sad voice singing softly to itself. He crept silently to the edge of the cave and looked down onto the water, and that’s when he saw her. In the reflection of the moon on the lake sat a beautiful woman. Her skin shone like diamonds and her long platinum hair cascaded down her body like a waterfall. He knew the moment he saw her that he would spend the rest of his life devoted to her. But he didn’t want to startle the woman so he sat silently listening to her song. She sang of endless years of loneliness. A life above the world, staring down at all of the love it held, so close, but yet so far. She watched the people below her fall in love, and fall out of it. She sang of the pain she felt knowing that even love wasn’t certain. And maybe she was be better off without experiencing it. His heart ached as he listed to her song. He wanted to show her that love could be real. That it could last. He called down to the woman below and she began to disappear in fright. But he cried out and begged her to stay and speak with him for a while. She was apprehensive, but her curiosity got the better of her. “What is your name?” He had asked her. She didn’t have one. “Would you like me to give you a name?” She thought for a moment and nodded. He looked her up and down thinking quietly to himself. Then he smiled and took her hand. “Selene. Your name will be Selene.” She smiled at him, she liked how that name felt. “What about you? What is your name?” “Well since I chose one for you, why don’t you choose one for me? I’ve been wanting to start over anyways.” She was confused by what he meant, but excited at the opportunity to name her new companion. “ Rowan.” She had decided. It was a strong sounding name and it suited him well.

Over time the two began to get closer and closer. They spent every night telling each other stories of the lives they had lead. He treated her well, and she enjoyed her time with him. She began to feel a pain in her chest whenever she had to leave him and go back into the sky. One day he had asked her to stay with him. He told her that he loved her and that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It was to good to be true. She joyfully accepted and jumped into his arms vowing to love him for the rest of her days. They became one that night, and in doing so he was overwhelmed by the urge to bite her neck marking her as his own. Caught in the moment she had returned the gesture. They immediately felt an indescribable closeness. An unbreakable bond. Over the years their lives together flourished. They had many children and grand children. The cultivated the land, and built our community from the ground up. Rowan got older and older, but Selene never seemed to age. Then came the day that Rowan took his last breath. Selene begged him to come back. She sobbed and beat on his chest. Why did he have to leave her? Their life together had been the best thing she had ever experienced. She brought his body here, and laid with him for decades until their mortal bodies joined with the cliff itself leaving these gems and the waterfall in their place. When Selene retook her rightful place in the sky a new star joined her. She was reunited with her beloved Rowan at last. In her joy she decided to bless her descendants. She wanted them to feel love like they had, and to be able to experience it for longer, and so she built upon the love that she had forged that first night with Rowan and created the Mate Bond. She blessed every one of her children with a Mate, made perfect for them, and extra long lives to be able to enjoy them.”

I looked up at Adrian in awe. Of all the stories he had told me this was my favorite. “My mother used to bring me here when I was a cub. She was the one who taught me this story. She told me one day, I would find that special person. And that she would complete me. I couldn’t understand what she meant then. But I know now. I wanted to bring you here, to this sacred place. I wanted to tell you what it meant to me, to show you what you mean to me. I mean it when I say that nothing will break the love I feel for you. I know you aren’t ready to take it on yet, and I’m prepared to wait forever until you are, but just as Rowan lived and breathed for Selene, I live and breathe for you. And I will spend every day for the rest of our lives proving that to you.”