Vindicator

Chapter 4

"The Moon Goddess called it the Lupine Realm...She said my true body laid dormant here, while my spirit lived within you. When she woke my body, it was as if I had the option of remaining with you, or returning to myself. It seems like now that you're here, though,I'm blocked off from the option" Alessia explained, not making much sense to Karma.

"Oh" was Karma's reply, but she was still confused. She wasn't able to think on it for long, though, because her mother began to stir.

Christina had been overwhelmed emotionally, and had lost consciousness shortly after falling into the Lupine Realm. When she awoke, it was to the intense burning pain from within her soul which told her that her mate was cheating on her. Familiar feelings of anguish and betrayal filled her heart at the beginnings of the fiery hot pain. It was as if her soul had been set afire, and molten-hot chains tugged at her body from the outside.

"It's the mate bond again" Alessia observed sadly, looking down at their mother who had begun to thrash around and whimper. The wolf laid down to curl around Christina protectively, hoping to stop her from hurting herself by mistake.

Karma breathed in the cold air deeply, wanting to swallow up the electric current she felt in it. She was furious, and needed that fury aimed at something. "We're here for a reason" she stated to Alessia. "The Moon Goddess wanted us to come here, and I need to find out why...I asked her for a way to stop this, so maybe I'll find it here. Stay with mom, keep her safe...I'll be back."

Before Alessia could object, Karma waltzed into the fog and disappeared to explore the Lupine Realm. After leaving their entry point, the fog encapsulated her as if it wanted her out. It became harder to move, to breathe, and to navigate.

Seeing was absolutely impossible, so she closed her eyes and let her instincts guide her. Each step was a challenge, every breath a fight, but she pushed on. After some time, how long she didn't know, the air thinned and the resistance lifted. She had been pressing forward when the shift occurred, so she stumbled onto the ground heavily. With a groan, she looked up to find herself nose-to-nose with none other than her mother's wolf, Faith.

"Faith!" She called out happily, but the wolf didn't react. Her eyes were screwed shut tightly and she was trembling violently. Noticing this, Karma realized the wolf was likely suffering from the mate bond still.

"Faith, I'm so sorry" Karma whispered, dragging herself to her knees by the wolf. She leaned her body into Faith's thick brown fur, wanting to comfort her. Stretching her arms out, she sunk her fingers into the fur, rubbing along the wolf's body in what she hoped were soothing strokes. While moving her hands along the wolf's pelt, her fingers hit something that didn't belong.

"What's that?" She asked aloud rhetorically, knowing Faith couldn't answer. Leaning over, she peered into Faith's fur where she felt...Something, but saw nothing.
Again, she slid her fingers through Faith's silky coat, and was able to watch as her fingers hit an invisible resistance. She frowned, realizing that something wasn't right; her instincts were telling her this was important. As they hadn't steered her wrong in this realm yet, she gave into them.

Closing her eyes, Karma pictured Faith's body as it was laid out before her. At the same time, she ran her fingers over her fur and probed into the downy coat until she found the path that the invisible barrier was following. The more she explored, the more a picture was forming in her mind of a thin cord-like form that was twisted around the wolf's body.

With a frown, Karma opened her eyes to peer down at Faith. To her astonishment, what had been invisible mere moments ago was now very prominent. There were multiple varying colours of cords that almost looked to me made of lights threading around Faith's body and leading out into different directions. Karma took particular interest in three of the colours specifically.

There was a soft, comforting thread of blue light shared between Faith and Karma. The same blue light threaded out into the fog in the direction that Christina and Alessia were, seeming to connect the four souls. Curiously, there were two other blue lights leading into the fog in the opposite direction. Likewise, there was a yellow light that connected the four; although this one split off from both Faith and Karma to at least fifty others. Lastly, and most importantly, there was an imposing and pulsing light that constricted Faith in multiple places across her body. It wound so tightly in places that its bloody red colour could have been mistaken for the blood it would draw from her body if it was a real cord. Unlike the others that were immobile, this one appeared to be alive; it would release in some places only to constrict in others. All the while, Faith's body reacted in pain to its motions and whimpers escaped the wolf.

Karma narrowed her eyes and thought about what she was seeing. If it was the mate bond that caused Faith's pain, and this red light seemed to be physically inflicting the pain, then perhaps the lights were physical representations of her mother and father's mate bond. Lending further evidence to this, the red thread connected off in the direction of Christina and Alessia, which would tie the human and wolf souls together in their mutual pain. If that was the case, given the number of yellow threads and the fact that they were in the direction of her father, she concluded that yellow must be the mate bond.

While Karma was puzzling over the significance of the blue bond, a heartbreaking yelp of pain escaped Faith. Karma growled angrily and grabbed the writhing red light, concluding it didn't matter what the lights signified. If they lead towards the pack, they didn't need them. Without hesitating to give herself the chance to reconsider, she gave a mighty tug in an effort to snap the thread. With the sound of breaking glass, the bond to shattered into thousands of pieces of shimmering confetti that faded into nothing before hitting the ground.

Faith's sharp and sudden intake of breath sent fear racing from Karma's heart to the tips of her toes. She instantly regretted her decision, fearing she'd only further harmed her mother.

"Faith?!" she asked in a panic.

The wolf lifted her big, furry brown head slowly in Karma's direction. Her eyes were still swimming with the memories of her pain, but they were open at least. Relieved, Karma blew out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Before giving herself a break, she made one more decision. She grabbed all of the remaining threads that lead into the fog in the same direction she concluded was the pack. Once more, she pulled at the thread, and like before, they shattered into the air with a smashing sound.

The blue and yellow threads remained between her, Faith, Alessia and Christina. They were a family, and their own pack now. What Karma didn't realize is that she'd just inadvertently created a pack that she was Alpha of. A feat that had never been done before, making her the first and only female Alpha in history.

Ignorance is bliss, though, and all that she cared about in the moment was her mother. She threw her arms around Faith's neck and buried her face into her fur.

"Are you okay? Did it hurt when I broke your bonds?" She murmured softly.

The wolf looked confused, but shook her head. "I don't know what you mean, pup...But thank you. Whatever you did, it makes me feel...Free" she said through their mind link.

Karma let out a relieved sigh. Thinking back on everything that had happened over the morning, a morning that felt like eons, she finally let herself feel. She let the fear and pain of the reality that was nearly forced upon her hit her. She was overwhelmed, and clung to Faith as she sobbed into her neck.

She made a vow to herself in that moment that those bastards would never be able to find them again. From this moment on, she was her mother's protector; and, if the Moon Goddess had given her the right powers...Maybe she'd be her mother's vindicator, too.

And her father's karma.