The Not So Sad Rejection

Chapter Twenty Six

Forlorn Present

I was in the meadow again. It was so sunny it tittered on the edge of being too bright. Flowers were in bloom everywhere and it was comfortably warm. It was perhaps the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Which is why I immediately distrusted the place.

I've learned that beauty often acts as the veil for darkness.

It was always spring in the meadow. Maybe that's why it bothered me so much. It was winter when I fell asleep but the first time I came to the meadow, so soon after, it was spring. It's been a long time since and yet the meadow always remains the same.

The meadow was a dream among my dreams of the past and nightmares I dare not face in waking hours. Nothing of it seemed real, everything had a soft glow to it and it all moved slower, not by much but enough that I took a notice to it.

And then of course there was the woman. The woman was always there. She too was breathtakingly beautiful but she seemed to be entirely made of moonlight. No matter how long I stared she never seemed to dim in the slightest.

"Hello child," she said in a melodious voice. "It pleases me to see you."

She always greeted me in the same manner. "I cannot say the same," I replied as I always did. "I've yet to understand where my mind obtained such a dream."

She sighed. "I've told you, child, this is not a dream."

"Yeah, yeah," I said before she could go on about what she always did every time I called this a dream. "You supposedly a god or some make-believe thing like that."

"I am the moon goddess, child," she said in a serene tone. "My name is Selene. You know this."

"Gods aren't real," I told her.

"Your mind is closed to the possibility," she replied. "It matters not. One day you will be ready to accept me."

"Unlikely," I muttered and sat down on the grass.

"Your mate searches for you," she said as thought this knowledge were some great charity she was bestowing upon me. "Is that not proof enough of my existence."

"No," I replied without hesitation. "You are a mere figment of my subconscious and as such you know all that I know. I know Grant would look. He's quite used to looking for me."

"For one with a destiny so touched by a goddess you are quite reluctant to believe in such a thing," she said. "It amuses me for the moment."

"Moments do not last long." I stood and turned my back on the woman. "Goodbye."

"Be careful, child," she warned. "Here you are safe. When you leave this place I cannot protect you."

"I do not need anyone's protection," I said over my shoulder.

~*~*~*~

"Doctor! She's crashing!" Trina called.

Grant watched through tortured eyes as his pack doctor tended to his mate. It was the eighth time she's crashed in the past five days. Trina soon joined him in his corner of the room. "She's dying," Grant said in a hoarse voice.

"She'll not be the only one," Trina said. "If you do not tend to your pack the rogues will tear it apart."

"I cannot leave her," he said. "I need to be here in case..." he could bare to say the words.

"In case the Doc can't bring Kate back next time she crashes," Trina said softly. "Neither of them can keep this up. She needs the antidote to whatever was in that syringe."