The Afterlife

Chapter 6: Truths

"Rise and shine, Allie, rise and shine!" heard Allie through her bedroom window.

"Stop it, Yuki," she groaned through the door. "I'm already awake." If only barely awake...

"Get up, lazy lazy! Wayne found something!" yelled Yuki again.

"What?" Allie opened her bedroom door, dressed in her pajamas. Wayne and Yuki were there, just outside her bedroom door, with Sienna a few paces behind them. All had big smiles on their faces.

"Wayne found out how your curse got started," Sienna said.

"What?" shrieked Allie. She quickly covered her mouth as soon as she realized she was yelling, and the rest of the pack likely wouldn't appreciate it. "Tell me," she demanded. "Please."

"That's not all," Wayne said. "I found ya a way to resolve it. Sort of. It'll give ya more time with ya mate."

"Is it not that awesome?" said Yuki. "Kaori and Allie, sitting in a tree--" Yuki was stopped when Sienna elbowed her mate and stared at her. Allie laughed.

She took a deep breath. "Okay, tell me everything."

"Mind if we come in?" asked Sienna, ever so polite.

"Be my guest," said Allie. "You guys are welcome any time."

Allie was lucky that for some reason, after her sixth death -- yep, sixth -- she'd been reborn yet again at her home pack, not in the middle of the forest. She'd prayed and prayed to the Moon Goddess that she not be stranded, and it seemed like Goddess Selene was granting her wish.

And in the six times she'd been able to meet Kaori, it was like she loved him more and more every day. Their moments together were brief, of course -- she was always dying, and she knew there was nothing she could do -- but Kaori always tried to save her, always tried to stop her death. Despite the futility, she appreciated his care.

She'd also learned that Kaori was a pack warrior, the head warrior. During her most recent encounter with him, she'd almost asked what pack he was from -- but she couldn't manage to get the words out. They seemed lodged in her throat. She tried to tell him that her pack was the Shoreline Pack, but she wasn't able to do that either. However, she had been able to find out that Kaori was a year older than her, and that he'd been looking for his mate for a long time -- just like Allie had been.

Maybe it was just all in Allie's imagination, but it seemed like with each time that she'd met, she'd been granted more time to spend with him. The last time, they'd almost been able to have a full conversation. Allie had told Kaori that she barely knew anything about her own parents, and Kaori mentioned that his father was also a warrior. But when Allie had asked if Kaori had any siblings, Kaori looked pained, so she tried to change the subject. After that, she didn't really remember what had happened; it was likely her death came after that.

"I hate dying," Allie groaned after her friends had come in and sat down in her room. "It always hurts. Shouldn't I be used to it now?"

"Well, that's the thing," said Wayne. "From what I know, it's not going to hurt any less every time."

"That's awful!" exclaimed Sienna. "Wayne, can we please start with the good news you wanted to tell us?"

"You have not even told us the specifics yet!" said Yuki.

"Babe, she deserves to hear it first, not us," Sienna reminded her mate as she rubbed her shoulder. Allie grimaced internally. She wanted her own mate, not to watch the happiness of the others.

"Okay, well, here goes," said Wayne. "Allie's great-great-great-grandmother -- father's great-great-grandmother, give or take a few "great" to be exact --- was a witch."

Yuki gasped, while Allie schooled her expression into a neutral one, waiting patiently for Wayne to continue.

"She wasn't always a good person. She was rejected by her true mate for many, many years before her mate, a werewolf, finally accepted her. During that time, she spent a lot of time casting spells that enabled the existence of chosen mates to replace fated mates, given that she wanted someone to choose her as a mate."

"Uh-oh," said Yuki. Allie knew that the Moon Goddess rarely forgave those who rejected their mates. And if her great-grandmother had been in the business of creating chosen mates by destroying mate bonds, well, that would never end well.

"The Moon Goddess was pretty angry, right?" asked Allie.

"Yes, but the Moon Goddess still had a duty to protect us wolves. She tried to stop Cora, but Cora was ruthless in her grief. Near the end of her rampage, she broke up two true mates -- by killing one of them."

Allie's eyes widened.

"The Moon Goddess felt sorry for him -- for Ares -- so she granted him a place to rule the humans as the God of War, since the humans already believed in one with that name. However, Ares was still angry about the loss of his mate. He decided to seek revenge on Cora. Selene tried to stop Ares from doing anything crazy, but her abilities were limited. Ares could be ruthless when he wanted to be, and Selene was strictly the Goddess of the Moon, ruling over her werewolf children."

"How did you find out about this, Wayne?" asked Sienna.

"It was in the books," he said. "It's the history of our people."

Allie frowned. She had a feeling this wasn't going to end well.

"Ares cursed Cora's descendants to experience death -- to be separated from their true mates through death -- like he did," continued Wayne. "The Moon Goddess objected, so she made sure that the deaths would never be permanent unless it was their time.. or their wish."

"Wait," said Sienna. "Are you saying that -- what are you saying, Wayne?"

Wayne frowned and nodded. "I'm saying that ya can be with ya mate, but perhaps one of the options is death."

"And another option?" asked Allie. She didn't want to die.

"Sadly," said Wayne, "I know there's another option, but I wasn't able to find it in the books. There's a way to rid ya self of Ares's curse -- but I don't know how to do that, either. Ya probably have to make Ares happy first, and I haven't figured out how to do that at all."

Allie leaned back on her bed, taking it all in. One of her ancestors had been rejected and gone mad, angering a future God in the process. The God wanted her to experience the separation of a mate in death like Ares had himself, but Selene had allowed it to become Allie's choice to die or not.

"One more thing," said Wayne.

"What's that?" asked Allie.

"One of ya great-aunts was rejected. She lived to a ripe old age," said Wayne. "I think it means that if y'all are rejected, then the curse no longer applies."

Sienna nodded. "Because then the separation already occurred."

"Wait," said Yuki. "So if you choose to die..."

"Selene grants those who chose to die an eternity together with her, because she was the one who caused Ares to rise to power," said Wayne. "It's her form of apology, I suppose."

"So, your parents..." said Yuki.

Allie froze. It was beginning to make sense now. Her parents, why they'd left her so young... why they'd left so many things behind for her, right after she was born... letters and letters, as if their leaving had been planned...

"I think they chose to die," Yuki said. "So that they wouldn't be hurt by the curse anymore."