Curse of the Alpha (Full Moon Series Book 3)

by Mia Rose

  “Declan, any word?” Garett asked.

  “Nothing yet, I’m sorry,” Declan said. “I’m actually hoping that you can help me with something.”

  “What is it?” Garett asked.

  “Do you still have that knife of yours that’s made from pure silver?”

  “I’m sure I do somewhere around here,” Garett said, sounding skeptical. “What do you need it for?”

  “I’m just trying to see something,” Declan said vaguely.

  Garett left the room and Declan could hear him rummaging around in his bedroom. Moments later, he came back into the living room carrying a small knife. Declan took it from his hands and stared at the weapon.

  “Well,” he said as he breathed, “here goes nothing.” Declan unsheathed the knife and pointed it at his chest.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Abigail screamed, racing toward him and grabbing the knife from his hands.

  “Edmund gave me a cure, Abigail. I took it this morning as a test and now I want to see if it works like he said it would,” Declan explained. She still stared at him and did not move to hand him the knife.

  “Give him the knife, Abigail,” Garett said.

  “What? Do we even trust that man? First, he was my daughter’s doctor and now he just happens to be someone who knows all about werewolves and how to cure silver. No one else thinks that is a crazy coincidence? How can he know that the cure works?”

  “Well, that’s what he is trying to find out, now isn’t it?” Garret said plainly.

  “You’re okay with this?” Abigail asked, sounding shocked. “What if it doesn’t work and Declan has just stabbed himself and killed himself for no reason? Then what?”

  “Well, you’re right. There’s no need to be so dramatic about it,” Garett admitted.

  “See?” Abigail said, smiling slightly.

  “Declan, just cut open your palm and we can know. I think that small of a cut would give us time to find a cure if this one doesn’t work.” Abigail stared at her husband dumbfounded. Garett walked over and took the knife from her hands and gave it back to Declan.

  Declan pointed the blade toward his palm and dragged the blade across, cutting lightly into his hand. Blood seeped through the small separation of skin and they all gathered around his hand to watch what happened next.

  “So?” Abigail said anxiously.

  “So,” Declan said, smiling, “I think the cure works.” He watched in amazement as the cut stayed in his palm —no peeling or disintegrating of skin.

  “Shouldn’t you be healing?” Abigail asked.

  “I guess that must be a side effect or something,” Declan said. “We can’t heal as quickly with silver. Well, I’ll take that any day over deteriorating into dust.”

  Abigail smiled at him weakly and Declan stood up from the couch. He walked toward the door and pulled it open.

  But before he left, he turned back and said to them, “We will find her.”

  Noelle awoke from her small cot in the corner of the room. Her hands were tied to the post, but it was a relief to not have them behind her back any longer. She struggled to loosen them, but after Edmund had come back into the room, he made sure to tie the rope nice and tight to “Prevent her from escaping,” as he had put it.

  Noelle called out to him, “Edmund.” There was no reply so she said it again, “Edmund!” The door to her small room swung open and he walked in carrying a tray of water with an apple.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “I really need to use the restroom,” she said.

  Edmund looked at her and rolled his eyes. He walked over to her hands and untied the rope just enough to slip off the post. He led her out of the room and to the restroom on the other side of the wooden house.

  “Make it quick,” he mumbled.

  “Can you please untie me?” she asked. “I won’t be able to, you know.” Edmund looked at her, studying her face closely. She rolled her eyes impatiently and said, “I won’t go anywhere, I promise.”

  After a few more moments, he nodded his head and reached for a knife in his back pocket. In one swift motion, he sliced through the ropes and Noelle rubbed at her wrists. She smiled at him gratefully and he gave a small nod in return. She walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.

  “I’ll be right out here,” Edmund said. “So, don’t try anything.”

  Noelle looked at herself in the mirror and she felt sick at the sight. Her eyes were large and puffy with dark bags underneath from lack of sleep and water. Her skin was ashen and grimy and there were red splotches on her cheeks. Her hair was frizzy and stuck out all over the place on her head. She leaned down into the sink and washed her face with the cold water, relishing the refreshing feeling it offered her. She poured some on her head and tied her hair back into a quick braid.

  Noelle looked around the bathroom and found a small window in the shower. She unlocked it and tried to push it up, but it was painted shut. She took the razor and tried to slice away at the paint, but Edmund began knocking at the door.

  “Hurry up!” he yelled.

  “I’m almost done,” Noelle called out.

  She looked out of the window again, trying to get some bearings as to where she was, but the cabin was surrounded by trees. She saw someone emerge from the edge of the woods and she squinted her eyes to get a better look. It was a man that she recognized. She closed her eyes in the conscious effort to remember his name.

  “Gabriel,” she breathed the words out, remembering him from the night she’d found her family nearly killed in the woods.

  She opened her eyes and to her horror, she saw her cousin Megan trailing behind him. Both of them were followed by Eddie holding the gun. Noelle climbed down from the shower and quickly flushed the toilet and pulled open the door.

  “One second longer and I was coming for you,” Edmund said as she walked out.

  “Sorry, when you have to go…” she trailed off, her eyes on the door. Edmund followed her gaze just as the door was pulled open and Gabriel and Megan were ushered inside.

  “What the fuck?” Edmund hissed. “Who the hell are these people?”

  “Noelle?” Megan asked when her eyes found Noelle’s.

  Without giving it another thought, Noelle reached for the knife in Edmund’s back pocket and grabbed him, pressing the blade to his throat.

  “Set them free or I will kill your son,” Noelle said. Eddie looked from Edmund to Noelle, and to her surprise, he merely shrugged.

  “So, what are you waiting for? Kill him.”

  “Dad?” Edmund squeaked out. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Oh, come on, Edmund. Don’t act so surprised. She’s doing us all a favor really. We got the recipe for that fancy little potion you cooked up, so we don’t really need you anymore, do we?”

  “But I’m your son.”

  “No,” Eddie snarled. “You died to me the day that werewolf bit you in your laboratory. I have no son.”

  “But I am healed now, Dad. I am not infected anymore.”

  “Perhaps you’re not infected by the werewolf bite anymore, Edmund. But you are still infected by stupidity! Look at you! Back where you started because you decided to trust your little werewolf prisoner, and now look who has a blade to your throat.”

  Noelle felt sick to her stomach. She thought about her own father and how he would have laid down his own life if it meant protecting hers. Now, here Edmund stood listening to his father offering him up like a piece of meat. Noelle pushed Edmund toward his father, but he stepped quickly to the side to avoid being slammed into. Edmund hit the wall and slid down pathetically, his eyes never leaving his father’s. Eddie pointed the gun straight at Megan’s head and she whimpered against the cold metal.

  “One more step, and she dies,” Eddie snarled. “And lucky for us that we have a fresh grave that we can throw her into.”

  Noelle put her hands up and dropped the knife. She locked eyes with Megan and pleaded with her to just cooper
ate, for now. Edmund stood up from the wall and walked over to Noelle, tying her hands together once more. Eddie did the same with Megan and Gabriel and the three of them were ushered toward the small room. The door shut behind them.

  Megan hissed, “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “I’m on a god-damned vacation, Megan. What the hell does it look like here?” Noelle said, shaking her tied hands in front of her cousin’s face. “And you?” Noelle breathed. “You’re a freaking werewolf, you’re telling me you couldn’t just take that guy out?”

  “His gun has silver bullets,” Gabriel said. “One shot and I am done for. We need a better plan.”

  “Well, lucky for both of you.” Noelle smiled. “I think I have one.”

  “Well?” Megan asked impatiently.

  “There is a small razor in the bathroom. If one of us can get Edmund to let us in there, we can try to sneak it in here and use that to cut us loose.”

  “What’s the likelihood he lets us do that?”

  “I don’t know,” Noelle admitted. “But at any rate, it’s our best shot.”

  “Why did they kidnap you, anyway?” Megan asked, sounding oddly jealous. Noelle looked at her incredulously. “I’m just wondering,” Megan mumbled under her breath.

  “They think my blood has some kind of special ingredient or something, I don’t know.”

  “What kind of special ingredient? For what?”

  “Megan, seriously? Can you just focus on escaping?”

  “He’s not going to let us go right now, Noelle. You might as well speak.”

  Noelle let out an audible groan. “Fine,” she said, “According to this family of psychos, our ancestor Noelise was not a hunter at all. She was just some woman who fell in love with some guy. He got turned into a werewolf by this jealous hunter, whose name, by the way, was Edmund. Apparently, it’s some family tradition or something.”

  “What do you mean Noelise wasn’t a hunter? That’s insane. We learned all about her in hunting school.”

  “You guys have an actual school for hunting?” Gabriel chimed in. The girls almost jumped back having forgotten that he was in the room too.

  “Yeah,” Megan explained. “It’s mandatory for all members who decide to continue the family tradition.”

  “So, you’re given the option to decide not to hunt?” Gabriel asked.

  “Kind of,” Megan said, “bit it’s more of a very strong suggestion that you do this.”

  “I see.” Gabriel nodded, leaning against the wall.

  “So, anyway, you were saying,” Megan said, clearly looking at Noelle.

  “Well, according to them, Edmund basically re-wrote history the way that he wanted to. I guess he didn’t want people to know that she denied him and he definitely did not want people to know that he let Annabelle live.”

  “Annabelle?” Megan squeaked, her voice reaching uncomfortable octaves.

  “Yeah, it gets better.” Noelle almost laughed. “Noelise got knocked up the night that she supposedly killed her lover. When Edmund found out about her pregnancy, he actually went out and killed the wolf. He then took Noelise and the future Annabelle in because he convinced Noelise that the guy just left her. So, Annabelle —she’s what these people call a ‘hybrid.’”

  “A hybrid? What the hell is that?” asked Megan.

  “Whoa.” Gabriel stood up from his place on the wall. “Hybrids are real?”

  “You know about them?” Noelle asked, turning to face Gabriel.

  “I mean, it’s like a story, you know? No one really thought they actually existed. Hybrids are supposed to be like, the mega-wolf —super strong, fast, and exceptionally clever.”

  “Well,” Noelle spoke slowly, “supposedly, they do exist.”

  “Okay,” Megan said, “but this still has nothing to do with you, does it? I still don’t get what they need from your blood?”

  “Yeah.” Noelle nodded. “Well, Annabelle was the last direct female descendant of Noelise —until me. So, her blood runs through my veins, and that blood is what they needed to make the cure work.”

  “Wait —so they needed a female descendant of Noelise?”

  “Yeah.” Noelle nodded.

  “What about me?” Megan asked.

  Edmund barged into the room at that moment, holding a tray of waters, but Megan’s eyes never left Noelle’s.

  “Did I come at a bad time?” Edmund laughed, looking back and forth between the two women.

  “Actually, man,” Gabriel spoke, “I was hoping I could go to the bathroom real-quick.” Edmund looked uncertain at first, but eventually, he nodded and held the door open for Gabriel.

  “So?” Megan asked again.

  “Meg, I didn’t mean to say…”

  “What? You didn’t mean to say what, exactly? Just spit it out, Noelle.”

  “Megan, your blood wouldn’t have worked because.” Noelle sighed. “Because your adopted.”

  The sun was beginning to set and Declan had still not heard from Gabriel or Megan, or Noelle or Edmund. He was frustrated and worried, but he didn’t have time to go out searching for them. He made his way to his car and started to drive out to the woods where the ritual would soon be taking place. He winced as he gripped the steering wheel against his cut.

  Unwrapping the bandage from his hand, he noticed that his cut, although superficial, did not seem any better at all. He was beginning to think that perhaps the cure had not worked, after all.

  Declan pulled up to the edge of the woods and parked his car noting that the majority of the pack had already arrived. Clearly everyone needed a party tonight and no one wanted to wait any longer. He made his way out of his car and into the woods, noting that when he came out of here this night, he would not be alone.

  Gabriel walked back into the room and as soon as Edmund shut the door behind him, a huge grin widened on his face.

  “I got it,” he whispered. The two women continued to stare at each other, not paying him the least bit of attention. “Umm, what did I miss here?”

  “Oh, nothing much.” Megan smiled. “Just, you know, catching up with my cousin here. Or can I even call you that?”

  “Come on, Megan. It’s not a big deal. You’ve been in our family your entire life, pretty much. You are our family and you are my cousin.”

  “I guess this explains why I felt like I never really fit in then, huh?” Noelle glared at her and then turned her direction to Gabriel.

  “Did you get the thing?”

  “Yeah.” Gabriel nodded. “I said that when I walked in but you two were a little busy, I guess.”

  “Yes, what a great time to find out that you’ve been adopted and that your entire childhood has been based on lies!”

  “Megan, stop being so damn dramatic. First of all, you asked me and I told you the truth. Secondly, your mother loved you from the moment she laid her eyes on you. So, whether or not we share the same blood, you’re still my family. Now shut the hell up and start cutting these damn ropes!”

  Megan stared at Noelle, surprised at her tone, but she just nodded in response. They both looked over at Gabriel.

  Gabriel smiled a half-smile. “Okay, let’s get started then. There’s no time to waste.”

  Noelle spent the next few hours trying to cut away at the rope on the other’s hands and Gabriel was the first to be able to break free of the rope. He took the razor from Noelle and finished working through Megan’s rope and made his way to Noelle’s.

  Every time someone came to check in on them, they all hid their hands somewhere and pushed the razor beneath the cot. Gabriel worked quickly, and soon, all three of them were free. Megan guarded the door while Noelle and Gabriel worked to lift the window from its position in the room.

  Finally, the window gave way just enough for them to climb out of it. Gabriel climbed first to keep a lookout and to make sure that no one was coming. Megan climbed out second. Noelle pushed one leg out of the window and the door to the room swung open.

  Ed
mund stood there staring at Noelle, who was now halfway through the window. She looked up at him and he said, “Go.” She didn’t wait a moment longer. She pushed herself out of the window and the three of them ran into the woods not taking one look back. Her mind was filled with thoughts of Declan.

  “He was beginning to think that perhaps the cure had not worked after all.”

  Chapter 22

  The Ritual

  “And for the first time in her life, she understood what it might feel like to be one of them.”

  Noelle and Megan stopped running first and tried to look around to get their bearings.

  “Gabe, come on, these are your woods. You have to recognize something here,” Megan pleaded. Gabriel looked around and sniffed in the air. He looked at Megan and then without saying a word, his skin starting rippling and falling from his body as fur emerged from beneath. He let out a frantic growl as his paws touched the ground and he looked at Megan.

  “I’m doing it, Noelle,” Megan said to her cousin.

  “If you do this, Meg, there’s no turning back.”

  Megan smiled. “Trust me, there was never the option of turning back.” Megan closed her eyes and breathed in deeply.

  A few moments later, her own skin began to shed as her luminous golden coat emerged. She was absolutely beautiful and even Noelle took a moment to admire her cousin. Megan smiled at her and turned to face Gabriel. He nodded once and then lowered his back, indicating for Noelle to get on.

  She hesitated at first, trying hard to fight back her hunter instincts, but she climbed on top of him and before she knew it they were running deeper into the woods. Noelle held tightly to his fur and she pressed herself close to his body, closing her eyes against the wind.

  Although she was not a wolf at this moment, Noelle could imagine the pure freedom and joy they felt when running like this, and for the first time in her life, she understood what it might feel like to be one of them.

  Declan arrived in the clearing and he tried to fight back the insane amount of memories he associated with this place —almost killing Garett, losing Cassidy, losing Aria, losing the other pack members, turning Noelle’s family into werewolves, and of course, the many times he and Noelle had made love there.