The Royal Curse
1216 Words
May..."
I clenched my jaw at the voice. Tears welled up in my eyes at her chirpy voice, and it was all i could do not to fall down in tears at that moment all over again.
'Liya' I exclaimed happily, overwhelmed by the joy of feeling her voice after nearly four months of just having her presence linger in the back of my mind every now and then then fade away.
'Youre back,' I exclaimed letting myself soak up in the delight of her presence and voice. id missed her very damn much infact.
Just then i heard her snarl and i calmed myself down enough to understand where her aggressiveness was coming from.
And following her thoughts my body once again tensed up.
'Mine.' she exclaimed and her snarl intensified.
'Who did this to him.'
'Easy girl calm down hes in our care now and all will be well.' Itried to ease her knowing this wasnt easy for her considering it hadnt been for me.
'Mate is hurt.' She whimpered and this time on around i heard the tremble in her voice and weakness mixed with guilt.
'Liya what's wrong?" I queriued knowing this wasnt just about the mate.
'I dont have long, this time I can feel it, I'm sorry. ' She relayed as she slumped forward mirroring a lost look.
'You just got back,' I couldnt help but ask.
'I'm sorry may, tell mate I'm sorry too.' She let out. Her voice wasn’t even hers anymore, not entirely. It was a strange, fragmented echo, a whispering shadow of what she once was.
I hadn’t been ready for her, didn’t want her, not when the weight of everything else was already crushing me. But she was here. And just as i was getting used to the idea of having her back she's snatched up again.
It had been days since I’d felt her stir. Her presence was like a slow burn, distant, fading… her energy slipping in and out of consciousness.
It wasnt always like this. But after I turned twenty the slumbers started.
It was happenning again thats what my father had said with a fearful look. A look that was mirrored by my brother too, apparently the knew what was going on.
It started with liya and myself being extremely tired after a few excercises then it gradually graduated to her being taking naps in between and the naps kept getting longer till it gor to a poinmt where sometimes I couldnt sense her presence.
A curse on the royal bloodline women. That's what ash said when I cornered him. One that kept the wolf in a deep slumber most of the time, allowing brief windows of clarity, only to drag her back into the darkness before she could fully wake.
One they were yet to know the root cause or why it happened. It was what had the queen in the posistion she was right now. and i feared that was my fate too.
I looked at Liya and tried to offer comfort to her via the bond as m uch as i could. It wasn’t her fault, I knew that. But she didn’t get it wasnt and teneded to shoulder all of this which didnt make it any easier for us.
For now, though, she was awake. Alive. I could feel it. Even if it was only for a moment, like a breath of air in the midst of an endless storm. I could feel her trying to push through trying to reach her mate.
It hurt seeing the disappointment in her face when she couldnt connect to his wolf, id tried and i got nothing but i thought it was just that my wolf wasnt around.
'I'm too weak,' She let out weakly and I ground my teeth, at the pain and guilt being mirrored on her face, enough to pull my attention back to the man on the bed.
His shallow breaths, his stillness. I couldn’t afford to get lost in the maze of my own head. they both needed me so badly.
“No, youre not. We'll get through,” I murmured, though I wasn’t sure if I was speaking to her or to myself.
The words felt hollow. I wasnt sure id be able to get through all this was just alot, and the mate bond—the one I wanted nothing to do with and intended on rejecting—was pulling me, a magnetic force stronger than any willpower I possessed. I couldn’t ignore it forever. I knew that.
Liya's presence enveloped me closer, as much as she could.
"You’re afraid," she whispered, her voice softer now, almost gentle.
My fingers tightened around my mate's hand, my knuckles white with the pressure. I wanted to respond, to shut her out completely, but the words tangled in my throat.
I was afraid. Of course I was.
I was afraid of what the bond meant, of the life that awaited me if I accepted it—if I accepted him, Hed be stuck with a mate who had wolf that was cursed to sleep or worse hed end up all alone like my father. and i didnt want to subject anyone to that.
I wanted to protect my mate as well as myself and my wolf if i was being entirely honest. I had to.
But all that id deal with later on for now the only thing I could hear, in the deepest part of me, was the faint hum of her slumbering consciousness, her slipping away.
I let my attention slip from her to him so that she wpuldnt have to appologize again for any inconvinience and so I focused on him.
I leaned closer, my hand still holding his. His fingers were warmer now, a subtle but encouraging change. His chest rose a little more, the breath that escaped him a fraction deeper. The promise of life.
The warmth of his skin beneath mine grounded me, his breath. The faint rhythm of his pulse.
But still, I could feel her, watching from the edges of my mind. Her spirit was restless, unsettled.
And it broke me as the curse wasn’t just hers to bear. It was mine too. Our burden.
She was fading again, slipping back into the darkness and i didnt know when shed be back again and it hurt tears welled in my eyes as i felt her presence slip away completely.
I leaned back slightly, pressing my palms against my eyes as a wave of frustration surged through me. No matter how many times this happened I still could not get used to it.
I had to do somethinng about this but what exactly?
There was no answer, only a cold emptiness where the answer should have been.
But as the anger swirled inside me, my fingers uncounsciously tightened around the strangers hand something caught my attention—the faintest flicker of movement beneath my touch. A movement that sent a jolt of warmth through my whole body
His fingers.
They twitched again.
This time, it wasn’t just a small twitch. It was a ripple. A shift.
I held my breath.
His eyelids fluttered.
.
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- Writer
