Bride of the Cursed Alpha - Chapter 101: Chapter 101

Auren POV
The journey to the Shaman house was quiet, filled with tension. Tarian was with us as we went to his house. Lucien seemed to be preoccupied in his thoughts as we sat in the car.
I took his hand in mine and kissed his knuckles. “What are you thinking?” I asked.
He sighed. “The last time I went to the Eldermere ruins, it was—” He clenched his teeth. “—disastrous!”
“Why, what happened?”
“You wouldn’t want to know…” he replied, his eyes going to the forest outside. “The Shadow Wolves circled me, and—” His breath became labored and he shuddered.
“It was horrible,” Tarian completed his sentence. “They circled him for several hours. They kept whirling around him, as if punishing him for something he never did. It was impossible for us to reach him. We all thought that—” Tarian shook his head, his body shaking at the memory. “We thought he would die.”
Immediately my grip on his hand tightened, fear settling in my bones. “What? Goddess! Why didn’t you tell me? Please tell me what they do to you.”
Lucien covered my hand with his large one. “The shadows entered my body and grasped me in a way I couldn’t move. It seemed like they were punishing me for the mistake my ancestor made. The thorns in my body dug in my flesh, drawing blood. Had it not been for Remus, I would have succumbed to the injury. By the time they left me, I was lying in the pool of blood.”
I gasped, slapping my mouth with my hand. Tears stung my eyes. “Why did you do that, Lucien?” I asked.
He looked at me with tenderness. Cupping my cheeks he said, “I did it for you, baby. I wanted to find a solution to mark you.”
I couldn’t stop my tears this time and they slipped. “Oh, Lucien!” I rasped and hugged him tightly. “Why would you do something so reckless?” I scolded him. “Promise me, you won't do it again.” My emotions were all over the place. The feeling of helplessness was huge. Because of me, he had suffered a lot. And my poor Alpha didn’t even tell me about it, choosing to suffer alone.
“Stop feeling guilty, Auren,” he said softly as he stroked my back. “You are my mate, and I’ll do anything to have you. You can't understand how I was feeling all those days for not being able to mark you. But now—” He kissed the crown of my head. “There’s a bigger problem.”
I tipped my head up to look at him. “What problem?”
He swallowed hard. “The Bride Bane’s curse. I’ve marked you, and—” He closed his eyes as a pained expression came on his face.
I understood him. “Alpha Lucien, even if I’m here with you for a year, it is worth it.”
He clutched me tighter. “No, I don’t want you to leave me. And if you will, I’ll follow you. I can't live without you. Ever.”
I buried my face in the crook of his neck. Because now I had to find a way for him to keep going on with his life after me. After everything that happened in the past—the exposure of Sable, the chaos of the trial, Bram’s evil plans going down, and our return as victors—this moment felt heavier than everything else.
“Never say that again,” I murmured. “I want you to live and live long.”
“There’s no life without you, darling…”
The Shaman’s home was nestled deep in the heart of the woods in the north of the pack’s territory. It was an ancient wooden hut. Vines curled around the weathered walls. Surrounded by a fence, it had a lovely garden with various flowers gently swaying in the breeze. From the looks of these, I knew they were mostly herbs and not decorative plants. I was surprised that he stayed in such a humble abode when he could have stayed within the pack and in luxury.
A shiver ran down my spine as the Shaman opened the heavy wooden door.
“Alpha. Luna!” He bowed to us, his wrinkly face bursting in a smile.
Tarian followed us inside a room where the air was thick with incense and herbs burning in a brazier. Shelves lined the walls that were stacked with scrolls, dried herbs and objects I couldn’t name.
“Please sit,” he said, waving at a bench on the side. As we sat down, he kept his curious gaze on us. “I can feel that you are already changing, Alpha Lucien.”
Lucien tensed beside me. “What do you mean?”
The Shaman’s lips curled into a small, knowing smile. “I can see that those tattoos are fading. Can you show me the marks?”
Lucien removed his shirt without hesitation as if hoping for some miracle, revealing the dark thorned vines that curled over his arms, chest and shoulders. The Shaman’s sharp gaze flickered with surprise.
“Can you show me your mark, Luna Auren?” he said in a gentle voice.
I looked at Lucien who nodded. I turned slowly and opened the first few buttons of my shirt to reveal my back. Lucien gasped as he touched me over my birth tattoo. “What is it?” I asked, trembling slightly. He traced the spot where my golden moon tattoo was.
“It’s gone!” he rasped.
“G—gone?” I was totally confused. “You mean the tattoo is gone?”
“No, the thorny vines!”
The Shaman’s breath caught. “Impossible!”
“What?” I asked, my voice uncertain. “What’s impossible? And how can there be a change in my tattoo?”
Shaman came near to me. He brushed his fingers over the space where my mark was. “The thorny vines have completely disappeared, Alpha Lucien. And— and I believe that this mark is related to your curse.” He stepped back, his eyes widening. “This golden moon on your back—it looks exactly like the moon I saw over the altar. It looked like it was shackled by the vines. Goddess! This can be groundbreaking. This is amazing! Is Auren a curse-breaker of the Shadowfang pack?”
“Me?” It was such a ridiculous thought. “That curse is ancient. Unyielding. How can I be the one?” Not possible. I was an omega.
Silence shrouded the room as everyone looked at me with wonder, as I felt like this was bigger than any of us.
Lucien’s hands tightened into fists, his anxiety palpable through our bond. “Does this mean the curse is breaking? Does this mean that Auren is the one who the Alphas of the Shadowfang were waiting for?”
The Shaman didn’t answer right away. Instead, he moved closer to Lucien. His fingers hovered over the fading dark vines on his torso. There was a wolf tattoo on the right of his chest with a small moon over it. It was all black when I noticed it earlier. But now it was mimicking the one I carried on my back. It had a soft golden glow. Excitement surged through my body as I stared at it. Before I could speak, the Shaman spoke.
“Yours, too, is fading. But the vines haven't faded completely.” He traced a single thorn curling over Lucien’s shoulder. “Some of it remains. It clings to you.”
“So what does it mean?” Tarian asked, equally bewildered. “Is it not over? Or is it over?”