Chapter 10 Fate's Cruel Joke
Lya's POV
I carefully folded the letter, sealing it with a small drop of wax from the candle I'd brought. As I prepared to burn it, Kate's voice interrupted my thoughts through our mind-link.
Your letter sounds a bit unhinged, she commented, her tone concerned. What happened to the strong woman who spent years telling herself that Airina's death wasn't her fault?
I sighed, staring at the sealed paper in my hands. "It's easy to tell yourself you're innocent when you're far away and don't have to face the consequences," I replied quietly. "But when everyone around you is crying and miserable, it's harder to believe you had nothing to do with it. Especially after seeing my father last night."
That doesn't make anything your fault, Kate argued firmly.
I hesitated, then revealed the secret I'd been carrying. "Kate, the day before Airina died, I prayed to the Moon Goddess to stop her from hurting me anymore."
She wasn't hurting you, Lya. She was torturing you. There's nothing wrong with praying for that to stop.
"There is if it cost Airina her life," I insisted, my voice catching as I ran my thumb over the sealed edge of the letter.
Lya, you're not giving the Moon Goddess enough credit. You're smarter than this, stronger than this. You need to stop this emotional purging and— Kate suddenly stopped talking through our link, pacing back and forth in my mind with frantic energy.
A powerful scent of pine and winter cedar assaulted my nose, so strong it made me momentarily dizzy.
Mate! Lya, our mate is here! Mate, mate, mate, mate, MATE!!! Kate howled excitedly in my head, her voice reaching a fever pitch of excitement I'd never heard before.
I stood up quickly, brushing the ashes off my jeans, and turned around. My heart sank like a stone as I recognized the werewolf standing about two hundred feet away.
This has to be a joke. This can't be happening.
"Kate, please tell me this is a joke," I whispered through our link, my voice barely audible even to myself.
I can't. It's real. He's our mate, she replied softly, her tone reverent and certain.
"How?" I hissed, panic rising in my chest. "How is this possible? This makes absolutely no sense!"
You did ask the Moon Goddess to give him a new mate, Kate reminded me, her mental voice tinged with amusement.
"I didn't mean ME!!!" I protested, my internal voice rising to a shout. "I meant someone he could be happy with, someone he could love!"
He looks pretty happy about it, Kate observed, her attention shifting to the approaching figure.
I'd been so shocked by my own emotions that I hadn't initially registered Damian's reaction. Now, as Kate pointed it out, I realized Damian had moved much closer. I was stunned to see that he looked... ecstatic. His amber eyes were filled with wonder, admiration, and... love? The expression was so foreign on his face—at least when directed at me—that I almost didn't recognize it.
"Kate, how is this possible?" I whispered, feeling dizzy with confusion. "Damian hates me. He loved my sister. How can he possibly be our mate? And how can he possibly be happy about it?"
The mate bond is very powerful, Lya, Kate answered simply, as if that explained everything.
Despite how much I hated Damian for everything he'd done to me over the past two years, I felt a powerful, almost suffocating pull toward him. I couldn't help noticing how handsome he was with his slightly too-long golden-brown hair, strong jawline, and captivating amber eyes. Every cell in my body yearned to be closer to him, to touch him, to breathe in more of his intoxicating scent.
"Okay, I get that the mate bond is powerful..." I tried to clear my head, fighting against the magnetic attraction. "But why me? Why is Damian our mate? Why would the Moon Goddess do this? He was supposed to be Airina's mate."
He's ours, Kate declared possessively, her tone brooking no argument. Not Airina's. He's ours. You and I both never felt right about Airina being described as his mate and future Luna. This must be why.
I tried to process Kate's words, but my mind was spinning with questions. How could I possibly be mated to the man everyone believed was my sister's mate, who had loved and mourned her for two years, who had spread rumors about me and caused me to be tortured and ostracized? The same man who had made my life a living hell, who had looked at me with nothing but contempt and hatred?
As Damian came even closer—now only twenty feet away—his scent and the mate bond overwhelmed my logical thinking. I felt almost drugged, my heart racing, my body heating, craving his embrace. The pull was primal and overwhelming, unlike anything I'd ever experienced before.
I tried once more to remind myself this was wrong, that it shouldn't be happening, but my brain suddenly flooded with memories of Damian I'd long forgotten. Memories from before Airina's death, before everything went to hell.
Damian at fourteen, helping me climb a tree when I was twelve, his hands steady and sure as he guided me to the highest branches.
Damian at fifteen, defending me from some older pack kids who had been teasing me about my strange eye color, growling at them until they backed off.
Damian at sixteen, smiling at me across the dinner table during one of those rare family gatherings where Victoria had been forced to include me.
These memories had been buried under years of pain and resentment, but now they surfaced with crystal clarity, as if the mate bond was peeling back layers of hurt to remind me of who he had once been to me.
But these glimpses of kindness couldn't erase the years of torment that followed. The rumors he'd spread. The way he'd turned the entire pack against me. The cold hatred in his eyes whenever he looked at me after Airina died.
How could the Moon Goddess be so cruel? How could she mate me to the one person who had made it his mission to destroy me? And how could he suddenly look at me with such joy and longing, as if the past two years had never happened?
As the distance between us continued to close, I felt my breathing become shallow. The letter I'd been about to burn was still clutched in my hand, forgotten as the world narrowed to just Damian and the impossible bond between us.