Curse of the Moon Goddess

He cried out, trying to fling her off him.

As the two of them struggled, I fought my way away from the silver chains. He finally succeeded in flinging her off. She partially shifted from the impact. Enough that her human neck and head were exposed, yet the rest of her body remain a wolf. I could see her struggling to shift back to full wolf. I fought my own pain in order to shift back into my wolf form. I watched as Drake leaned down and sunk his teeth into her neck. Sage’s cry was enough for me to break past the pain.

“Aleina!” I screamed out as I shifted into my wolf form.

Her eyes turned to mine. Recognition stirred in them. I flew the last few leaps towards her. I locked my jaw onto Drake’s neck and pulled it clean off. Thankfully, when he had felt my teeth on his neck he had let go of his hold on Sage. I came back around, and grabbed the rest of his body, flinging it deep into the forest.

Sage shifted herself fully into her wolf form and laid still on her side. Her breaths came out like pants. I nudged her gently, indicating I was about to roll her over. We got her onto her other side. I looked at the wound on her neck, relief flooding me as I saw it healing. It was slow, but it was healing.

I did my best to help roll her onto her paws to get her inside. She looked over at me as if she wanted to ask me something when her eyes went wide. She rammed into my side, pushing me to the ground, right as something flew past and tackled her. A huge gash formed on her side. I recognized instantly who the assailant was.

“She’s mine. No one else can have her,” Adam nearly snarled at me. His eyes were hungry now that he could smell her blood. He looked like a person on too many meds. Crazy, delusional, and out of control.

He didn’t even get a chance to approach Sage as three wolves stood in his way. I was relieved to see Ian, Lukas, and Venessa standing once again, ready to fight for Sage.

I shifted and told Adam in my alpha command voice, “You will stand down and come quietly with us to the dungeons.”

His whole demeanor changed instantly. Good to know that alpha command works on vampires as well. I guess we were all born from the Moon Goddess, so it makes sense.

Ian and Lukas shifted into their human forms and escorted Adam down to the dungeons. I didn’t plan on keeping him down there forever. Just until he was sane enough to be set free and not go on a killing rampage.

Now that he was gone, I turned my attention to Sage.

The injury from Adam was nasty. There appeared to be three cuts that ran down her entire left side. They didn’t appear to be healing. Most likely because her body was still tackling the bite on her neck on the same side.

“This is going to hurt. I’m sorry.”

I picked her up as gently as I could and carefully carried her up to her room. She whimpered a little whenever I would jostle her a bit. But she was handling the pain like a champ. The whole night was spent with Venessa and me putting wet clothes on the cuts and bite, then ordering Ian and Lukas to get us clean water and new rags. By morning we were all exhausted. Venessa fell asleep in the chair next to Sage. At about seven o’clock, Ian took her back to her room. Once Sage was out of danger, Lukas went to bed to give his own body time to finish healing. I stayed by her side. I couldn’t bring myself to leave her.

“Jace,” a soft voice called out to me.

I turned to see Sage had finally shifted from her wolf form back to human. She stayed under the covers, which I was grateful for. Knowing my luck Lukas would come in and get the wrong idea again.

“Morning,” I smiled at her. She returned the smile.

“Can I ask you something Jace?”

“Of course.”

I moved a bit closer to hear her better.

She was still smiling softly as she asked, “Why do you keep calling me Aleina?”

I froze. My smile was no longer on my face as I panicked. What do I do? Should I tell her?

I took a deep breath, let it out, then decided to tell her the truth.

“I was in love with a girl named Aleina.”

Sage nodded, then asked, “In your past life?”

Confused, I responded, “How did you…?”

“Drake mentioned it. He asked if I believed in reincarnation. I figured he asked because he believed you had been reincarnated.”

I couldn’t help the smile that played at my lips. This girl was too good

“Yes. I’ve been reincarnated multiple times. 3,258 times to be precise. It’s my curse. You remind me so much of Aleina that I keep thinking you are her.”

“What makes you think I’m not?” her voice wasn’t condescending or anything. It was sincere curiosity.

“The truth is I wanted you to be her. But, after watching the person you love die so many times, it does something to you. I’m afraid to hope you’re her. I’m afraid of watching her die again. I always seem to find her when it is too late.”

“So,” she paused a moment, “are you saying she is also reincarnating?”

I nodded.

“Do all werewolves reincarnate?”

I shook my head.

“No. It is our curse. The Moon Goddess has a grudge against Aleina and me. This is our punishment. To always be searching for one another.”

“That’s so cruel. How could the Moon Goddess do that to someone?”

I couldn’t help the wistful look on my face. “I don’t really blame her. Because of Aleina and me, a lot of werewolves have suffered extreme heartache.”

“What do you mean?”

“We were the first werewolves to reject our mates.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” Sage asked so innocently.

I chuckled.

“Yes and no. Yes, because now werewolves know they can reject their mate if they want. No because those who are mated to terrible mates can reject their mates.”

“I see.”

There was silence for a moment before she asked, “Do your friends know?”

I shook my head.

“Why not? Don’t they deserve to know? Especially Venessa! She deserves to know more than anyone else.”

I felt a tear fall from my eye. I turned away quickly as I replied, “I agree. They deserve to know.”

“Then why?”

“Because, if I tell them she dies.”

“What?”

“That’s part of the curse. The Moon Goddess didn’t want me to enlist the help of others. It would make it too easy for me to find her. So, if I told anyone besides her, she dies.”

“Then why…?”

“Why am I telling you?”

She nodded.

I released a sigh.

“Because I’m tired. I love Aleina so much. But, seeing you almost die today, I felt as if it was Aleina dying again. I want this vicious cycle to end. I just want a happy ending like in novels where Aleina and I can live happily ever after. The problem is, I haven’t even seen a trace of her in so many lifetimes that I don’t even know if she is still being reincarnated. If she’s not, then I believe you are her posterity. You have that same mystical power she did and practically the same fur color she did.”

I paused, thinking back to Aleina.

I chuckled a bit.

“Can I tell you something interesting?”

She nodded.

“Lukas, he and I are actually related.”

Her eyes went big.

“Yep. He is a descendant of my brother. That’s why our eyes are so similar in color. Did you notice my eyes are very different from my parents?”

“Now that you mention it, I do remember they were different from yours.”

“It’s because the Moon Goddess let me keep my eye color and my wolf’s fur color. They say eyes are the windows to the soul. Well, my eyes are the windows to my wolf. He’s my soul and the reason I’ve held on for so long. He longs for Aleina’s wolf as much as I long for Aleina.”

There was a loud bang by the door at that moment. I sprang to my feet and flung the door open.