Chapter 84: Their Cursed

Zeus

Amanda is still ignoring my calls, and I am sure I will die if she doesn’t speak to me soon. I have never felt this strongly for anyone. Women have always been a game, an object to occupy my time. After seeing how fiercely my mate defended Remi, I felt guilty for taunting her and the twins. I wouldn’t have actually done anything to her -probably. I simply took pleasure in angering Cullen and Calder.

But none of that mattered anymore. Only Amanda did. I should have gone to her instead of running away from the packhouse. I should never have left her alone all night, wondering where I was. She felt rejected, and I could never abandon her. After I laid eyes on her, I could never imagine being away from her. It took all the self-control I had to wait to mate her as long as I did. Now that she was ignoring me, I could confirm that being away from her is the most painful thing in the world. I needed to make this right so I could mark her and make her mine forever.

I knew there wasn’t much of a chance when I went to her house this morning again. But I had to keep trying. It was well after lunch now, and I won’t wait any longer. I need her to speak to me. I need her to give me a chance. My wolf was being a petulant asshole and refused to talk to me until I got Amanda to forgive me.

When I got to her house again, there was a car in the driveway that wasn’t here yesterday. I took a deep breath before knocking on the front door. “I’ll get it, John,” a familiar voice said. The door opened, and Calder stood there with a surprised look that quickly morphed into one of irritation.

“Why are you here?” I stupidly asked. He raised an eyebrow at me.

“Why shouldn’t I be here?” he countered.

“Can I speak to Amanda?” I asked, ignoring his retort.

“Why should I let you?” he asked as the man I believed to be Amanda’s father came up behind Calder. When his eyes landed on me, they went hard.

“Why are you here?” he growled. Calder looked at the man.

“John, give me a moment? Why don’t you go check on the girls,” Calder said smoothly. John begrudgingly nodded and turned to leave. Calder turned his eyes back to me.

“For the life of me, I do not understand it, but my mate thinks that we should allow you the chance to fix things with our dear Amanda,” he said, cocking his head. That surprised me a bit. I thought it was safe to assume that Calder had at least given her an idea about my threat at the Summit by her skittish and tense demeanor around me.

“Your mate is on my side?” I clarified.

“Oh no. She is not on your side. She is on Amanda’s side. But she does seem to think that us keeping her away from you is not what is best. She has a pesky habit of being an optimist,” he said.

“Are you going to stop me from seeing her?”

He didn’t answer for a moment. He let out a sigh before continuing, “I am not going to stop you. But that doesn’t mean that she will agree to see you.” There was movement behind Calder, and he turned, still blocking my view into the house. I could see Calder’s posture relax ever so slightly. When he turned, he had his arm around his mate.

Remi

Calder turned and looked at Pip and me as we stood at the other end of the foyer. John came upstairs to tell us that Zeus was here again. Pip asked her dad to give her a few minutes with Zeus, but right now, she clung to my arm tightly as she stared at Calder. “You can change your mind,” I linked her.

She shook her head. “No. I need to stop avoiding this. Thanks, Rem. And don’t worry about tomorrow. I know the thought is horrifying, but I promise you’ll get through it better than you expect.” I smiled at my friend, and she let go of my arm. I walked towards Calder, who looked down at me.

“She’ll be okay,” I told him silently. I stopped in front of him and reached for his hand.

“I don’t see why I can’t just kick his ass. He is in my territory and hurt Pip,” he countered.

“No, Calder. Let them work it out. I think he knows how much he messed up,” I told him.

“Baby, you are far too nice sometimes,” he said.

“The Moon Goddess made them mates for a reason, so let them work it out,” I pleaded.

“Fine. Let’s get back,” he relented.

I gave him a small smile as he wrapped his arm around my waist. Cheering Pip up and baking the cookies with Calder had been a nice reprieve from my worries today. But then, of course, Pip caught on and wanted to talk about it all. I felt fractionally better about shifting tomorrow after talking to her, but I was still terrified. All the stress was making me tired, too. When Calder turned, I came face to face with Zeus. I got a much better look at him this time. He had dark circles under his eyes, and he was paler than when we left Serenity Moon a few days ago. His hair was messy and greasy, telltale signs that he had been running his hands through it a lot.

“Alpha Zeus,” I said in a measured tone, trying not to give him any indication of approval. He nodded his head and stepped aside to let Calder and I pass. Calder gave him one final look of warning before we exited the porch and headed to the car.

-

“Calder, what about the parcel sent to me?” We were walking into the packhouse together. He lingered in the driveway for a moment until Pip had let Zeus in the house and closed the door. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he hadn’t already linked Gentry about Zeus coming back.

He didn’t answer me as we walked inside. “Calder?” I prompted.

“Why don’t we go up and open it with Cullen?” he suggested.

“Are you worried about what is in it?”

“More worried about who would send it,” he said with a contemplative look on his face. I could understand his confusion; I was confused as well. I couldn’t figure out who would send me anything here. It wasn’t as if I had family reaching out to me or many friends to speak of.

When we got upstairs, Cullen was on the phone. He motioned for me to come to him with a hint of a smile on his lips. I walked around the desk and sat in his lap as he wrapped up his phone call. He wrapped his free arm around my waist and rested his chin on top of my head as I leaned against him.

Calder sat in one of the chairs across the desk. Sitting here in Cullen’s lap while he so casually finished his conversation, I thought about how both my mates seemed so at ease with me in their space. They never even hesitated to pull me close while they worked. It was natural for them. For a moment, I tried to imagine Cullen acting like this with Jaime. I thought back to when they first came into the diner, and I was just their waitress. He was so cold and closed off. She seemed to have a similar attitude as well, but now I don’t think that was it. Sure, he wasn’t as warm to people who weren’t me, but it wasn’t the same.

“It's the mate bond. They have never had the same affection for anyone else. You are everything for them,” Calli said in my head.

“How can you be so sure?” I asked her.

“I just am,” she boasted confidently. My wolf is so smug.

“How’s Pip?” Cullen’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Her mate showed up,” Calder said, irritation evident in his voice.

“They will work it out. If Pip decides to reject him, we’ll be there for her,” I said quickly before they could get protective. It was sweet how protective they were over Pip, even if she wasn’t their actual sister. I just wished they could be the same about Carson, although I don’t think they know the whole story.

Calder removed the small parcel from his pocket and tossed it onto the desk between us. Cullen gave it a quizzical look. “What’s that?” he asked.

“We don’t know. Someone sent it for Remi,” Calder answered. Cullen’s gaze moved to me. “I can’t smell anything on it to even give me an idea who sent it. It more than likely is cloaked with magic.”

“Who would send our mate something, let alone cloak it with magic,” Cullen thought. He seemed to be a little tense now. His arm tightened around me fractionally. I rested my hand over the top of his. Calder shook his head at Cullen, having all the same questions and none of the answers.

“Shouldn’t we open it? Clearly, nothing is going to be answered by looking at it?” I offered. Calder frowned but nodded his head. I went to shift away from Cullen, but his grip on me remained the same. His eyes were on the package when I looked at him. After a tense moment, he sighed and loosened his arm from my waist. I leaned forward, clutching the small parcel. I sat forward on Cullen’s knee and set the parcel on the edge of the desk in front of me. His hands came to rest on my hip, and I was thankful for his presence.

I slowly peeled away the paper covering the contents and opened it so it was lying flat on the desk. Inside was a small velvet pouch closed with a drawstring at the top and an envelope. I picked up the envelope first. It was smaller than an index card. I flipped it open to find a card inside.

Remi: I apologize for my behavior. If you still want it, I would like to help you. The contents of the vile I have included should ease the pain of your impending shift. Once your wolf has fully emerged, I hope that you will find me in the place they all shared.

My eyes scanned over the small piece of paper in my hands. Cullen reached around me, grabbing the paper. I gave him a moment to read it before he handed it back. Calder reached forward, and I gave him the note. While he scanned the words, I carefully picked up the velvet pouch still lying atop the paper. I slowly untied the small knot and pulled the bag open. Reaching inside the pouch, there was a small, glass vile full of a light blue liquid. The vile was as cold as ice in my fingers.

“This is from….” Calder started.

“The witch,” Cullen finished. I turned the vile slowly in my fingers, observing the swirling potion inside.

“Do we trust that this is what she claims?” Calder asked.

“I do not know. Does she have a motive to send something harmful to Remi?” Cullen asked behind me.

“I can’t imagine harming Remi would help the situation for any party involved,” Calder thought. I was only half-listening to their conversation. I was entranced by the small bottle in my fingers. Could this help my shift? Would this take away the pain? Gentry’s uncle had not been confident that there was any sure way to do it. Sammy seemed smugly confident about her abilities in the short amount of time I had spent with her. The note made it clear who this was from without her signing her name.

“Love?” Cullen’s voice was right next to my ear. I jumped a bit, not realizing I had stopped hearing them, lost in my head.

“Yea?” I answered.

“What do you think?” Calder asked. I looked up at him, and I could tell he was torn. I knew he didn’t want to put me in danger by taking a potion he wasn’t sure would help me, but he also wanted to help me with my fear of the shift.

I bit my lip and looked back down at the blue liquid. “Calli, what do you think?” I asked her.

“I don’t find the witch threatening. And I can feel the magical power of this potion. It is not ordinary, that is for sure,” she commented.

“I don’t think Sammy wanted to hurt me.….”

“I think she has her own reasons for helping you with Voldigoad.”

I had to agree with that. There was no other way she would help unless she had something to gain from all this. The main question was what? “I want to try,” I finally said. Cullen’s hands tightened on me, and I could feel both of their unease. They weren’t going to stop me, but that didn’t ebb their worries. “I think we can trust her. I think she is trying to reach out to me.” Calder nodded.

“Maybe this will help us find her. But we should get through the full moon first,” Calder said.

“Yea. If she can behave, it would be nice if our Beta could be less mopey,” Cullen snorted. I turned and scowled at him. I know he means well and wants his best friend to be happy, but he was a little insensitive. “He has been a mess since she left. His pack needs him to be on his game,” Cullen tried to defend himself.

“And how would you be if I ran away in the middle of the night after we had a disagreement?” I shot at him.

His face dropped at that, and he let out a low growl. Calder laughed behind us, and Cullen glared at him over my shoulder. “I am not going to do that, but you should try and put yourself in his shoes. Plus, his sister is hurting. He has a lot on his plate right now, Cullen,” I tried to calm him.

“Now that your Luna has humbled you, why don’t we go down to dinner?” Calder suggested. Cullen still had a gloomy look on his face but nodded.