Rekindled

Jaxon

“What on earth are you doing here?”

My bare chest was rising and falling rapidly as I yelled at Katherine, who was casually swinging her leg from the windowsill.

She let out a giggle. “Didn’t mean to scare you. I just come here to watch the stars when I can’t sleep. This room has the best view of the canyon. I didn’t know you’d be sleeping here tonight.”

“Have you seen Quinn?” I asked, my voice laced with worry.

“Your mate? She must be somewhere around. This place is big, easy to get lost. But don’t worry, she’s definitely safe.”

“Safe?” I blurted out, “We’re literally sleeping in the enemy’s beds! How can I believe she’s safe here?”

“You keep forgetting, she’s Alpha Jodie’s niece. There’s no way she’d let anything happen to her own.”

“Alpha Jodie? Alpha my ass! She’s just a leader of a bunch of bloodthirsty rebels. My father spent his whole life trying to wipe them out. Quinn doesn’t know what they’re capable of like I do!”

Katherine slid off the windowsill and walked towards me, her silky nightgown shimmering in the moonlight.

She looked otherworldly. Like a beautiful ghost.

And to me, she still felt like one.

It was hard to believe she was here, alive, after all these years.

“These ‘rebels’ can’t be all bad, can they?” she asked. “After all, they’re the reason I’m standing here today. The reason I’m alive!”

“But they're also the reason you died.”

She took my hand and gave me a tender smile.

I felt my panic start to fade.

“Every day after you died,” I continued, “I wished death would take me. I prayed that the Moon Goddess would take me in my sleep. That I would wake up in the Empyrean with you by my side.”

We walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge.

“I know how hard that must have been for you,” Katherine sighed, “it’s one kind of hell to miss someone after they’ve died. But living with the knowledge that the person you love most thinks you’re dead without any way to contact them, that’s another kind of torment.”

“Then why didn’t you come home, Katherine?” I asked. “Did you want to be a part of Vulpes? Was Shadow Moon so terrible that you couldn’t bear to come home? Why didn’t you even call to tell me you were alive and well?”

A heavy sadness settled on her shoulders. “I wanted to. Every day. But just as the rogues were an enemy of your pack, you were an enemy of theirs. I couldn’t do anything that would’ve given away where I was.”

“Did you ever try to escape? You were a skilled warrior, Katherine. And you had a brilliant military mind. I have no doubt that you could have easily planned your way out of here.”

“It’s not that I couldn’t. I just…didn’t want to.”

I felt my heart twist painfully.

These were words that my heart, even after all these years, couldn’t bear to hear.

“Didn’t want to?” I asked, my voice choked with a mix of sadness, hurt, and anger. “What could these monsters have done or given you that I didn’t? They couldn’t have loved you as I did.”

“No,” she leaned her head against my shoulder. My heart pounded faster. “But they did love me in a different way. In a way the Shadow Moon pack never did.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused.

“Even as your wife, the wolves in Shadow Moon resented me for being born in a different pack. You remember all the rumors they spread about us. Even about you?”

I had to admit, I had forgotten how poorly my pack had treated Katherine after our marriage.

When you remember lost loves, you tend to forget the unpleasant parts of the past.

Katherine was the first Luna of Shadow Moon not born from one of our own.

And if there was one thing werewolves were bad at, it was change.

Tradition, in the eyes of werewolves, was equivalent to survival.

For hundreds of generations, the rules and beliefs from our ancient past were seen as the only way to survive in a world ruled by prejudiced humans.

Those who broke these rules were seen as traitors to our kind.

When I married Katherine, some of the elders in the pack had even petitioned for our divorce. Many called for my removal, calling our marriage an act of betrayal.

It wasn’t one of my proudest moments as Alpha, especially when the pack started calling me a disgrace to my father.

But I overcame it, and led as I saw fit. Eventually, after proving her skills as a military leader, the pack even accepted Katherine.

“It was wrong how the pack treated you. But you know how it is with werewolf politics. Change creates friction. Friction starts a fire. Fire burns away the old so the new can grow.”

“But that’s just it, Jax!” she exclaimed. “With the rogues, there are never any fires. At least not internally. It doesn’t matter what pack you’re from, who your mate is, or what you’re good at. The rules bend to fit you, not the other way around! Now tell me, would you honestly choose to leave that?”

I thought about her question quietly for a moment.

“Probably not. Until someone bent the rules the wrong way, anyways.”

“I find when people are given the freedoms they deserve, they tend to use them for good, not evil.”

“Oh, Katherine,” I sighed, “you always were the idealist.”

“And you loved me for it.”

“Yes… Yes, I did.”

“And now?” She lifted her gaze to meet mine, her eyes a vibrant, electrifying green. They held the same warmth they did the first time I saw her.

“Katherine,” I hesitated, my words hanging in the air, “I… I never stopped loving you.”

Quinn

I had a thing for hot chocolate.

Ever since I was a kid, it was my go-to comfort drink.

While others might reach for a stiff drink to drown their sorrows, I always found solace in a mug of hot cocoa.

And tonight, I needed it more than ever.

Luckily, my aunt remembered my little quirk and made me a steaming mug.

We navigated the winding hallways of Fort Vulpes, heading back to my room. The sweet, warm liquid slid down my throat, soothing the rawness from crying.

The tears had stopped, but my heart was still reeling from the revelation my aunt had just dropped. No amount of hot chocolate could extinguish the turmoil inside me.

“You’re awfully quiet, Q. What’s on your mind?” she asked softly, trying to coax me out of my thoughts.

“I… I’m still trying to make sense of it all. How could no one have told me? Someone in Shadow Moon Pack must have known.”

Aunt Jodie wrapped her arm around me. “Well, it happened a long time ago, sweetheart. And they’ve taken down so many members of Vulpes since then.”

“I get that. But they set a trap for my dad. The Alpha himself was involved! Why was my dad so important? He wasn’t some rebel leader. He was a defector.”

My aunt chuckled, “You’re a sharp one, Quinn. You don’t miss a thing. Except, of course, what you couldn’t possibly know.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, a knot of dread forming in my stomach.

“Your father is descended from the bloodline of the Moon Goddess. As am I. As are you. With such divine lineage comes certain… powers. Powers that other wolves could only dream of. Powers that, in the wrong hands, could be devastating.”

“What kind of powers?” I asked, my curiosity piqued. “Like...magic? Like a witch or something?”

My aunt laughed heartily, “This ability goes beyond any parlor tricks a garden-variety witch can perform. It’s much more powerful.”

“Then if I have it, why haven’t I felt it?” I asked, intrigued by this new revelation.

“It’s not something that just flows through you. You have to channel it. It requires immense discipline and concentration. But I bet a smart girl like you could master it faster than most. Your father certainly did. That’s why Alpha Galahad wanted him out of the way.”

“Could… Could you teach me?”

My aunt seemed to consider the question as we reached my room.

“I’d be more than happy to! But it would mean you’d have to stay here for a while. This isn’t something you can learn overnight.”

I thought about her offer.

As much as I wanted to say yes right away, I couldn’t forget that I was still the Luna of a pack.

And even though I was feeling conflicted about that role right now, it wasn’t good for a Luna and her Alpha to be away from their pack for too long. Especially considering the state Jax and I had left it in.

But I couldn’t let this opportunity slip away just because of protocol.

“I’ll… sleep on it.”

Aunt Jodie smiled.

“That sounds like a plan, sweetheart. We can talk more about it over lunch tomorrow,” she yawned. “Actually, let’s make it lunch.”

We shared a laugh, and she kissed me on the cheek.

After she left, I reached for the doorknob.

But it turned in my hand.

The door swung open.

There stood Katherine in a tasteful, yet revealing nightgown.

And behind her on the bed was Jax. IN HIS DAMN BOXERS!

“Oh! Excuse me,” Katherine giggled as she brushed past me, a sly smile playing on her lips.

Jaxon stood up, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

“I… I… This isn’t what it looks like,” he stammered.

In a different mood, I might have picked a fight with him.

But with everything that was going on, I didn’t have the energy to make a scene.

Besides, catching him with his ex wasn’t exactly the biggest shock of the night.

It actually ranked third on the list.

Without a word, I walked into the room, placed my empty cocoa mug on the dresser, and flopped onto the bed.

Within minutes, I was fast asleep.

Escaping from a world of heartache.