Chapter 5: The Double Curse

The pups cried for three days.

All over the territories, dead pups took first breaths. Healed. The healers called it miracle. The Alphas called it threat.

Because if an omega could break a twenty-year curse, what else could she break?

The answer came on day four.

I woke bleeding. Not my palm. Lower.

Draven was awake instantly. “Wren?”

“Pain,” I said. “Inside.”

He ripped the furs back. Blood. Too much.

He roared for the healer.

She ran in. Old. Wise. She looked. Went white. “The witch was right. Double curse. The firstborn takes the mother.”

“I’m not pregnant,” I said. Panic.

“You are now,” she said. “One day. The Goddess works fast when a bloodline is at stake.”

Draven put his hand on my stomach. “No.”

“The curse activates at conception,” the healer said. “To stop the Duskbane line from continuing. You broke the pup curse. She laid a mother curse. You birth the heir, you die with it.”

I grabbed Draven’s hand. “Get it out.”

“No,” he said. “There’s another way.”

“What?”

“We kill the witch,” he said. “The source. Her sister took Lyra. The original is in the capital. Hiding as a priestess.”

The High Priestess. Elder Moira.

She severed my bond. She branded me.

“She’s the witch,” I said.

Draven nodded. “Been feeding on the curse for twenty years. Every dead pup gave her power. You broke her food source. Now she wants you dead.”

I sat up. Pain ripped me. “Then we go now.”

“You’re bleeding,” he said.

“I’m Luna,” I said. “Lunas bleed.”

He stared. Then he smiled. Sharp. “My Luna.”

He carried me to the convoy. We drove to the capital. Fast.

The temple was empty. Noon.

Elder Moira stood at the altar. My blood was still on it.

“You came,” she said. “To beg?”

“To end,” Draven said.

She looked at me. “One day pregnant. The curse is already rooting. You’ll be dead by sundown. The baby after.”

“Not if you’re dead first,” I said.

She laughed. “Kill me and the temple falls. Three hundred years of sanctity. The packs will war.”

“Let them,” Draven said.

“I have a better idea,” I said.

They looked at me.

“You fed on dead pups,” I said. “For twenty years. That’s power. Where is it?”

She touched her chest. “Here. In my heart.”

“Cut it out,” I said.

“What?”

“You want to live,” I said. “I want the curse gone. Cut your heart out. The power dies. The curse dies. You die. We live.”

“You’re insane,” she said.

“You’re out of food,” Draven said. “No pups. No power. You’ll fade anyway. Go out screaming or go out trading.”

She hissed. “There is a third way.”

“No,” I said.

She moved fast. For an old woman. Knife from her sleeve. Aimed at my stomach.

Draven was faster. He caught her wrist. Broke it.

She screamed. The knife fell.

I picked it up.

She looked at me. “Omega wouldn’t.”

“Luna would,” I said.

I stabbed her. Not the heart. The stomach. Where she kept the power.

She shrieked. Black light poured out. Not blood. Power. Twenty years of dead pups.

It hit me. I screamed.

Draven yelled my name.

The power went in. My stomach. The curse. The baby.

Silence.

I fell. Draven caught me.

Elder Moira turned to dust. Gone.

The temple cracked. The altar split.

I bled. More.

“Wren,” Draven said. “Stay.”

“I’m trying,” I said. “It’s fighting.”

The healer ran in. Looked. “The curse and the power are fighting inside. Over the baby.”

“Who wins?” Draven said.

“Her,” the healer said.