Cursed Blood

by Ashley Marie

  Avery looks like a deer knowing it’s caught, fear blazing in her eyes. Dean tenses getting ready to step forward when she turns to Kayden.

  “What was that about?” Avery whispers looking out the door, towards the trees where the boy disappeared.

  Yes, what does the boy have to feel sorry for?

  Kayden moves to her and wraps his arms around her small body. A sigh comes from Kayden as Avery wraps her arms around him in return.

  Dean looks at them curiously. He wonders if he will ever be able to bring that sense of calm to their mate.

  “I don’t know,” Kayden says softly kissing the top of her head, Dean watches as Kayden’s nose flares inhaling Avery’s cold scent.

  It’s such a soothing smell. Their mate.

  A clearing throat has Kayden looking at his brother standing at the other door out of the kitchen. Dean watches the boy too, who shifts from foot to foot. What a timid wolf to be a brother to an alpha.

  Dean follows Avery and Kayden into a serving room and out into the hall way.

  Kayden’s lips raise in a silent snarl. Dean smiles. Finally, the boy smells the others. Does he realize the threat for what it is?

  They move through the door way Dean backing off to lean up against the wall as all eyes are on Avery and Kayden.

  Jeff is standing right in the middle of the room as a buffer. Like that would matter.

  Dean lifts his lips up at the two wolves setting by the widow. Enforcers. The Crown wrapped around the red paw on their shirts has stayed the same, other than the color. It was silver. His symbol, how dare they keep it after he left. That is his blood right, not theirs. Dean’s teeth begin to lengthen and sharpen.

  Dean looks to Kayden having felt a small spark of fear. Dean sees Kayden tighten his grip on their mate.

  Very good.

  “Kayden. Avery.” A familiar voice pulls Deans copper eyes to the far wall.

  Rondla. No, but a descendent from the snake of a wolf. Dean’s teeth sharpen even more. He never did like the scheming and the festering oily scent of the Red Paws.

  The man’s hair has grayed with age and what’s with the tacky red suit. The man steps forward a greedy light shining in his eyes.

  “Well, Well, it seems you have been keeping secrets, Jeff.” The old wolf smiles never looking away from Avery, devouring her with his eyes.

  “No Sir, this happened after you were notified of Avery.” Jeff bows slightly.

  Fool. No Blackwell should bow down to a Red Paw. How the times have changed.

  The old wolf just grins stepping forward an old hand out stretched towards Avery.

  Kayden snarls pulling Avery behind him. Dean moves up a step.

  “Control your pack mate.” The man snarls his eyes flashing yellow.

  “Kayden stand down,” Jeff commands.

  Dean smiles as Jeff tries to use his Alpha pull on Kayden. It won’t work. Kayden is no longer tied to Jeff through pack bond. Only Avery has that kind of control now.

  Jeff looks at Kayden with a splash of surprise and worry.

  Kayden smiles now. An evil crude smile. What did Jeff ever do to Kayden to get such a smile out of the boy?

  “Come now Kayden. Sir Loral just wants to meet her. You know I would never let anything happen to Avery.” Jeff says trying a different route.

  Will the boy step up or will he bend down to what he’s always known?

  Sir Loral snarls releasing a gust of Beta power. “You will step aside now boy.” The older man snarls.

  Only to be shut out with a more powerful blast of wild magic coming from the back wall. Dean’s had enough. He will not let these fools upset Avery any longer.

  “Task task tisk,” Dean says his tongue clicking, stalking forward in nothing but those black shorts, standing at Avery’s side. She smells heavenly even with the fear tinting her scent.

  “You have no power here, old man,” Dean says with that smirk.

  He watches Loral mouth gapes open and then turns into a snarl. The man steps forward to releases another blast of power that does nothing to the three.

  Dean snarls his teeth shinning in the light. “No power.” He taunts prowling forward taking great glee in seeing fear in the old man.

  “How dare you?” Loral stutters.

  “How dare I. Yes.” Dean chuckles moving closer still.

  Dean twists around a vicious growl knocking the Enforcers to their knees as they tried to sneak up behind him. The Enforcers bow, whimpering, heads titled, giving Dean their neck. A sign of respect to the more powerful wolf.

  Dean laughs again never feeling this free in a long time. He turns back to Loral who is down on his knees, a sneer covering his old face.

  “Now this is how everything is going to work,” Dean says a growl ending on each word. Standing over top of a kneeling Loral.

  “You will leave. At a time that we deem necessary, we will come to court. Until then, I do not want to hear or smell any of the court here or around Blackwell. Do you understand.” Dean snarls.

  “Yes.” Loral bits out.

  Dean watches him and the two Enforcers climb to their feet and leave the house. Only when he feels them pass the boundary line does he move.

  He goes to Avery first wrapping his arms around her small frame. “No fear.” He says to her kissing her cheek.

  “It seems you and everyone else needs a history lesson love,” Dean says smiling down at Avery, who looks up at him with her ice blue eyes wide and confused.

  “Yes.” Jeff clears his throat. “I say we do.” He says looking at Dean with fear.

  Dean nods his head leading them out of the room and towards the kitchen. Lunch would go wonderfully with a story.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Avery

  I WALK INTO the kitchen shell shocked. I don’t know what just happened. I was there. I saw it all. Heard it all, but I still don’t understand. What is Court? Who are they? What is their purpose? Why did Jeff tell them about me, if they were such a threat?

  Dean. God, there is so much more than him then just a regular wolf being in the rage. He seems older. He seemed to know something about that guy, Loral.

  A shiver takes hold of me that’s full of fear. I feel a warm hand on the small of my back, looking over my shoulder I see Kayden and I relax a little. Still, I can’t shake the look in Loral’s eyes. It was a greedy, lust filled looked that shocked me to my bones. He looked at me like he wanted to own me, claim me. I don’t understand any of it and I feel the tears of my frustration threaten to slide down my face.

  I look up across the bar and see Cam sitting there, a spoon in his mouth. Aden is leaning up against the counter behind him, worry in his grey eyes. Nick sits off to the side lost in thought, drilling holes into the black, grey counter top with his eyes.

  I slid up onto the bar stool, “What are you eating?”

  Cam looks up, “Cake batter.” He says uneasily looking away.

  Cake batter. I can’t help but smile as I lean up and swipe my finger in the silver bowl. A goop of thick yellow batter sticks on my finger and I stick it in my mouth. Mmm. It’s so sweet.

  I go in for another swipe and feel eyes on me. I look up and see everyone is staring at me. I shrug and swipe another finger full. I’m about to do it again when a spoon appears right in front of my face.

  Aden. Aden is giving me a spoon.

  I reach up slowly, “Thanks.” I say unsure.

  “Cam eats sweets when he’s upset,” Aden says leaning back against the counter.

  Well, doesn’t everyone like a few sweets. It seems to sooth the worries away.

  “Tell me about what you know of the court.” Dean’s soft lyrical voice wreaks havoc on my happy cake batter mood.

  Cake batter forgotten I look at Jeff.

  I jerk feeling a warm hand on my bare thigh. A blush splashes across my face as Dean’s thumb starts rubbing back and forth across my leg. His copper eyes on Jeff.

  Alright then. I let out my pent-up breath and look
at Jeff once more.

  “The Court. An odd way of saying it. We call it the Six.” Jeff says, “The Six is a select group of Alphas and their packs, ruled by the Red Paws.” Jeff says, “They police our world and hunt down all empaths. They are to be registered with the Six.” He says. His eyes flick to me and back again. “Every three months every Alpha of every pack across the states all convene in one place for the gathering. Which the Six rule over. Every empath along with every wolf of age meet at the gathering where they try to find their mate or empath.”

  He’s not telling us something. I can see the tense lines in his face.

  “And,” Dean growls, shifting forward causing his hand to slide down to my knee and butterflies in my belly.

  “The Six take and keep the strongest of the empaths and force bonds,” Jeff says looking away.

  Dean nods thinking. His thumb starts moving again, going in small circles and I can’t help but shift as heat starts to pool in my body. How can something so simple, feel so good?

  “The Six is not what it used to be. With power comes corruption.” Dean says softly more to his self then us. “It’s my fault.”

  I feel his anger and guilt. I reach out and lay my hand on top of his. He looks up and gives me a smile linking our fingers together.

  “What makes you say that?” Jeff asks confused.

  I think we all are confused that is. How could this be Dean’s fault?

  “I left, finally giving in and letting the rage take me over. Not caring an inch of what became of my legacy, my right by blood.” Deans growls softy, his eyes glowing brighter.

  I lean my shoulder onto Kayden’s chest sitting beside me, seeking his comfort as Dean fights a battle with in him.

  “How could that be possible?” Cam says looking around at everyone. “How is that your legacy?” Cam has a frown on his face looking at Dean.

  Dean takes a deep breath, not answering Cam. He looks out the window, his thumb once more, moving on my leg, “The Court of Wolves was formed to help the male wolves, who had the mating fever creeping up on them. To help them hold it back to find their true mate. Only male wolves carried the gene to breed more wolves, but to do that they could only mate with their True mate. To mate with another would destroy any chance they would have of forming the bond to their True mate. We were losing to many males to the mating fever and this was the only plan left. Many believed it wouldn’t work but it did and it saved our race from becoming extinct. The Court of Wolves was made of Six of the most powerful alphas and their equally powerful Empaths. With one extra Alpha Queen, the seventh which doesn’t exist now it seems.” Dean says looking back at the astonished looks on the people around us. He lets out a breath, “Back then, before Rain, only the strongest of the wolves could form a bond to an Empath. To help balance out that Empaths abilities.”

  And me I’m still just a confused mess of emotions.

  “Your history, our history it seems has been lost, warped to the needs of the power-hungry wolves that are in charge now.” Dean snarls, his hand clenching on my leg for a second.

  “That means you, what, over a thousand years old?” Cam says gapping at Dean.

  How can he be that old? Now I’m gaping at Dean.

  Dean nods, his eyes flickering from person to person, “Back then the seventh was my mother, Victoria White and her empath Vince Rain.”

  There’s a collective pause, and Nick blurts out, “No shit.”

  “That’s why they thought this would work. That the Court would work. Certain pack Alphas would share a blood link with one of the Six and the Six would form that same blood link with the seventh, my mother. Through that link, she would be able to feel which wolves were in the beginning stages of the mating fever and with the help of her empath they would be able to hold it off for if possible and it worked for many years.”

  “What is the mating fever?” I mumble, turning red.

  Dean chuckles, “So, innocent.” He smiles softy, “The mating fever is a need for male wolves to mate. In their twenties, they’d start feeling the strain of it. Our legends said those who could withstand the mating fever was worthy of a True mate. Of passing on their genes and having that one of a kind bond. But too many wolves were falling victims to the fever. The results, less and fewer pups were being born. Our way of life was dying.”

  Dean went on to tell, as the years past Rain became jealous of Victoria and her True mate Thomas. How much powerful they became year after year. How everyone loved them. How Rain wanted Victoria more and more as a mate and couldn’t have her.

  That jealousy turned into hatred.

  Rain was the most powerful empath known to history able to feed anyone, more so his bonded wolf whatever emotion he so chooses on a grand scale and the one thing that made him truly different from other Empaths was that he could take any emotion away from any person, be empath or wolf and they would never feel the stolen emotion ever again. That’s why they thought their plan would work. How they could hold off the mating fever from so many males. Rain could virtually control the person. Many years passed and Dean watched more and more as his mother pushed everyone away from her. Her son. Her True mate. Her pack.

  Rain withered away one emotion at a time until there was nothing left of Victoria White. She became a shell and Rain was the one who filled it.

  The link between Victoria and the six, that linked her and Rain to every wolf on the verge of the mating fever become something twisted and unnatural. It became the Rage. Sucking all human emotions out of the shifter, making them wolves and wolves only.

  Dean soon learned what Rain was up to when his mother and father mysteriously fell ill and passed on. Dean found a hidden journal with his parent’s things. In their laid, all the answers to the questions Dean so desperately wanted to know.

  Rain tried to take the seventh spot on the Court of Wolves but being only an empath he could not. For only wolves could form a blood link to each other.

  When Dean reached his twenty birthdays, the day he would take the Crown, the seventh spot on the Court of Wolves, Rain tried to bond the two of them together. It wasn’t natural. A forced bond. Dean was strong enough and fought Rain with not only his inner strength but with fur, claws, and teeth.

  To force an empath to bond with a wolf is a death sentence. The wolf and empath need to be evenly matched in power. If not the strongest one of the bond will slowly consume the life force of the weaker one. When he told us that, I felt sick? Isn’t that what the Six have been doing? Forcing bonds. Killing empaths and wolves. But Rain was strong enough for it to work. For it not to be a death sentence to him.

  You’d think it would have been over then, but no. All that time Rain was waiting for Dean to grow and rightfully claim his seat as the seventh, Rain was bonding with more and more wolves. Creating more and more wolves in the Rage. From that twisted bond Rain created has resulted in wolves now coming into the Rage, bypassing the mating fever.

  It was a bloody battle that lasted for almost five years before Dean finally sunk his teeth into Rains throat ending the war.

  It took Dean and his closest members of the White pack, four long years to build their society back up from nothing. During that time wolves were going into the Rage instead of the mating fever. Dean realized Rain had succeeded in some way. For now, future generations would never know of the mating fever. Never know of the True mate bond. Forever needing to be bonded to an empath to keep them from the Rage. Rain managed to damage the wolf society even in his death.

  Once his pack had stable ground the first thing Dean did was dismantle the Court of Wolves and hunt down everyone in the Rain line. Hoping to stop this from happening ever again.

  Dean set laws around Empaths. They were watched for many many years. Then one day Dean just up and disappeared.

  “I couldn’t hold out any longer. The rage was there. Always pressing on me. I finally felt secure enough with what I rebuilt to finally stop that constant battle I had with myself. I came here. To the Black
well’s land. To your great- great grandfather and let the what Rain created, the Rage take over. But it seems that I was wrong.” Dean’s hand slips out of mine and I watch as he walks out into the yard.

  Everyone is quiet. Each in their own thoughts. I’ll think about everything later. It’s too much. Too much information. I smile at Kayden, hop off the bar stool and follow Dean. Maybe I can ease some of his guilt and the old wounds his story brought fourth.

  Chapter Fifty

  Avery

  I SMILE AS I dig my toes in the warm sand. Happy to be soaking up the summer sun while I can. Soon Fall will be here. I can already see it. The leaves are starting to change their colors and the wind brings a nip with it at night.

  I look up across the lake watching the wind ripple the surface water gently. I’m grateful that I snuck off without anyone realizing.

  I snort knowing I’m kidding myself. They let me think I snuck off.

  I dig my toes deeper in the sand thinking.

  They’ve been smothering me. Dean and Kayden. Constantly by my side never letting me be by myself for long. It’s not like their company is bad or the touches. I feel a blush come to my face. Let’s not think about their touches.

  Always being in their company is hard. Especially for someone who’s been by herself for two years. It will take time to get used to it, to them I suppose.

  I don’t blame them. We, all three of us seem to just gravitate towards each other and what happened two months ago, only made their wolves want to be that much closer to me.

  Something I’m still coming to terms to with. How they can be both, a human and a wolf at once. It’s confusing.

  Just thinking about that day still, has my heart pounding in fear. A nasty feeling slithering over my skin.

  To know that guy, Loral isn’t even the one we should be worried about. To know that there is someone above him. That’s just as creepy, is a scary thing to think about. To know there is Six plus their packs that would like more than anything to get their greedy paws on me is nauseating to think about.