Page 8 of Cursed By Fate

He sat on the other side of a long oak table, brooding and silent, while I ate in quiet fury. I asked for a simple answer to a simple question, and it didn’t seem like he’d ever give it to me.

“Serena,” he said finally. I watched him clench his hands into fists and unclench them as he paused. “I know you feel trapped.” I opened my mouth to argue, but he held up a hand to silence me. “But it is for your own protection. The outside world is dangerous.”

“You say that about everything,” I said, sitting back and crossing my arms. “I’m just going to the ridge with Lila. It’s not the moon.”

“That’s what you say now,” he said, his voice low. “But you are marked.”

I wanted to scream. To grab him by the shoulders and shake some sense into him. “You act like I have a target painted on me. You don’t understand that there’s more to life than this.” I gestured to the empty room around us. “You and the pack.”

He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to. “There isn’t for you.”

Not a future. Not a choice. Just a prison with better lighting. Those words carved something out of me. I turned away so he wouldn’t see me cry.

I replayed his warning in my mind as I moved through the house, feeling the weight of every decision he'd ever made for me. They all carried the same condescending theme: I was a caged thing, and he would keep it that way. It was worse than him calling me a prisoner. It was like he knew I was cursed and didn’t even want me to be happy. As if it wasn’t enough the curse would take my sanity from me eventually. I made my way tothe bedroom, torn between running away and fighting my father right there.

I thought maybe my room would feel less like a cell, but it didn’t. He’d taken everything from me. My father couldn’t take me seriously when he thought the curse was. And it was serious. It had taken my mother from me, from him too, when I was seven. The curse drove her mad, to the brink of insanity. She had clawed her own heart out as the pack watched in horror. What would I do when it came for me? Would I wake up screaming? Start seeing things that weren’t there? Or just... stop being me?

I slammed the door and pounded on my pillow, feeling like it was the only thing I had any power over. It wasn’t like I was losing my damn mind. Yet.

My father must have known how desperate I was. I wasn’t subtle about it, and he sure didn’t miss the big blowout in the dining room. How could he think he was protecting me? Maybe it wasn’t protection at all. Maybe he wanted to see how long I could last before I broke. I rolled over, burying my face in the pillow. I wasn’t going to break, not now or ever. He couldn’t win.

After I left, he probably gave himself a medal for best performance of an emotionally absent father. I wondered if he had the whole pack over for drinks and awards.

“Most Improved at Pretending to Care,” he’d announce to them, pinning a piece of scrap metal to his jacket. The others would laugh, the sound hollow and hateful. I imagined their sneering faces as they watched me crack under the weight of what my father thought was protection. They all knew I didn’t belong, and not a single one of them did a thing to help me.

“Most Likely to Lose Her Shit,” they’d chant, pounding their drinks on the table. I twirled my hair as I thought about it, the memory of Alaric in the dining room creeping into my mind again.

“They don’t care about you, Serena,” he’d say. It wasn’t a sentence so much as a promise. He might have added: “Neither do I.”

The door slammed open and pulled me out of my thoughts.

“Guess what I heard,” Lila said, half excited, half suspicious, and all up in my face about it. I started to sit up, but she pushed me back into the bed and pinned me there like I was a butterfly and she was the world’s most petite collector. “Everyone is in the dining hall, acting like you’re the next wolfy war criminal. What happened?”

I waited to see if she’d answer her own question. I should have known she wouldn’t until she ran out of air.

“Well?” she asked, moving back a little and giving me some room to breathe. “What happened?”

I pushed myself upright, crossing my legs in front of me. “My father thinks he can keep me trapped forever,” I said, trying not to let my voice quiver like I knew it was going to. “He doesn’t know that I’m ready to leave.”

Lila arched an eyebrow. “He’s your father, not an idiot,” she said. “You don’t have to tell me everything you told him, but at least tell me you kept the good dirt.”

“Why would he think he can control me like this?” I asked, hugging my knees and staring out the window. “He might as well put me in a cage.”

Her eyes softened. “Hey. Serena. Look at me.”

I didn’t.

“Serena,” she said again, putting a hand on my shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze.

I turned and met her gaze.

“Fuck him,” she said, her voice low and serious, her sharp words wrapping themselves around my heart. “You’re not the only one he’s tried to break,” she said softly. “But I’m still here. And so are you.”

I nodded. I knew she was right, but it didn’t stop my father from invading every thought. She looked me over and tilted her head. I could see a hint of anger smoldering in her amber eyes. I couldn’t tell if it was because of what I told her or if she knew there was something I hadn’t said yet.

“He’s going to learn, Serena,” she said. “I promise.”

And like that, the threat of losing hope was gone. It was that simple when it was just the two of us. I believed her more than I could believe my own mind, and if she thought I would get through this, then I would. I just had to hang on.

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