01. MY GIFT IS A CURSE

TEMPEST

I’m Alpha Knox Hale’s mistress in the Rosewood Pack.

There’s no other way to put it; I owned the title of whore a long time ago, hidden from the other members of the pack.

Our relationship wasn’t always like this.

There was a time when Knox was that sweet boy who made me fall in love with his words and his promises... empty.

I naively believed that if we were mates he would take me as his Luna, and when I turned eighteen, I not only discovered the absence of my she-wolf, but I also acquired a power, or rather, a curse.

My blood and other fluids were a kind of antidote, a cure, especially against dangerous poisons, and in a realm infected by darkness, my special power turned out to be something unique and coveted.

Knox knew it right away and hid me from everyone, isolating me, twisting the truth.

At first he said it was to protect me, for my own good, and that I should help him move the pack forward.

Soon I realized he only came to fuck me; it was the most efficient way to get everything out of me.

By the time I tried to push back, to rebel, it was too late.

I ended up pregnant and I handed him the perfect weapon to keep me captive, controlled, while he drained the life out of me like a leech.

*****

Through my gray eyes I looked at my reflection in the window.

At the twenty-five-year-old woman, gaunt, pale, with brittle blond hair and a sickly look.

Sitting on the bed, I trembled uncontrollably, wrapping myself in the blanket; the fever had flared again and my body ached horribly.

The poison of those dark creatures that had attacked our realm raced through my veins like boiling lava.

It hurt too much. It made me vomit and kept me sick for several days, but in truth it didn’t affect me like the other werewolves.

Knox had come yesterday, full of wounds from fighting on the borders with the Dark Forest, the place where those creatures... the Brood lived.

I didn’t know much about them; no one knew their origin. Only that one day they appeared with their deadly attacks and their poisonous fog, infecting our world.

They dragged werewolves into the interior of their horror forest and never brought them back.

Knox fought more and more often and recklessly, sure that I would later carry the poison.

He wanted to prove his worth to the Alpha King, to have the pack raised to nobility.

I wonder what place I would have in his ambitions and in his new life.

*****

I groaned as I settled on the hard mattress. I had to eat, but the very idea turned my stomach.

BAM!

I jolted when the cabin door burst open with a hard bang.

My whole body began to shake harder.

From fear, from pure desperation. Why did he come today too?!

Gripping the blanket tight, I dragged myself toward the headboard, clutching the fabric with clenched fists as if that could protect me from what was about to come.

His steps hammered in my ears, until the huge Alpha appeared in the bedroom doorway, backlit.

Dressed in battle gear, torn to shreds, he reeked of poison; the stench hit my nose at once.

Without saying anything, I watched him start undressing.

“No, no, Knox, I can’t do this anymore. I have a fever, I’m weak, I told you not to go to the battlefield today!”

I begged him as tears began to roll down my cheeks.

I pulled my legs up, pressing them to my chest, wanting to hide in a corner.

“I’m not going to talk to you again about the importance of fighting for the King. Do you want those things to attack us?!”

He roared at me, stepping into the moonlight that slipped through the window.

“No, no, you’re too infected!” I screamed when I saw the puncture marks on his skin where the horrible black veins and blisters were already spreading.

“I can’t take that much!” I screamed, sobbing harder, but I knew he would have no compassion for me.

“Selfish woman, open your damn legs already or I’ll take it out on your bastard son!”

He roared at me, squeezing my bruised ankle with the iron shackle and the long chain that only let me move inside this little cabin.

I screamed when I was yanked to the middle of the bed and had him on top of me.

He forced me to open my legs and ripped my underwear; he didn’t care how much it hurt.

The poison on his skin was immediately pulled by that power inside me and slipped through my pores, making me scream.

I didn’t give in... I didn’t play along, and I earned several slaps.

When he threatened my son’s life again, I had no choice but to stay quiet and feel his filthy dick invade my vagina.

He slammed into me all at once, tearing me, and began pounding like an animal, unloading his lust and healing himself at the same time.

My she-wolf never showed; I couldn’t even tell if he was my mate... it doesn’t matter now.

Knox marked another female, his Luna, and the woman who kept my baby.

My pup, his son, was snatched from me as soon as he was born. I barely got to see him.

While the tears ran down my cheeks and I stared at the dark ceiling with the bed thundering beneath me, I wondered how much longer this torture would last and how long I could bear it.

*****

Thrown on the stained sheets like a used rag, crying, with spasms shaking my body and the fever burning me up, I still felt his semen running down between my thighs.

The idea of getting pregnant again by that bastard terrified me.

“Don’t be so dramatic, or would you rather let me die by not healing me?” his rough voice sounded behind me; I stared at the wall, curled around my stomach.

I heard him get dressed and buckle his belt.

“I’ll go for a few days to the royal pack for an important matter, and Tessa...” he called me by that nickname he used when he still pretended he loved me.

I felt his hand pet my hair and I flinched, wanting to throw up.

But suddenly the pressure grew and he yanked my hair hard, making me moan in pain and putting his mouth at my ear.

“You’d better not try to escape again or you know well who will pay for your rebellion” ... my son, my poor little one.

A choked sob escaped my lips.

“I want to see him, Knox. I do what you ask, I heal you, and I haven’t tried to look for him again, but it’s been more than a year and you haven’t brought me even a photo, please...”

I turned and, swallowing my pride, lowered myself into submission, and took his hands between my trembling ones.

I felt his stiffness and a flash of something passed through his pupils, but then his cynicism returned.

“Maybe when I come back from the capital... depends on whether your blood is useful or not in the war, maybe I’ll reward you.”

He leaned down and kissed my fever-slick forehead.

“Behave, my Tessa; you’re the most important thing to me, even if you don’t understand me. This is for a greater good,” he whispered near my mouth and kissed me, snaking his tongue in.

My insides turned and I swallowed the knot in my throat as more tears fell.

I watched him leave the same way he came. I collapsed on the bed.

My sick, weak body tried to process all the toxins. He didn’t even give me his Alpha blood. No extra help.

I closed my eyes and clenched my teeth, losing myself in the fog of my mind, convulsing, sunk in the fever’s hallucinations.

I stayed like that until the next day.

I couldn’t even get up for water or food. I didn’t have the strength to breathe.

Suddenly, in the middle of the night, something pulled me out of my half-sleep.

A deep rumble rolled, the ground vibrating, and the whole little house shaking like an earthquake.

“Aaah!” I screamed when part of the roof collapsed and almost fell on me.

Adrenaline shot through my weakened limbs.

I barely managed to run out; everything moved. It looked like an attack.

Could it be that some of those dark creatures invaded the pack?

The chain jingled with the movement of my swollen ankle.

I reached the main room and looked at the front door for the steel plate to which the chain was welded.

The house would fall on me if I didn’t manage to get free!

I figured I was dead; how many times had I tried to break my chains, but when I got to that corner I discovered with amazement that the anchor ring had snapped.

A huge rock had fallen on the links and crushed them.

Freed from my prison, I lunged outside just in time to hide in the trees.

I dove onto the grass before being crushed by the avalanche that came down from the mountain.

It wasn’t an attack. It looked more like a rockslide, and I looked at my leg... it was free!

First thought... go see him, my little boy who must already be about four years old.

I slipped through the pack’s lands, following my memories, toward the center, like a shadow, just to see him.

Even from afar, the idea of grabbing him and taking him with me grew stronger in my mind.

It was madness, to walk without a pack, injured, with no money or food, with so many threats.

But I could heal him of every evil, of poisons; maybe if I offered my power in another pack they would accept us.

With my head full of plans I approached stealthily, holding with one hand the chain that hung from my ankle.

My appearance would draw attention so I tried not to expose myself and covered my face with my hair, hiding my features.

The pack was strangely silent and soon I discovered they were gathering in front of the Alpha’s house. And there she was, Knox’s Luna.

The woman who stole my son’s affection.

Where was my little one?

I searched for him everywhere, trying to recognize him among the other pups, but I didn’t see him.

Then the Luna began to speak about the recognition the pack was getting and how the King valued our warriors.

“And I also have important news to give you,” she said, laying a hand on her belly.

“I was waiting for the Alpha, but I’m so happy that I want to share it with my people. I’m pregnant...”

She said it, and the crowd roared.

I watched her from a distance, her bright blue eyes, as she caressed her belly, still flat.

Honestly, if there was anything to envy, it was that she would be able to raise her child and no one would tear him from her side.

I sighed, decided to escape with my pup now that Knox had gone. However, what she said next turned my world upside down.

“I’m sure I’m carrying the next Alpha, the first and only heir of Rosewood Pack.”

The uproar got louder; everyone began to congratulate her. But my mind went blank, not understanding her words well.

What does she mean by “first and only”? My son was the heir, the Alpha’s firstborn.

Knox told me he recognized him as his son, that my little one was living well as the next Alpha!

At least believing he had a good life consoled the pain in my soul!

Where is my son?! Where does my pup fit in all this?

I stepped forward without thinking, my heart pounding hard in my chest, pushing through the people.

I didn’t know where I was going, but I needed an explanation from her, right now.

The words of some women finished sinking me completely.

“Good thing that boy died, poor Luna having to see the Alpha’s bastard’s face every day,” one woman murmured to another.

“Yes, as much as they didn’t make it public, it was an open secret, and that troublesome boy, the Luna put up with him too long...”

“Who... who died?” My voice came out strangled.

Madness crept in, about to roar like a gale.