The Luna Cure

FORTY-ONE

My mother had started crying again not four minutes into my story. Maggie, six minutes after her. My father had teared up again, but careful observation led me to the knowledge that he did not let a tear fall. All of the other boys had just listened, horrified, shocked, and angered at my revelations, or at least the amount of things I did reveal.

I did my best to dissociate with the words that were coming out of my mouth. To be as emotionless as possible so as to save myself from breaking down.

There were many things I left out. The curse Batilda had put on me to prevent me from having children, getting shot, my escape attempts, my lack of disobedience, and above all, my true self-resentment, as well as Dante's curse that led him to believe Batilda's beautiful persona was his mate. But those were self-explanatory, right?

Dante noticed when I skipped over things, because his hand on the small of my back would freeze whenever I left out those parts. He was especially confused when I left out how I ran in front of Batilda's guns to keep him from immediate death.

After finally getting them caught up to when Batilda had been captured and now remains in the royal dungeon, my family still had questions.

"How did she know you were niveus? You shifted once." Max asked, having taken a seat on the edge of the couch across from us.

I shrugged, staring blankly. "She knew everything."

"What happened to all the ones older than you?" Isaac followed up. I had told them that all the girls left sometime after eighteen, but failed to mention that I was the only one who had been there more than five years, and that the only thing we all had in common was eligibility to be the queen through the mate bond. Dante seemed to think he was to blame for that, and I didn't need him to feel anymore like that when I didn't believe it.

"She, uh, killed them all. The pelts were..." I swallowed, "all hanging..." My eyes burned at the memory, especially remembering the pelt that smelled distinctively of Wendy. Oh, how much I missed her. She was the only kind one, the only one that had tried to communicate with me, make me feel as if I still existed. And she was so lovely, all the way until the end. Oh, Wendy.

"She just randomly chose who lived and who died?" Max followed up.

I went to nod, but Dante felt otherwise. "No, she—"

I turned my head to glare at him. "Stop, Dante."

"Why?"

"It's not important."

"It definitely is. You can't leave this out."

I narrowed my eyes, silently telling him, oh, I can.

"Eventually." He seemed to compromise. I wouldn't tell them, but I just needed to agree so he'd keep quiet.

Tearing my gaze from his, my submission was my agreement. Later, I'd try to hash this out without the eyes and ears of my family on us.

"So it wasn't random." Max didn't ask.

Begrudgingly, I nodded, but I wouldn't explain anymore than that.

The silence that followed was stuffy, suffocating. How is one supposed to feel after bearing so many horrible things to loved ones, and they have nothing to say in return? I buried my face in my hands. I didn't want my family to think about this like I did, but I knew they were. I thought about it every waking second, and now I had dumped all my horrors onto them. Truly, coming back only led to a mess. This was not a good idea.

"Were you taken because you're niveus? I know you guys have been hunted forever." Maggie asked, shifting her footing against the wall.

All eyes went to Dante on that one, knowing the stories of his mother and the queen that came before her. When Alpha Damon and Luna Emerald came out as royals, they had to divulge every part of their story to be believed. Some still didn't believe they were royals. Regardless of whether they believed or not, all werewolves had heard about the hunter king's abduction of the queen.