The Curse
A thousand years after the Moon Goddess designed the first wolves and along with it, the first mates, I met her. Aleina. She was breathtakingly beautiful with mesmerizing bright blue eyes with a hint of gray, soft brown hair, and a slightly round face that gave her a youthful look. I knew she wasn’t my mate. We both knew we weren’t mates. Yet something drew us together. An invisible bond stronger than what we heard a mating bond felt like. We were called foolish for being together, but our wolves wanted it and we wanted it. Then, we met our mates. At the time the notion of rejecting a mate was unheard of. But our wolves yearned for one another more than they yearned for our mates. The Moon Goddess visited us in her fury. She tried to force us to accept our mates. We refused. As punishment, we became cursed to live our lives over and over again. If we are able to find one another, reject our mates again, and fall in love then she will sanctify our bond. If either of us chose someone else, then the other person will continue to reincarnate forever until they also accept a mate. The catch, I will regain a portion of my memories with each reincarnation. Aleina will forget every time and will look different. The way we will know it is one another is a small half-moon-shaped scar that we both will have with each reincarnation.
I have been reincarnated 3,258 times. I’ve rejected 2,967 mates. The other 291 times I was completely alone. I remember the face of every mate I’ve hurt, but I’m beginning to forget the features of the one I love. I’ve seen 1,653 different faces she’s worn and each of those faces I watched as the life drained from them. It was only after her life force was gone that I found the scar. I haven’t had a glimpse of her or the scar in over a hundred lifetimes. Perhaps she fell for another mate. Perhaps it was all a mistake.
I used to know we would find one another. Then hope, and now, I am beginning to doubt if any of it was real. Am I making things up? Have I been fighting a lost war all this time? Maybe. This time, I should just give in and accept the mate the Moon Goddess gives me. Maybe.
