2
1459 Words
Bryan
As I stared at myself in the mirror while fixing my tie, I could see the dark, nearly black circles under my eyes.
It'd been months since I'd had proper sleep.
It had been a long five years since I took the throne from my father, and there was still so much left to do.
For every item I crossed off my list to build the pack in the way I wanted, new problems emerged. Between creating the patrol charts, organizing the schedules, and overseeing every other detail while running the pack, my job never seemed finished.
I couldn't sleep without my mind feeling burdened.
And the urge to find my mate gnawing just underneath my skin.
At first, I'd tried to ignore the feeling. I hated getting distracted, even by the smallest thing. But the Lycan inside me — Shawn — couldn't be pacified.
He wanted her.
I needed her too. To stay sane at least.
So, I made time to look. I visited many packs throughout the kingdom over the last five years in search of her with Shawn's hunger as a fuel.
But no luck.
A mate was essential to keep me level-headed enough to continue leading the pack. I was still young. Barely thirty. I had a lot of time to find her.
But I wanted to get it over and done with it already. Maybe I should take a break from pack duties. Put finding her at the top of my list.
My eyes flashed blue as Shawn surged to the surface to confront me.
No. Find mate now. End the curse.
The curse.
Following my father's death and my ascension to the throne, I began casually dating to find a mate. Nothing ever serious, but at least a few months to find someone to choose as my luna, in case I never found my mate.
And it led to me being cursed.
Witches weren't common throughout the kingdoms, but they existed. There were far fewer witches than lycans, and sightings were rare. Some didn't even believe they existed. Yet I found one at a tavern during one of my trips to visit a pack.
That woman must have bewitched me because I couldn't stop myself from taking her to my bed. I heard rumors that witches were wild in the bedroom, and those rumors were true. I spent two months with the witch before I realized it was nothing more than s*x and that it distracted me from my pack duties.
So I called off the relationship.
After all, she was a witch, not a lycan.
I couldn't mark her even if I wanted to.
And it got her mad. She cursed me in a language I didn't understand.
Whatever details there were about what she did to me were known only to her.
Since then, my hunt for a mate and my s*x life had become painfully slow.
Every female I met felt off-putting. Grating. Nothing about them made me want to bring them to my bed for some fun after realizing they weren't my mate.
It frustrated me to no end, with the witch's laugh echoing in my mind each time I turned down a female.
The outline of my beta's lean build came into view first before his citrusy scent hit my nose. I growled, not enjoying the disturbance.
"What do you want, Gunner?"
He chuckled. "Someone's in a bad mood. Maybe you should apologize to that sexy witch of yours so you can get laid."
I growled louder. "Annalise is long gone. Not sure if that hag is even lurking around in our kingdom anymore. She knows I've sent scouts out to find her."
Gunner crossed his arms over his chest, and leaned back with a smirk on his face. He looked so relaxed, I envied him. He wasn't in a hurry to find a mate, nor suffering from a curse.
"Seriously, dude. I just think you need to get laid."
"If only that could happen, but Anna's curse makes every female repulsive to me. At least, that's what I think the curse did to me."
"You told a witch you didn't love he r— after she confessed her feelings. It sounds like the perfect excuse for her to curse you so every female looks hideous to you."
I sighed. That could be it, but something I hadn't told my beta was that females still looked sexy to me.
That was the problem.
I had the appetite, and I wanted nothing more than to take them to my bedroom and make them scream my name.
However, the urge to actually act on these impulses and desires wasn't there.
It was as if Annalise made my d**k stop working.
Anger surged inside me. "I could kill the b***h for doing this to me. She had no business cursing a king!" I gripped my sink, and I heard the c***k from the marble as my anger coursed through me.
Over the years, I had delved into the lore of a witch's curse and how to undo it. Most of the lore stated that only the witch could remove any spell she had cast on you. It was her magic that needed undoing, and only hers could reverse it.
And if she wouldn't remove this blasted curse, then the lore said I could kill her to lift it.
My silence must have made Gunner uncomfortable. It was his throat-clearing that pulled me out of my thoughts. Bloodlust had a scent, and I must have smelled like it for Gunner to look at me the way he did. I let myself relax just enough for that look to disappear.
"You just need to find your mate, boss."
"Like that is simple to do."
"It would be if you actually planned a route through the kingdom. It would be good publicity for you as king to visit the packs. It's also a way for you to meet unmated females and find your mate."
That wasn't a bad idea at all. I had done something similar over the years, but nothing too lengthy because I didn't want to be away from the pack for long. It could take me a couple of months, but I could travel through the kingdom to find my mate.
Gunner wasn't mated, either. If I found my mate and brought power into the kingdom and pack, it would be even better to have a mated beta as well. But there was the concern about leaving the pack without an alpha or a beta. I'd have to leave the kingdom and the pack in the hands of my third. The man was good as a gamma, but he didn't have the experience running the pack like Gunner did during the last time I left for a few weeks.
"Before you try to back out of that kind of plan just because you don't want to leave everything to Eric, stop."
I looked over at him, and his gray eyes hardened at me.
"You are a king. If you want the kingdom to thrive, you need your queen at your side."
That was a sobering thought. A mate was about to bring balance to the lycan, and mine was throwing himself at the cage to be let loose to run. He didn't like the idea of not adventuring through the kingdom to find our mate. Maybe if I did this and found her, I could finally get some rest.
"What would be the best route through the kingdom?" I asked Gunner.
He smiled. Gunner seemed to have hoped I would ask that question from the look on his face. "If that means I get to plan the trip because I'm coming along, I'm in. My lycan has been craving a mate for the last few months. No one in our pack has caught his fancy."
This was why I figured I'd be leaving everything to Eric, my gamma, while we were gone. Wherever I went, Gunner followed. That's how it had been since we were kids, and it hadn't changed. I chuckled. This was why I needed Gunner as my beta. His laid-back energy and jokes made the day breeze by. "Sounds like a plan. Want to talk about it after we go for a run?"
He smiled. "f**k yeah! Let's let the Lycans out and then plan our way through the kingdom. Maybe during the trip, you can get laid to settle down."
That got a laugh out of me as I left my bathroom. I knew better than to give in to thoughts of having s*x with anyone right now because of the curse.
Either way, my life would get better after this trip.
I could feel it.
- Writer
