Page 10 of Pack Nightmare

Mr. Carson sighs and takes another sip of his tea. Mine has gone cold in my cup; I’ve been too locked up in his story to think of the saucer on my lap.

“Now, we get into the more recent history. As Roxanne surely explained, the witches and seers became an even larger part of our pack dynamics. The alpha was required to take on as many mates as she could handle, in order to give every bloodline in the pack equal honor and responsibility of being alpha. There were four that felt their turns did not come as frequently, although out of eight original families, we were all quite intermingled at that point.

We had a family of witches who were also part of the pack. They came and went as they pleased, but always provided us a seer for the fated mates, and a witch whose sole responsibility was monitoring the pack’s magical sanctuary.

When the pack split and the half went off to form their own pack, the pack seer and the pack witch were a pair of sisters, twins. The witch apparently felt her duties were less than her sister’s, and resented that she didn’t have the same level of glory among the pack. I’m not sure why, to be honest, as the witch was such a vital role. However, she resented it, and resented her sister.

Conspiring with what became Pack Montrose, she cast a spell on all of us to split the pack and sever the connection with the Harridan alpha, giving them the chance to have a new sanctuary, a new alpha. No one truthfully knows if the curse was intentional or not; they assume it was. But we only know that the result is that the Harridan alpha can’t leave the sanctuary for over twenty-four hours at a time, and the entire pack can only shift between midnight and one.”

I can’t stop myself from interrupting. “But how did they figure that out? She had to have told someone. It seems pretty freaking specific.”

Mr. Carson regards me with sadness in his gaze. “The alpha at that time went to the new pack’s territory to try to reason with them. The split had torn her heart in half. She was suffering. Lilliana begged them to return, vowing to stay there until they agreed, and do whatever she had to in order to convince them to rejoin the pack. She died after twenty-four hours, and her younger sister became alpha at fifteen.”

My throat is dry and tight; I swallow painfully and take a sip of my lukewarm tea. “That’s one way to find out,” I reply weakly.

“Indeed,” he agrees. “That new alpha was your great grandmother. For tradition, she named her first daughter Lilliana, after her sister. She took on two more mates, and the cycle continued as if it had never been broken.”

“Did she ever try to talk to the Montrose Pack?”

“Never. After the death of her sister, she shunned them completely.”

“Has anyone tried to talk to them since?”

“No. The pack has a long memory, and the Montrose Pack watched your great aunt die, doing nothing to warn or save her.”

“But, you just said they never knew if the witch who cast the curse meant for that to happen. Maybe it surprised them, too.”

Mr. Carson’s expression turns stony. “If they hadn’t been greedy, and actually cared about what was best for the pack, none of it would have ever happened in the first place.”

“I understand,” I reply in my gentlest tone. “But it’s possible that they regretted it, or that new generations regret it now. Maybe it would be worth reaching out to them-”

“No. Absolutely not.” His reply is a harsh rebuke. “Your duty is to protect your pack, and those people decided long ago they no longer wanted that protection.”

“But I don’t want to be cursed for the rest of my life, either. What if there was a way to remove the curse, and people could shift again whenever they wanted? Wouldn’t that be better for the pack?”

“Perhaps. Or you could die and take the sanctuary magic with you, leaving us all to slowly fade into depression and death.” He stands abruptly, placing the delicate china cup and saucer back on the tray. “As the alpha, you can make the decisions you think are best for the pack; it is not my place to tell you either way. But as an old man speaking to a teenage girl who is new to this world, I would advise that you consider carefully the ramifications if you should fail.”

Chapter Six

Layla

“… so that’s the full story, I guess.” I finish with a shrug, and swipe a French fry through the dregs of ketchup on my plate before popping it into my mouth.

The guys finished their food a while ago and have just listened, slack-jawed, while I go over what Mr. Carson told me.

“Wow,” Milo finally says. “That’s… that’s a lot.”

“We knew about the curse, but not how they figured it out,” Jared agrees.

“Layla, how do you feel about it?” Landon’s voice is soft.

“Helpless,” I answer honestly. “I mean, this curse has been around that long and no one has tried to fix it? They’ve just nursed this grudge for over a century and continued on with this miserable existence.”

“Well, I mean, I know it’s not ideal, but it can’t be that miserable,” Milo says gently. “We’re all still here and together. Your family has made sure of that.”

“But my mom left to escape this place,” I remind him. “She didn’t want any part of this. She wanted out. She didn’t want to be cursed.”

“Well… I mean, I can understand a teenage girl being afraid of such an enormous responsibility. I’m sure it was a lot to face on her own.”

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