Blood Legacy (Rewritten)

48. A childhood memory

"Wait, like right now?" My eyes widened, a little alarmed as I didn't even know what to expect. Or rather what was expected of me.

"You could try summoning her at least," Zara suggested and Jess quickly nodded with approval, all the while I sat there and looked between them, entirely lost.

"Yeah, I mean I could try if you're okay with it too," Jess directed her attention towards me as she said that, making me blink and stare at her for a moment.

"Yeah sure," I quickly blurted out upon noticing that hint of nervousness taking over her feminine features.

Was I internally freaking out because I didn't know what I was supposed to do or what was going to happen? Hell yes. I was totally freaking out. I was a wrecking mess. But that didn't mean that I was going to say no to her. She was my friend. I had to at least try to help her out, however I could and with whatever I could.

"Promise not to freak out?"

Pffft. I already was.

"Please. After everything that their lovely Alpha did to me, trust me, there's nothing more you could scare me with. Unless you plan to take a bite out of me too," I snorted with amusement, my face quickly straightening with seriousness upon noticing those seemingly shocked looks on theirs.

"Oh! You mean the mating mark!" Zara said after a tensed moment of silence with a small and rather awkward chuckle, blowing out a relieved sigh.

"Uh...yeah I guess," I replied unsure, curiously peering between them as they all seemed a little bit more relieved now.

What the hell did they think that I was talking about?

"No, I'm not planning to "take a bite out of you"," Jess chuckled,
"You're obviously not my mate,"

"That sounds so weird though. Mate. What does that even mean?" I curiously asked with a pensive gaze directed at her, tilting my head.

"Oh, it's just an abbreviation for the word soulmate," She simply replied with a shrug and a smile, receiving a nod from me.

"So it's not just a weird, kinky way of calling the one you're sexually attracted to then. My mate, my fuck buddy..." I casually said whilst thinking about it, my brows furrowing as I noticed them start laughing as if I'd just said something very funny.

"Well that's one way to put it," Brie said with a snort,
"But no. To be called one's mate is way more special than that. Mates are our gift from the Goddess. The ones we're supposed to love and cherish, and spend the rest of our lives with. Us, wolves, we spend all our lives searching for our mates. Our other halves. Our mates are the most important beings in our lives. A wolf's life without their mate is a miserable and incomplete life. We cannot live without them. They are part of our very souls, our identities as werewolves. We need them to survive, to be stronger. That's why our Alpha needs to publicly claim you and marry you before he can become King. To show his people that he is strong. Complete,"

I could only blink in astonishment as I blankly stared back at her, thoughts evading me.

"And do you..." I awkwardly cleared out my throat,
"Do you all have one? A mate?"

"Of course. Each wolf is blessed with one,"

I could only nod with understanding, still reeling after everything I just heard.

"Each one of you?"

The only nodded in response, keeping calm and neutral stances.

"What about you?" I turned to Jess.
"You said that you are a lone wolf. Does that mean that you're different?"

"Umm, no," She lightly blushed,
"Normally, I should have one too. I haven't met him or her yet but they must be somewhere out there," She explained with a light and genuine smile, making me nod again.

"Okay..." Wow.

"Look if you don't want to help me it's okay-"

"No no no!" I hurried to interrupt her,
"I do! I promise I do! It's just that no one even bothered to explain to me how this works, how all this works,"

"Look, I'm very new to this and I'm still struggling to adjust, but I do want to help you. I promise. I'm not scared or anything, I was just trying to understand some things,"

"Look," I turned to her and grabbed her shoulders,
"We can start right now if you want to,"

"Okay?"

She nodded in agreement, giving me a happy and sweet smile before she wrapped her arms around me, giving me a quick hug.

"Okay, so how do we do this?" I said as she pulled back, expectantly looking between them.

"It's actually very easy," She said, keeping that sweet smile as she wrapped her hands around mine.

Yet before I could even try to utter another word I loudly gasped as I suddenly found myself plunging into that dark abyss once again, mere seconds before a foreign memory played before my very eyes.

Blond...blond hair...small feet quickly stomping through the tall grass...small hands reaching towards the clear sky...childish laughter tickling my ears...

Pain. Sudden, excruciating and bone-snapping pain...Screams...I was screaming...from the pain...

So much pain...

A large and beautiful black wolf, its glowing golden eyes staring right back into mine...

I shakily raise up on trembling legs...it hurts but I follow him, my gaze falling on that sand-colored fur covering my small legs and paws as I sluggishly trudge through the grass...

We run together, the beautiful black wolf and I...

I abruptly resurfaced back to reality with a strangled gasp, finding myself looking into a pair of faintly glowing golden eyes, taking one moment to register that I was actually staring at a completely stunned Jess, her eyelids fluttering a few times before that natural dark blue returned in her eyes, her features though still painting a canvas of pure, unadulterated shock.

"What...What the fuck was that?!?"

"That...that was the first time I ever turned..."