Page 100 of Red's Beast

I turn slowly, looking over my shoulder first to confirm who it is. My stomach rolls as I realize it's the same woman who was there when Corbin humiliated me.

"Asella, if you must know, he probably slept in the barn before disappearing and no one noticed. He’s long gone now. There is no way he’d want to stay in the territory when I’m alpha.”

She looks at the goat, eyeing it closely as she inhales the air again. "Odd. He must have snuggled it for it to smell that much like him. Just being around the animals won't make his scent that thick."

"Do you see Corbin?" Grandmother asks, her voice becoming rough. "No, so obviously he hugged this goat or something. He's a weird one and you all know it. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have business."

When Asella's gaze meets mine, she doesn't avert her eyes away like most do.A direct challenge.

"You've already submitted earlier when I claimed the pack. It would be best if you avert your gaze before something terrible happens to you," I say with a growl, my eyes changing into their red hues. “I’m not feeling kind after all the abuse I have endured.”

Her lips tremble slightly before she recovers. She quickly looks to the ground. "I'm sorry, Alpha. I am just curious, and the goat smells so much like him. Maybe one day you will understandthat we only acted on Nigel and his family’s orders. Have a good day."

She walks off, her head hanging low as she goes.

Grandmother reaches over, patting me on the shoulder. "You'll be a fine alpha. You allowed her to mess up, but didn't attack right that instant. Still firm, but you have to be to keep these goofballs in line. They were following orders, even though it was wrong.”

"I think I'm getting the hang of it," I say with a smile as I look at her. Her eyes seem to shine brightly as she looks over at me. “But it’s hard to be nice when I suffer because of them. Nigel may have directed, but they didn’t stop to think about how I’d feel after.”

"Let's go before anyone else dares to ask. We can talk more about everything in a few minutes when we reach the cottage.”

We rush toward the path, almost speed walking, and finally are home free when we reach the edge of the woods. She slows with her cane and breathes a sigh of relief. Corbin trots beside us, silent for once.

Once we reach the house, Grandmother opens the door to let us inside, and I pull Corbin in when he stops and refuses to move.

Grandmother closes the door softly and sighs as she takes us in. "Now that we are here, we need to go through the books and see if there is a way to reverse this. Something tells me we're goingto need him to find the beast. But he can’t like this. I don’t know if any of the books that spoke of spells are here. I’ve never seen them."

I gaze down at him, and he instantly looks up at me as if sensing something.

"I know you want out of that goat form. So, please don't eat the books. If you do, then we have no way of getting your human form back. Understand?"

He snorts as he looks at the floor and sits down on his rear end. It looks awkward, but he seems comfortable. I take that stance as he agrees to be a good little goat while we figure out how to get his human form to take over.

"Now that it's settled, let's dig into the books and see if our family left us any more information.”

I reach over and pick up one of the books from the stack on the table and sit down in the wooden chair without bothering to even take off my cloak. The hardness of the chair will help to keep me awake instead of the softness of the couch. Right now, I just need to focus on the books.

I stare at the pages, flipping them, and rereading them several times, but no information on how to break the spell can be found. It talks about the history of the packs and how they were eventually divided into six packs.

“Six packs?”

Grandmother glances up, then nods. “Remember, we said we’d talk about it at another time.”

I nod as I look down at the book again. “Six packs. All of them originated from Blue Moon to the north of us.”

Some of the wording is confusing, leaving me scratching my head.

“Not exactly, my dear. Blue Moon was a coven of witches who occasionally interacted with a wolf pack between us and them called the Night Walkers. Eventually, they spread to Dark Moon. They were the original ones, but there was an issue. Then the three to the south formed later.”

“An issue?”

She nods again. “Two witches escaped. They were sisters according to the stories, and this happened roughly eight hundred years ago. Both were headed south, but ended up getting caught. Well, one sister went to the Night Walkers, while the other made it to Dark Moon, and that is where they stayed until they were adults and there were talks of the packs having an alliance. Apparently, the sister in the Night Walker territory fell in love with the alpha’s son named Liam, I believe. But he was destined to mate with the alpha’s daughter of Dark moon.”

“Why does this sound familiar? It’s like she wanted him, but he didn’t want her.”

She only laughs and looks down at her book as she settles in. “From what I read, he wanted her, but a fated mate bond formed with the girl in Dark Moon. The witch was beside herself and tried to curse them. Her sister, even though she was younger and supposedly had less power, cast a spell to stop her own sibling’s madness.”

“That sounds insane.”

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