VALENSI was going to be a father. My curse was broken. I don't think I had ever been happier than I was then.When we landed in Redville, I took a deep breath of the stent of the place.When I first arrived, there was no indication that this place would be any different from the others. When my mind set on claiming Redville, it didn't feel any different from all the other times when I seized on an idea.I'd long since adapted to the life of a wanderer. My leaving a pack was as swift and unexpected as my taking over it. My wolf told me he wanted a place and my body itched until I got up and went to take it. I'd repeated that process over forty times so there was nothing special or exhilarating about it.In the early days of my curse, I'd assumed the itch to move, to settle someplace else was a sign. The itch controlled me as I first saw it as a clue. I thought of it as a prompt from the goddess to enter a new land where I would find my mate.I couldn't spend more than three months in
There was a crash, turbulence like a rushing wind, and then darkness. After the darkness came a blinding light. I woke up in a hospital room with someone clutching my hands. The room was stifling. The hand holding mine was unwelcome and the light hurt my eyes. I pulled my hand from the ones holding me but they held me tighter. "You are awake." I'd never seen Valens look as relieved as he did then. "Oh, goddess –" He paused and changed the direction of the conversation. "I'll get the doctor." He pressed a button on a strange-looking device, still holding me. A man came in wearing a white coat, a woman in blue scrubs following behind him. They gave me water that wasn't plain water and the doctor checked my vitals. "How do you feel?" He asked as he wrote something down on his file. "Like I got hit by a truck," I answered and I suppose I was right. I did get hit by a truck. Before the darkness, I'd been trying to get out of a car because I suspected the driver and then from nowhere,
I spent a week in the hospital before the doctor declared I was free to go. After the first three days, I already felt good enough to leave the pack hospital but the doctor insisted I had to be monitored and Valens backed him up. "What about Bethel?" I asked when a nurse helped me zip up my dress. I was happy to be finally rid of the ugly hospital gown almost as much as I was happy to be leaving the stale hospital room. It was decorated with flowers and different gifts from my many well-wishers and people Celeste called my 'fans,' but the area around the hospital was depressing and the people that came to see me looked at me as if I'd they were staring at a corpse. A part of me had certainly died but I was tired of the pitiful glances, the silence, the way people tiptoed around me as if I was a volcano waiting to erupt. "He – ah – " Valens paused, watching me as if thinking of whether or not he had to lie to me. "You can tell me if he's dead." I didn't care for Bethel but people a
"Are you hungry?" Valens asked when we got to the penthouse. It was exactly how I left it before going to the hospital. It felt so surreal to know that some things remained the same while my life had changed forever. "No," I answered Valens' question, getting into bed. I burrowed my face into a pillow and closed my eyes, blocking out everything. "Turn off the lights," I muttered. "All of them," I added when he left one light on. He turned it off and the place became pitch black. "You should have lunch before you sleep off." "I am not sleeping off," I muttered, turning my face. "Okay." There was silence after that but it didn't last as long as I would like. "Do you need anything?" I needed him to leave me alone but I wouldn't say that. "Who trained you?" I raised my head from the pillow. "In combat, that is.""The head of my father's knights. Why do you ask?" He perched on the bed and I got the wild feeling that he was afraid of me. No, he was uncertain. Not afraid. "Was he curs
"The renovations have just been completed. It has nine rooms and a pool." She shook with excitement as she showed us the house. From my reaction, she could tell I was impressed and we were very likely going to take it. It was everything we asked for. The first house we saw was nice but it just wasn't big enough for what I wanted. It was in a gated community with similar-looking houses. I frowned the minute we drove past the gates. Everything went to shit when Valens found an unassuming spot. He poked at it a bit and uncovered rotten wood. The caretaker looked stunned, ashamed and terrified all at once when we left."The renovators added a nice movie theatre, a recreation room and even an indoor jacuzzi. It's brilliant, I tell you." The agent showing us the place couldn't stop gushing. "Do you like it?" Valens asked me. I looked around the place. Truly, it was magnificent. The place was large and stunning with enough land surrounding it. We'd have our private woods, rather than the
Preparing to hear from the goddess was a lot of work. It intrigued me at first but after three hours of cleaning and meditation, I soon lost my intrigue. I had to be 'clean' both in my mind and body hence the washing and meditation. I had to empty my mind of everything that disturbed me, which was easier said than done. Everyone in the room excused me so I sat alone in the room, trying to clear my mind enough to accommodate the divine words of a goddess. "Aysel." I heard the voice. It was more intimate than my wolf's and at first, I assumed I was conjuring it but it called again. "Aysel, my child." I was so startled that I opened my eyes. "My child, it has been tough, hasn't it?""Is it – is it really the goddess?" I could have hallucinated her. I felt as if she wasn't really there because when I looked around, I saw nobody. Her voice was too calm, too human. It sounded intimate, like the voice of a mother, rather than a divine being. Yet, I felt the presence of something ethereal
"Your mother's service to me exempted her from her family's curse," the calm voice returned after a few seconds of silence. "Her lineage was cursed for shedding innocent blood but she escaped her fate and ran to my sanctuary. I kept her safe in my sanctuary for many years, preserving her." I blinked because I was not expecting that. "What – What do you mean by preserving her?" "Time is a teardrop to me but an ocean to your kind. To me, she had spent less than a week in the sanctuary but she told me one day that she had spent decades. She had not aged in those decades but she wanted to leave to see the world outside."I – It was a lot to wrap my head around but I had a goddess in my head. I was listening directly to the voice of divinity so nothing seemed too big to wrap my head around. If my mother's lineage was cursed, did that make me cursed too? "Who cursed her lineage?" I asked. Cursed. I had played around with that idea all my life. I had called myself cursed with bad luck.
*VALENS*'Valens – he – When Redville needed an Alpha, when I needed an Alpha, when my baby needed an Alpha, he wasn't there. He is the Alpha that abandoned his pack.' Those words played in my head as I sat outside of the inner shrine. The oracle sat facing me, her eyes closed and head lifted to the ceiling as if she was in a trance or asleep. I was reaping the fruits of my lack of foresight. 'Is it just a lack of foresight?' Zino asked, yawning. I ignored him. He didn't get to feel the brunt of her anger so I didn't expect him to fully understand. I, on the other hand, felt the anger simmering just beneath her skin. And it was more than the anger; there was also resignation, sadness and an obvious lack of trust. 'You subconsciously wanted to punish me!' She'd yelled at me and I knew that was what she believed. I searched my heart, my mind, and even tried to see into my soul. No part of me wanted to punish my mate when I saw those pictures. I'd been hurt and betrayed. I didn't tr