The Drunkard Alpha and His Reborn Queen

Chapter 2 - The Pain of the Curse

21st Century in Alaska

ALASKA is a state in the Western United States, on the northwest extremity of the country's west coast. We knew that this place has many mountains covered with thick ice and is known for ice skiing. Its population has risen over the decades because of its beauty and has part of cold weather. That's why a man with his two companions lives in a secluded part of it.

After the Goddess of Hope named Hazna cursed him, Dominic lived there and changed his name to Neeco Taylor. It's been three decades since he hid his identity from the humans and suffered his extreme agony. It was unforgettable, yet his vengeance is the most captured frame for the meantime and searching for how to rebuild his kingdom. He owned a mansion surrounded by trees, plants, and snow. No other houses around their perimeter exist, and tourists never reach the place. But it has electricity, water, and different needs to survive. Sometimes, his apprentice Ghosty and Jill went to the town for their personal needs. And his job? He found a lot of gold bars from the Hillberg mountains a decade ago.

Neeco is seated in the broken wood while holding a bottle of wine. He was in the vast backyard of his mansion. He's drunk again; that has always been happening to him every time he felt suffers from deep sorrow and part of the curse.

"You're drunk again, master. How often have I told you alcohol isn't good for our kind?"

He already senses his apprentice Ghosty coming towards him and bringing him his coat but never turns to him. He still seriously took his glimpse of the old and massive tree in front of him. The tree had a trace of his fist when he wanted to release his anger.

"Master, you must wear your coat whenever you're outside. We are not immortals of having eternal life and might have sick if⸻"

He cut him off. "Where did you go yesterday?" he seriously asked.

"Uhm, we are just dropping by from the beautiful city of New York with Jill." He handed the coat to him. "Here."

He took the coat from him and wore it. "How many times have I told you there's no place for us in the human world? Do you want them to capture you both and do the human experiment? Is it hard to understand?" He's in resentful emotions, but he's trying to control it.

"We are just looking for a good scissor to cut your long hair," Ghosty explained.

"Who told you that I would cut my hair?" He was still on his rugged sentiment while looking at him.

"Me!"

They both turned their glimpse to the woman who was there in their direction. It was Jill, Ghosty's girlfriend. He found these two young shapeshifters in the Hillberg mountains wounded and frail. They are Lycan werewolves abandoned by their pack in Metamorphes world and exiled by their kind. They lived in the Wesca Kingdom before. Neeco has no plan to shelter them, but they are just like him and have futile lives if he lets them die. And now, these two are serving him throughout the journey of his entire life.

"Master Neeco, we are keeping ourselves safe from humans. I used my little wisdom about sorcery not to be recognized by the other shifters. We are just trying to roam the place and find something that we could cut your hair and⸻"

"This is not about my hair!" He yelled. "Humans have no mercy, and before they find us here, you must stay here! Or else, you can go back to your damn world!" He turned to go back to his mansion.

"We find a woman…" Jill uttered.

He stopped but never turned his gaze to them. Who's the woman?

"She's a shapeshifter that lives in New York City," Ghosty added. "I guess there are some shapeshifters from the Methamorpes living in here."

He turned to them. "Did they recognize both of you?" His forehead wrinkled.

"No, as I said earlier. I perfectly made my unscented potion," Jill answered.

"But she got Jill's tick from her neck." Ghosty turned to Jill. "You must take a shower every day, baby." Ghosty smiled at his girlfriend.

Jill winced at his boyfriend. "I did take a bath every day." Jill rapidly picks up some snow in her fist and throws it to Ghosty. "Damn you!"

"Baby, I'm just kidding!" He laughed while parrying both hands from the snow splash.

Neeco turned and moved back to the mansion while shaking his head once. Sometimes, the two are just like children playing or part of their being in a relationship. He had never been in a relationship, and he couldn't understand that matter.

AT NIGHT, it was a full moon. The cleared sky and its tranquility bring him into another type of goddess curse. Unlike the ordinary shifters who are too powerful on the full moon, he's different. He felt pain when transformed into his tangible form. He couldn't breathe, was trembling, and seemed to have something stabbing his body that he couldn't understand what kind of pain it was.

He's in the room whenever that happens, as he can't help but break some vases. He was still shouting while his two apprentices could do nothing but listen to his misery. They knew about the curse when he once told them.

Until he could no longer control himself and opened his balcony door, he jumped there and then ran towards the white forest. He was not wearing a t-shirt while not enduring the cold in the woods. He was like a deranged one tearing apart the stalks and what he was going through. He's having a hard time.

"Aaahhh!!" He kneeled in the middle of the forest and was still in pain.

No one could hear him except the other animals there, who listened to his moaning and screaming. His nails were long, and his white fur and the appearance of his fangs gradually appeared.

"Is this what you want?!" He shouted while he was facing the full moon in the sky. The tendons in his neck came out, and he was also sweating. "If you want to suffer me this, why don't⸻ you k-killed me!"

After a few minutes of being into his grief, the pain suddenly disappeared. He was out of breath and gasped. He was fighting between his being a shapeshifter and the curse. If the moment that he transforms, the pain will continue.

"Master!" Jill handed him a bottle of whisky.

His two apprentices are there to help him every time he feels that anguish. He immediately took the bottle of whisky and drank it. It's the only way he knew he could fight his agony until he felt dizzy and intoxicated. He wanted to die, but how could he make his retribution if he's no longer breathing?

He already regrets the things he did before and his desire to take over the whole shapeshifters world, but it's all too late. He had already experienced the cruelty of the sky, so he also thought it was just right because his life would render worthless.

On the other hand, Ghosty and Jill feel sorry for her condition, so Jill tries to create magic that can remove the curse. They did everything, at least pay for the deed he did to them, but he no longer expects that to happen.

They returned to the mansion with him languidly and exhausted.