A Luna's Curse

by Kassie Cox

  Valor would not show any mercy to these beasts, and although I had faith, they could hold their own—my men would go down fighting. The soldiers he comes with would come here expecting to win or die. There was never an in between, not when the King wanted something.

  My limbs shake as night comes, the moon a beautiful view from the uncomfortable ground I’ve settled into. I wasn’t trying to be difficult but sometimes alone time did the soul some good. I needed a lot of that, as I was a heavy bag of unsure emotions. I’m sure Elias is tired of this little show, but this was not for him. It is for me.

  “Did you ever think you’d stand before your King, and feel that way?” At first, I think he’s being a dick, but then I see he’s genuinely curious for my thoughts.

  I don’t reply for a few minutes, gathering my thoughts and trying to come to my own conclusion about how my own feelings had come across to me. I’d always known I didn’t love the man, but I held a deep-rooted rage towards him. I wished horrible things would occur in his life. That the suffering he’d put me through would come back around to him.

  “I did not expect it to be that negative.” My response has him moving closer. When he’s less than an arm distance away I am swept against his body, knocking the air from me with the impact. Elias was pure muscle, and although I loved the contact is still felt like hitting a brick wall. His beast rumbles with happiness.

  “From now on I’ll only show you the good things.” As he breaths me in my body slowly stops shaking, the warmth entering me as I am held tightly in his arms.

  A place I wouldn’t mind staying forever,

  This would be the time to tell him about the curse that could be broken. I should be explaining to him that the Witch in his home is holding back my ability to understand everything clearly, but I don’t want to ruin the moment.

  “I wonder if Audra ever got those sandwiches.” I say aloud, making the male shake with laughter. He stands up, bringing me with him as he starts in a direction that I pay no attention to. His hands on me suddenly going from gentle and comforting, to making my insides burn with need.

  “I had her go check on a few of the pack members, and she’s making sure the borders are more secure. As for food, I’ll make sure you are fed.”

  I nod, the thought of food bringing a large smile to my face. My minds runs, thinking through the day’s events as I wait to see where I end up on the property, A part of me hoped he’d bring me to that cabin, it would make sure we had privacy and I could cuddle into him until the end of time. Or at least until the King returned.

  My mother’s face flashes through my mind, her voice an echo I never want to stop hearing. I was curious as to how the Witch was doing, and I suppose she’d ended up having to heal the natural way.

  She’d allowed me to see my mother, a picture of her engrained in my memory and for that I was beyond thankful. But the woman also took away the opportunity for me to know how to break the curse she’d helped place on me. Once I was fed and well rested, I’d be speaking with her again.

  Demanding answers, and not backing down until I got what I wanted.

  Until then I’d stay with the wolf. Safe in his warmth as I ignored my troubles, each inhale of his scent driving me closer to the point of insanity.

  “You’re riling my beast up, Little One.” I open my eyes to stare up at him, but I end up taking in our surroundings. We’ve made it to his room in the packhouse. Alone in an enclosed space with the male that makes me want to claw the clothes from his back.

  He sets me down on the edge of the bed, dark eyes travelling over me hungrily. I wanted him to devour me. I craved to feel his hot mouth move across my skin as I ran my fingers through his hair and worship his name with my lips.

  Elias groans, a long deep noise that settles into the air. My breathing picks up along with his as we continue watching one another. Each waiting to see who would be stupid enough to make the first move.

  “Take a shower, I’ll have something to eat for you once you’re done.” The words sound pained as they leave his mouth. I want to invite him to join me.

  Allow the wolf to wash my bad day away with warm water and perhaps a few laps of that little tongue between my thighs. My shorts are drenched in the need of him, and Elias knows it. The male is quick with his leaving of the room, but I am slow getting to the shower. Choosing a shirt from his collection of clothes, not bothering with bottoms.

  My body hums with relief when the hot water rains upon me. I’m scratching at the surface of my body to cleanse it well. Trying to get the feeling of my mate’s eyes from my skin but failing. The soap I use has me smelling of him, reminding me of how great it had been to be tucked into his body. Held by a man I wanted, so fucking badly.

  Other thoughts drift through.

  The continued image of that dark night the two women ruined me. An image of a woman who carried me and created me. The one who gave me to a Queen for the sake of my survival. Steadily everything runs through me. Unending images that I can’t rid myself of.

  The words that came so close to giving me what I want.

  I hear shuffling in the bedroom and quickly get out from under the hot water. My stomach growls at the thought of whatever food Elias had brought for me, but my hands itch to touch him. Skin urging me to make my way in there and press against him.

  My hands gently push at the bathroom door and I peak my head out, the wolf was lying face first on the bed. A few bottles of water sit on the stand beside the bed, and a plate stacked meats and rolls sits next to them. I’m across the room in a moment, stuffing my mouth full as I guzzle water down and moan in delight.

  I have no doubt this food is left over from dinner, but I cared not. The tightness in my stomach relieved after a few pieces of heaven pass my lips.

  “I find it hard to believe you grew up in a castle and eat like that.” Elias sounds of sleep as he jokes with me. I’m sure my cheeks have flushed red at comment and I quickly turn away to show the remaining bread into my mouth. I let out a strange squeak when I feel his arm wrap around my middle and pull me to the bed. The food is jut siding down my throat when he lays me against the pillows and puts his large head to my chest.

  A long sigh leaves the wolfs lips, eyes seeming heavy as one of his hands settles as my thigh. The shirt has risen to expose part of my legs, allowing his rough fingers skin access to me. Each stroke of his fingers has a moan threatening to come out.

  “Valor’s mother never appreciated my style of eating, either” I all but whisper to the male. Elias is inhaling me, taking every scent from my body as his fingers grip me a bit harder. A hardness beginning against my leg that I enjoy a little too much.

  “I like watching you eat. Anything to do with your mouth pleases me.” Elias growls, and then I feel his lips on my throat and I grab him. My hands desperate to be on his body as I push them through his hair.

  A soft bite to my neck and I am pressing every part of myself into body, wanting everything he can give me. In a way this would help me escape the thoughts that would not leave my mind. The urge to force answers from a Witch and the stress of a stubborn King fades, replaced with endless lust. The need for him overwhelming.

  “There are many things this mouth can do, Wolf.” The words come out raspier than I had intended, but they receive the desired effect, which is Elias lifting me from the bed, allowing me to wrap my legs around his thick waist as he press his mouth against mine. Pleasure is the only thing I know.

  The sweep of his tongue over mine has my head spinning. The hair on my neck stands to attention as his arms brush over me, gentle in some areas and firm in others. HIs excitement presses into my center and I want to praise the large bulge with my very being.

  My heals dig into his back and I greedily pull at his hair, wanting him impossibly closer.

  I craved to understand how this would make me feel. What thoughts would be going through my mind if this desire to ravage him was being led by something a little more than simple lust. Would it be
better if I felt for him, as he does for me?

  The thoughts are knocked away when he crashes us onto the bed. The beast within him growling out his need. I bet the dogs tail would’ve been tossing back and forth, high with excitement.

  When his large hand lands on my naked hip and begins its slow descent towards my heat I want to scream. Every cell in my body on high alert. Nothing about this situation was normal for me, as I’d been with men before—but never like this.

  It had always been clumsy hands, sloppy kisses. This is a torture. The greatest thing I’ve ever felt in my entire life, and yet it made me want to cry. I wanted to weep for him to enter me. I wanted him to bring my body to places it had never imagined possible, and then do it again. Forever. Until the end of fucking time, or the world itself stopped.

  “You’re so wet for me.” Elias murmurs as he pulls his mouth away from mine. His eyes trail downwards, until they see the part of me his finger is stroking. My soft moans brush across his face and his brows furrow in fascination. I try to close my thighs, heated with something I would call embarrassment. Quickly his hands shove my legs apart, growling out his displeasure. “This is mine.”

  I almost die at the words.

  They are true however, every piece of this body belonged to him. I can tell by the way it opens for him. I’d bow before him if asked, because deep down inside I knew I am his, but he is also mine.

  My male.

  Our eyes are locked when his first finger enters me. A slow push of his thick digit and my mouth falls open, eyes narrowing in as he begins his gentle rhythm. A motion that sets me on fire. Everything is begging for more. I craved this beast atop me, hand on my throat while he takes me. While he shows me just how much I belong-

  Elias stops. Pulling away from me with a look on his face that tells me he’s unhappy with whatever silent secret he’s discovered. I just stare at him, a pout on my lips from the loss of contact.

  “You aren’t ready for this.” He says, almost to himself. I stare at the man as if he has two heads, confused by what he means. I was practically a fountain; his accusation made no sense. Elias is serious however, moving away from me quickly and getting to his feet. He can’t seem to meet my eyes. I feel my blood boil at his ignoring of me.

  “What’s your issue?” My words are spit at him as I pull a cover up and around my body, shielding the fruit I’d been praying he’d take a bite of. The wolf just shakes his head, a somber look on his handsome face.

  “I can feel the lust and the need for you, Keres.” I wait for whatever is to follow, because surely my attraction to him cannot be what is throwing him off. “That’s it. There’s nothing else. It’s as if you feel nothing for me most of the time. I refuse to finish this bond with someone who could walk out of my life tomorrow, and never care that-” I’m on my knees, my hands in the air as release the secret I couldn’t seem to keep to myself.

  “There’s a way to break the curse, you jackass!”

  Elias stands wide eyed, a strange tension in his body as he runs through my words. Instead of allowing him to respond I lay back down, pulling the covers over me and shutting my eyes. I wanted sleep after the words that were just spewed out to me. He was wrong. I did feel something for him, deep inside there were emotions stronger than anything he could imagine.

  But I wasn’t going to beg him to dig deep to find them. If he wanted to believe I would up and leave him, then he could.

  “Turn the light of, Elias.” Those are our final words, his hard steps ring in my ears before the room goes dark.

  I spend the night sleeping as far from him as possible, but I was sure I’d dream of what could’ve happened only moments ago.

  Chapter 21

  Adelina glares across the table at the Alpha male, unimpressed with whatever conversation they’d had before I had arrived. Surprisingly I had slept in today, waking up to the sun shining brightly through the room. Elias had been nowhere in sight.

  The Witch holds an impressively calm rabbit in her arms, stroking it softly with the look of death laying upon her. If anything, her bruising had worsened, the swelling reaching its peak and making the older woman look horrific. I’d went a bit hard on her.

  “You want to watch me drain the life from this adorable animal?” She asks, expectantly. I fiddle in my seat, unsure of what to do when I’m being ignored by the only two people occupying the room with me. Elias didn’t spare me a glance when I’d walked in and sat a few chairs down from him. I wondered if he had confronted the Witch about my news.

  “I’m allowing you to heal yourself, so that I can get answers.” Elias is red. Those big hands on the table are clenched into fists, and I can hear the tapping of his shoes on the floor. Impatient little Alpha.

  “What answers are we looking for?” I question, trying to throw myself into the conversation. I’m not ashamed of my nosy nature. The wolf shoots me a look, but I ignore it. Caring very little for his thoughts of any matter that involved me.

  Neither respond to me, but they do give me their eyes. Attention held solely on me as we sit there in silence. It was irritating, their need to keep secrets.

  “I won’t be spilling any of the answers you seek, Wolf. You want something that will cause more harm than good, and I’ve done enough to harm Keres. I refuse to be the final nail in the coffin that I built for her!”

  The Witch shakes as she yells at the man across from her, tears threatening to spill from those haunted eyes.

  I stare at Elias, taking in every feature as he decides on how this conversation would continue. My body seemed to calm at the sight of the male I wanted so badly, as if he was the peace I’d been searching for. He’d screwed it up last night however, if what he’d felt from me was all there was. I may not feel love, or anything that deeply on my own but I know I want him. In a way that meant a lot more than his naked body on top of mine.

  I wanted his never-ending comfort, and his wicked smile that he gave me every so often. I craved to feel the burn of his eyes on my body until the end of time. To wake up and see him next to me, feel his hand in mine before a battle.

  That did not matter to him. He only cared for the things emotions I could not control; the ones could not tell were there.

  Adelina takes the silence as a go-ahead. The shift in the atmosphere around us causes the rabbit to finally begin its escape attempt. Frail hands grip the creature tight, as those once watering eyes fall closed. I can’t hear the words she begins to murmur, and for a few moments all I notice is the creature struggling in her arms.

  But then, the animal begins its own version of screaming. It’s pain spewing into the air as the Witch picks up her light chanting, quicker with the words that will take away an innocent animals’ life. The bruising is melting away, being replaced by healthy and younger looking skin.

  It doesn’t take long for the rabbit to lose its fight, the scream dying down as it goes almost completely still. I am so focused on the dead animal that I miss the rest of her transformation. The color is being drained from its body. The one lively fur is now turning to a dusty brown, and steadily beginning to curl inwards. The animal is decaying before our eyes, but she doesn’t stop.

  Adelina wants every drop of life.

  She’s younger now. No longer does the woman with sunken eyes and bruised lips sit before us, instead she is the beauty that so many have spoken of. Still aged, but not nearly as clearly.

  “It’s always a joy to see how people react when I do that.” The Witch is smiling, amused by our shock as she throws the corpse to the ground. The shirt that was hanging from her scrawny shoulders just a few minutes ago fits well now.

  That was one small animal she just absorbed. What could she do with a deer, or another person? Is this how she’s remained alive all these years?

  “Still no answers?” Elias pushes once more, aggravation bubbling inside of me.

  “After last night, I don’t think breaking the curse is our biggest priority right now.” I snap at the wolf, not impress
ed with him.

  I keep my eyes on the Witch, who in return looks over me curiously. Does she see my mother when she looks at me? A woman who died by the hands of a jealous woman.

  “You were given your mothers beauty, with Mirela’s bite. What an incredible little mess you are.” Adelina smiles at me, almost affectionately.

  I feel the burn across my neck, two eyes moving over my skin as if he was trying to see past the temple barrier. He felt me in this moment, understanding how the woman’s words affected me. She begins speaking once more before either of us can respond, so talkative in her lively state.

  “It’s been a very long time since I’ve used that method to heal myself, as I was preparing to let the end of my life come fully. Perhaps meeting you has brought me a sort of hope, one that will not be kept if I show you how to break that curse.” She stands, eyes full of life as her feet move easily across the room. Was walking a burden for her before?

  Had she been so sickened with guilt, that the Witch didn’t want to live anymore? It was hard to believe that a woman with so much power, who’d done so many horrible things, would be deterred from continuing by the simple act of putting a curse upon someone. The morals are surprising.

  “If you will not help me, then you need to leave. I won’t sit here and beg for something that you’ll never give me back.” She cocks her head at me, and I feel the corners of my mouth rise. I’m on my feet, leaning against the table as Elias stares at me confused. “You took something from me, Witch. An opportunity to be someone other than the King’s right hand. I would’ve lived an entirely different- “

  “You cannot blame me for your lack of morals, Keres! The guilt may not be felt, but you are aware of your wrongdoing.” Her outburst has the wolf getting up, unhappy with the aggressive posture she’s taken towards me. Elias acted as though I could not protect myself.

  Instead of allowing him to speak I walk closer to her, slowly and showing how humorous I find her reaction. The witch’s eyes are glowing with rage, disliking these accusations.