Revelation

Raïna waited for Milene to come out of the shower, thinking over her decision. She was wondering how to get her to spit everything she knew. 

They were back at her apartment where she had pulled her after she collapsed. She cleaned the cuts on her legs and disinfected them, she gave her drugs for pain and told her to take care of other injuries she may have. She took the day off, no matter how bad it made her look as if she was known and was still being assessed by the others. It was morning when they came back and she didn't have the energy to go to work or the patience to wait to come back home to interrogate her little prisoner. 

She had changed into something more comfortable, pajamas, and was watching the view from her mirror. Soon, Milene headed out of the bathroom, her body wrapped into a white towel. " I love your apartment. " 

Raïna looked around the square shape bedroom, her feet rubbing the red carpet. Her gigantic bed took most of the place in the room. There was only a small bookshelf in the corner, a nightstand, and a floor lamp. It was the perfect combination of old-fashioned and modern, with a television hanging on the wall opposite the bed. She find herself agreeing, it was indeed a beautiful place. 

" So, what do you want to know?" Milene asked while drying her hair using the towel. Once she was done, she sat down and waited. It was easier than she thought. 

"Everything, tell me everything. " Raïna didn't know what everything was but knew there was something. " How is it that the death of your mate didn't enrage your wolf? Why was the Master after your pack? Why were you working as a maid for my guardians when you were supposed to be a Luna? There are way too many incoherences with this story. " 

Milene smiled amicably. "You were always a bit too bright for your safety. " Raïna didn't falter her gaze, waiting for what was to come. No matter how she tried to convince herself that she was simply curious, she knew that what enthralled her was the rapport of Master in this derision. 

Milene sighed. "Everything started with Late Alpha Rodrick. He was a capable man for whom the concept of mate was vague. For this reason, he didn't wait for his perfect match and calmed his ...urges as he deemed fit. " She talked slowly and took long pauses in between phrases as if trying to properly tell a fairy tale. " Due to his strength, nobody ever reprimanded him, he was an Alpha after all. The unstable balance came crumbling when the fling got pregnant. It happened at the worse time possible. " 

She marked a pause. Raïna could see the agitation that could have possibly taken place in the pack. An alpha without a Luna can be compared to a kid without any proper guidance: he must have been out of control. " Alpha had found his mate, to whom he had hid his past... incident. That mate had gotten pregnant too. " 

"Who had the first child?" Raïna asked. "The fling who was later promoted to be the mistress. You can not imagine the rage of his mate. It was a crisis. Soon, the second son was born, after only a few months. "

Milene stood up and went to take a glass of water and gulped it down. " The firstborn was Mezdoxa, and the second one was Madoxe-" 

"What !? No, that can't be, after all, it's Madoxe that runs the pack. He called me. " Raïna interrupted. Her mind was buzzing with thought and reflection. 

"It's more complicated, but you must promise me not to tell this to anybody. We committed a horrible crime so that the pack was not covered in shame. " 

"We? " Raïna inquired, on edge. 

"Mezdoxa and I. My mate was Mezdoxa. " A silent tear rolled down and she immediately caught it." We met in jail. To say that we had the most uncommon love story is a euphemism. " She waited for the sobs and the tremble in her voice to dissipate. " No matter how weird our story was, I loved him, more than anything, more than my own life, but I'm sure you don't want to hear this." 

"I don't care about it honestly. Continue. "

 "You were always too insensitive." She took another big breath." By late Alpha Rodrick's will, the successor was Madoxe. " 

Raïna's eyes opened wide. Her heart pumped faster, waiting for the Luna to detail. " There is nothing I can explain about this part of the story. We don't know why, and will probably never know. "

"That cannot be it." Raïna stood up and walked over to her, grabbed her neck, and squeezed. " How are you then considered the Luna of the pack? How is it that no pack number cried at the death of their Alpha? What more are you hiding? Spill everything!" She shouted. She pushed her onto the bed while the latter coughed and rubbed her neck which was turning red. 

"The next part could get a hunt to be started against me. We broke the moral code of werewolves. " She coughed some more, and difficulty raised herself into a sitting position. 

"Hell do I care. " 

" Madoxe didn't want anything to do with the pack and came to see his older brother who had an idea. We changed the will and put Mezdoxa's name and they switched places. "

Raïna furrowed her eyebrows and looked sternly at Milene who was visibly struggling to breathe properly. "Switched places? " 

"Well, not exactly, but close to it." The information took a while to be enregistered. "What color are your eyes? Show me. "

Milene closed her eyelids and seemed defeated. " I know that saying this doesn't change anything but, you have to understand that, at the time, I didn't think I had a choice. " 

"Open. Your. Eyes. " Raïna growled. Growled. Why did she? She touched her face and felt fur making its way to her cheek. She felt the familiar pain on her teeth sharpening and growing, spreading her mouth to become a maw. Her inner wolf, whom she had never been able to meet was responding to Milene's. She looked up to see grey eyes shining brightly. They lightened Milene's face and were gentle, asking for obedience but not in a condescending fashion. They imposed respect you knew was deserved. She blinked and it was gone. She anew looked fragile and disposable, weak and futile with her brown hair framing her face, her only beautiful feature. 

"You wolf is sacred. " Raïna fell on her butt and put a hand on her forehead. She took ten deep breaths before coming back to her senses and standing up. She was panicking, freaking out, understanding that she, again, knew more than she should. Everything made sense now. 

" I misspoke. Your wolf was sacred. But you used his power to make a wish that goes against the Moon Godness and as such, all your power has been revoked. Except for startling people, you cannot do anything, you can't even transform. That's why you are not self-healing. " She looked at Milene and as she nodded, she knew her guess was the right one. " What did you wish for?" 

Milene gulped and fisted her hand to the point that her knuckles turned white. " I destroyed Mezdoxa's wolf and switched myself as Madoxe's mate. "

"What?" Raïna waited for confirmation, and when Milene nodded she felt tear ricochet down her cheeks. " You killed your mate's wolf. " She let a few seconds of silence go. " That means that you have two mates. " 

"Not exactly. It works in strange ways, mates and wolves, but a werewolf can only have one mate, that is the one unbreakable rule. His wolf didn't exist anymore but I was still his mate. Another wolf took form in his psyche, a cub. That meant that they both had the same wolf and the same mate. Mezdoxa's physic changed to the point that his brother and he were alike. No, they were identic. Only I was able to differentiate the two. " 

"Why?" Raïna's voice was rasped and hoarse. "How could you destroy the man you pretend you loved more than your life? "

"You cannot understand! " She screamed in an acute voice. " I loved him more than anything but he... he...HE DREAMED OF BEING AN ALPHA!! It was his sole purpose in life. When we were in jail, I was the only thing he wanted, but the minute we got out, he chased that position every day. He wanted to please his father so much, he was willing to do anything. He wanted the approval of the pack that kept on doting on his younger brother. He thought, since he was the firstborn, he would get the position. The will destroyed him for days on end. When he saw my wolf, he took me into the biggest embrace. He planned everything, he wanted to lose himself and become his brother if it meant he would be able to be the strongest. But you know what?! Life was a bi*ch! The minute he fooled everyone and got his lifetime goal, he had a heart attack. I was the only one that cried! The pack members psychic thought their Alpha was still alive since his brother had the same wolf. Telling people of his death would be admitting the sacrilege we committed. I was forced to be the Luna to an Alpha I didn't love! I loved Mezdoxa, not Madoxe! " She prattled, shouting and crying, letting the tears flow down as she kept going.

She explained how she felt dumb. How she regretted everything. Raïna was rapt by what she was hearing" WHY?! WHY?! WHY?! Why me, huh? Why was Mezdoxa so inclined on being an Alpha, why was that such an obsession for him?! " She cried hot tears, and as they flowed, Raïna stood there, washing in horror what meeting her mate did to her. She listened to how she explained each romantic moment they had, how she clung to their memories to stay alive, and how she felt pathetic as a werewolf for doing that. 

" I worked for your parents after his death. I needed to be out of that glade to be able to mourn properly. For everyone else, he was still alive! Do you know how upsetting that was?! You have no idea, so don't judge my decisions or my life! " 

Raïna patted her back, knowing that they were in danger. She didn't want to scare the pathetic thing next to her so she kept her mouth shut, but she knew. 

"But why did you all elaborate such a complicated plan? If you only switched the will and put Mexdoxa's name, there would have been no need for all this nonsense. "

" We did switch the will but there is one detail I have not mentioned. Only the wolf that resulted in an Alpha and his mate fusion could interact with the pack. Only Madoxe's wolf could be viewed as the Alpha."

" So the man that contacted me was Madoxe, who was posing as Madoxe after Mezdoxa who had paused as Madoxe died. "

"Since nobody felt his death, he didn't have the choice but to take over. "

"Your story still has too many incoherences. " Raïna said.

"It's because when the switch happened, everybody's memory was erased somehow. I still don't understand, but I believe everybody forgot Mezdoxa's existence. When in fact, Mezdoxa changed himself to become Madoxe so he could be recognized as the Alpha, after the change, people believed he always looked like that. It's mysterious. " She let out, her eyes dead and her voice plain. 

"So, you don't know why Madoxe reached out to me? "

"I don't know him. I loved Mezdoxa, not Madoxe. " Raïna turned her head sideways and looked out of the window. She saw Polaris shinning harder than she had ever before. Liar, she thought. 

Hours flew by, and Milene calmed down. She was still in the towel and was looking at the view through the window. It showed the city lights and the busy streets spilling with men and women coming back from work. Raïna entered the room with the bowl of pasta and handed Milene one and a fork. 

"Wouldn't you prefer we ate in the dining room? " Milene questioned. Her cheeks were pale from the dried tears. She looked even more tired. 

"Nope. I like it here, it's cozy. Do you wanna watch something? " 

Milene observed Raïna as she took the remote control and searched for something decent they could watch. A title caught her interest in the news. It read: " Glade put on the fire is spreading to the nearby forest."

A reporter who seemed to hate his job appeared on camera and explained the situation. 

"Will you rat me out?" 

Silence.

" I wish I could have the pleasure too, but no I won't. "

He already knows.

She took a bite of the pasta and moaned at the taste. 

 He wants to kill me with you. 

"Specialists are on the site and are trying to determine what could have caused the fire to start. For now, we have been told that it could have been the result of natural causes, such as lightning..." The report continued in the background. 

Her heartbeat accelerated as she hear him: «May you be chastised by fate, Mate. »

 The hunt has already started.