Page 147 of The Alpha King's Curse: Part Two

He walked out of the kitchen and followed. Layla was already out of the house when he saw Dylan coming down the stairs.

“How is that possible, Jax?” he asked. “Diedre was...”

He couldn’t tell him. Dylan had already wasted months looking for a way to break the curse. If he told him about Layla, he would become like Diedre—full of useless hope.

“Can you look after Hope?”

Dylan looked away.

“I’ll call Faith—”

“Please. You haven’t held my child since she was born, and you know you’re going to have to look after her. I’m trusting you with both my girls,” he whispered, his voice breaking. “I have to tell Layla the truth. I can’t...”

Dylan had to be willing to take responsibility, or everything would have been for nothing. Layla was going to be inconsolable for a long time after he died. Dylan would have to step up.

His Beta sniffed and then turned to walk back up the stairs. When Dylan was out of sight, he walked out of the house to follow Layla. She was already walking up one of the trails in the woods. He looked up at the full moon and hoped the Goddess would give him strength for the hardest conversation he would ever have. And then he followed slowly as he tried to get his head right.

Layla was already sitting at his lookout rock when he got to her. The moon cast eerie shadows around them, but she doubted that Layla had even noticed.

“Tell me,” Layla said the second he sat down.

“I don’t know where to start,” he admitted.

“The beginning.”

He looked at his mate and saw her eyes glowing and her fists clenched. It looked like she was trying to hold everything in but failing.

“Five years ago, on the day I killed my father to become the king, I slaughtered a whole village.”

This wasn’t the time to hide who he was. He had done many things that had shocked Layla since he got here, but that had been nothing compared to the things he had done as his father’s monster. Layla had fallen in love with the watered-down version of him. Her wolf hadn’t had a choice, but her human side... It had fallen in love with a lie.

“They’d been taking human children and hexing them, turning them into whatever they needed them to be. I slaughtered them all, even the children,” he said, looking out at the forest.

Layla didn’t react to that.

“It was a full moon. A blood moon that made their witch stronger. A spell cast on a night like that is difficult to break. A spell cast on a night like that on a witch’s last breath... Well, it’s been five years, and the strongest witch in all my territories hasn’t been able to break it.”

Layla sucked in a breath and covered her mouth as if to stop herself from making any sounds. Her pain multiplied, and he had to close his eyes against it.

“For five years, you will weep blood before the fiery pits of hell take your soul. On the eve of your next birthday, the blood moon will rise, and the souls you’ve taken will claim their vengeance.”

It was funny how he could recall every single word she had said. He could remember her voice and the gurgling as she slowly drowned in her blood. He could remember the blood streaked through her blonde locks and the light dimming from her blue eyes.

She had given every last part of herself to that curse.

“I thought it was bullshit at first. The witch was dead, so all her spells and curses died with her. But when I told Diedre, she collapsed, and she’s been stuck in that hell ever since,” he continued.

Layla was trembling now. He clenched his fists as if that would stop the pain. His insides ripped and knitted back together, only to rip again.

“I did a lot of bad things after that. I was angry. I’d just freed myself from my father only to fall into something worse. If I didn’t deserve the curse before that day, I deserved it after,” he admitted. “But I started to think of the pack. We have lived in this forest and enjoyed our peace only because of my bloodline. The Circle had been pressuring me to have a child in case anything happened to me, so in the end, I thought it was the least I could do for my pack.”

He inched closer to Layla and put his hand on her knee, not just to soothe her but himself. The good days were behind them now. He could no longer live like he had a long life ahead of him.

“That’s where the tears of blood part of the curse started. Everything I want, I can’t have. Any other wolf can pick anyone and have children. I tried many times until I realised that only a true mate could carry my child. And then I met you.”

He looked at her face. She was still looking ahead and barely holding herself together.

“My mate. The other half of my soul,” he whispered. “The one fated to me, made for me, given to me by the Goddess. The only one who will ever know me inside and out.”

---