Chapter 4 The Curse
It began and ended with breakfast. After Ryker had threatened to mount his uncle’s head on the gate, he finished the steak silently, wiped his mouth with a napkin, stood, and looked at me.
"Jia will show you the grounds,'' he said buttoning his suit jacket. "I have to deal with the Council. They're... unhappy about our engagement."
He turned to leave, but paused. He didn't look back, but his voice dropped lower. "Stay inside the gates, Elara. If you cross the border line, I can't protect you from the rogues. Or from Silas."
With that, he walked out and slammed heavy front doors behind him on the way out, making the house shake.
There was my solitude, for another time. There was nobody else, inasmuch as a whole room full of warriors might very well be considered hungry they looked like they would like to eat me.
Jia, the girl with the nose ring, sighed gloomily. She kicked a chair and kicked it back again into place.
"C'mon, princess, let's hurry and finish this," she grunted. "If I lose you, Ryker will skin me alive."
The day was a blur of black stone and cold stares.
Jia took me around the Blood Moon fortress. It was not a home, but a military base. No gardens; only training grounds. No paintings on the walls; weapon racks instead.
Everywhere we went, pack members stopped to stare. They didn't bow. They watched me with suspicion. I was the outsider, the spy. The weakling.
As we walked through the library-a massive dusty room filled with dead ancient books, I asked Jia, "What have they got against me?"
They don't hate you," Jia said, leaning against the bookshelf with a knife and cleaning it using her shirt. "It is the symbol you represent: weakness. In this pack, if you can't fight, you die. "And you..." She gestured to my slender frame. "You look breakable."
"Not broken," I said firmly.
"We'll see," she muttered.
I walked toward a glass display case in the middle of the room. In there lay an old tattered book open to a page wherein was a drawing of a wolf with glowing golden eyes.
"What is this?" I asked.
Jia stiffened. She walked over and slammed the book shut. "Nothing. Just old fairy tales. Don't touch the Alpha's things."
"It looked like him," I pressed. "The wolf had a scar. And gold eyes."
Jia glared at me. "Curiosity killed the cat, Elara. Ryker's got secrets. If you want to survive being his wife, learn to look the other way."
She grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the library. But I could not shake off the image of the drawing. Beneath the wolf, there was one word written in ancient script: Cursed.
Night crept very swiftly upon me in the mountains.
I sat in the Master Bedroom, timing the moments with the clock. At midnight, Ryker wasn't back yet.
The house was quiet. Too quiet.
So, I changed into a silk nightgown-black of course because apparently, colors are illegal here. And I paced the floor. Why was I worried? I was the strongest Alpha in the region; sure, he would take care of himself.
Until Silas's face popped into my head, it's true that I remember the hatred in his brows.
Suddenly, boom! The front door down below slammed open.
I heard crashing footsteps. Uneven footsteps. Like someone is stumbling.
Then, it crashed. The sound of glass shatters.
My heart jumped into my throat. "Ryker?"
I ran to the bedroom door and flung it wide open. The hallway was dark.
"Ryker?" I called out softly.
I heard a low pained groan coming from the end of the hall-from the office.
I shouldn't go. Jia had told me to mind my business. But my feet moved on their own. I crept down the hallway, my bare feet silent on the cold floor.
The office door was slightly ajar. I pushed it open.
The room was wrecked.
A lamp was smashed on the floor. Books were swept off the desk. And Ryker was huddled in the corner, his back pressed against the wall.
He looked terrible.
He had ripped his shirt off. His skin was slick with sweat. His chest was heaving as if he had just run a marathon. But it was his eyes that terrified me. They were flickering rapidly between human brown and wolf gold.
He was fighting his wolf. And he was losing.
"Ryker!" I gasped, rushing into the room.
His head snapped up. He snarled at me-a vicious, animalistic sound.
"Get out!" he roared. His voice was distorted, layered with a growl. "Get out, Elara!"
Frozen looked like he was ready to kill anything that moved. His claws were extended, digging into the wooden floor, leaving deep gouges.
"What's happening?" I stammered out, my voice quaking with fear. "Are you hurt?"
"The noise," he gasped, clutching his head. "Make it stop. Too loud. It's too loud!"
He wasn't making sense. The room was silent.
Then I remembered the rumors. The Curse. They said the Blood Moon Alpha was mad. That he heard voices.
"I can't control it," he groaned, squeezing his eyelids shut. A vein popped on his forehead. "Run, Elara. Before I tear you to pieces."
I looked at the door. I should run. Every instinct told me to flee.
But I saw the pain in his face. It wasn't madness. It was agony. He was suffering.
I didn't run.
I walked toward him.
"Elara, no!" he warned, baring his teeth.
I knelt on the floor in front of him. He was so hot he radiated furnace-ed heat. I could feel power rolling off him in waves; it felt like static electricity stinging my skin.
"Look at me," I whispered.
I reached out.
"Don't touch me!" he yelled, flinging away from me.
I ignored him. I placed my hand gently on his bare shoulder.
The moment my skin touched his, a shockwave went through the room.
Ryker gasped. His eyes flew open.
The flickering stopped. The gold settled into a deep, steady burn. His muscles, which had been rock hard with tension, instantly relaxed.
He stared at me, stunned. "The noise..." he murmured, hardly audible because of the wonder in his voice. "It stopped."
I kept my hand on his shoulder, and I felt a strange warmth flowing from my palm into him. It felt like... healing. Only I was wolfless, so I couldn't heal.
"What did you do?" Ryker inquired. Looking at my hand, then up to my face. There had been no wall between us, he looked vulnerable.
"I don't know," I admitted.
He reached out slowly. His hand shook. He touched my cheek; his thumb brushed over my skin with a reverence that made my breath hitch.
"Silence," he murmured. "You feel like silence."
For a moment we stayed there on the floor surrounded by broken glass; the monster and the mouse. The air between us charged, heavy with something dangerously like attraction.
He leaned in. His face was inches from mine. I could feel his hot breath on my lips as my heart thrashed in my ribcage.
Is he going to kiss me?
BZZZT. BZZZT.
The loud buzzing of a phone shattered the moment.
Ryker flinched and immediately pulled back. The wall was slammed shut behind his eyes. He stood up, stumbling a little bit but somehow managed to grab his phone from the desk.
He scanned the message. His face froze over.
"Its for you," he replied icily.
He threw the phone back to me. I caught it, confused. It was my old phone number- he must have forwarded the calls.
I peered on the screen. A notification message popped up.
Sender: Alpha Kade
I paused. My thumb hovered over the surface. Ryker watched me, jaw tight as he waited for what I would do.
I read the message.
Kade: I made a mistake, Elara. The pack is weak without you. Selene is not a True Luna. Come meet me at the border tonight; I will take you back. Don't make me come get you.
I stared at the words. This time one day ago, this text would have been a dream come true. Kade wanted me back.
I looked up at Ryker, who was standing in the shadows again, watching me with those guarded, golden eyes, expecting me to leave, expecting me to run back to the golden boy.
I flicked my eyes back to the phone.
I typed my reply in three words. And I hit send.