Cursed

Chapter Four-Julian

I sit in my study and read the updates about the group of hunters who killed Adrain. It's early in the morning and I have been working since last night. The news had gotten to me almost too quickly.

It'd been just two days after I gave the order to bring them to me, alive. They were three villages away from my territory.

So far, they have been lucky in escaping my messengers, even killing some in the process but I knew it was only a matter of time before they were caught and brought to me.

I decided to sit back and wait. The hunters were the least of my worries.

My mind wanders back to the night before. I got to the sorcerer's lair and he had handed me the renewed charm stone and said,

"Your redemption is near"

I had really hoped it was the cure to my curse but I didn't put much thought on it.

Living with this curse for thirteen years had taught me to temper my expectations. If the curse would not be broken before my death, then so be it.

My reverie is broken when I hear footsteps, I look up to find Dominic standing in front of me. I give him a questioning look.

"The hunters have been found, my lord. One has been captured but the other two escaped."

"Bring him to the common room" I say, rising from my chair.

As I descend the staircase, I catch a sight of the hunter's back. Small for a man and a werewolf hunter, dressed in black. Black boots, trousers, leather jacket, dark hair, I could even sense darkness in his aura.

He is standing straight, his hands tied behind him with string. He is flanked by two soldiers who bow as I approach.

I come up behind him. The servants and guards bow as I walk but If this hunter hears my footsteps, he doesn't act like it. I feel angered by his nonchalance and stop behind him.

"Face me, human" I ordered but there's no response. I raise my brow at the soldier and they forcefully turn him, wait!

It's not a 'him' but a 'her'. I don't know why I expected a man but the realization that it is a woman surprises me. I don't get to meet many female wolf hunters.

Her face is feminine, her breasts are a handful, definitely females'. Her hair that was tied had unraveled and left errant locks of dark hair scattered across her face. Her feminine face was smeared with dirt and blood.

Her blood. She stared pointedly at me for the first few seconds before her head was pushed down by the guards. But in those few minutes,

I saw raw hate, determination, resistance and something deeper. It is shocking for such emotions to appear on such a beautiful young girl's face.

She shouldn't have been more than twenty five for human age. And yes, she is beautiful even with the dirt, blood and hate.

Intrigue replace my initial surprise. I wonder what her motivations are. I am sure she's aware of who I am but she still resists the soldier's hand that's pushing her head down.

"How did the other hunters escape?" I ask, taking away my attention from the female hunter. The soldiers bow again and one speaks.

"With her help. She is the leader of the group. We can get the other hunters if she speaks but she has decided to stay quiet" he said, casting his eyes on the woman.

I'm not surprised to hear that. I had already known there was more to this person as soon as I saw her back.

Which lady wore male pants? Even the few ones in the defense field fight with their gowns. It almost seems like there's something about her that suggests disobedience.

I signal to the guards to leave her. They do this immediately and step back. She raises her head and looks me straight in the eyes. She's more than a head shorter than me so she strains her neck.

"What is your name?" I ask. She doesn't respond again and I wonder if she is deaf or dumb. She doesn't try to hide her emotions as her face clearly portrays her contempt. I'm getting angered now.

"Is she deaf or something?" I almost roar and the servants around scramble away.

"Speak! you lowly human" One of the soldiers says, shoving the human roughly. Impressingly, she stands her ground. He hits her hard on her stomach and she grunts, bending over in pain.

"No one ignores the Lord. Speak!" He says, hitting her until I raise my hand to stop him. Throughout all the blows, she doesn't shout or cry. She just makes low angry grunts.

This is amusing. I order for her to be untied and the soldiers give me a confused look and alarmed look.

"Yes,my lord," one of them replies and cuts loose the strings on the human's hand.

She immediately takes a defensive stance and elbows him. He groans in pain and tries to hit her again but I stop him.

I could have given anything to know what she was thinking.

"Okay let's do this, human. We'll fight for ten minutes and I'll let you free if you could give me even one hit in a fight.

If you don't, you'll tell me your name and I'll give you the punishment reserved for wolf hunters. Death" I say, smirking at her.

She returns my smirk and I almost laugh out loud. It seems our little human isn't deaf or dumb. I had made the little test just to see how strong she was.

"Dominic!" I call out to my servant, "you are the referee" I say and remove my coat, letting the servants take it from my shoulder.

The common room is cleared immediately and both of us take our stance. More like the human takes her stance. I feel it's unnecessary to take the test seriously.

Dominic signals for the beginning of the fight and the human jumps on me almost immediately.

Her swiftness and agility catches me unawares. I had thought she was feeling pain and decided to go easy on her but I guess I was wrong.

I was on the defensive and I have to admit that the little lady was good. Her legs shoot out quickly, she falls and stands up almost as quickly too. While she is being offensive, I use my hands to block all her hits.

The impacts of her hits are strong but not strong enough to pull me down. I dodge and block as many as I can but she somehow manages to hit my chest at the very last few seconds.

She flashes me a smile of triumph as Dominic announces that the ten minutes were over. I was surprised but I didn't show it.

I had made the mistake of underestimating her. Of course there was a wolf hunter and hunters had to be stronger than normal except they were courting death.

She moves back and away from me and I give her a bland look as she does this. She bends and pulls something out from her boot, her eyes not leaving me.

I see the object she holds in her hand. It's the neck chain encrusted with the royal symbol of my territory.

I remember I had given it out to the remaining members of my family. The one she was holding was no doubt my late cousin, Adrain's neck chain.

She throws the necklace and it lands on my feet. I smiled coldly. She wasn't getting away with that.

"The name is Freya" She finally speaks. Her voice, breathy from all the fighting.

"I'm leaving now" She hissed.

The guards block her way and she tries to strike them but I pull her back by her hair

"I never said you could"