I smiled coldly. “I never want to kill him.” I stared up at her. “He goes mad the moment he falls in love with me. Better he hates me than love me, because it is the only thing preventing the curse from unraveling.”
“Good, then we are agreed. You won’t kill him, and I won’t have to hunt you down and murder you.”
“Not even close to agreeing. You think you’d fight me if I had my magic?” I asked carefully, watching as the color drained from her face. “You know you couldn’t,” I snorted. “Did you know that a cursed witch need only release her light magic to accept the darkness in its place? I am both light and dark, and can choose the darkness to retrieve my magic. If they harm Hope, I will not hesitate to accept that evil into my soul to make those who have hurt her pay for it. Me, I can handle the pain. I can handle being knotted and having it ripped from my cunt,” I hissed, knowing Braydon listened at the door. “There is nothing you can do if I reach for that ancient darkness, nothing. No magic, no weapon, nothing would be safe from me or what I would become. Keep that in mind, wolf, when you handle that girl. She has been sheltered and isn’t a part of this mess. Her parents are coming, and they will rip apart this bayou to find their child.”
“I’m not threatening Hope, Laura.”
“But Braydon is, and he can hear me. I’ll play whatever part he wants me to, but she is to be treated with care. She may be older than the lot of you, but she is a child in her world. I don’t make threats I won’t see through, nor do I ever give my word and fail. Thank you for being woman enough to care that I was hurt, but I can handle him. I’ve felt his abuse before, and I’m not afraid of it anymore. You see, I’ve come to expect it. I don’t need your protection, nor do I want your pity. I am a witch. I am a fucking Cheveron witch,” I said coldly with tears shining in my eyes. “I am no one’s bitch, Moira.”
Chapter 11
I waited undisturbed in the bedroom as water infused with lavender along with other herbs he placed into a large tub. Braydon lit candles around the room since there seemed to be no power this deep into the bayou, which was probably how they remained hidden. Night had fallen, and the darkness in the room called to me, beckoning me to the blissfulness of sleep.
I’d been almost there when he touched me. My body jerked away from his, and I crawled back on the bed, staring at him through wide eyes. He studied me as if he wasn’t sure how to handle the mess he’d made.
“Your bath is ready,” he uttered gently.
I didn’t speak, glaring up at him in the house’s silence, while the wind howled beyond the walls. Candles lit the room behind him, illuminating his immense frame. I felt tiny for the first time in centuries. Swallowing down the fear that tightened my throat, I removed the blankets, revealing the colorful bruises that he’d left with his vigorous virility. The flesh between my thighs ached with every move I made, reminding me of what he’d done. It took everything within me not to scream as I stood for the first time. Nausea swirled through my stomach, pushing against my throat as I closed my eyes.
“I can help you,” he offered.
“I don’t want you to touch me,” I replied crisply with enough hate marring my words. He backed up as I opened my eyes, staring at him. “I don’t need anything from you, Braydon. I want to leave here; do you hear me? I don’t want to die, and I assure you, that is what will happen if I stay here. You say you don’t want my blood on your hands, but you will have it. You already do, don’t you?” I challenged.
“I will release you eventually, witch.”
“No, you won’t. Because you can’t just erase that mark on your soul, mutt,” I laughed. “You don’t get it, do you? I have tried everything to be rid of it. I let them take my fucking soul to cleanse it, and it’s still there. I have withstood rituals that tore me apart, shredded me from the inside out, and yet there you were. You are a part of me, and I am a part of you. Soulmates come once in a lifetime, and until our souls die, we’re mated. End of fucking story. You think some backwoods witch can do what thousands of others couldn’t? Good for you, keeping the hope alive.” I walked past him, lifting the shirt to reveal more flesh that he’d hurt in his urgency to prevent us from mating.
At the tub, I turned toward him before climbing in to lean my head against the raised back. I ignored the bite of the steaming water and the pain as it scolded my most sensitive flesh as I washed his touch and scent from me. My eyes closed as I felt him taking in the damage.
“Stop staring at me, Viking,” I mused as I sat up, bringing my legs against my chest to stare over at him. “You’ve done worse, I assure you.”
“How many times have you killed me?” he countered, surprising me.
“I didn’t keep count,” I replied honestly. “It’s not like we have a scorecard. You are reborn after every death, and within fifty years of you coming back, you find me, and I kill you. Rinse and repeat. This is the first time you’ve ever found me early.” I shrugged silently, leaning my head against my knees.
“Why did you love me in every life?” he continued.
“I don’t know why I love you, only that I always end up falling for you. Maybe this time will prevent it, huh? Because I honestly don’t like you at all,” I laughed coldly. “In fact, you make me fucking sick.”
“Is that so? Because you fucked me. You fucked me,” he said, crossing his arms as his eyes burned with intense heat. “You came for me. You called out my name, and I felt your womb clenching me tighter. You say you can’t have children, and yet I smell your heat. I felt your womb taking what I offered like it couldn’t get me deep enough into it. You can mate, woman. I have felt nothing like it in my lifetime. You sucked me dry twice and begged for more. You think I’m fucking stupid? Is this a game to you?” he demanded as his eyes burned with anger as his hands clenched and unclenched.
“I am not whole, wolf. I cannot breed. I give you my word on it. My mother didn’t want us to create life. You were an abomination to her. Created of the two things she hated most, Viking and werewolf. Vikings killed her lover, my father. Werewolves held my mother down and raped her for days, beating her while she was pregnant with me. My loving you was the worst crime I could have committed against her. Do you think she wouldn’t include that into this curse? Her grandchild would be born of her traitorous whore of a daughter and her worst enemy. No, my mother was as evil as they came. She weaned on tales of the murderous invaders and the satiable wolves who both took from women. I killed my first werewolf before I ever bled my first monthly. I brought down thousands of Vikings before you, and had it not been for you, they may have become extinct, which I assure you she intended it to be.”
“Then why did your cunt hold me within it? I think she intended for you to breed. I am an alpha, I have always been the alpha, haven’t I?” he asked, and at my nod, he smirked. “And a true alpha, if killed with a child within his mate’s womb, will come back to his mate in the form of their own child, so she has something to love and protect in his absence.”
“What?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.
“What better way to punish you, Laura, than to make you kill our son and me?” he asked softly.
Tears slipped from my eyes to create small waves in the water I sat in. “We’ve never created a life, Braydon. It isn’t from a lack of trying. We have worked together to prevent the curse from playing out. We worked as a team to find a cure to the curse, and when we discovered it was hopeless, you wanted to create life. You wanted to leave me a son to protect me. It didn’t work. I am barren; everything says as much. Spells didn’t change it, potions, curses. Nothing we tried worked, and every time you died, I was left alone to weep for you. You’re wrong.”
“Am I? I’m willing to bet that by the next moon phase, you’re pregnant with my babe swelling in your womb.”
“You’d have to have sex with me again to accomplish that, and after the last time, I’m good. Breakin
g my vagina is a hard limit for me, wolf,” I said, standing up from the bath and reaching for the towel. He snapped it away and held it out of reach, watching me. “I’m not a damsel who needs her ass dried off, Braydon. Give me the towel.”
“Fucking take it, little girl,” he challenged. “You didn’t wash your hair.”
I blinked, turning back to look at the tub, only for him to heft me up and step into it fully dressed. My eyes widened as my mouth dropped open.
“You are mad, Viking!” I hissed.
“Not yet,” he growled as he turned my body, so I was facing away from him. “I’m sorry for hurting you, but I know what to expect when a mate takes you into her womb. I’m not wrong, Laura. Your body held onto mine, and according to you, I’ve never knotted with you before, nor bit you. This time is different for both of us, is it not? A wolf only mates a female who is breeding to seal her womb to be sure a child is planted. If my wolf wasn’t certain he could breed that womb, he wouldn’t knot your tight cunt to seal it closed. I knotted you, and you held me there because you are my mate, little one.” He wrapped his arm around my waist as the other reached for something outside the tub. He produced a mirror and held it in front of me. “Look at the bite.”
I stared at the marks he’d left, both now scarred in the shape of a crescent moon. My eyes found his in the mirror and watched him as he stared at me before lowering his lips to kiss where he’d scarred me.
“You have my pack mark upon your flesh.” He set the mirror back down and pulled me back against him as he settled into the tub, uncaring that he still wore his sweatpants. “You are an enigma to me. My wolf craves you, and if I’m being honest, so do I. That doesn’t sit well with me, since your sole intent upon this earth is to murder me.”
“You’re wrong. My sole intent is to fall madly in love with you and then murder you. How easy it would be if not for the first part of it,” I laughed darkly. “If I were to kill you right now, it wouldn’t stick. I tried that too. I killed you the moment I found you one time; no emotions involved. Three days later, you found me again and caught me off guard with the madness I had tried to prevent in all its glory. You think I have half-assed this, don’t you? I promise you this, wolf. I have considered everything except handing my soul to the darkness.”
“What happens if you were to give in to the darkness?” he questioned.
“The darkness is the worst type of magic a witch can ever grab for. It is hatred and pure evil that consumes a witch whole, leaving nothing of her when it takes over. Once it has you, it doesn’t let go. It promises you sweet things, but it is an empty void that is filled with those dark promises. I have tasted it, as has Avery. We are both light and dark, both immortal in a way, unnatural to our kind. It hovers in the shadows even now,” I whispered, staring at where the shadows swayed with empty promises, lured by the threat to Moira earlier, hoping I would accept it. “It wants us because we are endless and powerful. If it is freed within one of us, it will take thousands of witches to put us down. I can’t reach for it without knowing it would slaughter everything and anyone in its path, including those I love. No one would be safe, and I’d have little control over it. There’s a moment, a time right before it fully takes control of the host, where you keep awareness. A sliver of time that a host can change their mind and choose death instead of the darkness,” I whispered hoarsely with tears rolling down my cheeks as he worried his thumb over my shoulder where he gripped me tightly.
“You can’t just send it back from where it came?” he asked in a soft tone, filled with curiosity.
“Once it is called, only death can prevent it from entering the one who agreed to host it.”
“And yet you said you would, to protect Hope from us with it? How could you do that if you allowed it to use your body?”
“I’d allow a thousand darkened souls within me to protect her, Braydon. She is special. She’s also family, something I don’t have a lot of. I trust three people in my life, and one of them is myself. I trust her and her mother. So yes, if it came to it, I’d damn my soul to hell to keep her safe at all cost. Immortality is an endless curse. I have watched everyone I love die. I have watched my bloodline die out around me without being able to save it. I have murdered the man I loved to survive, and yet he loathes me now for purely acting on instinct I cannot control. I am eternally cursed to endless darkness where I chose to love you, idiot am I not? I chose you, knowing what she would do to me if I were caught, and yet I would still choose you because out of everyone I have ever known, you loved me when I was the monster that everyone feared.”
Chapter 12
Braydon
I held her body against mine as the herbs Moira gave her in the tonic entered her system. It was an asshole thing to do, using the trust Moira had gained with Laura against her. Her eyes grew heavy as her head bobbed against my chest. A chest she refused to take comfort from. I didn’t blame her. I’d been a cold son of a bitch since the moment she laid her pretty emerald eyes upon me. She cannot love me before we’ve saved her. I’ve held secrets from her since the moment I met her, dark secrets she may never forgive.
I stood, lifting her tiny frame in my arms, uncaring of the water that sloshed over the floor. My home was much like the ones we’d lived in while waiting for the curse to strike us down. Little effort had been used to erect it, but then the home I built for her deeper in the bayou was immense and lavish, fit for the queen to my king. She mewled, making sweet noises that jerked my cock to attention.
Snorting, I replay the pain that flashed through her eyes as I’d called her perfect little tits anything but what they were. I’d made her hate me, but it was the only way to keep the curse from being triggered.
“Did you knot inside her womb as I instructed?” the old crone asked.
“I bit her twice, knotted her flesh, and then removed it as you instructed. She’ll probably never wish to be fucked again,” I growled, staring into ancient eyes. “If you had stuck around this shithole camp you chose for us, you’d know that, Mary.”
“You asked me to help you; this is how you save the woman you love, lycan. I chose it for the leyline it stands on, but I have to move pieces around and push everything into place before that moon rises, and the veil is down. Now, focus. You are sure she has not sensed that you didn’t die when she thought she killed you last time?”
“She assumes I am reborn,” I muttered, placing Laura onto the bed before spreading her legs apart. My cock itched to fill her tight flesh. Her wet hair fanned out beneath her, the fiery strands striking against the crisp, clean white sheets. “She has no clue that I am hybrid, nor will she unless it aids to bring her to my bed. I see no point in spewing truths until I know if she will live or not.”
I was a hybrid, born half-wolf, half-vampire, and turned berserker by countless battles that I’d survived. Unlike normal wolves, we are a stronger, faster, and more ruthless breed that couldn’t be killed. To end the curse on my soul Laura’s mother had placed, I’d given up the part of me that hurt her. I’d sacrificed the berserker within me to prevent it from raging against her body. It had hurt to part with that piece of me, but she was worth it. I had watched what I did to her time after time, never allowing her to know that I had witnessed the savagery in which it had attacked her tiny body. I’d kept my secrets of what I was, and who I was from her since the moment I met her, but with the curse being removed from me, and having enough time pass to be certain it was gone, it was time to heal the woman I loved.
“A powerful witch placed the curse,” she shrugged. “I am powerful now, as I hold your female’s magic, and the magic of the other Cheveron witches, thanks to Thea’s hex.”
“What are you doing?” I asked as she touched my woman’s naked, exposed sex.
“Her pussy is cursed, as is the rest of her, Braydon. To remove one, we must remove all. I removed yours, didn’t I?” she countered st
ernly.
“You made me go mad for an entire decade before it ended.” It was better than going mad against Laura’s body and abusing it as I had in the past, but it had felt like endless torture.
The problem was, if she loved me, and I didn’t turn into the berserker, bad shit would happen. A curse had to have the pieces placed perfectly to play out. If those pieces were altered, it changed the game. You couldn’t just end it without sacrificing something you loved, something that was special to you. She had to sacrifice something as well, and I wasn’t sure she would be able to do it, considering what Mary had suggested Laura give as an offering to escape the curse.
“She can breed now,” I pointed out.
“She always could, but you refused to knot her because you were afraid to hurt her, and your berserker couldn’t, because he couldn’t demand it of the wolf within you. You ripped your knot out of her in all its glory, and yet Laura survived. She is also evolving, unable to stop it as her true identity unravels. On the full moon, she will be as you are if everything goes smoothly. Pray to Hecate that she survives,” she whispered as her fingers worked ancient runes over the pretty red curls that covered Laura’s flesh. “You’ve been adding the tonic to her drinks as I ordered?” she asked.
“I have, and so far, she’s drunk the tonic pure four times. The other times it has been added into her drinking water,” I corrected. My eyes slid to the pink tips of her small breasts already hard and begging to be played with. “It doesn’t seem to be accelerating her change as you said it would.”
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