The Delta's Cursed Mate

Magic Blows

Reina’s POV

Asshole! Emerald Snarled. Who does he think he is?

Who is this? I asked. Something about the warlock felt oddly familiar, but I couldn’t place him.

I’m not really sure, he smells familiar.

I rolled my eyes at my wolf, trying to regain control of my body. Leon had pulled me tighter into his embrace, feeling my trepidation. His eyes were black as he looked at the warlock in front of us.

“Who are you?” He signed to keep me a part of the conversation. I couldn’t help but feel giddy.

The warlock spoke but didn’t sign. I wasn’t good at reading lips. It’s not as easy as everyone thinks it is. Everyone had different ways of moving their lips to talk, don’t even get me started on different languages or accents. I looked at Leon hoping he would translate, and he did.

“Warlock, Phoenix.” Leon finger spelled the last word.

I put my forefinger with my thumb and brought it up to my face moving them up and down, “Bird?”

Leon had an amused smile on his face as he nodded, “Exactly.”

Phoenix titled his head at me Just because I cannot sign does not mean I do not understand what you are saying, she-wolf.

Leon’s body vibrated; he must had growled. The earlier look of amusement had dropped instantly. Anger filled the bond, and Emerald was no help. She was pissed someone else had woken her up again. She let out a growl, and for just a second, I felt the ground shake. I had growled before but nothing that powerful.

Leon pulled me backwards into his chest and bent to kiss my mark. Emerald growled at him too, but more annoyed than angry. She curled back into her ball and wrapped her tail around her, but she wasn’t going back to sleep. Just comfortable.

Calm down, Ginger. He won’t hurt you; I won’t let him. Leon cooed as he softly kissed mark.

My body relaxed and I felt too many eyes on me. I looked behind the warlock to see that my parents and brother were staring at me intently, and the warriors to the side had bared their necks in submission to me. I blushed and turned to press my face in Leon’s shirt. I hated being looked at like that.

You have zero control over your wolf. The warlock spoke in my mind.

Leon growled again; his chest vibrated again. Stay the f**k out of my mate’s mind.

Leon pushed me to a chair and told me to wait. My parents introduced me to the warlock, who again just stared at me. Rowan was doing a terrible job of translating whatever the warlock was saying, his own face red. He didn’t like the idea in the first place, but it wasn’t his decision. It was mine.

Leon came back with coffee for me a huge plate of food, waffles burritos, and bacon and sausage. He set me on his lap and began feeding me. Emerald was less than pleased but allowed it. For me. I knew how important it was for a male to provide for his mate. I also liked feeling loved. I couldn’t remember being spoiled or even caring enough to try to remember. Leon had tried by having the kitchen staff make my favorite meal at least once a month, but it was just food. I needed it.

Feeling his pride at being able to provide for me, gave me more warmth. I had been selfish the last six months, making him feel like he wasn’t good enough to provide for me. That had to hurt him. It hurt me. Leon shaking his head pulled me from my thoughts.

No, baby. It’s not your fault. I’m not angry at you. I never was. He kissed my cheek and smiled before giving me a big bite of sausage.

The warlock hadn’t taken his eyes off us the entire meal. I didn’t like it. I let out a warning growl, which he just smiled at.

After breakfast, Rowan led us to his office. It seemed like we spent an awful lot of time in here. Leon again set me on his lap and pulled me into his chest. My parents both had smiles on their faces as they looked at me. I hadn’t noticed it before, but I could feel something towards them. It was faint, but there.

The warlock began talking with Leon translating. The spell would three days to complete. First he had to access my wolf, then put her to sleep, then block her. I asked why he couldn’t do it all at once, but it had to potential to kill me, and Leon since we were marked. That got a lot of excitement from my mother, not so much my father or older brother, but Leon brushed it off. I didn’t see the big deal. They all wanted me to have a bond, now I had one.

Leon had to explain that marking usually happened during s*x, and at the height of the o****m when the two souls were most connected. Blush creeped up on my face and neck, I had a feeling my skin matched my hair. The warlock would need hair from both me and my wolf, and some of my blood. No one liked the idea of blood being used, but I figured if he was going to hurt me, he would have done the spell in one day rather than three.

After he had all his ingredients, Phoenix made Rowan, Richard, and Christian leave as I was their blood, the spell could affect them slightly. Leon wrapped his arms tightly around me when we sat on the floor in front of the golden bowl with drops of my blood and locks of both hair and fur. He nuzzled his face into my neck and assured me that he wouldn’t let anything happen to me.

The warlock looked at Leon and spoke. Whatever he said had my mate frozen in place.

I tapped Leon on the arm and turned to look at him.

What?

The spell must be done while you’re asleep.

I furrowed my brow. I didn’t like that, but again if he wanted to hurt me, he wouldn’t have told us the side effects of doing the spell in one day. Leon didn’t agree. He started rumbling something, he was terrified.

I don’t want him rooting around in your head. I don’t like this, Ginger. We can find another way. Emerald has been pretty tolerable since last night. Leon looked at me. If she feels the need to shift, Kane and I will know, and it won’t be so bad. At least now we can still talk to each other. Please, don’t do this, baby.

I put my hand on his cheek, and he leaned into it. His eyes closed in contentment. I wanted to give him everything he had tried to give me for the past half year. I couldn’t do that with Emerald. It just wasn’t fair. Kane would die from the rejection of his mate, and it would kill us all now. I had to be strong enough to do this. He had been strong enough to do something he was so against to save his wolf, his pack, and I had been selfish. I knew what he was doing it, but I couldn’t care enough to even try to give it back. I didn’t want to do that anymore. I wanted us to be happy together.

Emerald, are you okay with this?

I’m tired, Reina. I’m tired of trying to be something I’m not. I’m a feral wolf, and I don’t really care if it hurts you. I know I should, and I can understand why it does, I just can’t care about it. If I don’t care about you, my human, imagine what I feel for everyone else. I don’t want to feel like this. She whimpered. Actually whimpered. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d heard her be anything but aggressive.

Can I ask you just one favor?

She huffed.

If the warlock really is trying to hurt us, can you tell Leon that I wanted to love him. That Kane deserved a better mate than me. And know that you deserved a better human.

She flicked her tail but didn’t say anything.

I leaned up to press my lips to Leon’s soft lips, I wanted one last kiss. Something to remind me to fight my way back to him. His chest vibrated as he wrapped his arms tighter around my waist and pushed my lips open with his tongue. We poured our emotions into each other, knowing that once I was asleep the warlock had full control of me. I prayed that I would be able to come back to him.

Leon pulled way first and put his forehead against mine. I smiled at him before turning around and nodding at the warlock.

I love you, Ginger. Leon’s voice was the last I heard before I fell backwards into the darkness of my mind.

Phoenix’s POV

From the second I saw the she-wolf I could feel the black magic that encircled her. A spell I hadn’t seen in centuries, one that was banned from many covens during the Witch Trials. It would make a witch or warlock unstable, but a wolf would become feral and therefore uncontrollable.

There were only four families that had access to that kind of magic. The Evers’, they were elemental witches and warlocks, and preferred to stay away from the dark stuff. The Flatts, they were few in numbers, only four members left in the coven. They wouldn’t dare attack an Alpha female. My coven, the DiZano’s, we were only light magic. We only had access to the dark magic because we were the keepers of the scrolls of power. The Head family of magic. Finally, the Harts. They had always been the shiftiest of the covens, we didn’t really know of their numbers as they hadn’t checked in with the council of magic in decades. Last I had heard from the coven was when I banished the head of the Family, Markus, for giving a wolf a spell to heal his sick son. It didn’t work so Markus went to the she-wolf and next we knew she was in a coma and the wolf had died almost three years ago.

We were not to meddle in the affairs of the wolves. It was not our place. If the Earth was in grave danger, then we stepped in. Ice caps, deforestation, wildfires, those were solvable with magic. Sickness and health, life and death were strictly prohibited.

The only reason I was here was because some warlock had used magic to interfere with the mate bond. Witches and warlocks had something similar, but with so few of us left, we generally married a human and put our magic away. Most of the covens had married into the other, and after the Great Depression we had run out of outside magical blood. So, humans came into the mix.

This she-wolf reeked of dark magic. I smelled it as soon as I stepped into the grounds. There was darkness surrounding her wolf, and she hadn’t noticed it, but it was exhausting her. It was a very complicated spell, not something done by a simple novice warlock. If it was what I thought it was, there was multiple spells wrapped into this female, and breaking it would take days.

Her outburst had given me all the information I needed. She had no control over her wolf. Not only did she not have control over her wolf, but her wolf was also bound. Very complicated. The wolf could only break free of the binding by taking control of the body but would place her human in the binds. How often would they shift, and how long would each shift last? I didn’t know much about werewolves, but I did know that the wolf and human spirit were supposed to be in harmony. Alphas had the most temperamental wolves, but this female wasn’t temperamental, she was as feral as a wolf found in the forests.

She cared of nothing, not even the human that shared her body. It wouldn’t be long before the wolf took over completely and would have to be killed. Once a wolf went completely feral, there was no going back. Except she had marked the Alpha. I had never heard of a feral wolf having a living mate. How did the human talk the wolf into marking? Did she even know he was her mate until she marked him? It was confusing, a feeling I wasn’t accustomed to having.

I could feel the binding, preventing the wolf from bonding with others, but she had marked the Alpha, Leon. Why? It would be something I spoke to the wolf about.

As I told Alpha Leon, the safety of her sleeping, he was upset. Naturally. I would be less than eager to allow someone to root around in my sleeping wife’s mind. Though he immediately didn’t like me. Something about me being in his mate’s head. How else would I communicate with her? I did not know sign language. Or maybe it was the wolf’s immediate reaction to seeing me. I do not know how she recognized me, but I did not know her. Another question to ask the wolf.

Once Reina got her mate to settle, I began the spell and she immediately fell asleep. First I felt nothing, but cold and darkness. No memories to follow, just empty. s**t. Whoever did this spell made sure she would not remember why bonds were important to her. They left her mind open for compulsion. Something that was even more complicated than erasing bonds. Also, a very rare and special gift. Very few witches had it anymore. Fewer than our dwindling numbers. The longer her mind was left open, the more the spell latched to it.

It felt like I wondered for hours, catching glimpses of fuzzy memories. It looked as if it was being watched on a very old television, only bits and pieces could be seen, and the most important ones were buried deep inside her mind, where her wolf sat on her haunches waiting. She was different than most wolves I had seen. Many wolves took the color of their human’s hair. Except Alpha’s, they were mostly black. She was a pale gray, almost silver. Strange. She had vibrant purple chains on each of her legs, she wouldn’t even be aware they are there. Her binding chains.

“Warlock.” The wolf growled.

“Wolf.”

“My name is Emerald. Are you here to help me sleep?” She flicked her tail.

I titled my head, “Is that all you wish? Is to sleep?”

The wolf licked her paw and rubbed it on her face, the chains went a shade darker. That was not supposed to happen. The more she wanted something the more the spell took hold. It was a binding spell but not the one I first thought. It was binding her to a different soul. Only that soul. Whoever cast it in the first place. She could not remember any other bonds, nor recognize her mate because her wolf was bound to a separate soul.

“I don’t want to hurt my human anymore. She’s annoying. I want to run in the forest and be free of her complaining.”

“What if I could break the curse? Completely. It will take a little bit of effort on both of us, but I might be able to ease you of those chains. You would be able to connect to your human, and your mate.”

She snarled, “He is not my mate!” The words escaped her mouth, but even she was surprised by them.

She growled as she realized what she had said. He wasn’t her mate, which meant she had a mate out there, but the wolf and human shared one mate. It was impossible for the wolf to have a separate mate than the human. I raised my eyebrow. There was one spell I had heard of, right at the end of the Trials. A warlock had attempted to put a wolf’s soul into a different body. It killed them both but that was before warlocks practiced together. If more than one warlock had spelled the she-wolf then it would make sense why the wolf didn’t recognize her mate. Because it wasn’t her mate.

Things just got a hell of a lot more complicated.