Freda Pov
I left my room the next morning because I could not stay locked up anymore. Urdon had told me to stay inside, but I did not care. I needed to move and breathe and feel like I was still alive.
I was walking past the kitchen when I heard voices inside. Low voices that sounded like they were trying not to be heard. I stopped because I thought I heard my name.
"The Luna is cursed," a female voice said. "Everyone in the pack can see it now. She is going to make the Alpha weak."
"My grandmother told me stories," another female voice said. "The last time we had a cursed Luna, the entire pack went through famine. Crops died in the fields, and animals disappeared from the forest. Half the pack starved that winter."
"She should step down," the first voice said. "A Luna who brings bad luck should not be allowed to lead. She will destroy us all if she stays."
My heart started beating fast and hard. I pushed open the kitchen door, and both omega wolves jumped. Their eyes went wide when they saw me, and they immediately bowed their heads.
"Luna Freda," the first one said. "We did not know you were out there."
"Clearly," I said, and my voice sounded cold even to my own ears. "You want to say that to my face instead of whispering behind my back."
"We apologize, Luna," the second one said quickly. "We spoke out of turn. We should not have said those things."
"Look at me," I said.
They both raised their heads slowly. I could see fear in their eyes, but I did not care. I was tired of people talking about me like I was poison.
"Tell me I am cursed," I said. "Look me in the eyes and tell me I am going to destroy this pack."
They glanced at each other, but neither of them spoke. The silence stretched out between us. Finally they both bowed their heads again and started walking toward the door to leave.
As they passed me, the first omega leaned close and whispered just loud enough for me to hear.
"The curse follows her eyes."
They left before I could respond. I stood alone in the empty kitchen with my hands shaking and my chest hurting again. The mate bond felt weaker than ever, like it was barely holding on.
I had to get out of the pack house. I could not stay here surrounded by people who thought I was destroying their home just by existing.
I ran outside and kept running until I reached the pack border. I did not have a plan. I just needed to be somewhere away from judgmental eyes and whispered accusations.
I stopped at the exact edge of our territory. I knew from old pack stories that this was where Yolande had been banished generations ago. The elders said her blood had soaked into the ground here and cursed this land forever.
The wind picked up suddenly. It blew hard against my face and whipped my hair around. I smelled smoke even though there was no fire anywhere nearby. Then I smelled something else. Old blood. Like something had died here recently and was rotting in the ground.
"What is that smell?" I said and looked around.
That was when I saw the wolf.
It was standing far away at the edge of the forest, watching me. It was too big to be a normal wolf. Twice the size it should be. Its fur was so dark it was almost black, and its eyes glowed yellow like lanterns.
I stared at it, and something about those eyes felt wrong. They did not look like animal eyes; they looked intelligent and angry and ancient.
"Yolande," I whispered.
The wolf's head tilted to the side like it heard me and understood. Then it smiled. Wolves were not supposed to smile, but this one did. It pulled its lips back and showed all its teeth in something that looked almost human.
Fear shot through me like lightning. The wolf took one step toward me, and that was all I needed. I turned and ran as fast as I could back toward the pack house.
My lungs burned, and my legs felt like they were going to give out, but I did not stop. I could hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears. I did not look back because I did not want to know if the wolf was chasing me.
I made it to the pack house and slammed the door behind me. I locked it and leaned against it, trying to catch my breath. My whole body was shaking, and I could not make it stop.
The rogue wolf scent was all over my clothes now. I could smell it on my skin and in my hair. If Urdon found me like this, he would demand to know where I had been and what I had been doing. He would smell the rogue wolf and think I had been meeting with enemies.
I could not face him right now. Not with that wolf's smile still burned into my mind. Not with the smell of old blood and smoke still in my nose.
I went to the guest rooms on the other side of the pack house. The ones that were far away from the Alpha wing, where Urdon would not think to look for me. I found an empty room and went inside and locked the door.
I sat on the bed and pulled my knees up to my chest. My arms still hurt from the claw marks I had made on myself. My chest hurt from the weakening mate bond. Everything hurt, and I did not know how to make it stop.
Yolande was real. She was not just a story or a legend or a superstition. She was out there in the forest watching and waiting, and somehow she knew I had been looking into the curse.