Page 46 of Cursed Love
“Brandy said it was a werewolf who attacked her that night? It was a fucking lycan. I wasn’t sure I smelled it on her then, but I just caught its scent.That’swho took the woman and killed the man.”
“Fucking hell…” Ryan scrubbed his face. “I’d really hoped it was a were and not worse. Please tell me you caught the trail of only one.”
Peter leaned against the banister and stared at the cabin. “Wish I could, but I can’t. I left because I heard the howl. There are three of them in these woods. Someone more powerful, possibly the person they report to, has been here at least one time by the southwest end of the forest. They have a witch working with them, and I think they’re joined by two werewolves.”
Ryan’s eyes rounded. “Weres steer clear of demons.”
Peter looked at him with a “no shit” stare.
“She’s getting stronger,” Ryan whispered in awe. “That much power must be drawing them in without trying.”
Peter chuckled. “She’s amazing. We’ll keep her safe, even if I die protecting her.”
The comment made Ryan study his friend. He was glad to have Peter on their side, but he could not help but wonder how far Peter’s feelings for her went.
“You’re a lovesick bastard. Stop looking at me like that. She’s family and no one’s going to take her from you.” Peter raised his arm toward the cabin. “Now, you be a good witch and let your feisty woman know we have to move.”
Chapter 18
A coven of families lived in a small village, cloaked by magic. A place where it was safe to practice their goddess-given gifts. Occasionally, new families joined their coven. One of those families’ sons was named Erik.
Erik fell in love with Cassandra Broderick, even though his family had arranged for him to marry Suzanna, another family’s daughter. Erik and Cassandra reached out to one of their friends, and they were handfasted in secret. They consummated their vows that evening under the full moon so no one would challenge their union. Their marriage was kept a secret for a month as they tried to find a reasonable way to sway his parents. Only, the coven’s oracle learned of the child growing in Cassandra’s womb.
Suzanna was eventually paired with a different man. An unkind, older man who treated her like property, the opposite of what their coven believed. Her anger and jealousy over Erik and Cassandra’s happy marriage grew over the years.
When Cassandra delivered a healthy, sixth child, never mourning the loss of any of her children, Suzanna could take no more. She herself had buried four children, and with each loss, her bitterness grew. She aimed the hatred in her heart at the woman who had stolen her betrothed.
After celebrating Beltane with the coven, Suzanna gathered her things and moved far into the forest. There, she created her altar and performed her own ritual—a curse, that Cassandra would deliver a healthy daughter, her seventh child, but one Cassandra would not live to raise. Cassandra’s children would never grow old with her love.
Suzanna made sure the family line would suffer until days end for what Cassandra had taken from her. Since then, not one mother has lived to meet her seventh child. Many tried removing the curse. Unsuccessful at undoing the spell, they avoided having more children but failed.
Drunk on her hate, Suzanna had bragged to Cassandra, telling her what she had done in the woods. Many of the elders attempted to remove it with no success. Needing to balance the harm placed on the family line, the elders worked in secret and placed a blessing on Erik and Cassandra’s children.
When it was time to dispense Suzanna’s punishment for her betrayal of one of their own, the elders agreed to put Suzanna to death. Cassandra begged them not to but to rather banish her and her family from the coven instead. She refused to punish Suzanna’s children, no matter what Suzanna had set in motion for her own.
Before Suzanna and her family’s removal, her own family bound her powers to prevent her from hurting another.
The families of the coven were distraught over Suzanna’s crime. When Cassandra died, the village helped Erik raise his children. He never married again, as he refused to love another. He joined Cassandra a month after their youngest, Annabelle, married, unable to watch the curse take another woman he loved.
“I don’t get it. One, why the hell does anyone want that many kids? Two, if you know having a kid will kill you, why the hell do you have another?” Ethan asked from her side. They had been working together and studying the grimoire for hours, learning more about their family line and the enemies who were a threat to them.
“Yeah, it makes no sense. Wait, didn’t Dad say Mom had three sisters and no brothers? That doesn’t add up,” Brandy muttered and flipped through the pages.
“Stop, go back.” Ethan grabbed a few pages and flipped them to whatever he had seen. “Look, here.”
The curse is stronger than we believed. Cassandra was a rare breed in our family to not lose a child. Annabelle was not so lucky. When she was pregnant with her fourth child, a daughter, she believed to have many years ahead. Only then did the family learn miscarriages and early deaths counted into the magic of the curse.
Then came Caitlyn who refused to fall in love. Unfortunately for her, she met her soul mate and the power of their love was too hard to resist. She gave birth to two healthy children with her husband, Richard. They attempted to avoid intercourse, even going so far as suggesting her husband should have his needs met at the brothel a town over.
One morning, she woke to severe cramps and blood. A miscarriage. She bore a son almost a year later, even though neither could recall making love. The curse had brought them together in the middle of the night during deep sleeps. Afraid of what would happen next, they moved to separate beds, even going so far as restraining themselves, anything to keep Caitlyn alive. But it only worked for so long. Caitlyn died a year later giving birth to what turned out to be her seventh child. Unbeknownst to them, she had miscarried a set of twins.
“Shit…” Brandy whispered.
“No one could avoid the curse,” Ethan said. He looked at her, and she couldn’t hide her worry from him. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “We’ll figure it out.”
She smiled, a fake one. “Yeah, I can’t see that happening. E, six generations couldn’t figure it out, and you think I’m going to be any different? Caitlyn and her husband strapped themselves to their beds, and she still managed to get pregnant.”
“She wanted that vitamin D pretty badly,” Ethan joked.
