The Wounded King

Aaron’s POV

I stood at the window of my penthouse office, staring at the landscape surrounding my pack. I hadn’t truly rested in eight fucking years, it’s barely four in the morning, my left hand gripped the bourbon glass Declan had left on my desk, I hadn’t touched it yet because alcohol only make my Eric my wolf angrier these days.

My name is Aaron Krest. Alpha of the Crescenthood pack. CEO of Krest Enterprises. I am power incarnate but inside this body, I am at war with myself.

It started eight years ago on a night much like this one, I had crossed Celeste, the half-witch who ruled shadows on the West Coast. I know according to the rumor, people think she was some scorned lover or romance gone bad, but no, I had destroyed one of her underground networks that was trafficking young shifters. I thought I was protecting my pack, then out of anger and retaliation she placed a curse on me. She wanted me to see what it feels like to lose control.

The curse she placed on me wasn’t simple death or weakness. It was worse. She fractured the bond between my wolf and I, ripped the seamless connection that every Alpha takes for granted. Now my wolf is trapped inside me, furious, feral, and constantly trying to claw its way out. I can feel him slamming against the walls of my mind, especially when the moon grows full. He doesn’t understand why I won’t let him run free. I don’t fully understand it either.

The physical toll of it all makes me restless. Constant pain that sharpens into agony every full moon. My silver eyes switch to pitch black when the curse surges. And the black curse-mark that snakes up the left side of my neck burns like acid when my wolf fights the hardest. I can barely shift without violence now. When I force a partial shift, it feels like my bones are breaking all over again, and the beast that emerges isn’t fully mine anymore.

And because of this I’ve destroyed so many things.

Two years ago, during a particularly vicious full moon, I tore through an entire wing of the pack house. Ripped marble pillars from their foundations, shattered reinforced doors like they were paper, and nearly killed three of my own enforcers before Declan managed to sedate me.

Last year, I wrecked my private gym, bent steel equipment into twisted sculptures out of rage. The Crescenthood pack house still bears scars on the top two floors from the times I lost complete control.

My board members at Krest Enterprises once saw me flip a solid oak table during a meeting when the pain hit mid-sentence. The fear in my executives’ eyes that day reminded me why I built this empire on terror. Fear keeps them loyal. Fear keeps them from seeing how broken their Alpha truly is.

The cruelest part of this whole pain is that I can’t sense my fated mate. The wolf knows she’s out there somewhere, but the curse has severed that instinct. I don’t feel any bond pull and I lost my sense of smell now all I feel is just emptiness where that sacred bond should live. And without my mate, the madness creeps closer every cycle.

The blood moon is coming up in a few days and this will be the worst one yet. Declan already warned me, the pack is whispering. Silas Cross and his rival pack are circling my territories like vultures, sensing weakness, if only they knew how right they are.

I finally set the untouched bourbon down and pressed my palm against the cool glass of the window. The curse-mark on my neck throbbed in time with my heartbeat. My wolf shoved hard against my chest, furiously demanding for a release, hating me for the cage I’d become. For eight years, he has wrestled with me and not with the world. 

A soft knock came at the door. Declan walked in without waiting. His face looked really tired.

“Our finances are okay for now," he said quietly. “Silas tried to take two more border patrols yesterday. And then there's the blood moon…” he hesitated a bit “Aaron, the last one almost drove you totally crazy you wrecked the entire west wing.”

I didn’t turn around. My voice came out rough, barely above a growl. “I know what I did, what this whole thing is turning me into. Any news about Celeste?”

Declan hesitated. He was my beta, my cousin, and one of the few people who still looked at me like I was salvageable. “Nothing yet, it seems she vanished into thin air this time around but we’ll keep searching. Don’t worry we’ll get through this cycle somehow.”

I could only grunt in response.

I closed my eyes as another wave of pain lanced through my chest. Eric howled silently inside me, the sound only I could hear from him, it hurts to watch my wolf suffer this much

"I will have a draft on your desk by morning," he said.

"Alright."

He stood up to leave, but paused at the door in the way he does when there was something else, probably something he was weighing.

I waited.

"You should sleep," he said finally.

"Hmm."

"Aaron…"

"Goodnight, Declan."

He left. I heard his footsteps getting softer as he went down the hallway then I was alone again.