CHAPTER 137 — THE CLAIM OF THE CURSE
CHAPTER 137 — THE CLAIM OF THE CURSE
Something inside me snapped the moment Asher hit the ground.
Not my bones.
Not my courage.
Something deeper—
like the curse had been waiting for him to fall.
“Asher!” I dropped beside him, hands shaking as I touched his face. His breaths were shallow, tight, forced through clenched teeth. “Stay with me, please—stay—”
His eyes fluttered open.
Not the warm, burning amber of my mate.
Not the furious crimson of his wolf.
But something in-between—
frantic, wild, slipping.
“Luna…” His voice was barely a scrape of breath. “Don’t… touch the ground. The curse… it’s… moving.”
I didn’t understand at first.
Until the earth beneath my knees shivered.
Like something was crawling just under the soil.
Trying to reach me.
Trying to reach my shadowed arm.
“No,” I whispered, gripping Asher tighter. “It’s trying to pull me—”
A voice leaked through the air, oil-slick and darkly sweet.
Come.
I flinched. “Stop. Stop!”
Asher growled, forcing himself upright—bleeding, shaking, but unbroken.
His wolf burned inside his aura, begging to tear everything apart to protect me.
“It’s calling you,” he rasped. “Fight it, Luna.”
“I am. I—Asher, it won’t stop.”
The shadowy figure stepped forward again.
No longer slow.
No longer testing.
Certain.
Hungry.
“You wear my mark,” it murmured. “You answered my call. You are mine.”
Asher’s answering snarl was pure fury, pure heartbreak.
“She. Is. Not. Yours.”
His voice wasn’t just sound—
it was a promise.
A warning.
A vow carved from blood and love and rage.
But the curse only tilted its head, amused.
“You speak as though you have a claim.”
“I do,” Asher growled.
The shadow’s eyes glimmered.
White.
Hollow.
Ancient.
“You claim what I have already touched.”
My breath hitched.
The shadow lifted a hand—
and the darkness under my skin exploded in response.
Cold fire raced up my arm, down my spine, through my ribs.
My vision blurred.
My knees buckled.
Asher caught me—but the moment his skin met mine, the cursed darkness lashed out, striking into him like a bolt.
He choked—
a sound I had never heard from him—
and dropped to one knee.
“Asher!” I grabbed his shoulders, terrified. “I didn’t mean— I didn’t do anything—”
“It’s not you,” he gasped, trying to breathe through the pain. “It’s using you. It’s using your connection to me—your bond—turning it against us.”
The shadow stepped closer.
Its shape seemed to grow.
Its edges sharpened.
Its presence deepened, settling over the forest like night swallowing the sky.
“Do you feel it, Luna?” the voice echoed. “The link between you and your Alpha… how easily it bends… how beautifully it breaks?”
Asher shoved me behind him again, though he was shaking so badly I felt every tremor through his body.
“Luna,” he whispered, voice shredded, “if I lose control—run.”
“I won’t.”
“You have to.”
“I won’t.”
He let out a soft, pained laugh that wasn’t really a laugh at all.
Then his fingers curled around mine.
“Then stay,” he whispered. “But don’t let go.”
“I won’t.”
“No matter what happens.”
“I won’t, Asher.”
Our fingers wove together—
—and the curse reacted instantly.
The shadows under my skin surged toward our joined hands, swirling like living ink desperate to spread into him.
A spike of agony shot through both of us.
Asher sucked in a ragged gasp.
I cried out his name.
The shadow’s voice filled the forest like thunder muffled through fog.
“Yes… yes. Break together. Fall together. Become mine together.”
Asher’s wolf slammed against the bond—wild, feral, unstoppable.
He forced himself to his feet—dragging me with him—every breath a battle, every heartbeat a war.
“No,” he snarled. “You don’t get to take her.”
His aura exploded outward—violent, golden, shaking the ground—
but the darkness in my arm answered with its own surge, clashing with his power like colliding storms.
Asher staggered.
I almost fell.
The shadow lifted both arms.
And the curse inside me screamed.
A soundless scream—
but I felt it tear through my mind, my bones, my soul.
“Asher—Asher, it’s inside—it’s trying to—”
“I’ve got you,” he said, voice hoarse, breaking. “Stay with me. Stay—Luna, look at me—LOOK AT ME.”
I forced my eyes up.
His gaze locked on mine, raw and desperate and full of a love so fierce it hurt.
“You’re mine,” he whispered. “My mate. My Luna. My heart.”
The shadow hissed.
The darkness in my arm convulsed.
And the forest exploded with power—
light and darkness colliding so violently the world shook.
The curse was claiming me.
Asher was refusing to let it.
And I was caught between them—
pulled by two forces strong enough to tear me in half.