Page 24 of Cursed Wolf

“What’d you find?”

“Not a sign of life. Unless she’s in there sleeping, we don’t know until we go inside.”

“Then we’re doing this,” Narah says, getting up with Jae’s help.

“Okay, we move in and keep Narah and Jae between us at all times.”

There’s no hesitation. We’re all ready to deal with this.

Narah

One day, I’ll wake up and not face life or death scenarios. Today has to be the strangest day of my life, and I just want it to be over. Dealing with witches comes with dangers, but ending up pregnant takes it to a completely different level of insanity.

I’m nineteen, and I hadn’t expected to have a baby until I was at least in my middle to late twenties, and that was if I found an Alpha to protect us. Sure, I have four of them, but we’re in the middle of chaos and nowhere close to being able to have a child. We don’t even have our own home where we could care for a newborn.

Going back to the Bane Wolves pack is a possibility, but I haven’t even spoken to Ragnar about the outcome when the Alpha found out his daughter had been slaughtered.

So what do we do? Live in my mother’s home? I grimace at the thought that she killed people in this house, and I don’t have it in me to stay here.

“Are you okay?” Jae asks, sidling next to me as we wait for Nikos to break in the front door.

“I’m okay, considering.” I give her a lopsided grin. “What about you? I haven’t even had a chance to talk to you and tell you everything.”

“Stone pretty much told me everything.” She shrugs and looks at Stone, who’s at my back, grinning and listening to our quiet chat.

“I know, but you’re my younger sister, and I should be looking after you.” I take her hand in mine, slightly squeezing it. “I shouldn’t put you in danger.”

“Is there such a thing as somewhere with no danger?” she asks, sounding so much more mature than she should.

“I promise you, sweetheart, we’ll find a place to call home soon.”

She hugs me, and I hold her against me, wishing I could hold her safe forever, and that scares me. Look at the horrible job I’m doing with my sisters. What will I be like with a baby? An ache settles in my shoulders, thinking I will be a bad mother. What do I know about raising a child, anyway?

“We’re in,” Nikos whispers over his shoulder, drawing my attention. Slowly opening the door, he and Ragnar move in first, and we’re right on their heels.

I shake off my thoughts, knowing this isn’t the time to worry. I have enough troubles on my plate.

Inside, the house is so dark, I can barely see my hands, let alone anything else. In moments, a flame flickers to life from the candle in Nikos’ hand.

“Where’d you find that?” I whisper.

“I remember seeing it on a shelf in this room last time I was here, and I always carry matches.” He hands a candle to Ragnar and another to Stone, and I assume that’s all there is.

We leave behind the hallway and enter the main room with a massive fireplace on the left, illuminated by Nikos. He’s moving quickly through the room with the other two, searching to see if we’re alone. Crius remains at our back, with his hand on my waist. His touch is so warm, and it’s comforting to know he’s there for us.

The more rooms we search, the more it becomes apparent we might be alone after all.

My pulse is racing regardless as I hold Jae near my side. She doesn’t say a word, but she knows this is where our mother lived without us. In a place so run down, there are holes in the wall, part of the ceiling has fallen away, and the kitchen is a gutted mess with things thrown everywhere. The place is destroyed, and I don’t know how it got like that, but it’s startling to see it.

Mother’s obsession with bringing our father back to life—without being a zombie—has cost her dearly and us so much. The sting of seeing him alive, knowing so many lives died for him, still tears me up. I loved seeing him but knew it wasn’t right.

My throat thickens with emotions, but I can’t fall apart, especially not in front of Jae. Holding her hand, I draw her even closer to my side.

“You okay?” I whisper.

“Yeah, for sure. This place is a mess.”

Our steps head down the long hallway when I notice a faint flicker of light under the door to my right. Panic twists and turns inside me like pincers. I tell Jae to catch up with the others at the end of the hall. Grabbing Stone’s hand, I point to the light skimming the base of the door.

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