Chapter 57: No Matter What - Callista's POV

My heart felt as if it stopped beating. There was no thumping in my chest. No speeding up. It was quiet. “What? Riven, no. We haven’t even talked to Mr. Cross yet. We don’t know enough about—”

“We know enough,” he said firmly, pulling me further away from the flow of students. “The Alpha King’s bloodline might be cursed. His heirs keep getting possessed or born with these things.”

“But it’s not limited to his line,” I said quietly. “You’re not an heir.”

“He won’t let me walk away, Callista,” he whispered. “The threat he made wasn’t empty. He will make me do this one way or another.”

“But if you accept, he’s going to use you,” I said, my voice cracking. “He’ll experiment on you. You could die.”

“I could die either way,” he murmured, reaching up to cup my face in his hands as he backed me against the wall.  His eyes met mine and there was no doubt his mind was made. “If I refuse, he comes after our families and the packs. Everyone we love could die. It wouldn’t be the first time the packs have been merged. He’d save the ones he wanted and let the rest die.”

I shook my head, but his hands stopped me. “No, you can’t do this.”

“If I accept, I have some control. I can see what he’s planning and maybe find a way around this,” he said, leaning in close. “I wouldn’t suggest this if I thought it wasn’t the best plan.”

“We,” I corrected sharply. “We can see what he’s planning. You and I are going together, remember? He said he wanted to train my seerer abilities too. You act like you have to do this on your own, but you don’t.”

"That might have been a lie to make the offer more appealing," Riven said, his voice low. “I’m not sure he’ll take you as well.”

“I don’t care, because I’m not letting you walk into that mansion alone.” I reached up and grabbed his face, just as he was holding mine. “We’re mated, Riven. Where you go, I go. That’s not negotiable. Our wolves would go mad and that would make the demon worse.”

He searched my face, then pulled me into his arms. "I don't want you in danger because of me."

“You should have thought about that before you showed up at my window and texted me to meet you in the clearing.” I pressed my face against his chest as he let go, breathing in his scent. “So, it’s far too late. We’re doing this together and accepting his offer. We will do whatever we have to do.”

"Before he kills me trying to cure his son," Riven said quietly.

“Before he even tries.” I pulled back, looking up at him with hope in my chest. “We still need to talk to Mr. Cross. If Adrian’s right about previous heirs, then Mr. Cross’s ancestor might have documented it. Maybe we can figure out why they have been cursed and why it’s not only the Alpha King bloodline.”

“Okay,” he said, shaking his head in agreement, then checking his phone. “We can’t be late to the next class.”

“We’re going now.”

He grabbed my hand, not even bothering to argue, as we headed back toward Mr. Cross’s classroom.

The hallway was mostly empty now, students having dispersed to their next classes or outside. Riven knocked when we reached his classroom. The door was open, but he seemed distracted. He glanced up, something flickering across his face. There wasn’t a bit of surprise in his features.

“Mr. Nightshade. Miss Monroe.” He gestured for us to come in. “I wondered if you’d come back today.”

I closed the door behind us, checking to make sure no one was in the hallway. "We need to ask you something about the Alpha King's bloodline."

Mr. Cross set down his pen carefully. "That's a very dangerous topic to discuss."

“We know,” Riven said softly. “But you did teach it this morning, and I’d say that was a risk too. So, we need to know the truth. Is it true that his bloodline is…cursed? That heirs keep dying to the things that have been hidden and rewritten?”

For a long moment, Mr. Cross said nothing. Then he stood, walked to his bookshelf, and pulled out the worn leather journal from his lecture.

"My grandfather served as an advisor to Alpha King Dami," he said quietly. "He documented many things that were never meant to be written down and these things could have gotten him executed if anyone knew he had kept them.”

“Then why would he do it?” I asked, my voice low.

“Because he knew someone would need it down the line,” Mr. Cross said, flipping to a page in his journal near the middle. “From what my grandfather documented, prior to when he was an advisor, there had been multiple cases of Alpha King heirs having this…internal darkness.”

“More than twenty-five?” Riven asked, his gaze flicking up to meet Mr. Cross’s.

“More than that.”

I filed that away. The Alpha King had said twenty-five cases before his son. With Riven and his son, that made twenty-seven. If there were more, then that meant he had lied to us.

“The only problem is that he didn’t know how many. Some records were taken and destroyed before he could get to them to write it down,” Mr. Cross said, glancing at the book. “This is all I have to prove that any of it happened.”

He turned the journal so we could see. The page showed a family tree with names connected by lines.

“You said before that the Alpha King had to choose a successor when his son…died,” I said, glancing down at all the lines.

Next to certain names was a small symbol. A crescent moon with a slash through it.

"These marks indicate heirs who died young from the internal darkness," Mr. Cross said. "As you can see, there are quite a few and far more than twenty-five. That isn’t including the ones that happened in the packs.”

“Each Alpha King has tried to find a way to stop the darkness, and each time they think they have, an heir is born with it. Many have tried exorcisms, blood rituals, and at times, finding wolves who have the same condition.”

Riven glanced down at the names, then looked up at Mr. Cross. “I’ve already made my decision to accept.”

“That’s suicide. You can’t do that.”

“If I refuse, then he follows through on his threat and he’ll go after our families.” Riven’s jaw ticks. “At least this way, I have a chance to see what he’s planning and maybe find a way to survive this.”

“So, it’s true. You have…a condition,” Mr. Cross said carefully.

Riven and I exchanged a glance. It was too late to turn back now.

“Yes,” Riven admitted, his head bowing. “I do.”

“I saw the black eyes and thought you might have been, but I didn’t want to assume,” Mr. Cross murmured. “It explains why you shredded through your opponents during the ceremony.”

I glanced at Riven again, still hoping he’d choose to wait, but I knew it was far too late for that. No matter what evidence he saw, he was going to choose to accept it.