Page 132 of Cursed Bonds: An Alpha's Destiny

Kirsten cupped the boy’s cheek. “Calm down. Take a breath.”

I could sense and even smell the magic wafting off her, oozing across the child’s face. The boy stopped struggling, his eyes blinking as the panic faded. A few moments later, he finally managed to fully shift into his human form and sagged into Tank’s arms.

“Can you tell me your name?” Kirsten asked.

The boy’s pale face was covered in a sheen of sweat, and he swallowed hard. “Morgan. My name’s Morgan.” His face crumpled, and his lower lip quivered. “Please help me. I’m never gonna see my brother again. Please.”

Kirsten ran a hand over his face, brushing his hair away from his face. “Who is your brother? Where is he, and why won’t you see him again?”

“It’s Mister Eren. He took us. Locked us away, and… and…” More tears pooled in his eyes and slipped down his cheeks. “He hurts us,” Morgan whispered, obviously terrified. “He hurts us bad. Locks us up in cages, forces us to shift. I watched it happen with Alex and some other boys first. He hurt them, and once they shifted, he trained them all. Like dogs.”

He devolved into sobs. Tank, looking out of his depth, rocked the boy back and forth.

“That motherfucker!” Noah cursed, pacing back and forth. “I can’t believe this shit.”

“Children?” Dustin asked, gaping at the others. “Eren is torturing kids?”

“Everyone, shut up,” Kirsten commanded. Turning back to Morgan, she asked, “Who is Alex? Is that your brother?”

Morgan nodded. “Yeah. He was one of the first ones they changed. Alex was the first one Mister Eren fully trained after going feral, him and another boy. I never heard his name, though. They left the other day to do something important for Mister Eren. Alex came back, but the other one didn’t. He—” Morgan’s eyes grew dark, and the terror I saw in them made me want to go tear Eren’s throat out. “He was punished. Bad. I… I don’t know how he survived. I think Mister Eren tried to kill him because they didn’t do what he wanted them to. He’s still there, though. Alex is still there.”

I spun and looked at the group. Behind the disgust and rage in their eyes, something new appeared. Horror. It dawned slowly on them all. A child was dead. All because of Eren.

An overwhelming need to vomit came over me. We hadn’t exactly been tender with the body, had assumed he was some asshole sent by Eren to hurt or take Kirsten. The wolf had looked young, sure, but I’d thought he was in his early years, maybe twenty or twenty-five years old. Never in a million years had I thought it was a child. I think I even kicked the body after dumping it in the woods.

Shame washed across me as the realization sank in that it had only been a boy. A child Eren had tortured and twisted. My eyes burned with tears.

“Alex survived, but a bunch of others didn’t,” Morgan said, his own tears gleaming on his face.

“Other kids didn’t make it?” Kirsten asked as gently as she could.

“Yeah, there were others. Boys who didn’t survive the training. That’s what he calls it. Training.”

Shayna knelt down on one knee, looking like she might pass out. “Oh my god.”

“I ran,” Morgan said. “I ran away this morning. One of his guys left my cage open, and I ran.”

“A cage?” Kirsten asked. Her calm and cool demeanor had been fading with every word the boy spoke, but now the final vestiges tore away. “He kept you locked in cages? He tortured and killed children? Babies?”

A sudden wave of magic radiated from her, making me gasp. The others behind me all cursed and called out in surprise, feeling the same surge of power. Kirsten was pissed, more so than I’d ever seen. It was a rage so all-consuming that I thought she might literally burst into magical flame. The magic washing across me and the other shifters popped and cracked like static electricity.

“Calm, Kirsten,” Tinsley warned. “Remain calm.”

Kirsten’s face twisted in anger, and tears shone in her eyes as she turned to look at her friend. “Are you hearing this? How can I stay calm?”

“You must,” Tinsley said. “To master your powers, you must also master your emotions. Remember that. The boy can sense it. Look.”

She was right. Morgan was writhing under her pulse of magic. Tank winced but kept rocking the boy gently.

Kirsten took a deep, steadying breath. A moment later, the magic faded.

“I’m sorry about that, Morgan. It’ll stop. Can you tell me more? What about your parents? Where are they?”

“Gone,” he said with a hitch in his chest. “They died. My big brother was taking care of me, but he was only seventeen. He was working as a painter. He painted houses. He worked for a guy who knew Eren. A big guy with a weird name. Poli, I think?”

A trembling hiss of breath escaped my chest. It kept circling back to Eren. Harley and Tinsley stepped forward.

“Come on, Tank,” Harley said. She looked shaken, but I had to give her props for not freaking out. She was human, after all. “Let’s get Morgan inside. He needs a real bed.” She smiled at the boy. “Morgan, do you like ice cream? We have loads. Would you like some?”

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