Chapter 2- My Curse

Aria's POV

When I woke up, every part of my body hurt. It felt as if my body had been dragged through fire and hard ice at the same time. 

My throat was dry, my muscles heavy, and my head pounded with a severe and relentless ache.

I tried to move, but my arms were too heavy for me to lift us. 

I rolled from one end of the bed to another, blinking against the soft sharp light Illuminating the room. 

I realized I was not outside anymore. The air in here smelled clean and different. 

Panic hit me like a jolt of lightning, and I sprung upright, my eyes bulging out of its socket. I had no choice but to ignore the sharp pain piercing through my ribs. Where am I?

“Easy, sweetheart. Easy,” a deep masculine  voice said, cutting through my rushed thoughts like a sharp blade.

I turned sharply to the direction that the voice was coming from and my heart kept pounding severely. 

In front of me was a man who looked like he was in his late twenties. If I was not mistaken, he looked twenty-seven, and his long golden hair fell onto his shoulders. 

He was tall with a muscular and athletic build and an intimidating aura. 

His piercing golden brown eyes seemed to glow faintly in the light. He was watching me, and his gaze was sharp but calm, as if he were studying every movement that I made. 

“Who are you?” I asked with my cracked and hoarse voice. 

The strange man didn’t answer right away. He stepped closer to me as if he didn't want to startle me but I was already scared to death.

What was I doing alone with a man in a room? So many crazy thoughts ran through my mind, and I was already thinking of plans to escape from here. 

“My name is Kieran,” he said. “Alpha Kieran.”

The word Alpha sent a shiver down my spine. I have heard stories of Lycans. Those vicious and untamed creatures ruled their own hidden realms. And now one was standing right in front of me with his presence filling the room like a raging storm. 

“Where am I?” I asked again. My voice was already trembling and I didn't make any effort to be calm. 

I needed to get out of here. This place smelled like death. 

“Easy, easy. You are rushing things. I love taking things easy, sweetheart,” he said to me. 

I frowned my face at him and I scoffed. This was the second time he called me sweetheart and it only made me more mad. 

“Cut off those stupid pleasantries. I asked a question. Can I get an answer?” I blurted out rudely and when I realized that I should not have talked that way to him.

It was too late.  He stared at me so intensely that I feared he might harm me but he didn't. 

“You are in the Lycan realm,” he said simply as if that explained everything.

“I….” I stammered, unable to find my words and my voice faltered. 

 “Why am I here?” I asked. 

His expression softened, just slightly, but the way he looked at me made my intestines twist in my stomach. 

“You are here because you are meant to be,” he said.

I blinked, confused and angry. This time, I could not stop myself from blowing up and I was not apologetic about it. 

 “What does that even mean? I don’t belong here. I don’t even know how I got here! And all you can say is this? Please, get me out of here. Now!” I thundered.  

Alpha Kieran stepped closer with his eyes not leaving mine for a second.  He sniffed his nose countless times and I wondered what aroma he was perceiving from me that made him do that. 

“I hate stubborn girls but I will take it easy on you because you have no knowledge about how things work

You were brought here because you have a mission, Aria.”

I froze at the mention of my name. Was this a spy? A stalker? Someone who has been monitoring me for years? This was crazy.

“How do you know my name?”

“I know more than just your name,” he answered firmly. “I know what you are. You are a hybrid, yes, but more than that. You were born under a rare alignment of the moons, and that makes you... significant to us.”

“Significant? To is?” I echoed and my voice dripped with disbelief. “I don’t understand. What does this have to do with me? With….” My voice broke as the memories of my village came rushing back. 

I could see flashbacks of my parents in their pool of blood. I could hear their screams and I blocked my ears with my fingers as if that would stop it. 

“Your arrival here is not random, Aria. There is a curse that binds the Lycan realm. It's a curse that has fractured our world for decades. Four clans, each ruled by an Alpha, are locked in a power struggle. The lunar binding curse prevents peace, and unless it is broken, the clans will tear each other apart.”

I stared at him after I had recovered from the traumatizing flash backs and my heart kept pounding harder after hearing each word. 

“And so? What does that have to do with me?”

“You are the key to breaking it,” he revealed. “Listen carefully, To end the curse, you must find the four Alphas and choose your true mate among them.”

His words hit me like a random blow to my face. I shook my head countless times and my disbelief was slowly turning into anger. 

“You want me to choose? Between Alphas I don’t even know? What kind of nonsense is this? Look, Alpha Kerian or whatever is your name. This is bullshit! Fucking bullshit that I don't buy. How could you….”

“Shhh….This is not a choice I made,” Kieran interrupted me and his voice was sharper than he had ever talked to me.  “It is the will of the moon goddess. Your connection to them gives you the power to decide. Your mate, that is the one you choose, will unite the clans and break the curse. But the wrong choice...”

He immediately paused as his voice trailer off and a thick silence filled the room. 

“The wrong choice will doom us all. We will all perish,” he finished and his dangerous looking gaze locked onto mine and it made my chest tighten.

I wanted to scream, to cry, to deny everything he was saying but not a single word came out of my mouth. 

I bit my lower lips in anger, sinking my teeth into it as I tasted the blood streaming out. 

How could any of this be real? A curse? Four Alphas? A mate? I was not some savior. I was just a worthless orphan girl who had lost everything.

“I don’t know how to do this,” I finally said in a low whisper to him. 

“You don’t have to know,” Kieran said softly, stepping closer until he was only a few feet away. “You just have to try. The clans are already aware of your presence. The moon goddess has guided you here for a reason. Whether you believe it or not, you are the key to our survival.”

I felt the weight of his words settle on my shoulders, crushing and suffocating me. 

My chest ached deeply as I felt the pressure of everything within me. I had not even been able to heal from my grief and now, this?

“I don’t want this,” I admitted, shaking my head and taking some steps back. 

“It is written all over you, sweetheart. Sometimes, the things we want don’t matter. What matters is what we are meant to do.”

“I said no! I can't find my four mates and choose my true mate to break a goddamn curse. I can't and I don't care about any bloody consequences!”