The Alpha's Forbidden Grimoire

Kade's POV The Seer said to go East. "There is a Blood Witch in the Eastern Pack territory. The last one. She can pull the rot from your blood, Alpha." I didn't believe her. We burned them all. Three years ago, on my father's order, we burned every witch in Blackpine territory until the snow melted from the heat. I watched their houses turn to ash. I watched the Crowe girls scream. There were no Blood Witches left. My father made sure of it before the curse he deserved finally killed him. But the black veins were already at my throat. My wolf, Vargr, hadn't spoken in four months. I was dying the same way Magnus did - rotting from the inside out, because my mother, in her last spiteful witch breath, cursed the bloodline she gave me. So I was driving East to beg a stranger witch to save me, when the scent hit me through the closed windows of the truck. Rain. Old books. Burnt sugar and rosemary. And underneath it all, the one scent my wolf had ever gone crazy for. Mate. My foot slammed the brakes so hard the truck skidded. Liam, in the passenger seat, jerked awake. "Kade? What the f**k -" I was already out. In the middle of this pathetic human town, in the middle of a thunderstorm, staring at a failing little shop with a crooked sign: CROWE'S CURIOSITIES. No. It couldn't be. The bell chimed when I shoved the door. The girl behind the counter looked up, annoyed. And the world stopped. She was older. Hair longer. Thinner. A scar on her left eyebrow that wasn't there before. But those eyes - grey-green, furious - I knew them. Every boy in the pack had known them, but Liam had been obsessed with them. Elara Crowe. The girl who was supposed to be ash in the Blackpine woods. Liam's ghost. "Elara," I said before I could stop myself. Her face went white. Then red. The book she was holding dropped. "You." That one word was pure venom. Liam came in behind me, shaking rain from his hair. "Kade, what are you -" He saw her. And his entire body stopped breathing. "Elara?" His voice broke like he was fifteen again. "Elara Crowe? You're... you're alive? Goddess, you're alive!" She didn't look at him. She was staring at me, at the black veins crawling up my neck - the same veins my father had when he died. "You," she hissed again, and this time her hand went under the counter. I knew that move. Witches keep iron. "You stood there. You stood next to him and watched." My jaw locked. The memory slammed me - the fire, Magnus screaming "Burn them all!", Elara's grandmother shoving her into the root cellar, me holding Liam back while he screamed her name. "I obeyed my Alpha," I said coldly. "You obeyed your father while he murdered children!" The scent hit me again, stronger now that her fear was spiking. Mate. My wolf, dead for months, suddenly howled inside my skull so loud my knees buckled. MINE. Disgust rolled through me so fast it choked me. A witch. My fated mate was a witch. After everything - my mother spelling my father, killing his true fated mate, cursing our bloodline - the Moon Goddess thought this was funny? It was forbidden. A werewolf mated to a witch was an abomination. My pack would never accept it. They would kill her on sight if they knew what she was. What her kind did. But the Seer said only a Blood Witch could break a Blood Curse. And my mate's blood was the only thing that had made the pain stop in six months. I stepped forward. She flinched, but held the iron knife up. "Stay back." "You are coming with me," I said. Liam grabbed my arm. "Kade, what are you doing? That's Elara! We thought she died!" "She didn't," I snapped, not looking at him. My eyes were locked on her. "And she's going to save my life." "I'd rather die than help you," she spat. I smiled. I knew she would say that. Witches are stubborn to the point of stupid. My mother was too. "Then you'll die here. Tonight." I leaned over her counter, close enough that I could see the pulse hammering in her throat, close enough that her scent made my gums ache with the need to mark. "Because if you don't come back to Blackpine and break this curse my mother left me, I will tell my pack that the Crowe witch survived. And I will let Seraphina finish what my father started. She always wanted to burn this shop down anyway. She always hated how Liam looked at you." Her knife shook. "Seraphina is there?" she whispered. "Waiting to be my Luna," I lied. Seraphina wanted to be, she'd do anything to be, but I would never mark her. Especially not now. Not when my real Luna was holding an iron knife to my ribs with tears in her eyes. Liam stared at me, horrified. "You wouldn't." I finally looked at him. My Beta. My brother. The boy who loved this witch. "She is a witch, Liam. They spelled my father. They killed his fated mate. They cursed my mother and my father. Do you really want to defend one?" The lie tasted like ash. But it had to be done. No one could know she was my mate. If the pack knew the Alpha was mated to a witch, they'd challenge me. If Seraphina knew, she'd kill Elara before the night was over. Elara looked between us, understanding dawning in her wet eyes. She wasn't just being kidnapped by an Alpha who needed a healer. She was being dragged back to the place that burned her family, by the boy who watched it happen, and he hated her for what she was. She lowered the knife. Just an inch. "If I come," she said, voice shaking, "you swear no one touches my shop. No one touches me." I should have said no. I should have rejected her right there and ended this curse of a mate bond. I couldn't. "You have my word," I said. "No one will touch you. Except me." Outside, thunder cracked. And my wolf, for the first time in months, whispered one word: Forever.