Exposed

Love Conquers All

Ki stood in front of the carved stone marking her mother's grave. It felt completely isolated here, like she wasn't even in the den anymore. The sound of water droplets hitting the ground soothed her. Ki's heart ached for her mother. The notebook about the Silver River Pack Helena found for her laid next to Ki.

"I guess none of us can help messing up, isn't that right mom?" Ki laughed softly.

In the journal was an entry by her mother. Most of it was records of the forest and the state of the land, but there was one other thing. A couple paragraphs were about a wolf that was captured by the enchanting aura of Ki's mother. They would always catch each other's eye and formed a sort of unspoken friendship. They'd even run together in silence. The sounds of happily struggling lungs and air being left behind were a constant in their relationship. One day the wolf was not alone when Ki's mother locked eyes with her silent friend. There was another wolf with her. A bigger wolf. A harder wolf. The distrust in the air was thick. The bigger wolf nudged the silent one. His eyes pleaded for her to be careful. She assured him it'd be okay and ran off to enjoy her run with the fox. They went running everyday and soon the bigger wolf began to warm up to the fox.

"Marina, let's go!" the fox yelled playfully. 

The wolf sprinted towards her, happily. 

"Marina! Come back!"

"Hurry!" the fox giggled.

Marina and the fox ran away from Marina's mate. They zigzagged through trees playfully stopping at a break in the ground.

"What should we do," the fox asked looking down into the broken land. She saw a small stream of water at the bottom of the deep crack. 

"Marina!"

They turned to see Marina's mate finally caught up and running towards them.

"Hurry," the fox laughed, "Let's go!"

Gracefully, she jumped over the break in the land and landed on the other side. She turned around with a grin to see Marina starting to run. She pushed off the ground and was gliding through the air. The fox's eyes glanced to Marina's mate and saw the look of fear and panic across his face. Turning back to Marina, the fox watched as her legs landed on the ground, but her body fall into the crack. A yelp and whimpering erupted as she struggled to pull herself up.

"Marina!" the fox and Marina's mate barked. 

He ran faster, running to save her. The fox pawed at Marina. Tried to pull her up with her teeth. The fox was knocked out of the way by Marina's mate. He lunged forward to grab Marina with his teeth, but it was too late. Her struggle had ended and she was falling to the bottom. The fox and the mate stared in silence, watching Marina fall. Her mate howled and barked and growled in pain as they witnessed Marina hit the ground. He let out these awful noises that the fox would never be able to forget. The sound of his pain was almost as unbearable as the pain itself. His grief quickly turned to anger and he turned his yellow eyes to the fox. As quickly as she could, the fox sprinted away from her newly deceased friend and her widowed mate. 

"Suijin was right, it is all about love. At first, I thought it sounded silly. Love is so positive; it's silly to think all of this disaster would be about love," Ki spoke softly," but I guess love isn't all that great. What it can do to people. What it does to people. It changes them forever, sometimes for the worse."

Ki closed her eyes and pressed her head to the carved stone. She silently said her goodbyes to her mother. She slowly walked away from her mother's grave finally with one solid answer. The pain of losing a mate created the suffering of all and somehow Ki had to end it. Somehow Ki needed to calm the forces of nature and right the mistakes that were made. She needed to find the first alpha and sooth his heart which has been in agony for centuries.