My soul

longs

for

you.

"F-first?"

The King smiles at me.

"The very first."

I take a step back.

"Why are you here."

"The question should be, why are you here?"

I look around, taking in the white. I think about what he has said.

Why am I here?

And then it hits me.

"I died." I gasp out the words, shock and fear running through me.

He nods, "Those demons got here first. They disguise themselves as what you most desire, trying to lure you away to go with them so they can trap you in darkness. But luckily you had a friend."

He smiles at that.

I stare blankly up at him, unable to take this all in.

"If I'm dead, then Alto..." my voice cracks as I try to regain my emotions.

The King shakes his head sadly, "Not yet dear. Not yet."

I shiver at his words.

"Why are you here?"

I repeat my first question, eyeing the King.

He sighs and sits down.

I blink as I take in the stone steps that are suddenly there.

Then I look around and realize where we are.

"The..."

"The Ballroom." The King seems happy with the idea.

"Why here?"

He pats the seat next to him, inviting me to join him.

"You tell me. It's what you thought of."

I walk slowly over to him.

"It's.... Where Alto and I first met."

"How romantic."

I take in the grand room.

It was eerie the silence and emptiness that invaded it.

"So you want to know why I'm here?"

I nod.

He sighs and brushes his hair back with his hands, "Well, how much of me have you heard about?"

I shake my head, "Um...you're the first werewolf King..."

The King laughs, "Figures. History has long since covered up my story."

I sit, waiting for him to explain.

"I was the first werewolf king. In a land of fighting and turmoil, the wolves needed one ruler. It disgusted me how we would fight over a piece of dirt."

I laughed at that.

He smiled, "Pack territories were divided out in proportion to the amount of wolves that resided within that pack. It's a system that was crude but stopped a lot of bloodshed."

I nodded. I knew of the early pack wars and how the wolf King had stepped in.

"But well...nothing really lasts forever. You know I found my life mate?"

His eyes lit up when he said the words.

I grin, "Yes, Alto and I had to follow some of the rules you set for life mates but-," I'm cut off when I suddenly remember that we were not able to follow through with the mating ceremony.

The King watches me a few seconds more before sighing.

"I know."

I nod, avoiding his dark eyes.

Eyes like Alto.

He continues, "I was beyond happy. A united Kingdom. A peaceful land. A life mate. What wolf could ask for more. But," I could tell the happiness was running out as his face darkened.

"One night I was assassinated."

I gasp. I had never heard this in history.

"But...the records show that you lived a long happy life with a prosperous rule!"

He laughs at that, "patience Fayette."

I hold back whatever i'm about to say as he continues.

"I died. I thought that was the end. But I meet a male. The wolf who is able to transform into a man."

I gasp when I realize he is talking about the male from the story of how the werewolf was born.

"You met him?"

The King shrugs, "In a dream perhaps. But yes. He told me the truth of the werewolf. That we were never meant to be born."

I stare at him, wide eyed and shocked.

"But the story of the first werewolf..."

"Is such a lovely one is it not?" The King laughs as he says, "Wrong!"

"What do you mean?"

"The woman who fell in love with the wolf? That's nice enough. But the sons. The sons of the wolf went on to rape and pillage every tribe they could- power hungry in their quest to conquer the other brother."

"And their father..."

"He told me, with tears in his eyes, how he watched his sons fight to the death. Each dying in the battle."

"How horrible."

"Yes."

The King looks down on me then.

"But it showed the wolf that men and magic did not mix. That the power of the wolf could not be contained in humans, because in the end, it drove them to madness. Drove them to seek out more and more."

My mind flash to the nameless man.

To his hunt for more power.

"But the race of werewolves had already been created. And the creatures learned to adapt to the power. And soon, slowly, the power faded and the magic grew less and less with each generation. However, the wolf told me this. He said I could live but at a price."

I look up in time to see the concentrated look on the King's face as he stares off to the distance.

"He would remove the wolf from my soul. Killing that part of me. And I would live. Live as a human."

He looks down at me, "and that, Fayette, is what I am offering to you now."

I blink up at him in confusion.

"You can live. You can live and breath and be with Alto another day more. But it will cost you. Because if you give up your wolf, you also give up your bond."

My bond.

My bond with Alto.

Does that mean I would no longer feel the heat on my skin?

No longer feel him pulsing in my mind?

No longer have his feelings and thoughts reside in me?

I shake as the reality crushes into me.

"You chose to be human."

The King smiles, "yes."

I gasp then, "did you give my mother this choice?"

His face turns strange as he looks at me. "Yes. I give all life mates this choice."

"And...and she chose to leave me?"

He smiles sadly down at me, "she could not imagine the mate bond without your father. She said she would rather die, than not feel the tie between them."

I shake as I realize what my mother had done.

Choices.

Was life always determined by choices?

She had chosen to leave her child, leave me and in the end, her mate.

Resulting in both of us essentially one day, to lose our mind.

I close my eyes then because I knew.

I knew from the past choices of my mother.

I knew from watching my father become crazed.

From bearing the burden.

How selfish and cruel of her.

To not fight for us.

The King smiles as he sees I've already made my choice.

"It was nice meeting you Fayette."

I smile back up at him.

"Were you happy?"

He pauses and shakes his head, "My life was hard Fayette. It was difficult. I won't say it was easy. But I can say that where there was pain, there was also equal joy."

I nod at his words and sit back, taking in the blank void of the ballroom.

"Okay. I'm ready."

"It's okay," the King whispers wrapping his arm around me in a comforting gesture, "it will be like falling asleep."

I smile at that.

"Goodbye Fayette."

"Goodbye."

(Refer back to the Blue Moon Ceremony if you don't remember the story of the wolf)