Page 17 of Cursed Beasts

“This is only the beginning, kitten,” Aeon said, releasing my face. “So, this is how this is going to go. We ask you the questions, you answer.”

“Excuse me?” I snarled. “I have no idea what the hell is going on.”

“Oh, I think you know exactly what is going on.” Zev crouched in front of me. “Why did your blood turn a different color in the cauldron?”

“What?” I looked at all of them and saw that they were waiting for me to respond. “Look, I didn’t know I was even coming here.”

“Every fortyish years, your family brings one of you to break the spell, you can’t possibly expect us to believe you did not know this was happening.” Lucien also crouched down to the right of Zev in front of me.

“That's not possible, I would have heard something from my family, I mean how can you keep a secret this big?” I said, the panic creeping in that my life was not what it seemed it was. They had lied to me my entire life, they had probably planned it during my childhood when I presented with no magic.

“You're lying,” Aeon crouched down on the left side of Zev. “Every Belladonna that passed through here is well aware of the spell and the terms of it.”

I looked at them, trying to see if they were lying because even though my family wasn’t the best, there was no way they could leave me in the dark like this. As much as I didn’t want to believe it, I knew they were telling the truth. My sister knew but I wonder for how long she had known.

“I know nothing,” I said, my voice cracking at the end. “They left me in the dark, and didn’t tell me shit.”

“Don’t lie to us,” Aeon grabbed my neck, pulling me up slightly so there was more pressure on my neck restricting my air flow slightly. “Tell us the truth.”

“I’m not fucking lying,” I gasped, as tears filled my eyes even more.

“Aeon,” someone snapped. His eyes flickered to a yellow color before they went back to his beautiful eyes. He let me go roughly, but since I had nothing to help balance me out, I fell to the side, really close to a couple of candles.

Lucien lifted me up, putting me back into the position they had me in earlier.

“She could be telling the truth,” Lucien stated, making sure I stayed upright.

“I doubt it. Belladonnas are very conniving, there’s no way her family would be able to keep this from her,” Zev growled. “Why lead her in blind?”

“You just answered your fucking question. They are conniving self-centered assholes who don’t give a fuck about anyone except their own self interests.” I adjusted myself, feeling panicky again. The restraints weren’t particularly tight, but they severely restricted my movement. I wanted to freak out so much, but there was a big part of me that didn’t want to do it in front of them. Showing weakness would not work in my favor as they thought I was lying.

Zev turned back to Aeon and then Lucien. It was like they had a silent conversation about my fate, it felt like I was on the chopping block, and I doubted they would be lenient.

A loud chime from a clock sounded, the same exact one I heard from last night.

“Well, I think we are going to pick this back up tomorrow night,” Lucien said, as he unbuttoned his shirt.

“I think we need to make it clear we will not fall for whatever you think you have against us.” Zev pulled his shirt over his head, sucking up all the moisture out of my mouth making me thirsty. Were these guys for real? Who had fucking bodies like these? Who had time to keep bodies like this? I bet they never had any cake or tacos.

Aeon walked up to me shirtless too, showcasing a dusting of hair on his chest similar to Zev’s, but Lucien looked like he didn’t have any hair. What I wouldn’t give to lick up his abs or down his abs to see if he was well proportioned everywhere.

What the fuck is wrong with me? You’d think I had never seen a guy before. Wait, these guys were all men with powerful bodies to back it up.

Aeon sprinkled salt around the circle, whispering something. I felt the rush of power against me when the spell was complete.

“Kitten, I think it’s best if right now you knew who was in charge. We will not fall for whatever you have going on.” Aeon unbuttoned his pants, making me look away but the other two had already taken off their pants and there was a lot swinging around. And of course, these assholes would be well proportioned to themselves.

I blushed fiercely at their nakedness, trying to keep my eyes level with theirs. Of course, Aeon and Lucien were enjoying my discomfort and Zev just studied me like he was trying to expose all the secrets he swore I was keeping.

“Remember who is in charge here,” Zev said, coming closer to me. “You mess with us, you’re going to learn the hard way, Belladonna. I’d hate to ruin the year for you. We can do plenty in just one hour.”

I was about to make a snarky comment when the sound of something breaking stopped my brain. Looking over to Aeon and Lucien, two enormous wolves stood, one dark and one lighter.

I jerked back realizing they were the enormous wolves I saw and heard last night. Another snap of bones made me look towards Zev. Another wolf who had dark fur, just as big or bigger stood in front of me. Fear flooded my body, making me freeze.

I hope that spell Aeon did was to keep them out because if it wasn’t, I was fucking screwed.

I was going to die tonight.

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