Word Count: 1624
~Meara
I tap my foot impatiently against the ground, chewing on my fingernail.
It's been hours. In fact, an entire night has passed and I haven't heard anything. Not once have I moved from this spot, sitting in Carran's living room as if I belong here, waiting for news on what has happened to Sire.
I'm convinced he is going to find a way out of this. He's angry, he wants revenge. That's more motivation to succeed than Carran will ever have.
But he was cursed once. It can happen again.
I hear footsteps first, and then Carran comes through the archway and into the living room.
Whether he was successful or not is a question that is answered the moment I see the glint in his eye, the way his shoulders are straight back and proud.
A cold, guilty laden feeling creeps along my skin.
"It's done." He claps his hands together, the sound making me wince.
"That easy?"
"That easy."
I close my eyes for a moment, nausea rolling through my stomach like waves in a storm. This is the right thing to do, even if it hurts - even if I know I may never see Sire again.
"Did he put up a fight?" I ask hoarsely. I immediately regret it, as the thought of him suffering, of being fearful as he is being dragged under ground again makes me ready to throw up on the polished marble floor.
"The witches are strong. I've had them trained for this event for a very long time," Carran exclaims, strolling back and forth as he basks in his victory.
I sigh, wanting to get out of here. "Right. Okay."
Carran steps toward me before I can stand up, sitting on the edge of the coffee table so he can look me straight in the eyes. I press into the back of the couch, wanting to shrink away into nothingness.
"I want to take you home, Meara. But first, I need to trust that you will never wake him again," he tells me, expression shifting to seriousness in an uncanny amount of time.
"I won't. Why would I?" I brought Sire to Carran. I am the reason this worked so well.
He narrows his eyes. "If the curse is not resolve from this action?"
"Sire is trying to demolish this Pack. I live here, and so do many I love. There is no chance I'll wake him," I tell him, gritting my teeth. He is trying to intimidate me.
Would I wake Sire, though? I promised him he would, and I want to mean it. Yet at the same time, I fear that waking him will cast a whole different kind of terror down upon the people of this Pack.
But I'm not going to keep Sire in the ground just because Carran told me I have to.
"And what about the mate bond?" He presses. I roll my eyes. As if Carran knows anything about the mate bond. He's been a bachelor since he took over the role as Alpha from his father.
"It doesn't matter. I never felt connected to him. He's a monster," I snap, wrapping my arms around myself.
Carran grins, nodding. "I'm glad we agree."
"So I can go home?"
"Of course." He stands swiftly, holding a hand out to me. I reluctantly take it, not wanting any more hassle from him.
He yanks me closer, until his face is mere inches away from mine. "But I warn you, if you wake him, you will pay."
His cold, dark tone makes me shudder, and for the first time since him and I met, I'm scared. Carran will hurt me if he has to, because Sire is currently the only risk to his reign, and nothing will get in the way of keeping him underground.
"I know..." I breathe, averting my gaze.
He pulls away a little, patting me on the back as he gently pushes me toward the exit. "Enjoy your life, Meara. Try to make something of yourself."
I don't turn back to look at him as I mutter, "try run this Pack better."
I expect some kind of retaliation, but I had to leave him with a passing reminder that he isn't invincible, and if he doesn't start to do better, his own Pack members may turn against him.
Thankfully, he brushes off my insult. "I'll keep that in mind."
Carran doesn't stop me from leaving his manor. There is no guards lurking amongst the trees that line his driveway, ready to jump out and drag me to some dungeon deep beneath the surface.
By the time I make it home, the sun is setting, and a cold feeling has settled over me as thoughts of Sire haunt me.
Hazel is sitting at my table as I walk in.
She jumps up. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Are you?" I ask her, collapsing into a chair opposite her, leaning over to rest my forehead against the table.
"Of course," she exclaims nervously.
"Sire is gone. For good," I tell her tiredly. I'm not sure I feel like explaining everything to Hazel, but she will want to know.
It's the guilt. Admitting it to someone else only makes it dig its claws deeper into me.
Her eyes widen. "Really? Did Carran kill him?"
"He may as well have...he cursed him again." I force myself up, deciding that I can't just sit around, otherwise the thoughts of Sire will remain the forefront of my attention.
"Oh...to stop the curse spreading?" she asks softly.
I grab my kettle, filling it with water. "Yeah."
Hazel is silent for a moment. I can feel her watching me, waiting for me to fall apart. I refuse to. I refuse to be weakened by this, when I didn't even know Sire. And when he was here, he was a constant threat to the peaceful life I have built.
"It's okay to be upset about this. He's your mate," she tells me softly, watching as I flick on the heat from my gas stovetop, setting the kettle atop it.
I don't even feel like tea...
"He was my mate. Now I'm mateless," I mutter, grabbing two cups from the cupboard.
When I turn around, Hazel has her head down, deep in thought.
"If it stops the curse, then it's for the better," she mumbles.
I frown. "You seem doubtful."
She sighs. "I've been researching a lot into the original magic that was used to put Sire underground in the first place. I've read a lot about the curse being unleashed upon his re-emergence, but nothing about it being stopped by putting him back into that same state again."
"So you don't think it worked?" I deadpan.
I both hope she is right, and wrong. If she is right, then we can get Sire back and this guilt will diminish, but we will need another way to end the curse. And if she is wrong, then Sire is gone forever, and life will move on.
"Based off of what I know...no, I don't think it worked," she admits, rubbing her hands together.
Forgetting the tea, I sit back down at the table, eyes wide. "If you are right, then we need to find another way to stop it."
"We will. I'm already looking into it," Hazel assures me. She rubs her eyes, suggesting she has been tirelessly reading in my absence. "But what about Sire?"
I pause. "What about him?"
"Are you just going to let him stay in there?" she pushes.
"I have no other choice. He's going to try to eliminate this Pack if he's free," I tell her, swallowing tightly. "He made it clear he wants revenge, and I'm afraid that he will hurt people while getting it."
"Or he will start a new, better one," Hazel says under her breath. It's so quiet, I almost don't catch it.
I stare at her, not quite believing what I'm hearing. "Are you on his side?"
"Aren't you? He was unfairly trapped and now he wants to bring his Pack back up from the ground it was burned down into. It's his right," Hazel says simply, quietly, watching for my reaction carefully.
"Even if I wanted to, Alpha Carran made it clear terrible things would happen to me." My current Alpha is who I should be scared of...
More importantly, it's who I should be loyal to. Even if I can't stand him.
Hazel paints on a saccharine smile. "Well, aren't you lucky then that you're mated to a man twice as powerful as our own Alpha?"
I stare her down. She is completely serious. She wants me to go up that hill and raise Sire from that watery tomb, despite how potentially dangerous he can be.
I want to disagree with her. I want to tell her he cannot be risen, but she makes a compelling point.
"You can't be serious, Hazel," I breathe.
"If this curse doesn't go away, you have to at least consider raising him," she muses with a shrug, picking at her fingernails.
My mouth dries. What would Sire do to me if I did bring him back? He promised to punish me...the thought of that both terrifies and excites me, because he made it clear the punishment wouldn't be to cause me pain.
Additionally, once he rises, I will have to confront my future with him.
"What if I don't want to be with him?" I ask her.
She just shakes her head, holding my gaze. "You've never been very good at lying, Meara. Especially to me."
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~Midika 💜🐼