The Curse Of The Alpha

28

Word Count: 1582

~Meara

I keep my head down, grimacing.

"This is absolutely miserable," I mutter, swatting at the giant leaves and stiff branches that slap back in my face as Sire passes through the bush in front of me.

He doesn't look over his shoulder. "You want a cure, right?"

I roll my eyes. Obviously, but why do we have to do this in the pouring rain, in the middle of a forest bordering the Pack territory alone?

We are traversing into the forest looking for yet another witch. They are almost impossible to track, and I wouldn't have known to come here if Sire didn't know almost everything about the witches in this area.

"Do you know the entire witch population or something?" I grumble, lurching forward a little as I stumble over a thick root protruding from the damp dirt.

"Actually, Hazel told me about this." His voice sounds a little muffled as he walks a few steps in front of me.

I frown. "When have you been talking to Hazel?"

"At that lunch you took me to, you went to the bathroom and she told me about a witch she knows through her father that may be able to help," he explains, pulling up a particularly large branch, letting me duck underneath it.

"Why wouldn't she have told me?" I question, shuddering at the droplets of rain that keep landing on the back of my neck, right at the collar of my jacket.

"She didn't want to get your hopes up." He shrugs.

I sigh. That's typical of Hazel. She has withheld information from me before because she has been worried about keeping me safe, but I do wish she would have told me about this.

I would have insisted we came here much earlier if this witch has a chance of helping us end this curse.

"Why can't you just transport us right to her door?" I question, narrowing my eyes on his back.

He may be traversing this terrain with no problem, but I'm suffering. We have been walking for a couple hours now and I have several blisters, aching hips and my lungs burn with exhaustion.

"Magic. She has secured this whole area." He gestures around, as if to encompass the entire scope of her magical protection. "She probably knows we are here already."

"Whatever." I want to be more optimistic about this, but it's hard when I'm in the presence of a man I want to be very far away from.

He's made it clear to me he is going to get his revenge. Whether I want to or not.

"Is something wrong?" He asks, glancing back over his shoulder. For most of the walk this far we have been in silence, feeling the weight of our conversation from a new night's ago.

This is the most we have talked in hours.

"I'm just irritated," I mutter.

"Why is that?"

"You know why."

His shoulders sag a little. I know he feels bad about it, and I'm glad he has some regret, but it hurts knowing he won't decide otherwise. I want him to get what he wants, but not at the cost of the lives of all my fellow Pack members.

"If you had everything you cared about taken from you, you too would want to get revenge," he tells me, shaking his wet hair a little.

"I'm not saying you don't deserve revenge," I exclaim calmly, ignoring the suddenly cramp gripping the back of my thigh. "I'm saying you should go about it differently."