Eleven

eleven

POV – Unknown…

“Arrgh!” I cry out, my head hurting as the siren blares from my radio.

“Babe, what was that?” Gavin, or is it Travis? Asks as he leans up, my white silk sheets sliding down his toned back muscles.

“Nothing. Nothing for you to worry about,” I tell him, kissing his lips. Blinking my eyes, the siren stops blaring, and I sigh. I want to lay back down and sleep; my early morning activities tiring me out, but I have to sort this mess out.

Gavin, or Travis, watches me as I slide out of bed and walk over to my dresser, where I find a clean t-shirt and panties to put on.

I look at the man as he watches me, his eyes hooded with lust. I grab my satin dressing gown and wrap it around me before shoving my feet into my soft slippers.

“I’ll be a while,” I tell him as I lean over and kiss his lips. He nods, hopefully understanding that I want him to go.

I walk through the bathroom door and lock it behind me, turn the shower on full blast and then turn to touch the wall, where a door opens up to Corinth. Truth be told, I can open a portal anywhere in my house, but I don’t want to freak out the human lying blissfully unaware in my bed.

The hallway I enter is lit with a strobing red light synchronised with the alarm, which roars throughout the floor. I shake my head. This is happening more frequently than I would like, and I’m missing my morning after sex already.

“Red Alert off,” I say out loud. My voice is recognised by the mainframe, and the light and siren switch off, followed by an audible sigh by the people who work with me on the floor.

“Moira! Thank goodness you’re here!” Daphne cries, running over to me. She stops when she sees what I am wearing.

“Uh, where were you? Or do I not want to know?” she asks, scanning my attire.

“You don’t want to know,” I grin. The siren goes off again, and a red light blinks on and off, casting red colour against the marble walls of our building.

“Oh, dear! It happened again!” Daphne cries, burying her face in her hands.

“Red Alert Off!” I growl, rolling my eyes at the girl. Daphne is a weaver, she spins the thread of destiny, and she’s the fifth weaver I’ve had since I became Fate. Daphne was human; as such, she’s more emotional than my other two fates, Krystal and Nora.

“Take me to the thread room,” I tell Daphne, who nods sulkily.

Corinth is the temple with which Fate Headquarters are. I would say that our temple is the most important in the world of the gods, but as the one in charge, you can’t take my word for it. The temple looks like a white disk-shaped cylinder, several stories high, with windows covering the curved walls. Of course, we have a main entrance and many doors opening into the building, but most of the fay that work in this building use portals like I do to enter and exit.

Being disc-shaped, it is surprising how many rooms are held inside. It is four floors high, with spaces for weavers, alotters and cutters, and the fairies that work for us. There is a large Eatery, where we provide food for all our workers and a kitchen, bathrooms and relaxing rooms.

The ‘Room of Trees’ is the largest of our rooms in the building. It holds all the threads ever produced; every soul’s destiny and tree are housed here. I walk over to the wall and place my hand on it. The wall becomes transparent, and billions of glowing white threads can be seen in a web of confusing coils, bunches and knots. Threads that join each other and then part, linking their soul’s journey in their lifetimes.

“How long this time?” I ask. Trees are breaking, and some… dying. I zoom in on one of the trees closest to us, where several threads joined together that were once thick have become thin. On one branch, the bound threads that were meant to be together for their lifetime have broken completely.

Of course, we Fates allow souls to create their own path in the life given to them, but we are always watching, steering souls towards their destiny. But the threads I see before me, that of the future, are in danger. Pathways are ending because of the souls’ choices, and some are becoming beyond repair.

“A while now. Yeah, we’d match people’s threads, and some made their own choices, but it’s becoming more frequent. I can’t produce enough thread to tie the broken strings up with someone from their tree,” Daphne complains. I nod.

Each soul has a tree, a tree of lives. Think of it this way, your soul is like a tree, and every branch represents a past life and all the souls you met in that life. And each branch has a thread to those souls, linking you to them. In your current life or branch, you are connected to the lives you’ve met in the past and the new souls you will meet in this life. So, people in your current life are likely someone your soul knows from a previous life. Your partner could have been your child in an earlier life; your child could have been your sister. That is why there are backups when things don’t work out with your life partner. For example, with supernatural beings, those who lose their mates have chances of second-chance mates from their tree.

“It’s okay,” I tell Daphne. She knows this, but it’s still sad. We work so hard to weave people’s destinies, to give them shots of happy lives. And when their string breaks and is beyond repair, it is heartbreaking. Sometimes souls disappear entirely, or they wait centuries before being given another chance.

“I had to thread a soul to their brother from two lives ago just to keep their soul active once they were rejected. I almost lost that one,” Daphne sighs. I place my hand on her arm to comfort her.

“How did Nora feel about that?” I ask. Nora is my inflexible fate. She cuts the threads of people’s lives.

“She shrugged. She’s been so busy lately, as she always is. It makes her moody, you know?”

I nod my head. I do know. Nora was a vampire in her previous life… before she ascended and became a fate. She is always solemn. Being a vampire was not something she was born into but had been thrust onto her. It was never her choice, and her life was choiceless because of becoming a vampire. She is the perfect cutter.

“She’s not entirely truthful there,” Nora says, walking up to my right side. I look at my fate. Like all vampires of her era, she has pale, almost paper-white skin. Her current expression is one of woe. I knew her life, having an invested interest in it, when my previous cutter decided she wanted to be recycled into the system.

“The issue is with the supernatural beings. They’re dying quicker than Daphne and her team can spin their threads. Krystal is trying hard to reweave the threads, but….”

“It’s not enough,” I finish.

“Yeah. It’s not enough.” Nora agrees.

We stand there, watching the trees through the window, the weavers and allotters wandering around them and working.

“I want to show you something,” Nora says, placing her hand on the wall. The view disappears, and a new cluster of trees appears before us.

“Shit,” I say when I see what Nora has shown me.

“I know. Krystal has said it could go the other way, but….”

“But it looks like it won’t,” I state.

“Yeah,” Nora agrees.

“Which group?” I ask. Not that it matters. If this has been destined, the only thing that can change it is those involved.

“Werewolf.”

“Fuck,” I whisper. As I said before, we are so dedicated in our roles that just seeing one tree break is devastating, but this, this is bad.

“You could change it,” Nora reminds me. I nod. I could change it. Usually, werewolves are matched with soulmates that equalise them, but sometimes I set up mates long into the future to prevent catastrophes like this.

“I should talk to my sister,” I murmur.

“You should,” Nora agrees.

I walk away from the wall and know Daphne and Nora are following me.

“Are you alright?” Daphne asks.

“I think so. This, though? This is bad. Do we know why it’s happening?” I ask. I haven’t been that neglectful of my duties, have I? I try hard to weave souls’ destinies into how they’re meant to go. Could this be my fault?

“Krystal might know, but she’s so busy, too,” Daphne says. I nod. Shit, there’s no getting out of this, is there?

I stop and raise my hand, a pink portal appearing before me.

“I’ll talk to you both later,” I say, nodding to my girls as I step through the portal.

The portal winks shut behind me, and I’m transported to a beach with black sand and a range of females sunbathing on deckchairs. I know I am on Terra Edo, the werewolf planet, from the scenery before me. Of course, I am. Luna is never far away from her children.

I see my sister lying down on a deck chair, wearing nothing but a bikini and brown sunglasses. If only the other wolves here knew whom they were sharing the beach with.

I walk over and stand in the sun, casting a shadow across her body. She raises her glasses and looks at me, her sapphire blue eyes adjusting to the change in light.

“Hey, big sis,” Luna says, sitting up and pulling on a kaftan lying next to her.

“Hey. Enjoying yourself much?” I ask. As much as I wish my life was as low-key as hers, I don’t envy her. She lost her first love. Jealousy sucks.

Luna shrugs and raises her hand. A young werewolf runs over with two tall drinks. The liquid inside is clear, except for the slices of lime and lemon sitting in each one.

“Cocktail?” Luna asks me, handing me a glass. I scowl but take the drink from her hand. Alcohol doesn’t affect us in standard forms, but it tastes nice.

“Luna, we need to talk,” I say. She sighs, tucking a strand of black hair behind her ears.

“I know. I know. I tried Moy. But they don’t understand.”

“Miss, would you like a seat?” a voice behind me says. I turn and see a handsome werewolf looking at me. He’s wearing sunnies and boardshorts, his tanned muscly chest glistening in the sun. One thing my sister did get right when she fixed her curse was to make her children sexy as fuck good-looking.

“Chair?” the werewolf asks again, smiling as he notices me checking him out. In his hand is a deckchair. I can’t help but grin.

“Why thank you, kind sir,” I say. I watch as he sets the deckchair on the ground, adjusting the backrest for me. As he works, he bends over, revealing the tight muscles of his glutes. I turn to my sister and mouth, ‘Wow,’ which makes her chuckle.

“If you need me for anything else…” the wolf says, winking at me.

“I certainly will ask for you,” I tell him. He smiles again, turning around and leaving us. I sit sideways on the deckchair, kneeling and giving my sister a look.

“Finish the drink, then we’ll go back to mine,” Luna says. I nod.

Luna’s place is in the woods. No surprises there. It’s a two-story log house with a large, covered deck to the left of the building. The walls are all wood-panelled, and the open kitchen living area sits underneath exposed beams. I wander around the bottom floor, taking it all in. There is a small bathroom on the bottom floor, a laundry and mudroom, and two bedrooms. Between the laundry and a bedroom, stairs to the loft master room sit. I walk upstairs and take in the view. Large floor-to-ceiling windows display the forest on one side of the room. A walk-in closet is on the other side, next to a large ensuite bathroom. I smile. This house is typical of the houses on this wooded planet and perfect for my sister.

“Like what you see?” Luna asks as I make my way back into the living space.

“This place is nice. Homely. Rustic. Very you,” I tell her, looking around at the walls again.

“Not white and plastic-looking like your place,” Luna sneers.

“Corinth is not made out of plastic. It’s marble. And modern. I hardly stay there anymore. And I was giving you a compliment,” I tell her.

“I’m sorry. I’ve just been finding this whole thing… horrible,” Luna sighs, sitting on her black leather settee.

“So... you know,” I say. My sister nods.

“I know. It’s been happening on more planets than you think. Everywhere except here. I just wish they knew the damage they do when they reject their soulmate. I feel each break. It hurts me. They don’t know that it does, but it does.”

I look at my sister. Her eyes are cast down. My sister is the Moon Goddess. It was her punishment that her lover was turned into the first werewolf. Her punishment for falling in love with a human.

“Well…” I begin, holding her hands. And I tell her. I tell her everything that’s been happening in Corinth. Everything my girls, the fates, have done to help her wolves. And I tell her the possible destiny of some of her wolves.

Tears fall down her face, and I feel for her. I crawl over to her on my knees and wrap my arms around her.

“Do they really hate me that much?” she asks. I shake my head.

“Then why? I gave them mates so they could have what I couldn’t. And this is how they repay me? I’ve sacrificed my happiness for them. I don’t know what I can do anymore,” Luna cries. My heart bleeds for my sister. She is a powerful goddess, but she can’t control the choices of humanoids. No one has that power.

“Can you do something?” Luna asks, looking up at me.

“I can’t do much. But I can do one thing,” I tell her.

~ Edited with Grammarly