The Alpha's Dark Curse

CHAPTER 004

AURORA’S POV

My hands were still over my mouth, my heart pounding in dread from what Zelda had just revealed. How could all four of them be dead? What really happened to them?

“D-Did he kill them? Did Alpha Caspian kill them because they disobeyed him? Tell me, please... am I next? Am I going to die too, like the others?” I said with a trembling voice, still in great shock from what I had just heard. I could only imagine what might befall me too.

Zelda, on the other hand, seemed a little conflicted, and it looked to me like there was more to what she had just revealed than met the eye. She quickly stood up from where she had been sitting at my feet and hurried to shut the door.

Returning, she didn’t bother sitting back down before she started to speak. She must have been very scared of Alpha Caspian herself and didn’t want him to hear her.

“Look, Aurora,” she started. “No one else must hear this, or we both will be in trouble.”

I nodded quickly, promising I wouldn’t share with another what she was about to tell me. I sat up in the tub, chills running down my spine the moment she opened her mouth to speak again.

“Alpha Caspian didn’t kill them, the curse did,” she said sharply, still looking around even though the door was closed.

“The curse? What curse?” I asked, my breath thickening in my chest. She had just mentioned that all four women before me died from a curse, and it left me unsettled, hanging in the air and waiting for her next words. She took a deep breath before speaking again.

“Alpha Caspian, he... he is cursed,” she said, and my eyes narrowed in horror.

She sighed deeply, her eyes clouded with concern as if also dreading what may seem to be my fated demise. “It’s a dark curse, one that’s plagued him for as long as he can remember. He can’t be bound to anyone—not truly. If he finds a mate... she dies the next day.”

“What?” My voice cracked. “That’s... horrifying.”

“That’s why he doesn’t look for love anymore,” Zelda continued. “He swore never to love again after Lisa, his third and last mate, died because of the curse. Only his fated mate can survive being bonded to him, but…” She hesitated, her voice dropping. “But it seems like she doesn’t exist.”

I blinked, confused. “How can she not exist?”

I strongly believed that everyone had a fated mate. I had never been loved by anyone, yet I still believed there was someone for everyone. Maybe he hadn’t found her yet, but how could she say his fated mate didn’t exist?

“He used dark magic to try to locate her,” Zelda said softly. “It confirmed what he feared—his fated mate isn’t in this world, at least not yet. After that, after all the heartbreak, after watching the women he loved die, he gave up. No more love. No more mate bonds. Just… pain.”

I shook my head in disbelief. Now I knew why he was so cold and acted like he had no emotions. That was why all he exuded was pain and anger.

Alpha Caspian had lost three women he loved dearly in the past because he was cursed, and any woman who was not his fated mate and bonded with him would die the following day. It was sad and scary, the curse and its record so far.

But then, I still didn’t understand how the curse affected the breeders if he wasn’t bonded to them. Just before I could open my mouth to say another word, Zelda cut in.

“He believes the curse will kill him too—soon. It has given him a sign, and his days are numbered, even though he had kept it within himself as a secret,” Zelda explained. “He wants a successor, someone to carry on his legacy after he’s gone. That’s why he turned to breeders—women who could bear his child without the risk of a mate bond.”

I felt a chill creep down my spine. “And... what happened to the breeders?”

Zelda’s expression darkened. “The last four breeders before you… they all died as well. Not immediately like his mates, but within seven days. They grew sick, weaker and weaker, until their bodies gave out.” She clenched her fists. “Alpha Caspian himself doesn’t understand why. He thought he could avoid the curse’s reach by choosing breeders instead of mates. But even that hasn’t worked. The reason behind it is still not clear, and he is still trying. That’s why he bought you, to see if you could survive and give him a child or...”

She paused. She couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud to me, seeing how scared I already was. But I knew exactly what she was going to say. If I failed like the other four, along with his three mates, I would also die, ending up like them. I was going to die, just like them, mysteriously.

I couldn’t believe that he knew the risk involved, and still had the mystery unsolved but was still out to get me. He was so heartless to try and use me as an experiment? My mouth hung open as I thought about it. So, he wouldn’t care if I died, because there was no mate bond between us, and he was going to move on and get a sixth breeder and not feel any pain??

Zelda met my gaze, her eyes filled with sorrow, knowing I may also die in seven days. “He’s desperate, Aurora. And you… you might be his last chance to have an heir before he dies too...”

Before Zelda could open her mouth to say another word, the door to the room creaked open and we were both startled. One of the Alpha’s guards stood by the door, knowing that I was taking my bath, and he spoke from there.

“Miss Zelda, the Alpha wants to see the Breeder in his room, now!” the guard said, shutting the door and walking away without waiting for a response. My heart leapt to my throat as I turned to look at Zelda.

“You have to get dressed and go now. Alpha Caspian grows colder with every new Breeder he gets, a result of the pain and horror he has endured,” she said, walking out of the room.

All Zelda had said kept playing in my head as I got dressed. I found a red dress lying on the bed, which I wore, and then I stepped out. I reached Alpha Caspian’s chamber, and I knocked. I didn’t hear a response from within, which caused me to reconsider knocking, but then I just decided to push the door open since it wasn’t locked.

Walking in with cautious steps, my breath hitched in my throat the moment my eyes met him. He stood by the window, his back turned against me, where I stood at the door. I froze at the entrance, not knowing how to tell him I was here.

Slowly, he turned around, still dressed in his tuxedo and with sleeve, his biceps straining against the fabric. His eyes swept over me from head to toe before he finally moved to set his glass of wine on the table.

“Strip!” he said the moment he turned to me again. My brows knitted, shocked. I couldn’t believe I had just heard what I thought I heard him say. My heartbeat quickened.

“W-What?” I asked with a trembling voice.

“I’m sure you heard me correctly the first time, Omega...” he said coldly, with no emotions.

“Take off your clothes. I’d like to see what you look like beneath that dress. Be quick,” he said, and my mouth dropped.