Broken Threads: Curse of Mates

Epilogue

“My teenage years were exactly what they were supposed to be. Everybody has their own path. It’s laid out for you. It’s just up to you to walk it.” Justin Timberlake

POV - Iris

I take a final look at myself in the mirror and smile. I look good… if I do say so myself. Leaving my door open, I walk down the stairs and follow the sound of my parents watching telly in the living room.

“Hi Mum, hi Dad,” I smile, peering in. Mum is snuggling close to Dad when they both look toward me.

“Hi, baby girl. You look good,” Dad says, making Mum hit him. I’m not dressed up at all. Instead, I wear my old black skinny jeans and a pink t-shirt with a picture of a punk-looking Strawberry Shortcake. My favourite item I’m wearing is my Doc Martin boots. I swear they’ll never go out of fashion.

“You going to Aria’s tonight?” Mum asks, looking at the backpack I’m holding in my hand. I nod. When it comes to going out, I’m pretty tame compared to my brother, Talon. He was wild before he met his mate, Deja, at the Winter Solstice Ball two years ago.

“We’re just going to have a sleepover,” I tell them. Mum and Dad nod. Aria has been my best friend since we were barely out of nappies. Our mums met at their Mothers Group when Talon and Aria’s brother Kian was born.

“You need me to give you a lift?” Dad asks. I look at my dad and batter my eyelashes at him.

“Please, Daddy? That would be great,” I say. Mum shakes her head, chuckling. I’m my daddy’s little girl and I have him wrapped around my little finger. Mum knows it; I know it. I try hard not to take advantage of that, though. My parents, no, my family, mean so much to me, but Dad is definitely my favourite.

“Can you get me some Caramel Cremes on the way home, Gage?” Mum asks Dad as he goes to stand up.

“Of course, love,” Dad says, giving his mate a quick kiss on the lips. That’s what I want, the love my parents have for each other with my future mate.

“Ready?” Dad asks, grabbing his keys from the key bowl next to the front door.

“Yup,” I reply.

Aria’s house isn’t far from ours, about a twenty-minute drive. I could have walked, but it would have taken me almost an hour.

“Have a good night,” Dad smiles when he stops in front of Aria’s house.

“Thanks, Dad, I love you,” I grin, exiting the car. I close the door after me and wave goodbye at the window. Dad watches me as I walk up the footpath and ring the doorbell.

“Hello, Maisey,” I smile when Aria’s mum opens the door.

“Hi, Iris. The girls are in the rumpus,” Maisey tells me. I nod, turning and giving Dad one last wave from the door before entering. Dad beeps his horn as I enter the house, returning my goodbye.

I walk through the house and find the stairs leading to the rumpus. The rumpus is a large room underneath the main floor of the house, where Aria’s parents keep their pool table and bar. The laundry room is down here, with a shower and toilet. On the other side of the pool table is a small sofa in front of a TV, next to a ranch slider that leads to the backyard.

“She’s here! Yay!” Aria yells when she sees me. I laugh when she runs over and envelopes me in a tight hug.

“Aria, let her breathe!” Deja grins, coming over and hugging me once Aria lets go. Deja kisses me on the cheek in greeting.

“Hey, big sis,” I tease. Deja rolls her eyes; since being with my brother, Deja has become more than just my big sister; she’s also one of my good friends. Deja left her pack when she met Talon, and although she met plenty of she-wolves closer to her own age, she, much to my brother’s annoyance, became good friends with my group.

“Hi, Iris!” our friends Ellen, Jenny and Stacey greet.

“Hey!” I smile, running over to them and giving them each a hug. I sit down and join them as Ellen continues to show us her card tricks.

“And then a big storm came through the motel,” Ellen states, gathering the four stacks of cards and putting them in her hands. We watch as she shuffles them.

“In the morning, when everyone woke up… this happened,” Ellen says, putting the cards back down into four piles. We watch as all the queens, jokers, kings and aces end up in the same pile.

“Wow! That’s amazing!” Jenny cries when she sees it. I furrow my brow, having missed the beginning of the trick.

“Each one was in a different motel room,” Stacey says, trying to explain it to me.

“I think that deserves a drink,” Deja laughs, handing us a bottle of Wolf’s Mead each.

“This won’t do anything to me,” I pout. I haven’t got my wolf yet, so I don’t need my drinks mixed with Wolfsbane to suppress my healing power. In other words, I don’t need Wolfsbane to get drunk.

“Oh, it might… you’re turning eighteen in a couple of weeks….” Aria says.

“I got some draught beer as well,” Deja smiles.

“Okay, my turn, my trick,” Jenny says, taking the cards off Ellen. We watch as Jenny prepares her cards, asking us questions as she goes.

“Is this your card?” Jenny asks, pulling out the Ace of Spades.

“Yes! How did you work that out?” Aria asks, looking at Jenny, puzzled. Jenny laughs and tells us that a magician never reveals their secrets and plays another card trick with us.

“Now for my card trick,” Deja smiles, putting her hand out for the cards.

“This card trick is called Screw your neighbour. I shuffle the deck and hand you each a card. King is the highest card; ace is the lowest. The object is not to have the lowest card. We take turns either choosing to keep our card or passing it on, with the aim of keeping the highest card. Then, when we have swapped or kept our cards, we reveal our hand. The person with the lowest card drinks,” Deja explains.

“That’s not a card trick!” Ellen cries out.

“But it’s one I want to play,” I laugh. Everyone laughs with me, and we begin.

“Oh my goddess, you are so cheating!” Stacey yells, throwing her card down and taking another drink. We laugh.

“Hey, so has anyone ever heard of the story about the teacher who walked into her room one day after school and saw a small penis drawn on her whiteboard?” Aria asks. We shake our heads.

“Well, yeah, she goes and rubs it out and thinks nothing of it. But then, the next day, she walks into her room, and a slightly bigger penis is drawn on the board. The teacher rubs it out. Every day after school, the teacher walks in and sees a slightly bigger penis drawn on the board, and she rubs it out. After five days of this, she walks into the room, and instead of seeing a penis drawn on the board, a sentence is written there instead….” Aria says, looking at each of us.

“And…” Deja asks.

“The sentence reads… the more you rub it, the bigger it gets,” Aria finishes. We all crack up laughing.

“That is so lame!” I cry.

“Yeah, but you laughed!” Jenny states.

“I’ve been drinking!” I reply.

“I’ve got one for you. You hear about that girl in the Science Lab at Stonybrook High?” Deja asks.

“No…” I begin, narrowing my eyes.

“Well, this girl would often visit the science lab during class breaks to… you know… play with herself with a test tube?” Deja begins, looking at each of us, “Well, one day, she was sitting on the table, playing with a test tube, when a teacher walked in. She quickly crossed her legs, and the test tube broke inside her. She ended up in hospital having glass removed from her v-jay jay!”

My eyes widen at the story, and I gasp.

“That is just an urban myth! That didn’t really happen!” Ellen yells.

“Are you sure?” Deja asks teasingly.

“Okay, what about the story of the she-wolf who was rejected by her alpha mate?” Stacey asks.

“There are lots of stories about she-wolves being rejected by their alpha mates,” I say, taking a swig of my bottle of coke zero (I’m having a break from alcohol for the moment).

“Yeah, but this one is different,” Stacey begins, shuffling herself forward in our little circle.

“Hold on, I’m just going to the toilet!” Jenny yells, jumping up from the circle and running off.

“Arrgh!” Stacey yells, leaning back on her hands as we wait for her to return.

“I can hear you pee, you know!” Aria yells.

“Shut up!” Jenny yells back from the toilet. We giggle.

“Right, I’m back,” Jenny says, returning to our circle on the floor.

“Ready?” Stacey asks.

“Ready,” Jenny nods.

“Okay, so this she-wolf was an omega of her pack and not very popular. When she turned eighteen, she discovered her mate was her alpha….”

“And he rejected her, end of the story, boo hoo,” Ellen says quickly.

“No! Shut it!” Stacey cries, slapping Ellen’s knee.

“Sorry! It was funny!” Ellen laughs.

“Anyway. Anyway… he gets his pack together and rejects her publicly in front of them. But this rejection is not like any ordinary rejection, no. The alpha and his pack laugh at the she-wolf and walk off, unbeknown to them that the she-wolf dies from the rejection, not because she was weak, but because she had been strong for too long. But that’s not all. You see, this she-wolf had become friends with the Goddess of Fate before she was rejected. With the blessing of the Moon Goddess Selene, Fate cut the power of the pack, making the wolves who stood by their alpha sterile. So because the alpha rejected his true mate for his choice, his whole pack was punished never to reproduce, and the pack died out,” Stacey finishes smugly.

“Really? Where did you hear that?” Jenny asks.

“It’s not an urban myth; it’s true; it really happened,” Stacey says.

“Are you sure? Fate and our Goddess destroyed a whole pack because one she-wolf got rejected?” Ellen asks.

“It’s true. It did happen. Those wolves who didn’t agree with their alpha and didn’t bully the girl left the pack and joined other packs like ours,” I say.

“How do you know?” Jenny asks, looking at me.

“Because my grandfather was from that pack. He was friends with the she-wolf who was rejected. Her name was Sera,” I tell them.

“Really?” Deja asks. I nod.

“You’ve met my dad’s dad, right?” I ask Deja.

“Blake? Yeah…”

“Grandad came to Genesis Pack in his early twenties. He was from a pack called Clevedon Pack. That story is about his friendship with Sera and another girl called Moira, who happened to be the Goddess of Fate,” I add.

“Moira? Hmm. Moira means fate. The Moirae are the fates, the deity who assigns every person their destiny. It makes sense. What was her last name? Corinth?” Deja asks. I shake my head.

“No. She called herself Moira Corrin. Where does Corinth come from?”

“Corinth is the temple of fates. The ancient temple, anyway,” Deja says.

“Wow, your study of Ancient History is showing, Deja,” Stacey sing-songs.

“What do you think the moral of that story was?” Jenny asks, hugging her legs.

“To not reject your mate,” Ellen says.

“I think it’s more than that. I think it’s about the impact of your choices and their effects on others. I think it is part a warning to those who reject their mates, but also a warning for those who abuse their pack members, and for high blood wolves to treat their pack members respectfully.”

“And your grandad was from that pack?” Stacey asks. I nod.

“That is so cool,” Stacey says, my friends nodding in agreement.

“Well, I’m off to bed,” I sigh, getting up from the floor.

“Okay, goodnight,” my friends all say. I nod and walk over to the other side of the room, where I’ve laid out my sleeping bag and pillow. I crawl into my bag, turn over and face the wall. I close my eyes and listen to my friends happily chatter in the background as I fall asleep.

“Hey, Iris,” Aria says, waking me up.

“Hmm?” I ask, opening my eyes.

“I like that story Stacey told. It gives me hope that my mate won’t reject me,” she says. I nod.

“I know,” I agree.

~ Edited with Grammarly