August 24^th 1966

“Selvatore, I can’t keep seeing you. I’ve got a mate…and a destiny.”

“A destiny that includes finding a way to kill off my family.”

“Please, Sel, don’t make me choose. I need to be with Malcolm.”

“But do you want to be with him?”

“It doesn’t matter what I want Selvatore. Your ancestors changed every aspect of the world. If I choose you, I’d be betraying my people.”

“If you choose him, you’d be betraying yourself Ana.”

“My name is Angelina Stone. I am the Alpha female of The Zell Pack. My duty is to my people, the mating ceremony will take away my love for you anyhow. This is the last time I will come to you Selvatore.”

“You’re making a mistake Angelina.”

Angelina watched as her forbidden love created a portal back to his dimension, and when he was gone, she allowed herself to cry. She was only sixteen…and yet her whole life had been decided for her.

August 24^th, 1971

Angelina had been mated to Malcolm for over a year, and she was close to delivering his cubs…and yet she couldn’t get herself to stop thinking about her first love. She knew that it would be impossible for her to hide the pain of her laying with another from Malcolm…but maybe if her and Selvatore never went as far as that it could work between them.

That was of course if Selvatore still wanted anything to do with her. By now, his father would have passed on from old age and he would’ve become the All-Powerful One, dragon and all. Maybe that meant all the love he once had for her had been burned away.

“Angelina, what are you thinking about so deeply?”

Angelina saw her best friend Claudette standing in the doorway, her own prominent baby bump protruding passed the door.

“Destiny I guess.”

“Well don’t think too hard. The men will be back from their ‘mission’ in a few hours, no doubt Malcolm will want to see you and the babies. I can’t believe you’re having twins. That is so wild!”

Unlike herself, Claudette was overjoyed with having an arranged mate. She absolutely adored Julius and couldn’t wait to raise his cub to be the next great Alpha of the Guardians. Being an Alpha had all to do with bloodline, not hard work. But Angelina didn’t want to put a damper on her friend’s excitement.

She would give birth to her daughters, and then track down Selvatore. It was high time she followed her heart.

August 19,1973

The time was finally here. Her pack would be portaled to the Lucia’s Gate and in the midst of battle among Unspeakables and the All-Powerful One himself, she would fake her death and become Ana. She would finally be happy.

Angelina spent the last few moments of her life as a Guardian with her children. Lena Destiny Gold and Dianna Lucia Gold were the only good things that came out of her forced mateship with Malcolm Gold. He was an amazing man, a fierce Guardian… but she didn’t love him. Not as she should.

If he suspected her unhappiness, he didn’t voice it. He was the most affectionate out of the forced mates…Malcolm was just different than the usual males she came across. He wasn’t distant or cold but he was always focused on the next battle; he actually did love her completely and he took an active role in raising their twins, unlike Julius and the others.

She wished she could be like Claudette and the other girls, she wished she could love her mate, the other half of her soul…literally. It was like Selvatore had put a spell on her soul and heart, that prevented the Mating Ceremony from working…but maybe it just didn’t work on true love and strong willpower.

“I wish you girls would remember what I’m about to say…but you’re only two. Mommy loves you both so much, if there was any other way for mommy to achieve what she desires she would do it. Unfortunately, this is the only way. Be good for your father. Grow up big and strong, okay?”

Angelina stood and left the nursery, tears running down her face. Just her luck, she ran into the familiar chest of her mate,

“Colm…”

“Angel, why are you crying meu amor?”

“I might not see our girls after today and I’m upset. I’ll be okay Colm,”

“If you insist meu amor.”

He entered the nursery and Angelina hurried out of the house and up the ridge. It was sacred spot, Selvatore told her this is where the original Queen of Dragons created the rift that made the Lucia’s Gate. He also told her that she was still alive, because she was imprisoned long ago by Severin, the original All-Powerful One, because she betrayed him by helping the Guardians of the age imprison him.

“Soon my love.”

Not long after she arrived, the rest of her pack arrived. She looked at each of them far longer than necessary but she would never see them after today. When Malcolm arrived, she ran into his arms…because even if she wasn’t in love with him, she still loved him. For the amazing man that he was, and would continue to be after she was gone.

“I love you Colm.” And when she said the words, she meant them.

“And I you, meu amor.”

He placed a tender kiss on her lips before turning to their Protector. Seamus stepped forward and opened the portal to the Lucia’s Gate. Soon to be her home. They all stepped through and Angelina’s last memory of her Colm was him battling a faceless Unspeakable as she ran off towards her ‘target’. The look of concern in his brilliant teal eyes was almost enough for her to back out of the plan that her and Selvatore had been planning for nearly two years.

Entering the cave where Selvatore was to meet her, she shifted before spotting the white wolf Selvatore had killed back in Reality. She used a simple enlargement spell to make the wolf look like her in her Guardian form, and then she dragged the corpse to the mouth of the cave. Close enough that her howl could be heard.

When the body of the white wolf could clearly be seen, she carefully placed vervain powder all over her coat, so the others would assume she had been poisoned during her battle with her intended victim.

She raced deep into the cave and shifted into her wolf once more, before readying herself to make the Howl of Loss. It was a sound to send fallen Guardians to the Glades, one of the many Paradises. She hoped the soul of this innocent creature made it to Elysium.

Her howl was haunting, having never heard it before. It brought tears to her eyes, and then she felt teeth in her neck and her connection to her pack was gone. Fire erupted from her neck and spread throughout her body…she shifted involuntarily and saw Selvatore, blood dripping from his fangs.

“What…did you…do?” she asked before she succumbed to the darkness.

“What I had to, to protect you, Ana.”

Malcolm

                The haunting howl of a fallen pack member met my ears just as I was delivering the final blow to an Unspeakable. Soon after, I felt my soul rip in half.

                Meu amor? Angel, answer me!

                When I got no response, I took off in the direction I saw her go when we first arrived. I found her lifeless form in front of a cave opening. Sniffing the air, I could barely detect the poison that had prevented her from shifting back to her human form.

                No, meu amor! What has happened to you?

                I couldn’t risk touching my mate without risking being poisoned myself, which meant I had to leave her body behind. My heart was breaking, my soul was in shatters, my only love was gone from this world.

                “Such a shame, she was a beautiful lay.” More vile words I had never heard.

                I spun and saw what I could barely describe as a man walking towards me, blood dripping from his face, his orange eyes lit with his delight over my pain. I snarled; how dare he insinuate he had lain with my mate.

                “Don’t tell me, she never told you about us?”

                I couldn’t answer him, not without shifting into my more vulnerable form. I growled lowly, daring him to continue.

                “We were in love far before she was pimped out to your sorry ass. She chose duty over love. She was miserable with you, but she refused to leave you. We fought; it was I who took her from you.”

                I couldn’t hear any more of his lies. I pounced, claws extended, mouth wide…wishing for his end, I clamped my jaws around his throat, but he shifted or began to before I could inflict enough damage to ensure death.

                But he didn’t continue to shift after I let go. Instead, he reverted back to his human form, staring at his hands in horror.

                “You mongrel! What have you done to me? What have you done?!”

                Even if I wanted to answer him, I couldn’t because I felt myself being pulled out of the prison realm, and then I was home. The familiar plateau of Wolf Ridge welcoming me back, along with Seamus holding a change of clothes.

                Foolishly, I looked for Angelina, but I knew she was gone. Taken from me, by our sworn enemy. I took some comfort in knowing I had taken something from him as well… his dragon.

March 15, 1987

It was a dark, cloudy night with the potential for a raging thunderstorm. The houses on the darkened street were quiet, the lights turned out for the night, the only movement anywhere save for the wind and the trees that bowed to it, was two young lovers deep into a quarrel that an ordinary human would have to strain to hear. One was a beautiful young woman, who was clearly of Asian descent, but her hair was brightly colored a deep red, and her eyes seemed to match. Her face would have been angelic if not for the fierce animalistic snarl that marred her face, the other was a gangly boy, one easily recognizable by the neighbors if they bothered to look out the window.

“Victoria, Vicky you don’t, you aren’t human! How can you expect me to, to k-keep?

“To keep? To keep loving me? Trevor, you made a promise! I don’t take kindly to people who break their promises to me! Especially those I give my heart to!

“You’re a monster! You drink b-blood! You killed my s-sister!”

“She was a brat! You wanted her dead! You told me so! She threatened you with a gun! A loaded gun! She would’ve killed you if I hadn’t intervened! I love you Trevor, why can’t you accept me for who I am?”

“I c-can’t love a monster. I’m sorry Victoria!”

“You’re not sorry! Sorry would mean you care! You don’t love me! You never did! Because if you ever did truly love me, then me being what I am, against my will might I add, shouldn’t be a fucking problem for you! You should be able to overlook it! I love you! I haven’t loved anyone in centuries! Trevor, you changed me!”

“I-I’m sorry Victoria, I’m sorry but it’s over. Believe what you will.” Trevor turned his back on the woman he thought he loved, which proved to be the biggest mistake of his young life.

“No one breaks up with me and lives without consequences Trevor Aguirre!” Trevor turned to look at her, her blonde hair dyed red with blood; his sister’s blood, whipped around her beautiful blood smeared face.

“What is my consequence then Victoria?

 “A curse.”

“That’s it? A bit of hocus pocus?”

“You laugh, but my magic is real. You don’t know who you’re dealing with.”

“Try me then, curse me.”

“Fine. Oh, great spirits of the Nether Realm, powers of Heaven and hell, Angels of strife and justice hear me! I curse the one named Trevor Aguirre to walk this earth as a boy of sixteen trapped within an old man’s body. My curse will only break if he finds his one true love in that of a soul of the age he was when he was cursed; sixteen. So, mote it be!” 

The wind picked up, and swirled around the boy named Trevor Aguirre. Little did either of the two know how much of a game of fate they were playing. His screams of pain brought pain to Victoria; for she truly did love the boy; but if he did not love her, and would not accept her for who she was; then she had no choice. She had to punish him. She watched; with a broken heart as the boy, she loved was replaced with a middle-aged man. His clothes, replaced with a tweed suit, and his hair; the chocolate brown waves she had combed her fingers through was now a receded thin salt and pepper faded brown. The boy she had loved, still loved, was no more.