Her Cursed Alpha

CHAPTER 8 - CORALINE'S POV

My heart was still racing as I reached my bedroom. No one had ever kissed me like that.

He was so confident, so forceful and the way he moved his lips and tongue.... I squealed into my pillow.

What is wrong with me? It was only hours ago that I wanted to reject him. Only hours ago the King threatened Eric just to get me to accept Derick and now my stupid heart was pounding wildly at the mere thought of him.

"Its the bond" Clara pointed out, "He's our soul mate. It's only natural to be drawn to him."

"But... I had so many plans for my life," I pointed out, "How can one man just show up and change everything?"

"I guess the path we chose wasn't one the Goddess wanted us to walk down. We should trust her, and trust mate. I like him and Dash. I think they really will treat us well."

I closed my eyes as I placed my fingers to my lips, they were still buzzing from the bond.

"It never felt like that when we kissed Eric."

Thinking of him brought me back to reality. He was still in hospital, still broken. And it was all my fault. I'd broken his heart and driven him crazy with pain. Guilt flowed through me, cutting off the wings of the butterflies flapping around in my stomach and left me with a hollow-out feeling instead.

"Should we try to visit him?"

"No, it will only make mate angry and he might kill Eric. We've done enough damage," She answered as there was a soft tap on the door, and I sat up to see Merin enter, "Let's just write him a goodbye letter and leave things to rest."

"Princess the King and Alpha Ryker want to see you in their study," Merin interrupted my conversation with Clara, "I came earlier, but you were gone, so I lied and said you were sleeping, but they asked me to check on you again."

I nodded and slipped off the bed, smiling with embarrassment when I realized my legs were still wobbly from my mate's kiss.

"Are you okay?" Merin asked in concern as she rushed to me, "After what you went through today, you should be resting. I can tell the King you're still sleeping."

"No, that's okay." I smiled and touched her arm, "Can you draw me a bath though, for when I return?"

"Yes, Princess."

I left her alone and walked down the hallway towards the study. I could hear my step siblings arguing over who won whatever game they'd been playing and the maids rushing about to clean, but my mind was still on Derick.

He'd somehow awoken a desire in me I didn't realize I had, and it left me feeling very strange.

I wanted to go back to his room and have him on top of me again.

When I reached the study door. I pushed away my fantasies and knocked before entering.

The King and his heir were smoking cigars and talking by the fire, but they both looked up at me.

"Good, you're here." The King said as smoke escaped his lips, "Come sit down."

"Just tell me what you want." I said, my tone defiant.

Both men looked at me with anger, but I knew I was safe now that Derick was my mate. Neither of them would dare touch me.

"The Omega is being treated and will be banished as a rogue once he's recovered," King Damien informed me.

I didn't know how I felt about that. On one hand, Eric wanted to leave anyway, so this was a good thing, but on the other hand, being forced out as a rogue was a death sentence. He'd start to rot without an Alpha, and then he'd shift and become a wild untamed beast.

"Do you have to make him a rogue? Isn't forcing him to leave enough?" I asked on his behalf, "Derick has already punished him."

Damien exhaled angrily and Ryker leaned back.

"See. I told you she'd defend him. He probably wasn't forcing her in the first place," Ryker commented, "That was probably her excuse once they were caught fooling around."

"Shut up!" Damien shocked me by yelling at my brother. Outside of training, I'd never heard him speak to Ryker like that, "You didn't see your sister in that room. The Omega attacked her!"

Ryker looked just as shocked as I was, and he fell silent.

"If you want him spared, then fine," Damien told me, "But it's conditional. You will keep up relations between our Kingdom and Dericks once you leave, and if you don't, or if he breaks off the treaty, Eric dies."

I frowned at him. So this was his plan. He may truly believe that Eric hurt me, but he was still using it to get what he wanted.

"You really are a monster," I said angrily, as my fists clenched, "Your daughter was attacked and all you care about is using her for power and wealth. Well, don't worry. Your precious alliance will stay intact. Is there anything else?"

"Take that box," He gestured with his chin, "It's from your mother. She was going to give it to you at your coming of age party tomorrow."

I glanced at the box. She'd left this for me?

"That wasn't in her note."

I took comfort in seeing pain in my father's face when I brought up her suicide letter.

"She organized it a few weeks after your birth. Take it and get out."

"Gladly."

I lifted the box, holding it to my chest before I walked back to my room.

"The bath is ready Princess... What's that? Would you like me to put it in the closet?"

"No, that all. Thank you."

Merin smiled, bowed and left, while I sat on the bed and stared at the gift.

"Open it!" Clara demanded when I hesitated.

I lifted the heavy wooden lid, and inside, was a charcoal sketch, crude but tender, of me as an infant clutched in my mother's arms.

She was smiling so warmly at me, and it made my heart ached, I missed that smiled.

Besides it lay a lock of my own hair, blonde and fine, tucked away with care by a hand that had long since returned to the Goddess.

There were heirloom jewelry I remembered seeing on my mother growing up, but had vanished after her funeral.

I thought Bonnie had taken it, but I guess my mother's maids had hidden them away in here for safe keeping.

I reached into the box, pulling out the items until I found a weathered spell book belonging to my ancestor, the Supreme Netary, one of the only witches to ever accept a Lycan for her mate.

I flipped through the pages, not understanding the language the spells were written in. Perhaps my mother would have taught me if she'd lived?

Beneath it all rested a wedding dress, not one I'd seen in her wedding portrait with the King, but just as beautiful, perhaps this is the one she'd wanted to wear before my grandmother, the King's mother, had forced her into her own wedding dress.

The silk was so impossibly soft that it felt like a ghost's touch against my palms. And the embroidery was delicate and created a beautiful pattern up the sides.

I wept as I traced the stitching of the dress. She would have looked so lovely wearing this dress on her wedding day.

"Let's wear it when we marry mate."

I held the dress out, "The bust is too small, we'll have to get Merin to alter it."

"I hope she has enough time." Clara said and I carefully tucked it back up and closed the lid to the box.

This was the most precious gift I'd ever received on my birthday, and I smiled. Even now, my mother had thought of me.

I missed her all over again, and I realized that this ache for her would never fully leave me.