Rite of Submission - Rite 1

56: The Cost of a Curse

The goddess wearing my face looked at each of the twin as if she was trying to determine each of their worth, 'Even after all they've suffered us to endure?' She shrugged nonchalantly, the movement looking strangely elegant on her. 'We cannot just create a mate for each of them out of thin air, not unless they'd like to wait a few decades.'

"What about all of the female shifters, they don't have mates, can't we just..." I waved my hands around like I was pairing them up with new mates.

She laughed softly, 'Of course they have mates,' she patted me on the head, like a small child. 'They've just been conditioned to believe that they do not, because they believe it to be a defect that a female should have the ability to shift.' She moved past me and knelt down beside Sophia, touching her on the forehead. Her sobs instantly softened.

My jaw dropped, "Are you saying that every member of the pack has the ability to shift, and that with the exception of these two, they all have a mate?"

She stood up and smiled, 'How can one be a lycanthrope and not be able to shift?' She had a point. It was hearsay that only Alpha females could bear children, and all other female shifters lacked the strength. But why would the pain of shifting and the pain of childbirth be any different? She nodded as I worked it out. Could she hear my thoughts? She smiled, shrugging again, 'I am you.'

"Then will you lift your curse from them? Maybe they can find love and still have a happy life, even if they don't have true mates." There were wolves that had lost their mates like Nathan, and some like the women Sophie had had flings with that believed they didn't have one, surely they could at least find love.

She giggled, 'Both are already in love.' I felt my mouth fall open again. I knew from his wolf that Dmitri was in love with me, but Sophia hadn't mentioned being in love with anyone, just a crush on me the night before. So, who was she in love with? 'Us,' she giggled again, smiling down at Sophie.

Both were in love with me? "What am I supposed to do with that information?"

'Choose one,' there was no smile on her face this time. 'Choose the one most deserving of a mate.'

How could I choose one over the other? How was there even a choice to make if he was already bound to me? Her face twisted into a half smile. She was only promising to give one a mate, not to remove the curse from their family, so even if they had children, the cycle would continue. "Haven't you had enough revenge?"

She frowned, 'What have they done to redeem their bloodline?'

A dark laughter bubbled out of my chest, "Now if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black!" I rolled my eyes, "You keep saying we're one in the same, if they are the last in their line, and they both love us," if felt weird to include her as part of me, "isn't that some kind of poetic justice in itself? He accepted a bond from a bite I made in anger, and has refused to reject me to free himself of it. You rejected him," I indicated the unmarred skin on my neck.

That surprised her a bit, her eyes growing wide and her lips parting slightly as if catching herself before her mouth fell open. 'We can remove his bond if that would relieve our,' she struggled with the word, 'conscience.' It seemed like she was uncomfortable with the concept, or had never had to deal with having a conscience at all. 'Are we ready to choose?'

"No," I folded my arms over my chest. "You said that you had to wait for just the right circumstances to even make me a possibility. What happens if I decide I don't want to choose between them, or if I choose not to continue with this 'mortal existence' anymore?" I hoped that the air quotes would help her understand what I meant.