Curse of the Moon Goddess

I found myself humming our song all the next morning. I woke up and made breakfast for my family for the first time in months. I was grinning like a wolf getting his belly rubbed as my family entered the kitchen and cautiously sat at the table.

“Good morning?” my father greeted with a question than an actual statement.

“Good morning. How did you sleep?” I responded, my voice far more chirper than usual.

I took note of the mischievous grins growing on my brother’s faces as they looked at one another. In complete harmony, they came by my side and dropped their arms around my shoulders.

“Alright, spill the beans. You met her, didn’t you?” Brent prodded.

“Met who?” I asked, knowing who they were referring to but not wanting to admit it.

As Brent opened his big mouth again, we were rudely interrupted by the sound of our door bigging pummeled to the ground as it was kicked opened and then trampled on by at least a dozen people.

My dad let out some pretty swear words that I’m sure my mom would have critiqued him for if she hadn’t been muttering them herself.

“Who the… who are you and how dare you burst into the home an alpha!” my dad roared causing a few of the front guards to wince.

“I dare.”

From the back of the herd of buffoons came the one person I never wanted to see dragging the one person I longed to see. Unconsciously a warning growl escaped.

Richard turned his sickly green eyes to meet mine. He growled in response, challenging me. If I didn’t still have my brother’s arms slung across my shoulders, I’d already be half-shifted and at the guy’s throat.

“Let go of me!” Aleina screamed out, digging her claws into her mate’s skin.

“Shut it you mutt!”

A slap resounded in the room.

No sooner did the sound reach my ears than I was at the guy’s throat with two swords pointed at mine.

Richard glared at me. A warning to let him go. I loosened my grip only enough for him to breath. The edges of the swords burned into my skin from the silver tinting them. Such a dirty trick. I could care less though. All I cared about was getting Aleina away from this monster.

As the stare down continued, I heard my mom’s voice plead, “Will someone please tell us what’s going on?”

Richard broke the contact to smirk at my mother.

“You didn’t know? Well, I’ll fill you in. I came to claim my mate last night. When she got home, yourson’s scent was all over her! So, I did what any mate should. I punished her. I forced her to watch as we slowly burned her family with silver. Don’t worry, they’re still alive. Barely.”

He added a smirk at the end that caused my reflexes to grab a hold of his throat even tighter. The silver pushed harder against my skin, but at least the jerk’s smirk was gone.

“And now, I’ll punish your son,” he choked out, “He dared to touch my mate. Now, he’ll suffer the same punishment.”

I let out a low growl but was cut off by my father’s voice cutting through, “This must be a misunderstanding. My son and Aleina train together. That’s probably the scent you smelled. They always smell like one another because of the intense training. If we had known Aleina was your mate we would’ve had them stop their training immediately. Son, tell him this is all a misunderstanding.”

If I had been the one in control, I may have played along with my dad’s explanation. However, the one in control was no longer me.

Duncan’s voice rang out clear and fierce as he proclaimed, “You’re right Richard. I love Aleina. I kissed her last night. And I swear to you that you and every single person who took place in harming Aleina’s family last night will die by the end of today.”

I heard an audible gasp come from my family. I understood their surprise. I had hated Aleina my whole life. Not only had I fallen in love with her, but my wolf was confessing his love for someone who the Moon Goddess did not give to him.

Richard’s smirk was back. He had a card up his sleeve and he was about to use it.

“Even if it meant killing your own mate?”

My family gasped out again. I could hear the whispers asking when this happened and if it was really true. And if it was, how I could be confessing my love to someone not my mate.

As if on cue, Olivia emerged from the crowd, tears rolling gracefully down her cheeks as if they were rehearsed. They were playing the mate card. This isn’t good.

“Honey, why are you doing this? How could you love someone other than me? I’m your mate! Just accept the punishment and I will forgive you. We can go back to my land where you can be a commanding officer of our military. What do you say?” she held out her hand to me as she almost whispered the last part.

I could feel a part of me melting. Though I knew she was using me, the mate bond held me firm to her. I felt sick to my stomach. I was being used and I felt I could do nothing about it.

“Jake,” a soft sob broke me from my reverie.

I turned to see Aleina barely in view behind Richard. Our eyes met. I could see the pain her wolf was in. Her mate had tortured her family. He had brought harm to her and most likely would do everything in his power to break her. He wanted a submissive wife not the free-spirited woman Aleina was. She would break. He’d use his alpha voice to command her, force her to do things she didn’t want. All he had to do was seal the mating. She was trapped. She didn’t have the strength to fight the bond, so she was begging me to.

I shook my head. If my mate had been kind-hearted, sympathetic, or at least wasn’t so calculative in manipulating people, I may have had a harder time. However, the truth was my mate was cunning and deceitful. Aleina’s mate was abusive. I hated the Moon Goddess for doing this to us and there was no way I was going to allow any of this to happen.

“So, we’re at an understanding. You stand back, watch your family be tortured for your sins, then we’ll head back to our kingdom where we’ll complete the mating ceremony for both parties.”

As Richard’s announcement resounded in the room, I felt the swords fall from my neck, my arms gently pushed down by Olivia, and the whimpers of my little sister. That sound did something to my wolf and I. There was a mental snap. There was no longer Duncan the wolf and Jake the human. Our consciousnesses combined into one and I felt myself become a wolf. My senses heightened, I felt our eyes burn with hunger, and the whole world shifted.

I reached my hand out, only claws out. They slowly pushed into Richard’s neck. I was careful not to kill him. I wanted him to suffer.