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Monique
My heart ached for the huge man before me, with his dark eyes and long hair. His seeming lack of care for his own pack was obviously a front, hiding a wealth of emotional pain and guilt. His long absences from the pack were likely some form of self-exile punishment.
But there was so much I still needed to know, so I had to keep him talking. Despite the fact that he was clearly still in pain.
“Did you ever see Genevieve again?” I forced myself to ask.
He shook his head and sniffed. “No. I didn’t.” Was he telling the truth? His gaze shifted off to the side a little as he spoke.
I frowned, but let it go. For now. “So she just, what? Slunk off into the sunset while you went home?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “We broke up and she was pretty upset, but nothing more than I expected.”
I tried not to roll my eyes. Yeah. Totally normal behavior. Especially for a fated mate.
“You assumed she was okay, went back to your life. But the next thing you know, your wife and daughter were gone and your pack can’t have female children anymore.”
I was nodding as I talked, putting all the pieces together in my head.
The Alpha looked away and Xander’s dad stepped up to the table. “It took us a few years to work out something was wrong. Males being born to the pack was seen as a blessing for a long time.”
“When did you realize there was a curse?” I asked, looking up at Xander’s dad. “How long?”
He glanced at his wife. “I don’t know... maybe five years.”
I looked back at the Alpha. “How long beforeyourealized it? Bet it wasn’t five years.”
He met my gaze, unspeaking.
I leaned forward, putting all my focus on him. “Alpha?”
He lifted his head, staring up at the ceiling, “She came to see me.”
Of course, she did.I knew he’d lied earlier. “And what happened?”
He scrubbed his face with his hands and finally looked at me again. “She came by about a year after we broke up. My wife and daughter had just recently died, and I was grieving.”
“So she told you about the curse then?”
His eyes filled with tears, but not one fell.
Then he whispered, “No.”
I frowned. “No?”
He shook his head. “No... that’s when sheperformedthe curse. She said that it wasn’t enough that I’d lost my wife and daughter. Everyone in the pack should feel the same pain as me. She reached into my soul and ripped a part of me right out. I passed out, I think, during the spell. I don’t know. There were flashing lights and I developed a raging fever. I was in and out of sleep, or maybe it was unconsciousness. Then I woke up properly and realized it was already the next day.”
I sat back in my chair, stunned. “He was right.”
“Who was right?” Xander’s dad asked.
I glanced over at him, my heart heavy with the information I needed to impart. “The high warlock. He believed that Genevieve’s spell on the pack is rooted in the Alpha himself. And from what he’s just said, it probably is. His anger and pain. His... person. I’d have to do a spell to make sure, but at least if we know where it resides, perhaps we can do something about it.”
Xander’s father, whose jaw looked tight, glanced over at me. “Like what?”
I didn’t want to answer. Everyone in the room already knew. The most likely reality was that, when the Alpha died, so too would the curse. But these were good people. No one was going to offer to step up and murder the Alpha.
We would have to find another way to remove the curse. I just didn’t have an answer for that at this point.
