The Curse Didn’t End With Her

Virgo POV

The smell of blood burns my nose, the scent so thick I can taste the metallic bitterness on my tongue every time I breathe. It clings to the back of my throat, heavy and suffocating, like the air itself is coated in it.

“Virgo please it’s not too late to stop,” she cries weakly beneath my body.

I force my body away from hers as I fight my wolf for control. Every muscle in my body trembles with the effort, my hands flexing uselessly at my sides as I try to force him back. She looks at me with hope in her eyes like there’s a chance she survives this. That’s the worst part. She still believes in me.

Her blood coats my hands and stains the grass around her and still she fights.

“Virgo fight him,” she says, her voice barely above a whisper.

She crawls in the grass toward me as I try to keep distance between us. Her breathing is uneven, fragile, each inhale sounding weaker than the last, but she keeps coming anyway. Havoc is scratching at the edges of my control and I’ve never been able to fight him this long. He’s restless, violent, slamming against the inside of my mind hard enough to make my skull feel like it’s splitting apart.

“I’m trying,” I say through gritted teeth because gods I swear I’m trying, but I’m afraid any wrong move I make will snap the single thread of control I’m holding onto. It already feels frayed, stretched so thin I can feel it slipping through my fingers second by second.

The moment she reaches us and touches my hand and the sparks dance across my fingertips, that thread that was wound so tight finally snaps.

For one horrifying second, my body stills completely.

Like I actually stopped him.

Like I won.

“No!” I scream as I’m pushed to the far depths of my mind.

Darkness, not emptiness, not silence

Just endless darkness while I feel everything he’s doing and can’t stop any of it.

The moment he hands me back control I’m greeted by silence. Not the deafening kind—the eerie kind, like something happened that shouldn’t have happened. Like the world itself knows something is wrong now.

I look around and blood is everywhere, on me, all over the grass which is now fully red with no green in sight. The metallic scent is stronger now, overwhelming, thick enough to make my stomach turn.

I turn and I see her.

“No!” I scream, the sob breaking out of me before I can stop it. The sound tears through my chest raw and broken.

I can’t even focus on the things he did to her body. I can’t look too closely. I know if I do, I’ll never survive remembering it.

I drop beside her and pull her body into my arms.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to,” I murmur into her hair.

“Please wake up,” I cry.

“I couldn’t control him,” I whisper into her hair. My hands shake against her back hard enough that I can barely hold onto her.

A twig snaps behind me and my head spins.

Vegas.

He is frozen in place at the scene around me. His expression doesn’t change at first, but his eyes lock on the blood and stay there too long.

“What did you do?” He asks hesitantly.

“I didn’t mean to,” I whisper.

He slowly walks toward me.

“I couldn’t move, I… I couldn’t stop you,” He says staring at her body. His voice sounds tight, strained in a way I’ve never heard before.

I jump up drenched in sweat in my room.

The smell of blood is still thick in my nose as if I’m still there in that moment. My chest heaves as I look around the darkness of my room, trying to convince myself I’m awake.

I throw my legs over the edge of the bed and run my hand over my face.

It’s been the same dream every night for 5 years.

Havoc paces in my head always agitated never settled. Restless. Hungry. Like he’s waiting for the next time I lose control.

My body is always tense always tight, too scared to lose control in front of the pack. Even breathing feels forced some days, like relaxing for one second could cost someone their life.

Being a cursed Alpha twin who killed his mate has already done enough damage, killing a pack member will make it much worse.

My brother and I are the cursed Alpha Twins of The Shadow Pack, the strongest pack and also the most feared.

We are cursed to kill any mate we take fated or chosen.

Every male in the Black family has done it and they eventually kill themselves or go crazy.

I’m the one who has no control of my wolf but feels everything and I love hard and Vegas has no emotions and is obsessive and controlling.

Two sides to the same curse, a curse never meant to be split.

The elders used to say the curse wasn’t built for twins.

That maybe one of us would inherit the rage and the other would inherit whatever was left.

Nobody expected both of us to survive long enough to find out.

A knock sounds at my door and Vegas walks in.

“Again?” he asks.

The silence is answer enough.

His eyes flick to my hands for half a second before looking away. He still checks. Every morning.

“We leave in 30, try to keep it together” He says.

Today we are visiting the Dark Falls Pack in search of our second chance mate.

Our pack’s seer said our second chance mate would break the curse.

Break. Such an easy word for something that has ruined generations.

I’m hoping she can break the curse before we break her.

And somewhere out there is a second chance mate who has no idea her life is already tied to mine.

No idea that the moment I find her, she’ll either save me…

Or die exactly like the first one did.