Night and Neera: A Rejected Mate Story

Chapter 3: My Magical Broomstick

"I have about a million," I said. "First is, who are you?"

"I'm Raevyn," she said as if that was the most obvious fact in the world. 

"Wait, I thought the other -- the blonde lady -- was Raevyn."

"No, I am," she assured us. "My friend is Blaisall." She turned and looked at me. "You two have much in common. Four hundred years ago, she was the first rejected mate."

For a minute, we all just absorbed that shocking-on-so-many-levels information.

"I don't...I don't even know what to do with that," I admitted after a full five minutes of silence.

"It's simple, really. Her mate rejected her. We never knew why, exactly. But he was weak in his mind; his elevator didn't go all the way to the top floor, if you know what I mean. The Forces usually don't give a wolf like that a mate. But in their wisdom, which we can never hope to understand, they did, and he ran off after her mate brand appeared -- and he was never seen again. She was devastated."

"I understand," I said softly. Because I did. The pain had been battering me again today, still not constant, but it was hitting me more often than it did yesterday. "So, you're telling me that Night is weak in the mind and that's why he rejected me?"

"Oh, no," she said. "Alphas since the beginning of time have been strong minded. The Forces never make a mistake with Alphas. No, your mate's mind is well and good."

"I see," I said. So Night had rejected me just because...he wanted to reject me. Because of that bitch Lindsay Morgan. Or maybe because of me. Maybe it was just me.

"The why is not important right now," Raevyn said to me. "We must first deal with the pain, which I suspect is bit worse than yesterday, isn't it?"

I bit my lip as a new wave washed over me with perfect timing. "Yes. It's a little worse," I confessed when I could speak again.

Owena lightly slapped my arm with the back of her hand. "You were supposed to tell us if the pain started!"

"Well, excuse me for not wanting to worry you!" I snapped at her. "I was worried we wouldn't be able to find the Raevyn, and then that would have made you and Echo even more upset, and then I would have gotten upset because you two were upset -- it would have been a mess!"

Poking a finger at my face, she snarled at me. Or her wolf did. "You tell us everything," she demanded. "No more secrets! We can't help you if we don't know what's going on."

I'd never seen Owena lose her temper with me before, but this girl was about to skin me alive, and I could only be thankful she didn't have a knife. 

"I promise," I said, chastened. My two best friends had left pack lands with me, and although three was better than one alone, we needed our bigger pack and the comfort and familiarity they provided. My friends had sacrificed a lot to be with me, and I needed to remember that they were there to provide comfort, not to have me play the martyr and protect them from what I was going through.

"You damn well better," Owena grumbled.

"You better," Echo...echoed.

"Raevyn, I still want to know how you and Blaisall...work," I finished weakly, not knowing how to describe what I wanted to say.

"It's a miserable story," she said softly. "Way back when, I was an enchantress in a world filled with many of my kind. Then the wolves and the magicks went to war -- the wolves started it, by the way. They feared our power. They hunted us ruthlessly, using some magicks they'd captured and tortured to get past our spells. The wolves captured me, and held me powerless with one of our captured magicks. I noticed Blaisall standing there, at the edge of the crowd gathered to watch another dirty magick be destroyed, her eyes agonized from the pain of her rejection. They were about to tear my throat out and at the last moment, just as the Alpha lunged for me, I slid out of my body into Blaisall's. I watched through her eyes as my throat was torn out and my body crumpled to the ground."