Chapter 19 19
Third Person POV
"Good day..." Hazel greeted the strangely normal woman who stood in front of her; she thought she had imagined her eyes glowing for a brief moment.
"Please, come in," she gestured at the both of them. Draven stepped after a few moments, and Hazel followed after. She caught a glance of the woman smiling at her; the thought made her feel uncomfortable.
"My name is Sara; I am the priestess of the village," she announced as she closed the door. Hazel had at least expected the interior to look a bit spooky and mysterious, but it was a normal living room you could find anywhere.
"Welcome to my house, although it's not what you expected," she said with a glint of happiness in her eyes. She walked past Hazel and Draven, taking a seat in one of the chairs in the living room.
"Please sit," she gestured. Hazel just realized that she hadn't said a single word to her since she had seen her. She quickly turned to the woman and bowed slightly.
"Thank you for the warm welcome," she thanked her. Sara looked a bit surprised but smiled afterwards, meanwhile Draven grunted as he took his seat.
"Has he told you everything?" Sara asked Hazel; she had a hint of what she meant, so she shook her head. Draven hadn't told her himself about everything that was wrong with him.
"Draven!"
"You brought her here while she knew nothing? How did she even accept to be here in the first place?" she asked him, looking surprised. Draven looked away in embarrassment.
"I don't understand," Hazel said as she sat down facing the two of them. Sara took one more look at Draven and shook her head.
"Hazel, I'm not sure how he managed to convince you, but what we're about to do has to be with your consent, so I'm rather surprised that you agreed to sacrifice yourself for him without knowing the implications." Sara said
"Sacrifice?" Hazel asked, a bit shocked; she hadn't known that she would be sacrificing herself. Her heart began beating in her chest.
"Calm down; it's not what you're thinking, Hazel; you're too simply assist him in a ritual to break his curse," she said.
"But before we continue, Draven has to tell you everything about his past, and then you may give your consent or not," she continued.
"But..."
"No Draven, no buts." Sara cut him before she could say another word. Hazel had never seen this side of Draven, or was it something more?
"You've suffered enough; why not just come clean with it and tell her everything? If she's really going to be your Luna, then she deserves to know," she said pointedly.
Draven kept quiet for a few moments as he looked at Sara and said, "Now?" He asked. "Yes now, while I'm seated here and don't leave out any important details," she snapped at him.
Draven did seem to be bothered by the attitude of the priestess towards him, which made Hazel even more curious about who this woman was.
Draven sighed and turned towards Hazel. "I'll tell you the story from the beginning and won't leave anything out, hopefully," he said. Hazel's heart began beating fast; this was what she had always wanted to know—the truth about Draven.
"Twenty years ago, I once had a complete family; my son was just a young pup, and my wife and I lived happily in peace, taking care of the pack as the Alpha and Luna."
"Everything was alright until a certain pack of rogue wolves. The fang they called themselves, they wanted power, to get stronger for whatever reason that it was."
"My family was targeted because we have one of the purest bloodlines of werewolves from ancient times, especially my wife; she was of Royalty, a branch of the Royal family, a close relation to the King of the Wolves."
"They attacked us when we least expected it, and then I wasn't strong enough to protect her from the horde of wolves that attacked. I had to protect our child, Adrian; he was just a kid then and didn't understand what was going on."
"They kidnapped her and took her away, erasing her scent; no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find her; not even a trace of her was seen. The Royal family helped a little but gave up after some time; after all, she was from a branch family."
"But I never gave up; night after night I searched for her, looked for her; I hired spies and bought information about the whereabouts of the rogue pack; they always moved, never staying in one place, until one day I found her."
"I got some information that The Fang had begun performing a ritual on the hostages they had kidnapped over the months. I knew my wife was amongst them, so I hurried there, but when I got there, it was too late."
"They had used my wife as a blood sacrifice; they ripped her heart from her chest while she was alive and left her to bleed to death. I got there during my wife's last moments; she asked me to take care of our son and forgive them."
"But I had already sworn to avenge her; no matter what it took, I swore I would kill them no matter how long it took." Draven paused.
He forced the irritation back down his throat, knowing this was his final hurdle. The room was dead silent; he could feel the eyes of both women looking at him. He felt uncomfortable, but he continued anyway.
"After that, on that same altar that I found my wife, I prayed to the moon goddess. I asked her to show me the path to vengeance, but she replied like my wife had, telling me to forgive, to not allow rage and hate cloud my thoughts, but I was too far gone."
"Since the moon goddess wouldn't help me, I decided I would use whatever power the rogue pack achieved to hunt them down and kill them."
"I didn't have another sacrifice to give, nor could I use anyone else; I had no other choice but to use the dead body of my wife. I sacrificed her to a demon in exchange for strength.
The moon goddess tried to stop me, but I ignored her. I ignored all her warnings and pleadings."
"After the ritual I felt strong, stronger than I had any right to be, but the moon goddess had also cursed me, that on every full moon when her power shines the brightest, in return I would become a monster, to kill and destroy anything in my path, human, wolf, animal, whatever it was."
"After I had been cursed, I decided to leave the pack; I couldn't endanger those and the life of my son. I started my journey of vengeance to hunt and kill every damned member of the Fang Pack."
"I killed everyone, even the women and the children; I made sure never to let their seed walk the earth again, and after I was done, I felt empty.
I roamed the earth searching for a way to break the curse given to me by the moon goddess; it was too powerful, and I couldn't do it by myself."
"So I searched out for witches that could help me; luckily Sara decided to help me and read my fortune; she told me that in the future there will come a girl, a forgotten blood from the bloodline of the Moon goddess, that she would be able to break my curse, setting me free."
Draven fell quiet; he had poured everything out after all these years. He looked at Sara, who gazed at the ceiling; he could never guess what she thought. He looked at Hazel and saw tears stream down her face.
He didn't understand what that meant or if it was a good thing. He had tried his best, and now he was growing tired. "So you need me to help you break the curse, and you'll be free again forever?" She asked him.
Draven nodded his head gently. He had nothing else to hide—the sins and death he had caused, no amount of guilt that fixed what he had done. He didn't deserve to find salvation, but here he was, holding on to a second chance.
"I give my consent," Hazel said as she cleaned her eyes. Sara looked at her bewildered. "Are you sure about this?" She asked, Hazel nodded her head and got up.
"Excuse me," she said, walking out of the house. She got into that car and sat there. She needed some time to herself, just a while longer.
Sara looked at Draven; her gaze was serious. "You didn't tell her everything, why?" She asked him. "Because we don't know if that's what's going to happen; it's never happened before," Draven defended himself.
"Of ourselves it hasn't; the goddess doesn't go around cursing her children; you should have told her," she snapped.
"I couldn't bring myself too," he said, at least.
"You understand that she may die or will never be able to give birth again if the ritual fails; are you okay with this?" Sara asked him, and without hesitation Draven replied
"Yes"