Chapter 14: ¹⁴: the cursed ones

He had a girl hanging onto his arm, probably his girlfriend smiling up at him as if he were some kind of god. The strange thing was that he wasn’t paying her the slightest bit of attention.

If that was not enough weird, more weird

He was staring at me. Like I had just kicked his puppy.

Brother... I don’t even know you.

Soon they walked past us. The girl beside him shot me a sharp glare, making me roll my eyes.

"Oh my God!" Rose whispered excitedly beside me. "Did Louis Dreven just check you out?!"

"Why would he check me out?" I asked, genuinely confused about where she had gotten that idea.

Rose looked at me as if the answer were obvious.

"I mean, come on! Look at yourself!" she exclaimed. "You’re gorgeous! And you’re ridiculously smart on top of that. Who wouldn’t check you out?"

I shot her an unimpressed look.

"I don’t want to talk about these things," I replied. "And I’m not interested in Louis Dreven."

Rose gasped dramatically as though I had just committed a crime.

"What? Why?" Her eyes widened in disbelief while she continued rumbling her nonsense..

"How can someone not be interested in Louis Dreven? I don’t think you can find anyone better than him in the whole Empire except Alpha Kael, of course, but he is obviously out of our reach."

I sighed before pointing at her mouth.

"Do you happen to know where the button is to turn off this chatterbox?" Instantly, she looked at me with watery puppy eyes.

For a moment, I almost felt guilty. Even though I did not want to talk anymore about my preferences to a girl I just met I decided to at least listen to her not wanting to hurt her.

This girl looked like she’d never experienced anything bad in her entire life.

"Fine," I said with a polite smile. "Go on."

Her face lit up immediately.

"So where was I? Yeah..." she began enthusiastically, "why exactly aren’t you interested in Louis Dreven?"

I sighed, realising that this was the only topic she would want to talk about.

"I’m simply not interested in him. It’s that simple." I shrugged. "Besides, doesn’t he already have a girlfriend? Do I look like someone who chases after men who are already taken?" I asked as a matter of fact but instead of calming down, Rose became even more excited.

"Oh my goodness!" she whispered animatedly. "If that’s the only reason that is stopping you, then let me tell you. Maria isn’t his mate."

I raised an eyebrow. "She isn’t?"

Rose shook her head vigorously.

"Not even his girlfriend! She’s the only one who goes around claiming they have something." She rolled her eyes at the last part which made me laugh a little. This girl really was a walking gossip column.

"Then how do you know she isn’t his mate?" I found myself asking, I didn’t know when Miss Rose the chatterbox had made me so interested in this gossip. "He’s nineteen already. Wouldn’t he have found his mate by now if she existed or at least started looking for her if Maria wasn’t the one?"

Rose suddenly leaned closer, lowering her voice as if she were about to reveal the greatest secret in the empire.

"I know because Louis Dreven is Alpha Kael’s younger brother."

I nodded. "So?"

"It means..." she whispered dramatically, "...that neither of them can ever recognise their destined mate because of the curse their mother, our mother Luna had."

The smile Rose had managed to get on my face disappeared.

My heart skipped a beat.

"...What? They’re both cursed." For a moment, I forgot how to breathe.

"Do...do you mean..." My voice came out barely above a whisper. "The curse that prevents someone from ever recognising their true mate?"

Rose nodded. "Yeah." She looked surprised by my reaction. "Didn’t you know about this? I had thought all the packs in our Empire knew, if you don’t know then maybe only our starlight pack knows."

I lowered my gaze, trying to hide the storm rising inside me.

"The whole pack knows about their curse?" I asked quietly still not able to believe that I was hearing something like this. "Why wasn’t it kept a secret? Aren’t curses usually looked down upon?"

Rose quickly shook her head.

"No it is not something to frown upon, why would it be? In fact, it is a thing to be proud of, it is seen as a symbol of resistance against evil."

She looked around the class before continuing.

"Our Luna came from an ancient royal pack. Nobody remembers its name anymore."

"But according to the legends, it was once the most powerful werewolf pack in existence, so powerful that they became the target of everyone’s scrutiny and if that was not enough then..."

I found myself listening carefully.

"There was a prophecy," Rose continued. "It said that one day two destined mates from that bloodline would unite and would become the cause that the whole warewolf world would have to bow to."

"That was the last thread when the other packs heard about it they were terrified."

"So they joined forces with powerful witches and placed a curse on the entire bloodline."

"A curse that prevented every descendant from recognising their true mate.

"The pack slowly fell apart generation after generation until it disappeared from history."

She sighed softly.

"Our Luna was one of the last descendants of that bloodline. That’s why Alpha Kael and Louis inherited the curse."

"So even though it’s technically a curse...people in Starlight Pack see it as something sacred."

"They carry the blood of an ancient royal lineage."

Rose finished her story and I couldn’t help but blink my eyes, my mind trying to comprehend what I had just heard.

Just then the professor walked inside and introduced himself before beginning the first lecture.

Around me, students hurriedly opened their notebooks.

But I couldn’t focus on a single word. My thoughts were elsewhere.

For years...

I had asked Father why I couldn’t recognise my destined mate. Why I was different. Why I alone carried such a cruel curse.

Today...

For the first time in my life...

I finally had an answer. There was a reason behind it. And...

I wasn’t the only one cursed.