Page 3 of Cursed (Blood Moon Pack #1)
W orn out from her encounter with the Beta, Nori tilts her head back against the wall.
He was extremely intimidating, but at least he sent the Guard to give her some food and water.
Her shoulders drop, and the tension slowly leaves her body while she stares at the moss hanging from the stone ceiling.
Chewing on her bottom lip, Nori says, “ The Cursed Prince is going to be a problem. ”
“ How do you know that? Who is this Prince? ” Aylin asks with a tinge of worry in her voice.
“ He is the Prince of All Wolves, son of the Alpha King. ”
Startled, Aylin exclaims, “ Oh, shit! That Prince Drakemoor? ”
“ Yes, the Royal Family. The current leaders of all wolf shifters around the world, ” Nori replies.
“ And how do you know he’ll be a problem? ”
Nori sighs and tries to run a hand through her hair, but remembers it’s full of mud.
“ Our Alpha and the Prince don’t get along at all.
I once overheard Alpha Draven and Beta Malrik talking about the Cursed Prince.
Draven hates him and the King. Draven’s entire mission in life is to one day be King. ”
Aylin’s angry growl reverberates through Nori’s mind. “ Do not mention that Beta’s name again! ”
Nori quickly says, “ OK, Aylin. Sorry. ”
Pulling her knees to her chest, Nori’s grip tightens on the blanket to keep out the chill. “ The Prince probably has no love for Alpha Draven either. After all, the King accused him of provoking the Vampire Wars. The Prince will think we are some sort of spy for Draven. ”
Nori exhales quietly and continues, “ As soon as the Cursed Prince finds out my name and the name of our Pack, he’ll either kill us on the spot or worse, send us right back. And we are never going back! We need him to understand our situation before we tell him where we are from. ”
“ And how exactly do we do that? ”
“ I don’t have a clue, ” Nori replies sadly .
With what sounds like curiosity in her voice, Aylin asks, “ Why do you call him cursed? Who cursed him? ”
Nori laughs and says, “ Mom used to tell me and my brother that the Cursed Prince would take us away if we were bad. It was a scare tactic to get us to behave. Mom told me his story once, a long time ago. Who knows how much is true? ”
“ Just tell me what Mom told you, what you remember. ”
Looking up at the ceiling again, Nori tries to recall what her mom said. “ Many years ago, the Prince rejected his first Mate Bond the moment he laid eyes on her. The female was painfully plain, wearing tattered clothes, clearly poverty-stricken. Unworthy of the powerful Prince of All Wolves. ”
Nori drums her fingers on the floor, thinking of what happened next. “ The moment she spoke the words to accept his rejection, her pathetic appearance melted away. She transformed into an incredibly beautiful woman with immense power. It turns out she was a witch. ”
Aylin is stunned. “ His first Mate was a witch? ”
“ It happens sometimes—Bonds forming with other species. It’s really rare, though, ” Nori replies.
“ Anyway, ” Nori continues with her story.
“ The witch had cast a spell that would cause any future Mate to see her as a penniless wretch. The spell was a test, you see. To determine if her future Mate was truly worthy of her power. When the Prince failed the test, rejecting her simply because she was poor, she cursed him for his arrogance. ”
Aylin, now fully immersed in the story, asks, “ And what exactly was the curse? ”
“ Prince Drakemoor was said to have been a breathtakingly beautiful man. The curse stripped away his looks, making him hideous. Supposedly, horrible, bloody scars cover his face and body. ”
“ Oh, no! That sounds terrible. ” Aylin’s tone is full of sympathy.
Nori shivers at the thought of all those scars.
“ The curse gets worse if that’s possible, ” she says.
“ All of his future Mates will reject the Mate Bond without hesitation because of his repulsive appearance. It won’t matter that he’s a Prince and would make a powerful Mate.
Only when he learns humility and compassion will he find a Mate who can overlook the scars.
This Mate will be the one to accept the Bond and break the curse. ”
Aylin sucks in a breath, shocked. “ Wow, that witch went overboard on her revenge. The Moon Goddess already dispenses her own form of punishment with the pain she inflicts from rejecting the Mates she chooses for us. This curse seems extreme! ”
Nori frowns at the severity of such a curse. “ Agreed. ”
With more determination than she’s had since they woke up, Aylin declares, “ Let’s just try not to freak out about being in the Blood Moon Pack. Maybe this Cursed Prince will take pity on us. ”
Her wolf’s laugh resonates through Nori’s mind. “ I mean, look at you. You are looking pretty pitiful right now—mud in your hair, dirt all over you, and you are skin and bones. ”
Nori smiles because she does look pretty rough. “ And I stink too! ”
“ Let’s look on the bright side; at least no one has beaten the crap out of us since we got here! ”
Nodding in agreement, Nori exclaims, “ Excellent point! ”