Her Mates by Tamara White
Sixteen
Last night was amazing! Cam and I stayed awake talking for two hours before we finally fell asleep together. I didn’t intend for it to happen, but my wolf needed to comfort him. It was so calming just being near each other. When I woke up, I expected it to be awkward between us, but it was actually nice.
We went to breakfast together, and again, I thought someone would mention it, but everyone acted as if it was normal. That’s what worries me most, it’s so normal. Me having a boy in my bedroom, a boy I’ve only known for a few days, should have alarmed Dad. He doesn’t seem to care. In fact, he didn’t even mention Mitchell staying the night before. Maybe he’ll wait until I forget and bring it up just to torture me? It’s definitely something he would do.
I once borrowed his credit card to buy a dress for a dance at school. He never questioned where or how I got the money, so I thought I got away with it—until the night I came home from the dance. That was when he ambushed me, asking a million and one questions about the dress before I gave in, telling him everything.
There’s nothing I can do now though. I’m on my way to my grandparents’ room to be a dutiful granddaughter. I have to learn how to rule our people.
I’m about to take a right turn when Nate’s voice stops me. “Dani, do you know you’re going the wrong way?”
“Ah, crap! Seriously?” I ask, looking around and trying to get my bearings. I have no clue where I am, there aren’t exactly directions taped to the walls. Stupid huge mansion!
“Follow me.” He grins, taking a left instead, then another left, a right, and then another left. “Here you go.”
“Thanks, Nate, you’re a life saver,” I tell him, reaching up to give him a peck on the cheek. He blushes, touching his hand to his cheek before bolting down the hall.
Huh? Maybe that was too much for him? Oh well, I’ll ask him about it later. Right now, I need to gather what little courage I have.
I knock on the door, trying my hardest not to fidget. I’m nervous as hell, even if I’m excited to know more about my mother. Dad has already told me so much about her, but he was never around her while she was growing up. I want to know if she was like me, if we really did look so much alike, and why they never looked for us.
They had three years to find my mother before she died. They could have looked for Dad and me after Mom died, but he said they never did. It makes me wonder why they didn’t. Surely they wanted to see their daughter and granddaughter? If they had found me sooner, maybe they could have taught me more than I know now.
“Danielle, come on in,” Walter greets, opening the door for me.
Laura really has done a fantastic job with all these rooms. My grandparents are staying in a bright red room. It’s got some beautiful dark red and pale oranges scattered about the room with a lovely, deep red bed set. It’s pretty amazing and exactly what you would expect for royalty.
“Sorry I took so long. Nate had to drop me off to make sure I got here. This place is a bit bigger than I’m used to,” I tell him, explaining the reason I’m later than I meant to be. I’m grateful though, because my navigation skills are horrible.
“Oh, that’s no problem at all,” Monique assures me, waving off my apology. “I would usually chat for a while before jumping straight in, but we don’t have much time on our side and there’s so much we have to discuss. First, though, I have something I would like you to read. It’s a journal of sorts that’s been handed to each Alpha Queen once the trials start. All I want you to read now is the first entry. Once you’ve finished, we’ll discuss it all. Okay?” Monique requests, watching me for any signs that I’m going to run. She’s sitting poised in an armchair, as if she owns the room, and in a way, I guess she does.
Her pale blue pantsuit makes her look more like a lawyer than anything. After hearing her demands, it makes a whole lot more sense. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was a lawyer in the human world.
As much as I want to argue, I’m glad we aren’t messing around with small talk. I know it won’t go any better unless I do what they want.
“Yeah, I can do that,” I agree, forcing a polite smile on my face. I really don’t want to piss anyone off before getting answers.
“This journal has been passed down for generations. We each add something in after we’ve been through the coronation. It should give you some answers about us and your role in the future,” Monique explains, clutching an old, battered journal to her chest. It must be hundreds of years old. She reluctantly hands it over, and when I touch it, a zap of energy goes through my body.
“Whoa! What was that?”
Walter chuckles at my shock, and Monique just grins with a knowing look on her face.
“Read and you’ll find out,” Walter instructs, watching me as I turn the cover. His relaxed flannel shirt makes me feel at ease. He looks more easygoing than Monique does, who’s strictly all business.
My heart’s racing in excitement, but I can’t understand why I’d be so excited about a book. Even my wolf is pacing frantically in anticipation.
On the inside, elegant script scrawls across paper so decrepit, I’m afraid I’ll tear it if I touch it. I settle into the seat, folding my legs under me, and start to read.
For all of my descendants,
If you’re reading this, then you’re just as stubborn as I am and have started the trials. If my traditions have held, this will mean you have barely any idea what this entails or who we really are. Well, let me explain.
We weren’t always werewolves. A long, long time ago, I was a goddess, or what the humans called a witch.
We witches lived amongst the humans using our powers to heal. We could make lives last longer, plants grow, cure human viruses, and heal our own injuries. Unfortunately, like humans, there was a sect of our own that believed they were better than us, and they began using their powers to kill others of our kind, as well as any humans that stood in their way.
“We are gods, so why should we bow?” was their mantra. Sadly, it was one that many of our people found appealing. After all, why did we have these powers if not to rule?
We could heal, but we could also do many other things, like burn someone with our anger. Our powers were singular, based on our personalities. No witch had the same powers. It was why we were praised as gods and goddesses.
Many of our own were killed in a war to prevent the evil cult from hurting the humans and killing others of our kind. We came close to extinction due to their actions.
That’s where I come in. My mother and father knew we were dying out. They thought of a way that could end the fighting between us and those we called “dark souls.” They arranged a marriage between me and the son of the sect that would force a truce between our sides.
If we married, then the war would stop, and we would live in harmony again. The sect leader’s son, however, was pure evil. No matter how much I begged not to be near him, my parents forced the marriage.
Out of love for my people, I relented and became his wife. He enslaved me for years until he went over the edge of sanity, killing anyone who offended him in the slightest way. He was determined to rule the world, but at the rate he was going, there would be no world left to rule.
By this time, we had been married for fifteen years and had a ten-year-old daughter, Shira. She was my hope that our world would be united by her kind soul, but it wasn’t to be. Balin murdered our daughter, his own flesh and blood, because she protected someone weaker than her.
Shira was ten years old when she stood up to him. She tried to protect a human slave from being hurt, and Balin struck out using his powers to steal her life.
I pause when I read of her daughter dying. Killing a child, let alone your own flesh and blood, is so appalling! And how cruel is this Balin guy? I hope she flays his nuts! I look back at the page, noticing where her tears have stained the pages. She must have suffered so much pain losing her child.
When I saw my daughter’s lifeless body, a primal rage rose up inside me, and I let it free. I didn’t mean for what happened next to occur, but it did. My rage was so strong that when I let it loose, it cursed all of our people, Balin included. The human slave Shira protected shifted into a wild black wolf, killing Balin where he stood.
I tried as hard as I could to reverse it, but the curse I inflicted on us was irreversible. None of us had our powers any longer. We could only heal the smallest of wounds.
A year passed, and I got close to the human slave Shira risked her life for. It turned out he had been spending a lot of time with her since Balin refused to. His name was James, and he had been a better father than Balin ever was.
Years passed with us spending time together every day, dealing with the development of our wolf natures, when we started to feel something stronger. We fell in love, and not long after, we had children.
Surprisingly, we found more of our kind scattered around the world not long after our daughters’ third birthday. The others had also been hit by the curse I unleashed and survived by figuring it all out on their own. We banded together to keep our people alive and started a new hierarchy.
We lived together for many years until I felt death approaching. James knew I was close, and we decided to sit our girls down to decide who would rule. None of them were capable of choosing anyone but themselves to lead, so we had to come up with a new way to decide who would rule us. We couldn’t go by who was oldest, since they were triplets, which meant we had to develop a fairer way to determine the leader of our people.
Then, I had a dream. My mother appeared to me and told me of the trials. She said they were the key to the curse being broken. We were to explain the basics of the trials to them and let everyone choose who the elders of our people would be.
The trials happened and my daughter, Nora, won. She was the obvious choice and knew how to lead her people.
The night she took control of our people, I told her what my mother told me. A time would come when an Alpha Queen would meet soul mates as powerful as her. When that time came, the queen must choose the right mate. Only then would she be able to break the curse over our people.
Until that moment, the trials will help our people see how worthy the queen is to lead. It will also help our scattered society band together under one rule.
My mother knew a time would come when there was dissension between our alphas and the packs, which is when our new queen will rise. She will show the packs loyalty, respect, and above all, love.
If you’re reading this, you are a new Alpha Queen, ready to lead until the curse can be broken.
If you are the Alpha Queen with mates equal in power to your own, then it’s time. I wish you luck in saving our kind. I have sent James to you, I only hope he finds you before it’s too late.
All my love,
Malina
I stare down at the page in shock, not quite believing it. I don’t even know where to begin.
“Is this true? Are we cursed?” I ask Monique, waiting for some kind of explanation.
“According to this journal, yes. Now that you know our beginning, I want you to read the rest of the entries. Over time, each queen has added their own. Hopefully, it will help you understand us more. I’m sorry, but your mother only has one brief entry. She would have written more if she stayed around. I do, however, have a letter for you from her. She sent it the day before she died.”
My heart stops. I’m not ashamed to say tears build up in my eyes at the thought. My mother and I never got to know each other, and now Monique is telling me she left me a letter? Words can’t even begin to describe the emotions I’m feeling.
“Shit, Monny, make her stop crying. You know I can’t deal with that,” Walter implores awkwardly.
Laughing, I gasp out, “Monny?”
He winks my way, making me appreciate that he said it just to distract me from getting emotional.
“Sorry, love, I guess I didn’t realize how that would make you feel. Why don’t you take this and the journal with you? Read through them, then when you’ve had some time and are ready to talk, we can. I added in some photos of your mom so you can have a look through them. I have more, but these ones were important to me,” Monique offers, handing me an envelope stuffed with papers and pictures.
I hesitate at first, wondering if they just wanted me here for this. Why else would they let me leave so soon? Should I stay? I don’t really want to, preferring to go and read my mother’s letter. I promise myself to make sure I come back, but for now I want to look through it all.
“Thank you,” I reply, hugging Monique and Walter before leaving the room. It’s slightly awkward, but it means a lot that they did this for me.
I have some time before I’m meeting the guys, so I’ll make the most of it. Practically running back to my room, I don’t even realize I made it without getting lost before I close the door behind me, locking it to ensure no one disturbs me.
Safely nestled in my bed, I tip the envelope’s contents into my lap, smiling softly at the photos Monique included.
There are five photos in total, and they seem to be from different stages in my mom’s life. A baby photo is on the top. Mom must be five or six months old. She’s so beautiful, all chubby with ginger fluff for hair. Her eyes aren’t the same green from the photos Dad showed me, but more of a pale green like mine are now.
The next two photos are sometime during her childhood. In one, she’s covered in mud, grinning widely as the person takes the picture. In the other, she’s wearing a bright pink dress with a grimace on her face. Guess she didn’t like dresses either. It makes me smile knowing my mother and I may not have been so different after all.
The next photo shows my mother roughly around my age. It shocks me just how similar we really do look. She’s posing in a family picture with Walter and Monique. She seems so happy.
In the last photo, she’s dressed up in an evening gown, surrounded by four guys. They must be her mates. I see Tim and my dad as well as two others. She looks happy with Tim and my father standing on either side of her, but the other two don’t seem as pleased. The one on Tim’s side appears more nervous than anything. The guy beside my dad, though, looks pissed. I’m guessing that’s Luke.
There’s some slight resemblance between him and Cam, but this guy has some serious anger issues.
Putting all the photos to the side, I try to gather the courage to read my mother’s letter.
When I open the pages, I’m unprepared for the scent of jasmine that hits me. I’ve smelled this scent multiple times when Dad pulls out stuff that used to belong to her from our closets. It makes my eyes water knowing she wrote this just for me.
My dearest Danielle,
If you’re reading this, it means I’m no longer with you. I hope for your sake your father survives, but if he doesn’t, I want you to know we love you.
This may seem strange, and I bet you’re wondering how I knew of my death, but that requires a little explanation. I’m hoping by now you would have read the journal or at least started to. If you have, you will know what this is all about. If you haven’t gotten to it yet, you should read it before reading this letter, otherwise most of what I say won’t make much sense.
When I was pregnant with you, I sought out a seer to tell me what to expect from your birth. A seer is one of us who hasn’t developed the wolf gene, which gives them some of the power we had before being cursed. They have a separate entity inside their mind, and they can go insane without shifting. Most of them are born to two strong wolves and are usually human in appearance and scent. If you haven’t started the trials yet, don’t fear, you’re not a seer. I thought you were the day you were born because you smelled human, but you’re not. Of that I’m sure. You may develop similar traits based on our heritage, though that will be it.
As you get further in the journal, you’ll see that each of our descendants’ powers gets stronger the further we get in our bloodline. I’m writing this on the day of my death, and I know this because I had a vision. Well, your father thinks it was a dream, but I know what it was. The original Alpha Queen came to me. She wanted me to tell your father not to take you back until you were ready. We already knew this from what the seer told us, but Malina confirmed you will be the one destined to fix our race, though you’ll have a big decision to make. It will be up to you to decide if the curse of our race needs to be corrected. The mate you choose will help you make that decision.
As much as I want to have all the answers for you, I don’t. I just pray that you find the answers you need.
Knowing this is my last day with you breaks my heart. You deserve to grow up being loved by both your father and me, so I can only hope that Luke gets what he wants with my death. I love you and your father more than I can tell you. If Gregory makes it, please take care of him. He’s all you have left besides your grandparents.
The day you meet my parents, I hope they have softened and forgiven me for my choices, but it was stay and risk dying, or hide away until we could come back.
I have one last parting piece of advice—don’t push away any mates who come forward. I was so scared of more than one person caring for me that I tried as hard as I could to distance myself from each of them, which meant I didn’t get to truly know them until the trials were almost over. If things had been different, I would have chosen Tim, Brendan, and your father. They were all kind souls who cared about me, and sometimes I wish I had made the right choice. Maybe then, they could have all protected us from Luke and his deranged ways.
Your father is home now, so I’m sorry to cut this short. There’s so much I wish to tell you, but so little time. I only hope that I have made your life a little easier with this knowledge, even if it’s slightly vague.
Be strong, Dani.
I love you so much,
Mom
Why is everyone leaving me cryptic freaking messages? I’m glad she wrote me a letter, but now I’m stuck with more questions that can’t be answered. Especially with Laura hinting about me picking more than one mate, but my mother made it clear I can only choose one, while at the same time telling me she wishes she chose three. How confusing is that?
I get that the curse can be considered both a curse and a blessing. On one hand, it would be a curse for those who remembered the way of life before we were wolves, but no one really knows that except for the people who’ve read the journal.
My thoughts are that having a wolf, even though I haven’t connected to mine yet, is a blessing. You’re stronger, live longer, and can heal. You also get a lifelong connection to your soul, plus a mate who is destined to be a part of your life. There are so many things I would deem as positive as a wolf, I just feel bad being the one responsible for the decision. It’s a major choice to make. How can I make that choice for a whole species?
Sighing, I stuff all the photos, the letter, and the journal into my bedside drawer. I’ll think about this later. Right now, I have a date with the boys.
