A Luna's Curse

by Kassie Cox

  “I don’t think you understand that you took away a choice. My path was chosen the moment I was handed over to the Queen due to your friends’ jealousy. You took a life from me, a happy one. The chance at love, ripped away. Every opportunity for something else was beaten and burned out of me. I was tortured to become this. My lack of morals stem from many things—the guild, my lack of emotions. You can’t say I would have chosen this road if I had another choice.”

  Elias growls at the dismissing of our unfinished bond. I pay little attention, caring none about his sadness when I’m sure I was drowning in a sea of my own. The woman’s stance calms a bit. It appears my words have settled the rage inside of her, but I don’t believe she’ll give the answers we want.

  Adelina was correct that the horrible things I’d done were not her fault. I’d made choices, even before the Guild that most people would’ve shied away from. I’d taken a life before I’d ever had the skills to do so branded into me. I understand that.

  When you’re trying to make a point, those things don’t count.

  “You think this curse is the end of your life; seeing it as a barrier that’s holding you back.” I glare at the woman, her words striking a chord inside of me. “Things could’ve been different for you and I know better than anyone else what you could’ve done had this never happened. It did happen, though. Get your shit together and start dealing with it properly. Stop using it as an excuse. Take what you want, because life won’t wait for you, Keres.”

  The Witch finishes her little speech. Her preaching ending with a dramatic silence as I fume while the Wolf takes her words into consideration. Maybe I was stuck in my own pity party refusing to beyond the wall of numbness I’d set for myself, never wanting to test the boundaries.

  I’d never had a reason. My days were spent in a routine with the King, doing my job every damn day until I’d come here. I’d never felt a need to step outside of my comfort zone because there was never something to achieve by doing so.

  Now, I had Elias. His pack was a bit iffy, as I did start off our meeting by killing their kind. Brutally, if I remember correctly.

  Since then they have seemed to be kind and welcoming, but you can never be sure. Always a loved one seeking revenge for something.

  “We can worry about my mate’s personal issues later, for now let’s focus on the task at hand. Breaking the curse will only lead to something worse, that’s what you’re saying?” Elias deescalates the situation smoothly. The Witch nods, a quick movement before she averts her eyes.

  She was tired of our prying. The conversation most likely boring her to pieces and working her nerves as repeating the same thing would do to anyone. Elias and I shared our dedication to figure things out, I wanted to understand a problem, even if it wasn’t mine and work on solutions. I had a more aggressive need to figure out this puzzle, however.

  “I can see that look in your eyes, but even threats of murder will not-” Adelina starts but I cut her off quickly. My patience thinned to the breaking point as I watch the woman practically wave her knowledge in front of us. Who was she to make the judgement on what I should and should not know?

  “You will show me.” I hiss, moving towards her. The Witch is wide eyed as she tries to retreat, but I’m quicker than she is. More aggressive and strong, in every aspect. My hands reach out, grabbing her by the face as I stare at her. Forcing my presence upon her to overwhelm and confuse the woman who’d played one to many mind games for my liking. “Show me, right now. Do it.”

  I feel Elias pulling at me, but he isn’t forceful. The wolf wants this as much as I do but I would go further than him to get it. My hands were dirtied by the things I had done for answers that meant much less to me.

  The woman grips my wrists, the pressure I’m putting on her head has her gasping and she’s in a complete panic, but nothing will unlatch me. I wanted this. I needed this.

  “Show me! Do it, Adelina! Show-”

  This time when the woman takes control and begins pulling me into a vision, I know I am in trouble. My eyes close swiftly, and I feel as we both hit our knees on the floor of the dining room. I am gone before the Wolf can pull me away.

  Chapter 22

  The temple I inhabit is drenched. Adelina is shuddering violently as the rain continues its assault upon her sensitive skin. She pays little attention to the she-wolf on her knees beside her whose body is being wracked with sobs. Laura had finished the ritual that she’d wanted so badly, but only now does she see the consequences of her actions. There was no taking this back.

  “Why would you do that?” Adelina asks softly, her voice is almost a whisper and the words choppy through her clattering teeth. The she-wolf doesn’t look up to face her friend, only continues her weeping as the sky shows its anger above. Thunder and lightning pushing one another forward—an expression of wrongdoing. The Witch presses on, and I can feel the disgust bubbling in her throat. Her heart beating erratically against her rib cage while she takes a small step forward, eyes moving towards the sky.

  Oh, what a mess they had made.

  “You are supposed to give them an out, Laura. A way to fix what you’ve done.” Rustling gives away that the woman has shifted her position on the ground, most likely looking at the Witch now. Adelina does not care, however. She’s angry. She just helped her friend against better judgment, and it’s lead into a complete clusterfuck of issues. Cursing someone was bad, even a little cruel in most instances. This was horrific. It went against everything she stood for, the ruining of another soul beyond repair.

  “That bitch should’ve never laid hands on what was mine.” Laura snarls, the once grieving wolf now fuming with the Witches disagreement settling between them. I crave to know what she’s done.

  “You are rotten from the inside out, Old Friend. I want no part in this any longer. We will both pay for the sins you’ve chosen to commit.”

  The wolf is on her in a moment, golden eyes glaring down into narrowed ones. Adelina hates the woman she once trusted dearly. The woman she’d known for so long, who she believed to be kind and nurturing—a beast in both skin and fur.

  “I did what I needed to do.” Adelina spits in her face, rage coursing through both women. The weather around them is not letting up, and I suspect I’m about to witness a battle.

  When the fist hits, I am thrown from the seen, submerged into darkness and then I am running. Well, Adelina is running.

  Her shoes hit hard against the hallway floors of the castle, and the Guard leading her way looks back every few steps to make sure she’s still there. When they approach the door to Mirela’s chambers I get a clue of what is being seen, the memory the Witch has deemed worthy to show me.

  The Guard throws the wooden doors open, stepping aside to allow the Witch in. She gets to action immediately. The Queen sits beside the bed holding a half dead man, the one Adelina has come to help. There is no speaking as she whips off her coat and strides for the bed, making the Queen shift far away. Mirella does not look happy about bringing this woman in, and now I understand why.

  “Symptoms.” The Witch demands as her hands begin to trace over the man, feeling each limb as her body sends waves of power through him.

  “He hasn’t eaten in days; his legs won’t hold him up and he’s been making this horrible sound for the past few hours.” As if on cue the man releases a rattle from his sunken in chest. Adelina knows this isn’t a curse almost immediately but doesn’t want to tell them that. So, she continues her touching of the man, making I seem as though she is searching every inch for something that could be causing this.

  The Witch could practically smell the decaying of his body from the inside out, and she focused her energy on finding its source. Her heart dropped as it radiated from each part of his body. The King would not live more than a few days, and he’d be in unimaginable pain the entire time.

  “You can’t save him, can you?” Mirela questions, her voice breaking at the end as the truth hits her head on. The Witch doesn
’t answer her, instead she takes a step back from the bed and turns away. Quiet sobs leave the Queen as the mortality of her beloved is thrown in front of her. She’s trying to swallow down her sadness, but it doesn’t work—everyone near this room will know what’s to come.

  “I would keep him sedated and begin your goodbyes. He does not have many days left, Your Highness.”

  Adelina doesn’t have the heart to face the woman. For more than one reason. The Queen is aware of who this Witch is, what she has done and those she has aided. The little girl Adelina helped destroy is somewhere in that castle, and if her eyes laid upon her the Witch would not know what to do. How would she look?

  She doesn’t know that I was away at the time. I’d been sent to my own personal hell as I missed the passing of the King, and the rise of another. The woman who is sobbing for a life, only feet away, had not blinked at the thought of sending me to my own death. A place she had not expected me to make it from.

  “Stella could’ve helped this. She would’ve caught the signs, and she could’ve helped him get better before we got to this point.” The Queen’s voice steadily rises as she approaches the woman she blames for her husband’s misfortune. “The death of my friend has resulted in the death of my husband—you let that monster of a wolf know about this. She will not get away with this.”

  I’ve never seen Mirela this angry in my life. Adelina stares at the woman who’d once smiled so brightly and had a lot of love for the Kingdom she helped rule. That human being is not the one standing in front of her for this memory. A shall stares at Adelina with hatred, hissing words of anger through her quivering lips.

  “Where is her daughter? Did she not take after her mother in healing, Your Highness?” Mirela is almost shocked at the mocking in the Witches tone. I’m also thrown off. Adelina did not like to be associated with what I had done, nor did she agree that the death of the King had resulted from the sins her friend had committed.

  “Keres is away for right now, being taught how to capitalize on the monstrous tendencies you created inside of her.” The Queen sounds disgusted by her own words. She doesn’t mention it is practically a death camp.

  “You give me a lot of credit for the choices she makes.” Adelina smiles, enjoying this a little too much. “It’s crazy what a lack of a moral compass can do to one, is it not? What someone can do when they don’t feel the consequences of their actions. That girl she killed, for example. Did it faze her at all, to take her first life?”

  “Get out of my home. Now, you need to leave right now.” Mirela growls at the woman mocking her. I would’ve launched myself at the Witch, beaten her down with fists until she learned to keep that to herself. Adelina does not respond, only shoots one last look to the man laid on the bed before nodding. The Queen throws the coat at her, and the Witch begins to leave.

  I would’ve expected the woman to be smiling, happy to have made the Queen so angry in such a short amount of time. Instead her eyes are brimming with unshed tears, and she’s swallowing down the words she wants to give. Her heart is begging her to apologize, to give the Queen permission to blame everything on her.

  “She has to die, doesn’t she? To break her curse?” The Queen asks, softly. The words are a rope wrapping around the Witches throat and to answer would be to pull her own lever. Adelina doesn’t stop as she responds, but the words are drowned out as the floor falls from beneath her feet. I can’t hear what she says, but I understand perfectly.

  I’m back on the floor in the pack house. The mate I will never feel proper love for holds me to his chest, but I keep my eyes on the Witch as she comes to. The guilt settles into her expression as she slowly clenches her body into a ball. Long breaths leave her, shallow cries for forgiveness as she sees how I feel about this. The predicament I am in is endless. It will never end.

  Death will be the only escape I have from this curse, meaning a bond I’d been destined to have would only be felt in projections. Passing glimpses of what I could’ve held in my hands for eternity will continue to taunt me. The Witch weeps for me, releasing her emotions on the pack floor while I sit there hollowed out. An empty shell of bad decisions and wanting.

  My hands grip the wolf, and deep down I hope Elias understands how sorry I am that he ended up with someone like me. A woman who’d spend her entire life disappointing him, because I would never be able to satisfy his bond. My mind is made up in that moment, that I’d rather go back to the castle and have a sense of purpose.

  I’d live every day taking things I wanted and making decisions that were hard for most. Perhaps being the Queen beside Valor wouldn’t be so bad. Elias growls at whatever he feels from me.

  I suspect it is something resembling defeat, but I will never know.

  Chapter 23

  I’m eerily quiet that night. Leena brings her young one to the pack house to cheer me up, but even the soft laughter and endless conversation between pack members does nothing to brighten my spirits. The choice I’d made has my stomach clenching, and every piece of me aches to change my mind. My throat tight each time I look at the male who can’t keep his eyes from me.

  I imagine this is what heartbreak feels like. Understanding that everything you want is going to be lost, never to be recovered no matter how much you crave to have it back. This torture is so much different than the kind I experienced at the Guild as for this it was internal. Somewhere inside of me everything is crumbling. I know that, and the look of anguish on Elias tells me he does as well.

  Adelina has been hauled up in Audra’s room for the past few hours, the she-wolf seeming to have a soft spot for the Witch. I hadn’t gotten to know the woman very well, but the Beta of this pack was interesting. I’m sure she would take care of her Alpha once I left, but I doubted she would be impressed with me for abandoning the pack. Although my reasons seem fair enough to me, Audra would not view it the same way. I’d be a coward in those golden eyes.

  “Do you think he’ll really come back, Keres?” Draven catches my attention. My eyes don’t drift away from the Alpha of this pack when I answer. I wat to remember every single feature, because soon I’d never get another peak at the man who’d been made for me. Those golden eyes blaze with a passion I wish to feel.

  “The King never gives up on the things he wants. A quality many of us seem to share.” As Elias furrows his brows, I finally tear my gaze away, needing a moment of peace within myself. The child crawls around the floor while Leena coos for her to come back.

  The small beast is making its way towards me, a determined look in its glowing eyes. My arms open to invite her into me, and she quickens her pace. Bubbling laughter resounds from the little wolf’s chest as I receive a toothless grin.

  A low growl is given from Elias, for what I am unsure. My eyes meet the small golden ones and I’m entranced by their beauty. The picture of innocence sits in front of me with a smile larger than any I’ve seen, and something I’d compare to adoration in her eyes. I’ve murdered innocent people, yet this little one can look at me as though I have done no wrong. Did children always have this effect?

  “She can sense that you are her Luna. The one meant to lead, nurture, and teach her the ways of this world in ways I cannot—all of our young will love you this way.” I would’ve sobbed if given the opportunity. If I could express the way those words made me feel I’m sure I’d be blurry eyes, sniffles mixed with other little actions.

  My mouth is dry, hands shaky as I set the child back down and stand. I couldn’t leave at this moment otherwise I’d seem suspicious, but I knew Elias would feel the guilt eventually. If I had any soul it would be eating at me soon enough, and I didn’t want to ruin my trip back to the castle with the wolves’ watchful eye over my emotions.

  I scan the small crowd around me. Draven leans peacefully against a couch, while Leena and her mate keep their eyes on their pup. They manage to keep contact the entire time, throwing smiles at one another while the world around them carries on. Elias is in his same staring mode as alwa
ys. Those orbs flowing everything I do, but today it does not bother me. Perhaps he won’t forget me as easily once I am gone. I’m sure he’ll move on, hell I hope he does. But I want him to remember me a bit, because I know there will not be a day where I don’t crave him. The male who’d force himself into my thoughts and made me feels things I’d never dreamt of.

  Elias deserves to feel more than this, though. He deserves so much more than I could ever give him. I wanted to, but I can’t.

  “Come here, Purple Fairy.” Elias practically purrs to me, and my body melts towards him. It’s like the cabin all over again as I mold into his frame and take in his endless warmth. The feeling of his chest vibrating with contentment makes me sigh. I must look strange to the others.

  Things have changed so quickly. I went from wanting to murder them all and dance in the ashes, to enjoying them. Wanting to be around them and I know I will miss every single one of them. I wish I had gotten to know the pack more. The regret of not being more personal with everyone, the people who thought I would be good enough to lead them. I don’t believe the people in our Kingdom will think of me in such a positive way, which is a very big loss. I’m going from a place that supports me, to one that will want me to fall.

  The citizens of Valor’s kingdom see me as a murderer, which I cannot blame them for. The thought has me pressing myself more into my male. I crave every inch of his being before I lose it.

  “Are you ready for bed?” Elias murmurs in my ear; immediately my body is on fire. The need for him a growing clench in my belly as the hand I’ve laid on his broad chest travels. My calm breaths become heavy, different images of the wolf going through my head. We couldn’t do this tonight, because it would be wrong of me.

  ”Can we go for a walk, instead? I haven’t properly met the beast.” My voice is a whisper, and his eyes widen at my request. He looks on the verge of tears as he gets to his feet with me in his arms, carrying me past the staring crowd as his body shakes from within. Both parts of him are happy about this, it’s a hopeful moment for him—the brightness in his golden orbs tell me this.