Cursed Mate

Amara Eldwood

The shadows in our world have teeth. 

Large, razor-sharp fangs that will pin you in the darkness and consume you whole.

At least that was what everyone thought ever since The Reckoning years ago completely wrecked Shadowville.

I could still remember it like it happened yesterday.

A maelstrom of disease and high winds that tore through the entire village, crushing towers and wolves and plunging everything into darkness.

The sky had stayed red after, lightening in the day and dimming at night. Like it too had been permanently corrupted by The Darkness.

“Are you ready, Mara? Everyone’s waiting.” Mother’s soft sigh snapped me out of my reverie.

My eyes snapped to her wraith-like form in the mirror to see her hovering in the doorway.

Her deep green eyes looked large from the shadows just outside the halo of the orange bulb shining over my small room.

They were warm where mine was cold and hard, staring back at me from the mirror’s reflection over high hollowed cheeks.

I could have sworn we looked just like all the other wolves in Shadows Pack. Like ghosts of what was left behind.

“Remember where you come from, Mara. Don't screw this up. Everyone’s here.” She pressed insistently, and I swallowed hard, realizing I was panting.

My fingers curled around air and tightened as I pushed away from the mirror, jumping at the crack of thunder that rumbled above us.

The bulb danced and whizzed electrically before Mother’s dead fish hands found my own and squeezed.

The mating dance should have been the most important night in any maiden’s life, but instead, I was terrified.

My thin white dress suddenly felt too tight where it clung to my barely existent waist and bony hips, dragging along the hardwood floor of the stairs that squeaked under our weight.

Our small cottage house with its thatch roof and dark green bamboo fence was the same as all the other houses surrounding the open field.

Small fire torches shone from the front yards that had already started to fill with more wolves. 

Their excitement fowled the air like diarrhea. It made me sick.

“Oh my goodness,” I breathed as the open night’s air stabbed into my sides like a pitchfork.

“Quickly,” Mother’s desperate hiss came before she shoved hard at my back, pushing me behind the long line of maidens all dressed in the same flowing white gown as I was.

“Tonight, ladies and gentle wolves, we gather under the blue moon to witness the dawn of a new generation!” One of the long-nosed elders at the front of the line bellowed.

His flowing red robe and wild yellow eyes made him look almost sinister, and my breath caught in my throat when his gaze locked on mine for a moment.

Was he staring at me? 

My skin prickled before his eyes swept past and I stared at the circle of elite wolves on the other side. 

All men. One of them would be my mate tonight. 

“Goddess help me,” I prayed under my breath, feeling a blush rise to my cheeks when one of the elite wolves turned his head to glare at me.

Kieran Bones. 

Everyone knew the elite warrior defender of Shadow Pack. His shock of strawberry-white hair and baby blue eyes were impossible to miss.

I could see the hard lines of his muscles even under the loose white shirt and pants he wore, and I turned my head away quickly. 

Had he caught me staring? Stupid girl…what was wrong with me?

I had come here to shift and be mated and here I was lusting over another man.

A shiver snaked down my back when the first maiden’s harrowing scream tore through the night.

“Good goddess! Girl! Your mask!” one of the gray-haired attendants hissed angrily, his voice too close to my ear as he dragged the nettle shawl on my shoulders over my head.

It was already too late. 

My eyes felt like they had peeled back in my head when I saw the large form of the maiden’s wolf tearing through her skin to roar up at the moon.

An answering cry came from the string of men on the other side as his wolf burst forth, answering the maiden’s mating call.

“No…no I can't do this,” I stuttered, my jaw trembling as I backed up a step and more screams pierced the night.

“You move an inch from the line and the watchmen will shoot you dead.” the blond girl in front of me hissed over her shoulder, her gaze pinned on the shifting wolves before us.

I twisted up to see the archers standing solemnly on the walls, their form barely shadowed by the night.

Was Adrian among them? Would he shoot at me too if I ran? 

My twin brother had changed ever since the night of The Reckoning…

He’d gotten colder…quieter…bigger.

“I can't think about that now…focus, Amara.” I chided myself, digging deep inside for a sign of the wolf that was to burst forth.

Would it be painful? 

It was my turn all too quickly, and my throat dried when the long-nosed elder towered above me, blowing a sheet of blue smoke into my face.

“Unghh!” My eyes rolled back into my head reflexively and the field suddenly fell deathly silent when I crashed to my knees, heaving wildly.

“What nonsense is this, Mrs. Eldwood?” The elder's rancid barking made my blood run cold.

Kieran’s handsome face loomed over me when I twisted my neck up, my eyes watering from the elder’s attack.

Something was wrong. I could feel it in the stifling silence as the other wolves drew tighter around us.

“I…I don't understand, she should have grown into her wolf already.” Mother rattled, draping her arms around her body protectively before rocking back and forth.

What was happening?

“There has to be someone else. Don't tell me this worthless piece of shit is my mate.” the silver wolf’s snide remarks made my back stiffen and I swallowed back the tears in my throat.

How could Kieran speak to me that way?

The excitement in my belly instantly turned to ash when I saw the look of contempt twisting his face.

My shawl laid in a useless heap on the grass beside me when I limped to my feet, unable to breath.

He was the only one left of all the men in the line. The most handsome…the cruelest of them all.

I was a fool to think he might have treated me differently if fate bonded us.

“I reject this. I reject everything, Knogt there has to be another way!” Kieran screamed, but his desperation only made the wolves surrounding us murmur wildly.

Shame twisted up my spine until my shoulders hunched and my body trembled.

“Please wolf…come on.” I gritted through clenched teeth, digging deep and hoping for something…a sign.

Silence…nothing.

“Unfortunate.” Elder Knogt tutted, his face devoid of emotion.

I shook my head desperately, my mouth falling open when Mother staggered back as I turned to her.

“M-Mother? What’s happening? What is he saying?” I stammered, hating the way my voice broke with sobs as tears pooled in my eyes.

Every inch of my body shook as the elders circled me like sharks, their beady eyes tight with disgust and fury.

“A wolf who cannot shift is a curse. And you know what happens to curses in Shadowville.” Elder Knogt spat coldly, face tight with determination as he yanked me by the arm, almost dislocation my shoulder.

Mother’s widened eyes stared back at me like she was seeing a ghost and my stomach sank when she stepped back.

“They’re wiped out. You don't deserve to live, let alone a mate.” He deadpanned, nodding to the barrel-chested soldiers some distance away. The executioners of the pack.

Wolves who couldn't shift would be put to death.

It had become a nursery rhymes at the pack, and yet, I never imagined I would become an outcast.

Was the moon goddess playing tricks with me?

Blood filled my head until it was impossible for me to think.

“No…no this cannot be happening…let me go! Mother! Don't let them take me away! You can't do this!” I screamed, tearing off the veil and barely managing to yank my hands free when my body shot forward.

“I’ll get her.” 

My feet smacked noiselessly into the grass and blood filled my ears as I ran for the gates.

The outraged cry of the wolves behind me sounded like they were coming from a distance.

“You’re dead, little rat.” Kiernan’s harsh hiss came at my ear before pain made me scream when his claws tore into my back and blood hit the back of my throat.

My own fated mate was chasing me to my death!

It felt like a nightmare I was begging to wake from.

A wolf was much faster in his true form, and yet, the man effortlessly kept up with me, his evil laugh trickling into my ear like dirty oil.

I could feel the blood soaking into the back of my dress and dribbling down my legs.

“Please,” I gasped, throwing my body forward until my thighs burned and reaching for the edge of darkness that peeked through the bamboo gates only feet away.

Breaking the protection of the pack to enter The Darkness was unheard of, but I was desperate.

There was no way in Athena’s green earth I was getting hanged for a mistake!

“That’s enough Bones…let her go.” My lungs felt like they were on fire as the elder’s distant bark echoed and I slipped through the gates…instantly blinded by the shadows.