Page 34 of Cursed
Aylin breaks in, taking control of Nori, and snaps her head to Zayne. Using her own Influence, she snarls, “You will not speak his name!”
Everyone except Ryland shrinks back from her Influence, and Zayne holds up his hands in submission. “There was a note from the Starfall Beta. It said that he knew you were here; that you had committed severalcrimes, including killing your parents and abandoning your Mate. He said you were his Mate!”
Nori flinches and covers her mouth, trying not to vomit. She panics for a split second. “He knows I’m here? How? How is that possible?”
Aylin cries in her mind, “Oh no, Nori. We have to get out of here.”
Nori looks up at the ceiling, replying to Aylin out loud, “Where do you suggest we go, Aylin?”
Ryland jerks his head up. “You’ll be safe here. We will find out how he knows you are here.”
Nori ignores him. She shakes her head and covers her face because clearly, nowhere is safe from Malrik if he has found her so quickly.
Garek carefully asks, “Are you mated to the Starfall Beta?”
She whips her head up and glares at him. “You know I am not!”
“Why does he call you his Mate?”
“Best guess is because I got one over on him, and he’s pissed.” Nori runs her hands through her hair, not wanting to relive that day, but they deserve to know the truth. “The day I left Starfall was the same day a Mate Bond flared between me and Mal...the Beta.”
She laughs angrily. “You cannot possibly imagine the sheer horror I felt, realizing that the male who had abusedme every single day for the past twelve years was selected to be my Mate. I mean, the Moon Goddess must have been on vacation that day, and the God of Hell stepped in, pairing me with that fucking psychopath!”
Nori’s hand involuntarily reaches for her throat. “He rejected me on the spot. I was in the middle of accepting the rejection when his wolf decided that was not what he wanted. He took over the Beta’s body and knocked me down, stepping on my throat to constrict my airway. His wolf said he had a new form of torture for me. He intended to keep me Bonded while he screwed his wife every night.”
Adele sucks in a breath, putting her hand over her mouth. “No! The pain that would cause you is supposed to be agonizing.”
“Exactly, Adele.” Nori continues, her fists clenching from the painful memory. “To prove his point, he did, in fact, take his wife to bed immediately after he stopped me from rejecting the Bond.” Her eyes flick to Adele. “The pain was every bit as horrible as you’ve heard. It was excruciating. Like fire running through my veins.”
She tries to regain control of her emotions. “There was a large celebration at the Packhouse later that same evening. While everyone was in the ballroom, I slipped out unnoticed. When I reached the boundary, I stopped. I formally accepted his rejection, and then I rejected the Mate Bond, again.”
Nori smiles at the memory. “I heard his roar of pain as he felt the rejection doubling back on him. Then, I ran.”
Lowering her head, Nori puts her face in her hands, trying to let go of her anger, and looks back up. “I mean my life has been complete shit since my parents died, but that Bond with Malrik. That was fucking beyond cruel.”
Zayne leans forward and snarls at her, still outraged that she has caused this turmoil in his home. “So, what, you thought you would just hang out here and drive my brother crazy over this Mate Bond? Knowing the whole time that you were going to reject him? All because you’re scared of your Beta?” Pointing to Ryland, he yells, “You could’ve killed him!”
Adele whips her head around and shouts, “Have you not been listening to her? What is wrong with you, Zayne? And she did not almost kill him. She died, you idiot!”
Zayne snarls at his sister, “She’s the reason we almost lost our brother tonight! No one ever accepts the Mate Bond with him. You know that, Adele!” He points at Nori, shouting, “There’s no way she’s accepting him with all those scars!”
Nori bursts out laughing. “Scars? Scars? Who gives a shit about some scars?” She strips off her shirt and turns her back to them, so they can see the gnarled and raised red marks that cover virtually every inch of her back. “I’m sure his scars are bad, but this was YEARS in the making!”
Ryland roars, outraged at the abuse Nori has suffered. Breathing heavily, his claws dig into the floor. He tells Bade, “We will kill that Beta if it’s the last thing we do!”
The others freeze. Their breaths catch in their throats, shocked at the sheer number of scars that mar her back.
Nori puts her shirt back on and turns around to face the four of them. Taking shallow, angry breaths, staring daggers at Zayne, she says, “Every year on my birthday, no less. It was the Beta who tied me to a post, lashing me with the silver-tipped whip. The number of lashes equaled my age, starting at eleven and continuing to twenty-two.”
She runs her fingers through her hair and notices Ryland’s angry growling. “And you do not get to be outraged on my behalf! You broke your promise!”
She looks up to the ceiling, trying to contain her tears, hating to cry when she’s mad. “You asked what I thought I was doing, Zayne. I didn’t have a plan. I was just so fucking elated when I realized I was Mated to your brother. I mean, what are the odds a slave girl with nothing stumbles into a foreign Pack and a Mate Bond flares with the Alpha Prince? I could not believe my luck because no way could he be worse than my last Mate. Not possible!”
Ryland slows his breathing and retracts his claws. As he gains control of his anger, he prepares for what must surely be her imminent rejection.
Nori falls back against the wall, drawing her legs in, andlooks at Ryland. “Sure, I knew you wouldn't want me once I told you I was a slave from Starfall. I would’ve eventually told you, though. I thought…I thought I needed you to first understand why I couldn’t go back. Then, when you ultimately rejected me, you would maybe feel some small amount of sympathy and let me stay here.”
Garek wipes his face with his hand, exhausted from the events of this evening. “He can’t reject or accept you. It’s another rule of the curse.”
