Chapter 9: Their Cursed

Remi

Cullen was driving really fast and I had this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. “Where are we going?” I asked him. He continued to drive without answering me. My phone dinged in my pocket. It was probably Calder since I had not responded to him yet. “Cullen…” I said quietly hoping to get his attention. He ignored me and the car seemed to be going faster.

“Cullen… where are you taking me…” I whispered. My stomach was starting to hurt, and my head felt weird. He exited the highway now and we were speeding down a winding road. The way he was driving had to be making me sick. “Please slow down,” I begged quietly. The farther he drove, the worse I felt. My phone went off again but there was no way I could answer it at the moment. “Cullen… please…” I tried again. I closed my eyes trying to stop the world from spinning around me.

He continued to drive. My stomach was hurting a lot now. Suddenly, a sharp pain ripped through my abdomen and I let out a small cry. “What’s wrong?” came Cullen’s voice for the first time since we got in the car. This was such a bad idea. He did not stop driving.

Then, another stabbing worse than the first ripped its way through me. I screamed this time, completely doubled over from the pain. Moments later, he was pulling the car over. The pain had mostly subsided now, but I felt myself panting. I could feel his eyes on me.

“Are you okay?” he asked. I nodded my head and forced myself to sit up. I turned my head to look at him. As soon as I did, he said, “Wolf,” and disappeared. The next thing I know, my door is being thrown open and I was being pulled out of the car. If all of this was not weird enough, he growled at me. His mouth opened and I swear I saw fangs.

“Explain, now,” he said in a dark tone. I tried to pull my arm out of his grip, but his hand just tightened around me.

“Explain what?” I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. He had not scared me up until now.

“Why are you hiding?” he growled at me.

“I’m n-not… I-I don’t know wh-what you’re-” I stuttered.

“Enough!” he yelled.

“Cullen… y-you’re hurting m-me…” I whimpered. He let go of me and I dropped to the ground, unable to stand on my own. His phone was going off in his pocket. He answered it quickly.

“What?” he said. I could not hear the other end of the call.

“I’m busy,” he said. His eyes came back to me as he talked. “I will be back when I am done dealing with this,” he said hanging up his phone and putting it in his pocket. His grey eyes were dark, and his expression was one of fury. “My patience is running thin. Explain why you were cloaked and hiding in the Ordinary Realm, now,” he demanded. I had no idea what he was talking about.

I shook my head. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” I said.

“You expect me to believe you don’t know what you are or where you are?” All I could do was stare up at him. I had no idea where he had brought me or what he was trying to get me to tell him. I stood up on shaky legs.

“I don’t know what you wanted to show me, but I would really like it if you would take me back. I don’t feel well, and I have no idea what you are talking about,” I tried. I really wanted to go home and forget any of this happened. It was taking everything I had not to stutter and sound scared.

“We are not leaving until you tell me the truth,” he said. His tone left no room for argument. He came closer to me and I stepped back until I collided with his car. I looked down at the ground as he stood inches from me. His hand came up and tilted my chin up, so I was looking into his eyes. I gasped slightly at his touch; I had to be imagining the strange sensation radiating from his finger. “Let’s try this again, one at a time. Why were you cloaking yourself?”

I opened and closed my mouth trying to get it to form some coherent words. I shook my head. “What do you mean ‘cloaking’ myself?” His eyes narrowed.

“You really don’t know…” he said, his voice trailing off.

I heard a car approaching. We both turned to see it stop. Gentry and Calder climbed out quickly and moved towards us. Calder looked angry. “What in the f**k did you do Cullen?” he yelled as he came closer. He stopped before he reached us.

“How else were we supposed to know what she is?” Cullen yelled back, walking away from me.

“I don’t know Cullen. Maybe ask her instead of just throwing her across the boundary? What if you were wrong?”

“Smell her! She was clearly hiding!”

“This isn’t how you go about this!” They were standing face to face now. Gentry standing next to them. He kept shooting me nervous glances.

“This was the easiest way to find out. The security team would have flagged her if they had anything,” Cullen said. I felt pressure in my head, and it felt like the world was spinning again.

“That doesn’t make this okay!”

Their voices became faint and the pain in my head grew. I clutched my head and fell to the ground once again. I sucked in a shaky breath. My body felt like it was buzzing. A small cry left my mouth.

The sensation and pain were overwhelming, and I could feel myself losing consciousness. I felt my body being lifted and there was a comforting scent around me. It smelled like coffee and caramel. I was surrounded by warmth but the pain and buzzing feeling were only growing worse.

“Remi, hold on,” I faintly heard Calder above me. I let my head fall back and darkness wash over me.

Calder

“Guys, this conversation needs to wait,” Gentry said again. “Something is wrong with Remi!”

My fury instantly subsided as my eyes went to her. She was collapsed on the ground and I could hear her struggling to breath. I was over her in an instant. She whimpered.

“Our mate is in pain. Help her now! Get her back over the boundary,” my wolf yelled.

I scooped her up in my arms. “Remi, hold on,” I said, hoping she could hear me. Her head lulled back. “Gentry, start the car now!” I yelled. I pushed passed my brother and headed back to my car. Gentry was already getting in the driver’s seat.

I climbed into the back seat holding Remi to me. It felt like magic having her in my arms, but this was not what I imagined holding my mate for the first time would be like.

“Where are we going?” Gentry asked.

“We need to get her back over the boundary. Something is wrong,” I said. Gentry quickly pulled us around and headed toward the boundary. We were across it in less than a minute. I cupped her small face in one of my hands. She was paler than normal.

“Remi, baby, come back to me,” I said quietly. Gentry continued to drive, heading back towards the city.

“Where do we take her?” Gentry asked. I was not sure. I looked down at her unconscious body in my arms. What was Cullen thinking? Why had she gone with him? Why didn’t she say anything?

“Her place or ours?” Gentry asked again.

“She is already going to freak out when she wakes up. Take us to her place and I will stay with her until she wakes up,” I told him.

“How do you know she will wake up?”

“She has to. She’s my mate…” I kissed her forehead. “Wake up, Remi, please,” I whispered.

When we arrived at her apartment, I got out of the car, telling Gentry I would call him when she woke up. I carried her upstairs only to find her apartment door locked. I searched her coat pocket and luckily found her keys. I opened the door and took her inside. I gently laid he on the small bed in the corner of the studio apartment.

I looked around the place. It was small with only a little bit of furniture. It was clear she was the only one regularly here. I walked around the place, examining everything. All her belongings were clearly second hand, possibly even third or fourth hand. The most impressive things were the many stacks of worn-out books that surrounded her small couch. I wondered how many of them she had read.

I noticed there was nothing of excess in the apartment. No TV, no excess clothing and shoes, no decorations on the walls. Everything in the apartment was bare minimum. I started to understand where her insecurities had come from. There was much more to her than what appeared.

Every fiber of my alpha being wanted to climb in bed with her and hold her tight. But that came with multiple issues. For starters, her bed was so small, I was not sure we could both fit on it. Then I would also need the self-control not to mate and mark her as soon as she did wake up. The last issue was going to be her waking up to me in her apartment with everything that just happened. Being in bed together would probably only make this all worse.

I grabbed the single chair from her small table to bring it over to the bed. On the table was a scrap of paper with times written on it. I realized it was her schedule for work. It read that she was opening tomorrow. I quickly shot Gentry a message, asking him to handle that for me and let my assistant know I would not be coming in tomorrow.

I sat next to her bed with my head in my hands. How was she going to react when she woke up? What happened to her when she crossed the boundary and why did she pass out? I could not even be excited at finally having found my mate. Was she Cullen’s mate as well? What were we going to do about Jaime? So many thoughts swirled around in my head as I sat there waiting for Remi to open her eyes.

-

I must have dozed off at some point because I awoke to the sound of retching in the bathroom. My eyes shot open, immediately realizing Remi was not lying on her bed any longer. I shot up from the chair and was instantly at her bathroom door. I pushed it open to see her hovering over the toilet, her body convulsing as she spilled the contents of her stomach.

I knelt by her side and pulled her hair back from her face. I placed my hand on her back and rubbed softly. I could feel the tension in her body immediately begin to subside. I don’t know what she could feel but her body at least knew I was her mate. Once she had nothing left to throw up, she dry-heaved for a few more minutes. I could see the tears on her face. Once she had finally calmed down, she sat back on her heels. She had her eyes closed and she was taking deep breaths.

“Are you okay?” I asked gently.

Finally, she nodded her head a bit. She tried to stand but ended up falling right down to the floor. I immediately scooped her up in my arms and she sagged against me. I took her back to her bed and set her down on it gently.

“I’m going to get you some water,” I said, turning around to go to her sink. I found a mug and got her some cool water.

I brought it to her, and she took a slow sip. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Idiot,” Magnus, my wolf said in my head.

“A little better now,” she said. Her voice was quieter than usual.

“Remi, do you remember anything from last night?” She stilled then slowly turned her head to face me. “Will you please tell me what you remember and how you ended up with Cullen?”

She sighed and looked down at the cup in her hands. “I’m sorry. I should not have gone with him or at the very least told you. That wasn’t fair to you…”

I came and sat on the bed next to her. “No, no, no. You do not need to apologize at all. You did not do anything wrong. I was just surprised you were with him is all.” She would not look at me. I waited for her to speak again.

“He called me right after you dropped me off. I was walking into my apartment. It was really weird and when I asked him how he got my number, he told me your friend Gentry gave it to him.” I scowled internally. I would yell at him later about that. “He asked if I was busy; he said he wanted to show me something. I agreed to go with him last night. He just appeared at my door right when we were supposed to meet. I don’t even know how he knew what apartment mine was.” I sighed and let her continue. “We got in his car and he started driving really fast. I tried to ask him where we were going but he would not say anything. The further we went, the sicker I felt. Then suddenly there was this pain,” she said. One of her arms held her stomach. “He stopped the car after I screamed. I started to calm down and he looked at me and just said ‘wolf’. Before I knew it, he was ripping me out of the car and yelling at me.” Tears were welling up in her eyes.

I reached forward and grabbed her hand. I immediately felt the wonderful pleasurable sparks that told me this was my mate. “Hey, hey. It's okay. I am sorry he did this…”

“I just don’t understand. What did he mean by cloaking and hiding? What is the ordinary realm? Why did he say wolf when he looked at me? Why were you fighting with him?” she sniffled.

“Before I answer your questions, do you remember anything else from before you passed out?” I asked her, shaking my head. Cullen really messed this up.

“Our mate doesn’t know about anything. She doesn’t know what she is.” Magnus observed in my head.

“I felt this pressure in my head and this weird sensation all over my body. It was like my whole body was buzzing from the inside. It just kept getting worse while you guys were arguing. The last thing I remember before passing out was the best smell of coffee and caramel…”

My ears perked up at that. “Mate smelled us!” Magnus cheered.

Memories of last night floated into my mind. When I climbed out of the car and started walking towards Calder, the wind shifted, and I was smack right in the face with the most mouthwatering smell. She smelled like an apple orchard on a fall day. My body had instantly stood at attention until I realized that Cullen was threatening her. The urge to mate her now was only trumped by the fact that she had not woken up.

“Remi, I don’t want you to freak out okay? What I am going to tell you is going to a little unbelievable. What do you know about werewolves?”