Chapter 90: It Waits - Riven's POV

The word brother still sounded wrong when he said it. It scraped against my nerves every single time. I ignored him and kept my eyes locked on the Alpha King.

“Start explaining,” I snapped.

His calm expression shifted. It wasn’t fear exactly, but something darker flickering behind his eyes. “Some things have been left buried for a reason.”

Raze snorted. “Come on, Father. You might as well tell the brat what is really going on. We’re past the point of pretending now that he knows who he is.”

The Alpha King shot him a sharp look. “Raze.”

“What?” He said, spreading his hands. “He already knows the important parts. I’m his dear brother who has the same thing he does. You separated us because together it makes it worse and—”

My patience snapped. “Say it out loud,” I said, my voice cracking on the last word. “Right now all I’m hearing is half-truths from both of you.”

Silence filled the hallway again. Callista tensed beside me. Her emotions brushed mine through the bond. She was just as confused as I was, but she was also trying to send reassurance through the bond to calm me.

I couldn’t even look at her. If I did, I might lose the thin grip I had left on my temper.

The Alpha King finally spoke. “Fine, you want the truth so you will have it. It’s not that simple, though.”

Raze rolled his eyes. “That’s a polite way of saying we’re cursed. It’s not just a possession.”

My head snapped toward him. “Cursed? You mean—”

The word felt ridiculous when I said it out loud. Possessed was something that was hard to get rid of. Cursed…well, curses could be broken.

Raze pushed himself off the doorway, stepping fully into the hallway. The dim light caught his black veins crawling beneath his skin as they pulsed faintly.

“You’re getting close, dear brother,” he sneered. “Your temper is thinning and you’ve been losing control, haven’t you? I bet she’s seen you with solid black eyes before.” His eyes flicked briefly to mine. “You feel it sometimes too, don’t you?”

I stiffened, because he was right. And oh how I hated how right he was.

The first moments had been small. There was a flash of anger that burned too hot or an urge to tear things apart without knowing why. Of course lately, that had changed and Callista had seen them. My wolf pushed forward now, harder than it should, like it was fighting something under my skin.

“Yes,” I said, though the word sounded hollow.

Raze tilted his head, studying me as if I were something interesting he had just discovered. “See.”

The Alpha King stepped forward again, putting a little more space between us as if he thought that might keep this from turning violent.

“This is not a curse in the way you’re thinking,” he said carefully.

“Then explain it,” I shot back.

His jaw tightened suddenly. “What have you found on it?”

“What do you mean?”

“I know you were looking into it and even spoke with your…history teacher who had a great grandfather near one of the Alpha Kings of that time,” he said sharply. “What do you know?”

“Not enough to make sense,” I snapped.

He nodded. “What you found…if anything was what was deliberately left. The true beginnings and everything along with the condition were hidden.”

“We know,” Callista added, her voice barely audible. “So, tell us how this all began.”

“Generations ago, one of the Alpha Kings bound himself to something he should have never touched.”

Raze let out a quiet laugh. “That’s one way to put it.”

I didn’t look at him. My attention stayed locked on the Alpha King.

“What does that mean?” I asked. “What did he bound himself to? Why does this…demon also infiltrate the packs as well?”

“It means,” Raze cut in casually, “our ancestors were arrogant enough to think they could control something that wasn’t meant to be controlled.”

The Alpha King’s voice sharpened. “They were trying to protect the packs and become stronger.”

“So if this is tied to the Alpha King bloodline, how did the packs get it?”

He swallowed hard. “Because I’m not the first to give away a child in an attempt to keep the darkness from growing. The last Alpha King who kept both of his children who had the darkness…well…it didn’t end well and ended much faster than if they were separated.”

“So all the instances—” Callista started and stopped. “The ones in the pack who—”

“Were children of the Alpha King of that time.”

I shook my head. All of what Mr. Cross told us was making sense. His grandfather or great grandfather just didn’t have all the pieces. But then I remembered one other key detail.

The experiments.

“And what about these experiments? You pulled wolves from the pack to use to cure the line…or rather the previous kings had.”

“Their children,” he said. “They called them home just as I have done you under the guise of experiments to save the other child.”

“But Mr. Cross told us the host wolf—”

His gaze stopped me cold. “His grandfather saw what happened after one training session and documented it, but it wasn’t what he thought it was. The curse spread rapidly, leaving the boy ‌a hollowed shell.”

For a few moments, I let that sink in. No one had the full story except him. I could ask and hunt down all I wanted to, but no one could ever tell me what had really been happening all this time to those with the demon.

And though the Alpha King could be lying to me, I couldn’t ignore what he said. Not when Raze stood there, looking like my mirror. It had to be true.

I stared at him. “You’re telling me a demon is bonded to our bloodline?”

“Yes.”

The word landed heavily between us.

My mind reeled as I tried to piece together what he was saying. “So it just…passes down through the Alpha line?”

“Not exactly.”

Raze leaned his shoulder against the wall again, clearly enjoying the conversation far more than he should have. “It doesn’t pass down,” he said lazily. “It waits.”