Thirty Nights with the Alpha King

Chapter 11: The Curse of the Werewolf

Everything hurts. I’m completely surrounded by darkness, but I feel as though I’ve been hit by a freight train as my body lies against a hard surface. My limbs all ache, and I feel the world spinning around me.

Slowly, I blink my eyes open, but everything around me is blurry. I give myself a moment to adjust to the scene around me, and I begin to see the starry, velvet night sky up above. I see the full moon hanging high in the sky, but it’s glowing a deep shade of blood red, with red clouds floating around it.

That’s weird.

Suddenly, all of my memories come flooding back to me, and I sit up quickly. I feel dizzy at the abrupt movement, and my hand flies to the ground to steady myself. The feeling of my fingertips brushing against stone makes me look down, and I realize I’m lying on cobblestone.

I look around and see a dark, empty square with a large, stone fountain in the middle. There are buildings that surround me on all sides, and it appears as if I’ve fallen into a quaint, medieval village in a remote part of Europe.

Where the hell am I?

I spot the limp form of Nick lying near me, and I crawl over to him. My heart races at the memory of the demons dragging him into the portal, and I glance around us frantically to find the threat.

I see them both lying motionless across the square, each with large holes blown out of their chests, surrounded by a large pool of blood. I was always a pretty good shot, and I’m thankful that I didn’t get rusty after all these years.

I hear a groan beside me, and I turn my attention back to Nick. I see three deep gashes across his neck and down his back, and his blood is smeared across his skin. With a chill, I realize that’s where the demon clawed at the skinwalker during their battle.

His deep, brown eyes flutter open, and he stills when his gaze locks onto mine.

“Thank God,” I whisper, brushing my fingers across his forehead.

“Addy?” he says hoarsely, stirring once again. He struggles to sit up, so I help him, placing my hands carefully so as not to touch his wounds.

He looks around at the square, blinking in confusion. His head turns up toward the sky, and when his eyes land on the moon, his body stiffens beneath my touch.

“No,” he mutters, shaking his head. “No, no, no, this can’t be real…”

“Nick, what’s going on?” I ask in a low voice.

“We’re not supposed to be here!” he hisses, trying to scramble to his feet. He sucks in a sharp breath of pain as he does, and I make my way to stand as well to help him.

“Where are we?” I ask, completely bewildered.

“In the Demon Realm,” he says darkly. “Come, we have to hide.”

He grabs my hand and leads me across the square, following the perimeter to stay in the shadows of the buildings.

“What about those two?” I whisper, nodding my head toward the two dead demons.

“Leave them,” he says. “It’s nothing out of the ordinary in this place.”

I stiffen at the harshness of his words as he pulls me behind him through the shadows. He leads me down a dark, narrow street, darting behind wooden crates and empty market stalls as he keeps a watchful eye out.

Finally, we come across a barn door, which he rolls open as quietly as possible and leads me inside. I hear horses huffing in agitation nearby, and I stand still as Nick closes the door behind us and shuffles around in the dark. After a few moments, I see a small gas lamp come to life as Nick takes it in his hand.

He begins to walk toward me, and I realize with a blush that he’s still completely naked. He holds the lamp near his waist, blocking my view of his private areas.

Another horse snorts angrily, and I turn around to calm its nerves with a gentle pat of its snout. However, I freeze at the sight of the horse’s shiny, black coat, darker than night, and a pair of glowing, red eyes staring back at me.

“Holy s**t!” I scream, falling down on my backside.

“Shhh!” Nick whispers to me, rushing forward to help me back to my feet.

“Is that a f*****g pegasus?” I hiss, my eyes unable to look away from the large, black wings that unfurl in distress.

“Yeah, I think so,” he says, stepping forward to pet its muzzle.

“What is this place?” I ask, unable to move from my spot. “And what the hell are you?”

“Let’s start with why you were on the ridge,” he says darkly, turning back around to face me as the pegasus calms down. “I specifically made you promise not to go up there at night all by yourself!”

“I-I saw the lights,” I stammer, looking at the hay-strewn ground beneath me. But I gather my resolve quickly and turn my head back up to face him.

“You would have been hurt if I hadn’t warned you!” I argue. “It’s lucky I was there to kill those demons – oh, s**t!”

“What?” Nick asks, stiffening.

“My Grandpa’s gun – I didn’t see it when we woke up.”

“Damn it,” he curses, running his hand through his hair. “Unfortunately, we can’t worry about that right now. We have to figure out a way to get back.”

“How?” I ask. “I don’t even really understand how we got here in the first place!”

“You better sit down,” Nick says, crossing over to a cupboard and rummaging through the shelves. “I have a lot to fill you in on. Here.”

He turns and tosses me a saddle blanket, then turns his back toward me again as he continues to search through the supplies. Even though I’m completely tired and frightened, I can’t help but admire the lines of muscle on his strong shoulders and back, and I follow the curvature of his spine down toward his firm buttocks. Much to my dismay, he finds a pair of equestrian pants and a loose-fitting cotton shirt, which he shrugs on quickly. He looks like a medieval poet in that outfit, and if it weren’t for our circumstances, I would probably laugh out loud at the sight of him.

Turning back to face me, he approaches me quietly and leads me into one of the empty stalls on the end of the row. It’s cleared of excrement, thankfully, and there is a bit of straw that Nick begins to rake into a pile in the corner.

“Sit,” he says curtly, pointing at it. He lays the blanket out on the straw before I sit down, and he takes a seat beside me.

I look at him questioningly, waiting for him to continue.

“Where do I even begin?” he mutters, running both his hands through his hair with a long sigh.

“Let’s start with the fact that you’re a skinwalker,” I suggest ironically, crossing my arms across my chest.

“Well, we’re not so much skinwalkers anymore as we are werewolves,” he shrugs.

“Werewolves?” I repeat incredulously. “Wait, what do you mean, we?”

“My siblings and I, we’re all werewolves,” he explains.

“So, who was fighting with you in that battle?” I ask suddenly. “Those weren’t your –”

“Yeah, that was Matt and Aiyana,” he says sadly. “They were still in their wolf form when they were knocked to the ground, so I know that they weren’t too seriously injured, thankfully. However, I got knocked completely unconscious, so that’s why I reverted back into my human form.”

“What the actual f**k, Nick?” I breathe, trying to wrap my head around everything. I’m cussing like a sailor, but now is not the time for social niceties.

“Let me start from the beginning,” Nick says, taking one of my hands in his. “My family is directly descended from the Ute tribe, but we haven’t been a part of it for centuries. Long ago, the Ute cast my ancestors from the tribe as punishment for being skinwalkers. When they did, they ripped the evil part of their souls from their bodies and cast them into the Demon Realm. What was left was the good half of their soul, but they cast the Curse of the Werewolf on their bodies as punishment for the havoc the skinwalkers caused. They also cursed them to guard the portal to the Demon Realm, chaining them to the land around the portal to ensure they fulfilled their duty to protect.”

This all seems so unbelievable, and yet it actually does explain quite a bit of our current predicament.

“And that curse,” I start to say slowly as the wheels of my mind churn on overdrive, “that curse was passed down through the generations?”

“Yes,” Nick nods. “I cannot physically leave the ranch, and in order to protect the area, my family and I can turn into werewolves to prevent the demons from entering our world.”

“Are the demons the ones that were causing all the cattle mutilations and crop circles?” I ask.

“Yes,” he answers. “Depending on what kind of demon or creature it is, they either suck the blood of the cattle, or they devour it completely and leave behind just skin and bone. The crop circles are the evil witches that occasionally cross over.”

“Why is this all happening on my grandparents’ ranch, though?” I probe further.

“There are multiple ley lines, or supernatural energy paths, that cross the entire planet Earth, but they come to an intersection on the mesa of the ranch. The lines actually form a pentagram, and at the center is the portal.”

“Holy s**t…” I mutter, completely flabbergasted. I move to lie down on the blanket, which feels scratchy on my back. My head is spinning right now.  “Have you been here before?”

“No, I’ve never been through the portal. However, we do know that the portal is usually the strongest and the most dangerous during the full moon, so we’re usually on high alert. We can go for years without seeing anything cross through the portal, but for some reason, this summer has been particularly active.”

“Nick, is that how your parents died?” I ask suddenly, looking up at him. “Protecting the ranch?”

“Yeah,” he nods as a dark expression crosses his face. “My father was technically the alpha of our small pack, but that role was passed on to me when he and my mother were murdered by demons.”

I reach up to lightly touch his back, gliding my fingers across the linen of his shirt.

“I’m so sorry,” I murmur, sitting up to embrace him from behind. I wrap my arms around his torso and lay my head on his shoulder.

We sit there in silence for a moment as we ponder the gravity of our situation. Tears prick my vision, and I try to stifle a sob. I have to be strong right now, for Nick, and for myself, if we are going to have any hope of getting out of this place.

The tears spill over silently, falling onto his sleeve. He looks down at me and instantly turns to embrace me. He moves to lie down on the blanket, holding me closely against his chest.

“I promised I’d do everything to protect you,” he whispers against my hair. “We will find a way back home, okay? We’ll hide out here and see if the portal reopens tomorrow night, okay?”

Wordlessly, I sniff loudly and nod my head against his chest.

“I can’t believe you dove in through the portal after me,” he says with a small chuckle. “Shooting your gun at the enemy like a badass.”

His remark elicits a small snort of amusement from me, but I tilt my chin up to meet his gaze, our noses practically touching.

“I’d do anything for you,” I say. I remember watching him being dragged away by the demons, and how in that moment I realized something I wanted to tell him.

“I love you, Nick,” I whisper, fresh tears welling in my eyes. “And it took me almost losing you to realize it.”

He stares back at me, his eyes wide, as my words sink in through the heavy silence.

“I love you too, Addy,” he whispers back, placing a gentle kiss on my forehead. “I always have.”

Hearing those words stirs up a deep, passionate response from my body. I’ve never heard a guy say those words to me before, because I never let the relationship get that far. I always broke things off if things got too intense, even if I was desperate for their love.

But I’m not afraid of Nick’s feelings. I know they won’t wane, and I know he would never hurt me. He makes me feel safe and secure, both physically and emotionally, and I’m desperate to be as close to him as possible.

I reach my hand up to stroke his face, feeling a rough stubble along his strong jawline. Pressing my breasts into his chest, I move even closer to him, allowing me to place my lips onto his.

His body responds to my touch, and our kiss instantly deepens as all of our emotions begin to pour out – desperation, fear, passion, loss – it’s been an emotional rollercoaster of a day. Instinctively, my hips begin to roll against him, and I feel him hardening in his tight, equestrian pants. My hands roam over his shirt, finding the opening to explore his bare, muscular chest.

His hands begin to move down toward my backside, squeezing me and eliciting a moan of pleasure against his mouth.

“I want you,” I whisper, breaking away from the kiss. “If anything happens to us here, I don’t want any regrets that I didn’t show you how much I love you.”