Chapter 37: Chapter 37

HARLAN

The witch doctor didn’t look like I imagined. She didn’t have a wart on her nose or a hump on her back. She was pretty with a nice smile. It was the purple tint to her eyes that I didn’t like.

She looked wise to be so young. If she was even that young. Couldn’t witches make themselves seem younger than they were?

I wasn’t sure.

It wasn’t just her sitting across the dining room table from me, but the guy perched in the corner staring that irked me. “Who are you?” I finally asked into the silence.

Gabriela moved in her chair and angled her neck. “He’s here with me.”

The big guy folded his arms over his chest and continued to stare. What was I missing? “So you need an escort because you think I’m going to hurt you?” I chuckled, tapping my fingertips against the wooden table between us.

“No,” she said, her gaze moving toward the table. There was something in her eyes that I didn’t like. A hidden sadness. Not that it mattered. She was here to give me my fate and that was it.

“Harlan,” Savannah said from the doorway. “Be kind.”

Be kind. I wasn’t in the position to be kind. I was pissed. Locked in the castle while Everlee was gallivanting around with Rage Hunt.

I put both palms up and watched as Gabriela smiled at me.

It pinched something deep in my chest. I rubbed it with my knuckle and attempted to get the feeling out. The big guy in the corner moved, and I noticed the point to his ear. Was he a faerie?

I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. I imagined a faerie to be a girl, but what did I know?

“What’s so funny?” he asked in a deep accent I couldn’t pinpoint.

“Your ears,” I said boldly. What did I have to lose? “Are you a faerie?”

“He’s a fae,” Gabriela said suddenly, giving me a look to drop the act.

I shifted in my chair. “Get on with it. Tell me what I have to do.”

She leaned forward and interlaced her fingers over the table. “I need to know what you’re hearing, Harlan. Is it your wolf?”

I thought about it. “I don’t know. It’s talking as if it’s my wolf, but he seems different. Meaner. He wants to take out all of the wolves. I’ve grown up with wolves. I’m in love with one. I don’t know where this came from. I’ve been told my father had someone that spoke to him as well.”

Gabriela reached across the table, her silver-colored hair fell into her face, and she blew it upward. “Give me your hands. I need to see if I can reach him.”

Reluctantly, I reached across the table and touched her fingertips. Electricity zapped down to my toes, and she looked at me suddenly. She was hiding something from me, but I couldn’t tell what it was. She swallowed and closed her eyes.

I waited in silence, watching her eyes move under her closed lids and then her spine stiffen. The fae moved from the wall but waited on her to ask for help. I sensed her seeing something, feeling something, but she continued to endure.

Minutes ticked by when she finally looked up and pulled her hands away from mine. I listened to her heart beating wildly and then her gaze shift toward Alpha Allaire and Luna Savannah behind me.

“What’s the verdict?” Savannah asked softly, stepping beside me.

Gabriela looked down. She was holding something back, and I wanted to know what the hell it was. “I’m—he’ll have to extract his wolf. He’s gone mad. There is something dark and evil that’s taken over his wolf.”

My gaze shifted toward the darkening sky outside. How in the hell would I extract my wolf? It didn’t sound like something I’d want to do.

It sounded like it would hurt.

I licked my lips softly, feeling everyone’s eyes on me. My wolf had stayed hidden during this, maybe hoping she would sense him.

Maybe he knew what would happen all along.

“What does that mean?” Alpha Allaire asked.

Gabriela stared at me, her purple gaze lighting me on fire and killing me at the same time. “It means he’ll be human afterward, but his wolf will die. He won’t be able to hurt anyone. The curse will stop with him.”

“The curse?” Savannah asked worriedly. “What curse?”

“His father had it,” Gabriella said. “It was passed down to him through genetics. It has to die for Harlan to live.”

I closed my eyes and angled my face away from her.

Then it happened.

Something seared my heart into two pieces. I palmed the wooden table and began to gasp for breath. I thought it was my wolf, and that he was angry, but then I heard him crying. Mourning.

I fell onto the table, my face pressed against the cool wood as chaos ensued around me. It was Everlee. She’d been marked. She’d choose her mate.

“What’s going on?” Alpha Allaire asked, pulling my shoulders to stand me up. He must have seen something terrible in my face, because his eyes widened in horror. “What is it…” Then he stopped.

As if he knew what had happened.

“She made her choice,” I said softly, but it came out like a monster. Everlee had chosen Rage, because why wouldn’t she? I was turning into a beast. I’d tried to kill her. Even though it was breaking my heart, I knew she made the right choice.

Savannah covered her mouth with her palm and attempted to hug me. I jerked away, barreling over a wooden chair and onto the ground.

“Someone get this wolf out of me,” I said. What was the use of having it now? Everlee had chosen someone else. Maybe a human life would suit me better.

“It’ll take some preparation,” Gabriella said, standing up to look at me.

Her angel face lured me to get up and touch her. To save her, but I wasn’t sure what from. “Do what you have to do,” Alpha Allaire said.

She left the room with the giant Fae behind her.

I felt my parents’ hands attempting to soothe the heartache out of me, but everything went black before I could feel anything less than pain.

***

HARLAN

I woke to the darkness of my room. I’d most likely been carried up by Alpha Allaire, and shackled like the beast they knew me to be. I cracked my neck and moaned at the feeling of relief.

The moonlight streamed into my room and brightened up my perfectly made bed. Beside me on the floor, nothing looked out of place.

A swift shadow loomed in the window above my head. I glanced up and noticed the window swing inward, and then someone leaped inside.

My wolf was waking up slowly.

I imagined he’d been knocked out due to heartbreak.

Erick’s laugh slithered down my spine. When he stepped into the moonlight, I couldn’t even be surprised he’d shown up. “They have you tied up like a damn monster, and you like staying here?”

“What do you want?” I spat.

Erick sat on the edge of my bed and stared at me. “I know you’re better than this. You’re chained up with some witch doctor preparing to take your wolf? What would your father think?”

“Don’t act like you give a damn about me or my father, Erick. Just leave. Everything will be better tomorrow.”

He stared at me for a long time. I contemplated yelling for help. Maybe the wolves would drag him to the dungeon and keep him there. He was a troublemaker at best. “Don’t you want to know why I’m here?”

“I don’t care,” I lied.

He shifted his head. “I sensed Rage marked Everlee today. I know you felt it. I know you’re hurting, and I know they want to take your wolf. It’s because they don’t understand it,” he said, bending down in front of me. “They don’t understand what your wolf needs.”

“And you do?” I laughed. “I just met you.”

Erick smiled. “But I didn’t just meet you. I have been watching you since I was small. I was rogue, my mother killed when I was young and my father…” he chuckled. “A lycan king.”

Reality smacked me in the face. “What are you saying?”

“What do you think I’m saying, Brother?”

My wolf moved around inside of me, a darkness growing around him, but something told me Erick wasn’t lying. “Prove it.”

“How?” Erick asked. “My mother was a human girl that lived in a small village outside of here. Our father did as he pleased. He raped, killed—”

“Stop it,” I hissed.

“He raped my mother and left her for dead. She survived. Had me and died later. I was raised in the wild. Rogue. I will not let our father’s legacy die with you. You have the curse, I do not. Avenge him, Harlan.”

“I hate my father. How can you want anything but death for his lineage? He raped your mother.”

“He took what he wanted,” Erick said, standing up. “Like your little mate. She let Rage take her. Mark her. And you’re just going to cower away like a failure? Father would spit on you.”

“He’s not my father,” I shouted.

Erick smiled. “Neither is that wolf downstairs. He is trying to tame you. Take away your power. He took the kingdom away from you. Take it back. Take down Werewolf University. Kill the wolves that think they’re better than you.”

I shook my head when my wolf fully awoke.

~He’s right,~ my wolf whispered. ~They took everything from you. Now they’re happy their daughter chose Rage. How can they not be? Show them how strong you are.~

“No,” I said, tears of frustration built in my eyes. “No. No. No. Stop.”

Erick reached out and placed his palm on my chest. “You’re going to be human tomorrow, Harlan. If you stay, they’ll take all of your wolf. You won’t have a home. You won’t have a place to stay.”

~They don’t love you,~ my wolf whispered. ~Everlee doesn’t love you. Your parents don’t love you. Take what’s yours.~

My mind began to turn to mush. I pushed and pushed, trying to kick him out of my mind, but I couldn’t stop it.

He pressed against every button inside of me.

He was wearing me down second by second.

“Everlee does love me,” I whispered. “She’s afraid of you,” I spit.

“Everlee is a slut,” Erick said. “You need to go take Rage from her like he took her from you. Kill the wolves that killed your father. But first, kill the man that will become the next alpha king.”

My wolf jerked and pushed until vomit rose up my throat, and I hurled it onto the floor. My broken heart was still oozing. It was pleading with me to stay, but the pain crawled up my body and took root in my heartache.

“Kill Rage Hunt,” Erick whispered into my ear. “Save your wolf. Save yourself, Harlan. Because no one else will.”

All my restraint snapped.

Every bleeding piece of my heart shattered, and left hatred in its wake.

My wolf took the front seat, and shifted, tearing the chains from the walls. I felt my wrist break at the impact, and I fell into darkness that had been growing inside of me for far too long.