Touch

CHAPTER 17| It Just Is

"Many a time you've cursed my name of late. If I lacked empathy this meeting would have happened far sooner and under very different circumstances. Mothers do not tolerate disrespect."

Selene. I should have known, when does the moon goddess ever opt for a more subtle entrance?

"And mothers shouldn't torture their children either, but alas here we are."

"I'd watch that mouth, Malachai," she said in warning. However sharp the rebuttal was, I did not care. I waited too long for this conversation, too many times I asked, and she ignored.

I prayed that she'd respond to the many questions I had howled at the moon in my agony, to the point that I had given up. After many moons passed with no reply, I turned my back on her as she had done me.

Yet here she sits, posing yet another obstacle in my path as I try to keep myself sane, so I could care less about her warning.

"Or what? You'll take my mother, kill my mate? Oh wait, you've already done that. Can I just ask you why?

I could almost understand my mother, every child must confront their parents' mortality, but Elaine, I cannot.

Why give so much only to take it all away? Why would you make me open my heart to love and then just take it away from me?

You know the strength of the mate bond better than anyone else, you knew what it did to me...what it does to me."

I could feel the old wounds reopening as images of the pain I had suffered flashed before my eyes.

The pain of loss, the pain of abandonment; I served her and when I needed her most, when Elaine needed her most she was nowhere to be found.

I felt betrayed.

"And yet you overcame it, did you not?"

"So, what? Because I did not crumble under the weight of a severed bond, you've granted me a second chance mate? Is it your hope that I won't survive it a second time?"

"No, that is not what I wish."

"Then what?!" I didn't have the strength to scream, I, Malachai Rendell was pleading before the Goddess herself, begging to understand how such cruelty can live in someone's heart if she had one.

"Malachai, did I kill your mother? Did I kill Elaine?"

I took a step back in surprise, "No, the Brotherhood did."

"Then why do you blame me so?" she questioned as she cocked her head to the side.

"Are you not all-knowing," I asked as I took a step forward in her direction, "Did you not foresee this?"

"Everyone's path is their own to take, even mates. Yes, you two were fated, and for a while, your paths converged, but that does not mean they are the same.

If they were your choices and your purposes would be the same. More importantly, you would have joined her would you have not?"

"Yes."

"And why didn't you?"

"Because I wanted to kill those who took her from me, and I did."

She nodded, "And why didn't you go to her after that?"

"Because my pack needs me."

She nodded again.

"You are serving your purpose Malachai. You may feel like you've been left behind, but you chose to stay behind because your path continues here.