Ephemeral Mates

Zara

I was a mess inside, but when I glanced at Alex, sitting right next to me, I could see he was in pieces. It was as if his heart had hardened into stone and then crumbled into dust.

He was crushed. I wanted to comfort him, but I didn’t know how.

Jax had been our Alpha for so long. What would happen to our pack without our brave leader?

I didn’t know what to say to Alex, so I just reached out and gently touched his back.

I could feel the ridges of his spine. The rise and fall of his ribcage. His heartbeat, quick and uneven.

But as I continued to stroke his back with my open hand, the tension began to ease, and his heart rate started to slow.

After a few quiet minutes, he lifted his head from his hands and looked at me.

The corners of his mouth twitched up in a feeble, sad attempt at a smile. “Thank you,” he said.

Quinn’s cry of pain echoed again. It sounded like her throat might tear if she kept screaming like that.

I covered my ears. I couldn’t bear the sound anymore.

I wanted to move, but we had to guard the door in case she tried to do something reckless.

And then I felt Alex’s hand on my back, rubbing it in gentle, slow circles. His touch left a trail of a tingling, warm sensation. With his hand on my back, I felt secure in this chaotic world.

But I didn’t just feel safe. I was certain I felt something more.

~A spark.~

~Could it be?~

~Could we be mates?~

~I had waited my whole life for this feeling.~

~Oh my Goddess!~

The intensity of my grief over losing Harper and Jax was acting like a dam, blocking the flood of emotions that would normally be overwhelming me in this moment of finding my mate.

Alex wrapped his arm around me and pulled me into his chest, and the feeling of the spark intensified.

~But no.~

~I must be imagining it—just searching for a ray of hope in these dark, painful times.~

~Don’t be foolish, Zara.~

Alex

I pulled Zara closer. Her breath was warm on my chest.

Occasional tears fell from her eyes and slid down onto my stomach. When I felt these drops of her sorrow, I pulled her in closer.

It hurt me to see her cry.

She was feeling the pain of the loss of Jax and Harper and I—well—

~What was I feeling?~

I was feeling something—something I'd never felt before.

As I held Zara in my arms, I thought I might be feeling a spark of the mating bond. The feeling I'd heard about my whole life, but had never experienced myself.

I wasn’t sure if what I was feeling was real, or just a hysterical reaction to a day filled with tragedy.

But the feeling was growing stronger and stronger. Powerful, pure, and perfect!

If I didn’t say something about it, I would regret it for the rest of my life.

And if this day had taught me anything, it was that life is a fragile thing.

Before I said anything to her about it, there was one thing I needed to try. One action that would confirm our matehood once and for all.

Yes, we had kissed before, but only in a foolish drunken stupor.

I thought that maybe, if I kissed her now, I could get the answer that I desperately needed.

I took Zara’s chin in my hand. Another perfect tear fell from her eye, to the top of her lip, to my hand.

“Do you mind if I—?” I started, my voice shaking as much as her lips. “Can I kiss you?” I finally asked.

She closed her eyes, letting out another tear. And then she nodded her head into the hand that was still caressing her.

I leaned in closer and rested my lips on her left eyelid. And then her right one. She leaned further into my touch, and I brought her chin up to meet mine.

I kissed her, gently at first. But as the kiss deepened, so did the spark. By the time I pressed her body against mine and slipped my tongue into her mouth, I was sure.

Her eyes flew open as she kissed me. She must have been feeling it too.

~This is it.~

~This is really it!~

~The moment I've been waiting for.~

I'd found my mate. Better yet, she had been with me all along.

My heart rose like a phoenix from the ashes of this dark day.

With my lips to hers, I couldn’t help myself. I started to laugh.

I didn’t know why.

Maybe it was relief.

Maybe it was joy.

Maybe it was the absurdity of the happiest day of my life and the worst day of my life being one and the same.

All I knew was that once I started laughing, I couldn’t stop, and neither could she. We collapsed into each other, savoring this brief respite before the laughter would inevitably turn back into tears.

Quinn

~Pain.~

~Burning, agonizing, blinding pain.~

~Like breaking all your bones at once while someone prods at your heart with a burning iron.~

It was unique in its all-consuming, life-altering brutality.

I needed it to stop. But more than anything, I needed to start the time loop over.

If I could do that, I could end my misery, save Jax’s life, and figure out the power of that moonstone once and for all.

Zara and Alex, my closest friends, were my biggest obstacles right now.

They didn’t believe me when I’d said that the space-time continuum had been warped.

I guess I couldn’t blame them.

All my talk of the time-loop probably sounded like the ramblings of a heartbroken woman.

But I knew the truth—whether they believed me or not.

And so I needed to find a way to knock myself unconscious—or even die. I needed to die so that I could live again.

And if Zara and Alex weren’t going to let me out of these shackles, I needed to free myself.

Try as I might, I couldn't slip out of my restraints. I was trapped.

However, there was one thing they did not take into consideration.

~I’m no ordinary werewolf.~

~I’m a descendant of the Moon Goddess, too.~

If I could just tap into my powers, I could break these chains without the guards even noticing.

But the pain was a distraction. It was hard to focus, and without focus, magic was pretty much useless.

I needed to find my center. To step outside of my body for a moment and think about something that made me happy.

~Jax.~

Not the Jax who was torn apart in front of me, but the Jax I was going to see again, alive and well.

I let my mind wander to the joy and relief I’d feel when I saw him next.

Thinking about his face lighting up when he saw me, the pain started to fade a bit.

Remembering the warmth of his skin, it faded even more.

My mind cleared, one happy memory at a time.

I looked at the chains on my wrists. I might not be a fully trained demi-God, but this should be a simple spell.

The pain started to creep back in, but I pushed it away with my strongest memory.

~The moment Jax marked me.~

~The complete opposite of what I was feeling now.~

~Pure, unadulterated bliss.~

And just like that, I looked at my chains, and they fell off.

I jumped up from the bed.

The chains hitting the floor made more noise than I expected, and I was worried that Zara and Alex would come running.

But they didn’t.

Instead, I heard something I didn’t expect from the other side of the door:

Laughter.

~What?~

I tiptoed to the door and peeked through the keyhole.

Sure enough, Zara and Alex were laughing and kissing.

“You’re my mate,” I heard Zara say. “How did I not see it before?”

Alex shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said, “but I’m yours.” He kissed her again.

My heart swelled with happiness.

They were mates.

I had a hunch about these two, and sure enough, time had proven me right.

But then a sharp pang of sadness hit me.

When the time loop reset, they wouldn’t remember this beautiful moment.

And they might never find it again.

I decided then and there to remind them—to push them towards this discovery—if they didn’t find it on their own.

After giving them a few more moments of blissful kisses, I quietly moved towards the window on the other side of the room and pushed it open.

I climbed onto the sill and looked down at the drop below.

And then, after one last deep breath, I jumped.