Rejected at First Sight

Chapter 16

4 weeks later.....

All the packs had come for everywhere to the palace. Well over 10,000 werewolves know lived in only a 100 mile radius around us. It was a tight squeeze for sure, but I was grateful everyone was making the best of it. I was now due to give birth in 4 weeks and I couldn't be anymore ready to not be pregnant. Thankfully this was the last time I would be. A small pang of sadness ran through me, knowing I would never have someone to grow old with, but I was too busy to think about that right now. The twins were taking a nap. My mom, dad, Dean, and Mimi were out helping train the packs that needed it. We hadn't heard from the rogues since they had taken the Harvest pack. I was starting to get worried, no bad guy in any movie or TV just disappears for 4 weeks and then comes back with a little gesture. They always come back with this giant gesture and a lot of people get hurt. I was afraid of what that gesture was and how soon it would happen.

"MOMMA" Shay screamed at the top of her lungs. I jumped up from the couch and ran into the twin's room. "What?! What is it?!" Xander was wide awake in bed under his covers and Shay was in the corner of the room. "Momma, daddy was just here you missed him!" I gulped. She had been doing this everyday for the past 4 weeks. I didn't know how much longer I could take telling her, her daddy was dead. I sighed, "Baby girl, we've been through this. Daddy is gone. He isn't coming back." "No momma, he's not! He's hurt. When he visits me he can't talk, he just looks at me. I don't know what he wants, so I call you. Maybe he'll talk to you" "Shannon, I know you love your dad, but he is gone, you see my neck?" I showed her what used to be a very dark mark from our mating, which was now tiny and very very slight. "This is the mark daddy gave me when we mated. It's almost gone. Meaning he is gone." Shay looked at me in disbelief. "Momma if you mark is still there, how can you not know?" I looked at her. I don't know how she was getting through to me but something clicked. 

I told the twins to go back to their nap. I didn't know if I was going crazy or if I had just been missing Ash so much that I wanted to believe Shay. I called my mom and asked her to come alone. Mom arrived 15 minutes later and I was in a complete crazy state. I looked at my mom with wild eyes and asked her. "Mom, I need to know how long a person can go without a mate?" My mom looked at me in shock. "Well I supposed they can live without each other for a very long time after one of them dies. Your uncle has, I don't see why you couldn't? Baby what's wrong?" "Shay called out to me again, and this time she made me realize something." "OK..." "My mark. Its still there. I don't understand that. Usually if a mate has died they mark completely fades and scars. Mine still hasn't scarred, it has only dimmed and shrunk." I looked at my mom looking to see if there was something I was missing.  All she did was look at me, like I was a ticking time bomb. "Mom please say something. I don't know how I should think or what I should do. What is Shay has a gift and that is it?" Mom snapped her at me and opened her mouth to say something but she couldn't "I think we need to talk to your father."

Mom and I waited until Dad and Dean come home later that day. We were sat on the couch waiting for them to come through the door. Dad and Dean stopped when they saw us. "Claire, Jocelyn what's wrong?" I opened my mouth but couldn't talk. I took in a deep breath and started again. I told them everything. Once i was finished, Dean looked white and dad sat there and contemplated what was going on. I could always tell when he was thinking really hard, his eyebrows would be so creased they'd become one, he would focus so intently on whatever was in front of him he would look cross-eyed. I smiled at this, it's the little things like this that hadn't changed for me and I was grateful for those moments. Dad took a couple more minutes and finally said," I think we need to talk to your uncle Kane. He is the only person I know who has lost their mate. After that we can then decide on what to do." We all agreed and dad went to go call him.

Uncle Kane came instantly and we all sat back down in the living room. I had the kids in the dining room eating, so I didn't sit I stood in the archway between the two rooms so I could keep a close eye on them. "Harold has already caught me up to speed so I'm just going to dive right in. Jocelyn I understand losing a mate is hard, I just want to check a couple facts first. If these memories come back to painfully for you we can stop, I don't want to strain you and the pup." I nodded. "When you felt your connection leave you how did it feel?" "It was the worst pain I had ever felt, even worse then giving birth. Everything was fine, I could feel him getting hurt during the fight, but that was normal. Then all of a sudden he was gone. I couldn't feel what he was feeling. I couldn't hear him anymore. My wolf kept calling out for her mate, but he would never answer. Usually if he gets hurt to the point to where he would be unconscious, his wolf would always reassure us he was fine, well better then dead. But this is was dark and cold and empty. He was gone from me. Gone forever and... and.. I have never felt so alone in my lifetime." I knew I was crying, but I wanted to get to the bottom of this. Uncle Kane looked at me with tears in his eyes, of course he knew exactly how I felt, he had felt it too. "You haven't felt him since?" I shook my head," No, I thought there were brief time were I felt him like really felt him, in my dreams or during the day when I was really thinking about him hard, but I know that was just grief." Kane looked at my surprised. "Jocelyn, I need to see your mark." I showed him what was left of it and he gasped. "Jocelyn, your mark.... its still very faint." "Yes, but it has only been 6 weeks since he died." "Jocelyn, the mark goes away complete right after they died, the mark becomes a shadow of what the mark used to be, because you become a shadow of who you used to be when your mate dies. You always feel the emptiness. There is never a moment where you feel them, that's the curse. No matter how hard you think or how vivid your dreams are, you never never feel them. You think about them or dream about them and that pang of emptiness hits you so hard you can't breath." I looked at him with disbelief. I knew what he was saying, but I needed him to say it out loud. I wanted to make sure I was understanding him correctly. That I wasn't a broken-hearted mate longing for her dead mate. "Uncle Kane, what exactly are you saying?" "Jocelyn, I am saying that your mate, is still very much alive, or at least somewhat alive." The next thing I knew I was going backwards.