Healing His Mate
Chapter 25

I love you, I tell her again over the bond, not wanting to take my lips from hers. Her soft body melts into mine and I feel our bond strengthen more.

We completed half of the sharing and I can feel our bond almost being complete.

“Are you ready, angel?” I ask her. I don’t want to rush her, but I am dying to tie her to me for the rest of time.

“I’m scared of what we’ll see,” she tells me.

“Just remember don’t let go of me, Aaliyah,” I say.

The sharing is a beautiful part of the mating process, but the risk is real. If we separate while in her head, she could get lost in her mind and it can tear our bond to shreds.

“I won’t. Just hold on tight,” she kisses my cheek before she leans back, “I trust you.”

Keeping our eyes connected, I reach across our bond and knock on the door.

She opens the door to her mind and the white light encircles us as we step into her memories.

The light fades around us and the color starts to fill the world once again. I clutch Aaliyah's hand in mine tight as I glance around the room we are standing in.

It looks like a little girl's playroom with toys scattered around the floor. There is a purple mat in the center of the room with a small girl carefully playing with a few blocks. She's maybe four or five with her hair braided back into pigtails and a blue tutu.

"That's you?" I ask Aaliyah.

"Yeah," she smiles as I see two people walk into the room. I immediately recgonize the pair as my angel's parents. I take in their similarities and notice she got her deep chocolate eyes from her father and her small dimple from her mom.

"I remember this day," she starts as tears start ot fill her eyes, "It wasn't anything special. My parents played with me. I remember my mom laughing and my dad letting me dress him up as a princess for our tea party. I remember being so happy."

I can feel her holding back from me. This is a fundamental moment for her, and I want her to trust me with why, "Why this memory?"

She takes a shaky breathe, "Because this is the only memory I have of him."

I look back and forth between my angel and her father, "What happened?"

"One day he was here and then he wasn't," her bottom lip quivers, "Growing up, I would ask my mom, but she would break down just thinking about him. I think the only reason she was able to move forward from the loss is because she knew she still had to raise me. Eventually, I just stopped asking. He might have been my father, but I barely remember him."

"I'm so sorry you lost him, angel," I pull her closer to me and place a kiss on her temple.

"It's alright," her voice is meek, "You can't really miss someone you never really knew."

I turn towards her as my thumb rubs against the inside of her wrists, "Angel," I start.

"I know," she sighs.

"Lean on me, Aaliyah," I tell her, "I'm your mate. Whenever you want to talk about your dad or if you want to replace out what happened to him, all you have to do is ask and I will help you replace out. No matter what we replace, I'm not going anywhere."

I feel the warmth start to run through our link again as a light overcomes my sense. We're tugged through her mind and into a new memory.

Before the light even completely dissipates, a loud explosions sounds off in my ears. The images of destruction swarm around me as screams fill the air.

The darkness wraps around the forest in a chill as a group of foxes run past us. I see a team of hunters in a rover weave through the trees in chase. I spot a smaller fox trying to hid behind a larger one in the bushes next to us as we watch a slaughter.

"Aaliyah, what is this?"

"They called it a culling. A systematic attack against the five largest fox shifter skulks in Ireland. The hunters didn't care that we were peaceful. They killed them all," her voice shakes as we watch her people dying.

"Why have I never heard of this?" I feel my grip on my anger cracking the longer we stay in this moment.

"Because there was no one left to report it," she simplifies her answer, "They all died. My entire skulk was wiped out that night. My mother and I were the only ones left. We hid in the woods for weeks in fox form trying to avoid the hunters. When we made it out, we escaped Ireland and headed to America. My mom thought if we stayed hidden, the hunters wouldn't know to look for us."

The carnage continues around us as the sound of the hunters' laughter reaches my ears.

"They laughed as they killed my people," she sobs before turning to face me, her palm still in mine, "You said once that you had never met a fox shifter before and this is why. Most of us lived in this region. After this night, I became a member of an endangered species."

"Aaliyah," I try but I don't know what to say to her. I don't have the words to heal her from this.

"Can we just move on?" she asks suddenly, hoping for a way out, "I don't want to watch this again."

I nod my head and feel my body be pulled forward once again. A white light takes over my vision as we move on to the next memory.

I hear the clanging of lockers as we enter into a high school hallway. I look around and notice a version of Aaliyah walking down towards me.

"High school?" I question, wondering what about this day was so important.

"The last day of it for me," she answers, "My life ended today."

I watch her younger self laughing with a few friends as she packs her bag for the day. I take in the people around her and notice a similarity in the blonde to her right.

"That's Abigail Claire. She's part of the convoy for the River Pack," I turn towards my mate, "You've lived in a wolf pack before?"

"My mom wanted me to grow up around other shifters. Most weren't very welcoming to a couple of foxes moving in. But, I was actually able to make friends here. This pack accepted me."

"What happened?" I ask as we watch her say good-bye to her friends and head out of the school.

We follow behind and I see her hesitate to walk past a lit stadium. Groups of people are starting to head inside as it looks like a football is about to start.

"The big football game against one of the rival pack's schools. I remember hearing that some soon-to-be alpha alum was supposed to show up."

"Which pack?"

She bites her lip for a second in thought before her eyes widen slightly, "Crescent Moon."

"We were so close together," I tell her, realizing my mate had been there. I could have found her then.

"I should have gone to that game. Maybe we would have found each other, instead of what happened next," she tells me.

Her younger self keeps walking and heads towards a forest path. We follow in silence as she reaches her home. But she stops short. Her bag slips off her shoulder and hits the ground with a hard thunk before she takes off towards the house.

"What's going on?" I ask, fear crawling up my spine.

Our focuses shift and we are standing inside the kitchen of the home. Screams ring out as I watch Aaliyah run into the house. Three men are standing in the room as her mother collapses on the floor. I notice the stench of blood as Aaliyah comes charging into the room.

"Mom!" she screams.

I want to go to her. Protect her from the hunters, but I know I can't move. The hunters blindside her when she reaches for her mother. The attack is brutal as I watch my mate crumble onto the floor as well.

"He was the same hunter I saw at the last pack we were in. He followed us," she says, looking down at her mother, "I haven't seen my mom since this day."

"She wasn't in the lab?" I ask, trying to focus my mind on anything but watching the hunters drag away my mate.

"If she was, I never saw her. I hope she's still at River."

"We'll replace out," I promise her, hoping that I won't have to tell my mate that her mother is gone.

The heated light returns and we move forward to another memory.

When I can see again, I notice that we are in a sterile operating room. I see a few doctors in green scrubs move around the room as a few men in blue wheel a patient bed in.

I see the memory of Aaliyah trashing against the restraints tying her down as she screams for the doctors to stop. But no one does. They continue on as if she is silent in the room.

They stick needles into her skin and the monitors beep as they take in her rapidly beating heart.

"Please don't do this! Please just let me go," she begs the doctors.

One of the doctors leans over the table, "This may hurt," he warns before sliding a scalpel into her skin.

Kiba calls out to our mate as her screams bounce off the walls. I feel Aaliyah start to panic beside me, but I can't pull my focus off the other version of her on the table.

"Not again," she whimpers out.

They operate as she screams in pain. I watch her heartbeat speed up before she flatlines.

"Bring her back," one of the doctors orders calmly. Someone else reaches for the paddles beside them. He calls clear before shocking her body.

"No. No more!" Aaliyah yells next to me.

"Angel, it's okay. It's just a memory," I try to calm her, turning slightly to block the sight.

"I can't do it again. Not again," she repeats over and over again, "I want to stop this."

"Angel."

"No!"

She yanks back and separates our hands. I feel the snap of our connection as I'm thrown out of her mind, leaving my mate trapped inside.