The Alpha's Cursed Mate

Chapter 16

I wait outside Tabitha's apartment doors, leaning against the cool brick wall, staring at his squeezed letter. All it says is: I will come to get you. Just tug on the bond. The message is concise, yet I read it again and again.

That must be a joke; just tug on the bond. A small laugh flees my throat even though my eyes are brimming with tears. Sometimes it feels like a rope—something to tug—but to use it as a line of communication sounds as fanciful as Tabitha's magick.

I pet the parchment with my fingertip.

"Brea! I know you're there. Just come inside so we can discuss this!" Tabitha yells, her voice loud yet invaded by desperation. I close the letter and conceal it in my bust to not lose track of it.

I have a light-headed meander to the doors, and then I turn a handle and open one. Her apartment reeks of sage, and the cleansing smoke spreads past me into the corridor. My nose twists up, and my hand wipes to relieve my sinuses, but I endure despite my disorientation. Her chambers are a shadowed haze; the curtains are drawn and western incenses smolder. My blood is splattered from the bottle on the floor—something I gifted her after she mentioned its versatility. She was in the middle of drawing a circle, then. And my blood is the key ingredient.

"Brea," Tabitha says, locked in Carden's iron grasp by her elbow. "What are you doing, youngling? What's the cause of all this? Has something happened? You know we can't trust anyone except each other."

My face sours and another blink sends my tears on their way.

"Oh, Brea. What have you gotten yourself into?"

I lift my chin. "What did the stones say?"

"The stones?"

"The stones, Tabitha. What did they say? Did they warn you of the weather, my death, or of this?"

She yanks on Carden. "I don't know what this is!"

"Did you kill my father and brother?" I ask, stone-faced.

She starts to crumble, first caving at her hips. "Who told you I did that? That's—that's not true. Obviously that's not true!"

"You can tell me the truth, or you can burn."

Tabitha sputters, notes my tenacity then reels up and fixates her gaze. Her nostrils flare but her mouth is straight—neither smiling nervously nor frowning in fear. "Okay," she agrees. "I-I will. Not because I want to save myself, but because I love you, Brea, truly."

I turn away, so she revolts. "Don't pretend as though the past sixteen months haven't happened. Our time together was real—I see you as nothing less than a sister, and I always will."

"So tell me the truth," I nearly beg.

Tabitha breathes and nods and nods again with her eyes closed because she's consulting with the voices. I've never seen her exposed like this, and her toiling makes her more of a stranger than ever. "I came to your territory in search of Mary—your tailor. Mary was born into a family with very old ties to the God, and because of that, she knew methods that are now rarely heard of. Years ago, Mary helped me make my own blood promise with the God."

"You had my curse?"

"Yes. I did, and I came here to make Mary undo it. I-I know how maddening it can be to be tied to the God as you are; I was for five years."

"But you aren't any longer—how did you break it? Y-you said you didn't know how!"

"For you, I don't know," she persists. "I never lied about that."

"Why is it different? Why can't I break it?"

"Let me explain," she says and stands so Carden stops yanking her back into place. "When I found Mary, she told me that the only way for me to void my deal is to offer the God a more powerful female in my place, but as a witch of my years, I couldn't think of any woman. So Mary and I devised a plan to create a more powerful woman; she told me about you—the daughter of the Alpha—and how a girl of Alpha blood can become Alpha if there are no other heirs."