I’m out of the bed, blade in hand, before the tray even hits the floor.
It crashes the instant my steel dagger presses to the tender throat of the shadow hovering over the bed. Heart hammering, it takes me a moment to completely pull myself out of sleep, something that is rather rare given I haven’t actually slept in over a hundred years—at least, not as a man.
“Merrick!” Kiya shoots up out of bed, her nerves assaulting my senses and adding to my own. “What—”
“Son,” my mother whispers. I barely hear her, though, shock and realization hitting home. I’m still a man. And it’s dark.
“You didn’t change,” she whispers then raises the candle in her hand so it clearly illuminates her face. A human face I have only seen through the eyes of my beast for the last century. The bloodlust is gone, though my resentment for what she’s forced me to become holds strong. “Why didn’t you change?” she questions, eyes wide.
“I do not understand,” I reply.
Behind me, Kiya presses her hand to my back. The feeling sends a calm washing over me, much as it has done since the first moment I felt her skin against mine. The woman is my tether to humanity.
“It’s your mother,” she reminds me.
Realizing I’m still holding a blade to my mother’s throat, I lower it.
“Why are you in here?” Kiya demands, tone annoyed. She despises my mother for what happened to me; that much has been clear from the moment I told her the truth behind my damnation.
“I brought you food,” my mother replies. Tone steady as always, the woman who raised me is far too distracted to be offended by my beloved’s underlying accusations.
“You brought food to me, knowing your son’s beast would be slumbering in the room with me?”
“His beast is calm around you,” she replies as though that answers the question. “We need to go downstairs. Your brothers—”
“Kiya needs me,” I reply even though the desire to see my brothers, to embrace them, is strong.
“Your mother is right,” Kiya says.
I turn to face her, searching her ethereal face for the pain I can feel radiating off of her. She’s heartbroken, grieving. The last thing she needs is to be surrounded by my family in what will surely end up being a happy moment between us.
Guilt crushes down. She’s hurting, and I am overjoyed that, for once in a hundred years, I am not the creature.
“Let’s go see them,” she says again, climbing off the bed to stand beside me and threading her delicate fingers through mine.
“You’re hurting.”
My insistence is met with a forced smile. “Aside from your beast trying to kill them, you haven’t seen your brothers as humans in a hundred years, Merrick. My pain is not going to go away just because you remain here. Truthfully, this distraction will be a welcome one.”
Swallowing hard, I remain rooted where I am. My connection to her allows me to feel things that otherwise would have remained private. Through it, I know she’s being genuine, that this is not simply her kindness overshadowing her own needs, but it’s impossible to tear myself away from her.
We’ve been granted a night together. As man and wife. Mates. Should I not spend it up here, savoring every moment and loving her through the pain?
“Come on, Alpha,” she says as she pulls me toward the door.
I follow Kiya’s lead, letting her take me downstairs. Shadows dance on the walls, thanks to the candle my mother holds as she follows us silently. While I can no longer communicate with them through the Alpha bond that allowed us to speak without using words, I can feel every one of her chaotic emotions.
The moment we reach the bottom, my brothers’ muted voices echo down the halls toward us.
“We have to do something to help her,” Maynard announces.
“We need to kill the king,” MacKenna states. “That’s the only thing that will help Kiya.”
Their words make my chest swell with pride. My brothers have always been strong. Truthfully, before I was cursed, I’d wanted to leave this place. To see the realms. I would have done just that, leaving the Alpha title to Maynard.
Then the curse happened, and my plans were laid to waste. Something I despised until the moment Kiya was brought into my life. Even as I’d been determined not to take a mate, the second I laid eyes on her, I knew there was no going back.
My wolf—the beast that it is—recognized her. It knew she was mine. And I was helpless to deny it.
“Fine. We go to the kingdom and slaughter the fucker while he sleeps,” Madox offers, his tone radiating with fury.
We come around the corner and step into the hall. All eyes turn to me, the gazes of my family widening near comically.
Maynard and MacKenna shoot to their feet. Maxwell’s shaggy hair falls into his eyes, but his jaw drops, and his fork clatters to the plate before him.
“Holy shit!”
“Language,” my mother scolds Maverick, my third youngest brother, as she steps around us and into the dining hall.
“Language? Are you serious, mother? It’s Merrick!” MacKenna rushes forward. Kiya releases my hand and moves to the side just in time for my brother to slam into me. The air is nearly knocked from my lungs as he wraps his arms around me. I return the embrace, emotions so raw I’m not entirely sure how to manage them.
For so long, I’ve locked myself out of feeling anything at all because the agony of being separated from my family was too much to bear. My brothers and I were thick as thieves growing up. The best of friends despite our age differences.
When I was cursed, I not only lost a piece of myself, but I lost them as well.
Maynard joins the embrace, then Maverick, Myke, Maddox, and finally Maxwell. Within seconds, I’m surrounded by my brothers, all of them laughing happily and holding onto me as though letting me go would mean my changing into the horrid beast they’ve known me to be.
My gaze finds Kiya’s through the fray, and I note the pain in her eyes even as she smiles at me.
For the second time tonight, a tray hits the floor. My brother’s pull back, revealing Lea standing just behind them. Her gaze shifts to Maynard’s, and in it, the longing I’ve noticed increasing frequently. I couldn’t be happier for him. Especially when I worried he’d never love again after losing his fiancé.
“Is the curse broken, then?” she questions, tone betraying every bit of her hope.
A muscle in my brother’s jaw tightens, and MacKenna crosses his arms. “That’s a good question. Is it possible?” he asks me.
“I don’t know what would have broken it,” I reply. “The wolfsbane surely wouldn’t have had that type of effect.” While getting shot with poison-tipped arrows was a first for me, I can’t imagine breaking a curse of vengeance as strong as this one would be so easy. If it were, I would have done it ages ago.
“I bet it was Beta Kiya,” Myke announces with a wide smile. “I always knew she was special.”
I turn back to her, noting the flushed color of her cheeks and her tear-misted gaze. “Thank you, Myke, but I doubt it was me.”
“Maybe it was.” Maxwell narrows his gaze as though concentrating. “The stories you used to read us, Mother. They always spoke of true love.”
“Those are fairytales,” my mother replies. “We shouldn’t get our hopes up that the curse is broken, though we’ll know by morning. If we change—” she trails off, and the mood sobers once more. My mother has always been good at that. Whether it was to protect my father from us or vice versa, she’s never been one to retain any ounce of optimism. Which made it my job to ensure my brothers had normal childhoods.
A job I failed at when I was forced into my father’s place.
“Tomorrow we can worry about the curse. But tonight…” Maynard trails off and claps a hand on my shoulder. “Tonight, we celebrate.”
It sounds wonderful, to spend an evening with my brothers, but doing so would mean leaving Kiya to her grief. Turning to her, I shake my head. “I believe my wife needs rest. After the day she had—”
“Of course.” Maynard releases me. “I am so sorry, Kiya. I didn’t—”
“No,” she interrupts. “It is quite all right. There is no need to feel sad on my account. This is a big deal.” Her gaze levels on me. Dark eyes I could get lost in if only I had the time. “Maynard is right. We need to celebrate.” Her smile is forced, but I get the sense she’d much rather forget right now. And that is something I can give her.
“Shit! Merrick! You handsome bastard.” MacKenna slaps me on the shoulder. “I can’t tell you how glad I am to see your ugly face through my eyes versus the eyes of my wolf.”
I’m unable to keep the grin from my face. “And I, you. Though, you look better as the wolf.”
He throws his head back and laughs, a rich sound that sends hope blossoming through my chest. Hope that there might be a future for me outside of the beast.
“Drinks?”
We turn as Lea offers a tray boasting some glasses and a bottle of whiskey.
“When the hell did you have time to go get that, woman?” Maynard questions.
“I’m magic.” She winks, and his cheeks flush crimson.
“Magic indeed,” I reply as I take a glass and the bottle. After filling everyone’s glasses, I raise mine. “To a broken curse and hope for a future free of the bastard king.” I wrap my arm around Kiya’s shoulders as she clinks her glass to mine.
“Cheers!”
We drink.
And drink some more.
In fact, hours before dawn splits the sky, we’ve managed to kill not one—but two bottles of whiskey from what was my father’s personal stash.
“Well, I have to say, that was an evening desperately needed.” Maynard leans back, his arm draped casually over the back of Lea’s chair. I wonder if he realizes just how natural they look together. How well they complement one another.
“Agreed.” MacKenna yawns and stretches.
Myke and Maxwell are curled in the corner, both of them asleep. The young boys have been trapped in a state of youth for so long it breaks my heart.
“I suppose we’ll know soon enough whether or not the curse was broken,” Lea says softly.
Given that I can still not sense my wolf, my assumption is that it is not. That, very soon, my brothers and mother will shift back and eventually my beast will take over again. But I will voice none of that.
Because my family deserves hope.
Kiya has remained at my side all night, laughing and listening to my brothers recant stories from our childhood, when our biggest concerns were frogs and snakes. She yawns. “I think I am going to head down to the springs.” She leans forward and presses her tender lips to my cheek and then excuses herself from the room.
I watch her leave, every nerve in my body fighting the urge to follow.
“She is a strong beta,” MacKenna says.
“She is,” I agree then turn to face my brothers.
“Have you told her?” Maynard’s question is met with nods of agreement from MacKenna, Maverick, and Madox. My mother, however, remains stoic as ever.
I don’t have to ask what he means because the lie has been bitter on my tongue since the moment I let myself fall for the dark-haired beauty. “She does not need to know.”
“Really? Because I think you strengthening the curse further by helping her get revenge is a pretty big fucking thing to leave out.”
A low, frustrated growl leaves my lips. “Kiya has enough on her plate. The last fucking thing she needs to be worried about is a curse that we have absolutely no control over anyway.”
“Killing makes it stronger,” my mother reminds. “And you’ve been doing a hell of a lot of killing since Kiya came here.”
“In case you’ve forgotten, I’ve been doing a hell of a lot of killing since we were cursed, and I was left with no choice.”
Maynard throws his hands up, drawing my attention back to him. “Listen, you need to tell her. That’s all I’m saying. She’s beta, now. Your wife. And that’s one hell of a clause you’re omitting.”
I stand, my chair scraping against the floor. I know he’s right, that I should tell her. But seeing as how the king needs to die—doing so will only make her feel guilt that is not hers to bear. One final fight.
One last war.
And then I will confess. “I cannot tell you how glad I am to see you all. To be able to speak to you.” I glance over at my youngest brothers as they continue to sleep soundly. “It’s been ages since I saw either of them.” My throat constricts, a fresh wave of grief simmering through me.
Soon, I promise myself. Soon I will break this fucking curse and make up for lost time.
“Do you think the curse is broken, Merrick?” Madox asks.
His question makes my soul ache. To be trapped in the body of a teenager…I wish the punishment would have ended with me. Bearing the full weight of their pain is what my job has always been.
And in this, I failed them all.
Turning so I am facing him, I plant both hands on the table. “Even if it is not, one day I will find a way to make things right. Then, you can fully grow and become as much of a pain in my ass as Maynard, MacKenna, and Maverick have always been.”
“Yeah, well, let’s hope so. Being stuck in a perpetual state of puberty is pretty horrific.” Madox groans.
“Sixteen isn’t all that bad,” Maynard replies.
Madox doesn’t even reply, he simply glares at Maynard.
Straightening back to my full height, I take one final look at my brothers and mother before turning to leave the room.
“Merrick?” my mother calls out.
I turn to face her, trying my best to shove down the anger I’ve carried for so long. “What is it?”
“You cannot go to war with the king,” she says softly.
Every single one of my brothers falls into complete silence. “He slaughtered two of the most important people to Kiya, Mother,” Maynard answers before I can. Likely a good thing, given the temper simmering within me.
“Not just slaughtered them; he left them on our front lawn. That cannot go unpunished,” MacKenna adds. “He will pay for that. Curse be damned.”
But my mother’s gaze never leaves my face. “It’s not just about the curse,” she snaps. “We will lose. The king’s army will take the Shadow Lands. Lands that your father—”
“Fuck my father,” I growl. “You do not get to use him as a reason for me to not defend my wife.”
My mother straightens. “Your father built this place for us when we had nothing.”
“And then he raped a woman,” I snap. “And fucking lost our souls in the process.”
Her eyes widen, and she glances at the youngest of us as they sleep soundly in the corner. “Not in front of—”
I take a step forward. “Not in front of who, Mother? In front of Myke and Maxwell, who have been trapped as children for a hundred years?” My voice grows louder with my anger. “Why should they not be made aware of why they have been cursed?” Truth is they’ve known for years, but my mother is still so ashamed she likes to pretend nothing happened. “My father was a fucking bastard,” I snarl. “The king is a fucking bastard. Men like them have to pay for the crimes they’ve committed.”
She shakes her head. “You’re going to get us all killed.”
“I am your alpha,” I declare. “And if you do not wish to follow my orders, then you can fucking leave.”
Furious that she would have the audacity to tell me what I can and cannot do, coupled with the fact that she chose this night to confront me, I stomp out of the dining hall and leave them all behind.
Even with my distance, I can make out the sounds of arguing, and I know my brothers will stand at my side. They will handle her—for now.