Chapter 84 Confession Of The Curse
Calix Pov
I watched Maddie start to walk away and every instinct screamed at me to stop her. To run after her. To take back everything I just said. To choose differently.
But I didn't move. I just stood there frozen. Letting her go. Letting the distance grow between us. Letting the best thing that ever happened to me walk out of my life.
"Stop her," my wolf howled in my head. "Go after her. Don't let her leave like this."
"I have to," I said quietly. "It's the only way to keep her safe."
"She's not safe," my wolf argued. "Someone tried to kill her today. Someone sabotaged the obstacle course. She needs our protection. She needs us."
"She needs to be away from me," I insisted. "She needs to find someone else. Someone without a curse. Someone who can love her without bringing death."
But even as I said it I knew it was impossible. The mate bond wouldn't let her find someone else. The mark on her neck wouldn't fade. She was mine and I was hers whether we were together or apart.
Maddie stopped walking. She was about twenty feet away now. Her back was still to me. But I could see her shoulders shaking. I could tell she was crying.
Then she turned around slowly. Her face was streaked with tears. Her eyes were red and puffy. She looked absolutely destroyed.
"Why did you mark me?" she asked. Her voice was barely above a whisper. "That night when you were drunk. That night everything changed. Why did you bite me? Why did you bond us together?"
I hadn't expected that question. I thought she was going to yell at me. Curse me. Tell me she hated me. But instead she was asking for the truth about that night.
"I was drunk," I started to say. The same excuse I had given before.
"No," Maddie interrupted. "Don't give me that excuse again. I want the real reason. I want the truth. You said yourself that your wolf knew. That the bond knew. That you knew. So tell me. Why did you mark me?"
I took a step closer. Then another. The pull between us was too strong to resist anymore. "Because the moment I saw you I knew you were mine. The moment I scented you I knew you were my mate. Everything in me recognized you."
"Then why fight it?" Maddie asked. "Why not just accept it? Why spend weeks denying what we both felt?"
"Because I was scared," I admitted. "Because I knew what claiming you meant. Because I knew the curse would come for you eventually."
"But you claimed me anyway," Maddie said. "Drunk or not. Scared or not. You marked me. You bonded us. You made me yours."
"I know," I said. "And I've regretted it every day since. Not because I don't want you. But because I know what I've done to you. I've painted a target on your back. I've made you vulnerable to my curse."
"Stop calling it a curse," Maddie said. Her voice got stronger. "Stop blaming some ancient family tragedy for your inability to take a risk. Stop hiding behind fear."
"It's not fear," I said. "It's reality. It's fact. It's what happens to everyone I love."
"Then tell me," Maddie demanded. She stepped closer until we were only a few feet apart. "Tell me about this curse. Tell me exactly what it does. Tell me the details. Not just vague warnings and tragic stories. Tell me the truth."
I looked into her eyes. Saw the determination there. Saw that she wasn't going to accept half answers anymore. She wanted the whole truth. And maybe she deserved it.
"Sit down," I said. "This is going to take a while."
We sat on the cold ground behind the pack house. Close enough that I could feel the bond humming between us. Close enough that my wolf was pushing at me to touch her. To pull her close. To claim her properly.
But I kept my hands to myself. I kept the distance. I focused on the story I needed to tell.
"My family has been cursed for five generations," I began. "It started with my great great grandfather. He fell in love with a witch. But he was already betrothed to someone else. To a daughter of a powerful Alpha. He broke the engagement to be with the witch."
"What happened?" Maddie asked quietly.
"The jilted bride cursed him," I continued. "She was a powerful witch herself. She cursed him and all his male descendants. Every firstborn Hawthorne son would lose everyone they loved. Their mates. Their children. Their family. Everyone would be taken from them."
"That's horrible," Maddie said.
"It gets worse," I said. "The curse feeds on love. The more you care about someone the faster they're taken. It's designed to make you choose between loving people or keeping them alive. Between having connections or watching everyone die."
"And your father?" Maddie asked. "Did he lose people too?"
"He lost my mother," I said. My voice got quieter. "They were true mates. Deeply in love. She started getting sick when I was eight. By the time I was ten she was dead. The curse took her slowly. Painfully. Made my father watch as she wasted away."
"I'm sorry," Maddie said. "That must have been terrible for both of you."
"He blamed himself," I continued. "He still does. He thinks if he had stayed away from her. If he had rejected the mate bond. She would still be alive."
"Is that why he's so cold?" Maddie asked. "Why he doesn't form attachments?"
"Yes," I confirmed. "After my mother died he shut down completely. Refused to love anyone. Refused to care. He's terrified the curse will take me too if he lets himself feel anything."
"But you're his son," Maddie said. "Surely the curse wouldn't take his own child."
"My brother wasn't his child," I said. "My brother was from a previous relationship my mother had. Not blood related to my father. But the curse took him anyway. Because my father loved him. Because he let himself care."
"How did it happen?" Maddie asked.