Chapter 306: The Full Prophecy
"Tell us," Nicholas commanded, his Alpha voice ringing through the clearing.
Victoria met his gaze and smiled....sad and bitter and absolutely merciless.
"Look at you," she said quietly. "Pathetic animals who claimed a witch without understanding what you’d done. Who marked her and bound her and completed three bonds thinking it would save you."
"Tell. Us." Sebastian’s voice was shaking now.
"Fine." Victoria’s power surged again and Nicholas felt the air become too heavy to breathe. "I’ll tell you exactly what your precious curse requires. What it’s always required. What every version of this curse has demanded since the Moon Goddess first created it."
She paused and let the silence stretch.
"Any unfortunate girl who becomes mated to you will have to carry your curse. Become your sacrificial lamb. She has to DIE for your curse to break."
The words fell into the clearing like stones into still water, sending ripples of shock and disbelief through every wolf present.
"No," Sebastian said, and his voice was barely recognizable. "No. You’re lying. You have to be lying...."
"I’m not," Victoria said simply.
"You’re saying this to take her from us!" Sebastian was shouting now, his control breaking. "You’re trying to turn her against us with lies..."
"I don’t need lies," Victoria said. "The truth is damning enough.
Nicholas’s mind was racing, trying to process what she was saying, trying to find the flaw in her logic, trying to understand how this could be true.
And then he remembered.
Seven years ago. He was nineteen years old. The curse had just manifested for the first time....violent and overwhelming and absolutely terrifying, more violent than the previous generations. His father had called in a witch, an old woman who specialized in curses and prophecies, and Nicholas had been allowed to attend the meeting because he was the eldest.
He remembered sitting in his father’s office listening to the witch describe what she could see.
The curse is more powerful for this generation, she had said. Old magic. Moon magic. The full details are unclear, the prophecy is obscured, hidden even from my sight. But I can see this much: they need to find their fated mate and mark her before the end of the third month of finding her. Three bonds. Three marks. That’s the key to breaking it.
And his father had asked: And then? When the bonds are complete?
The witch had hesitated. The rest is unclear. But yes, when all three bonds are complete, the curse should break.
Should.
Not will.
Should.
Nicholas had been so focused on the deadline, on finding their mate before time ran out, that he had never questioned what came after. Had never asked what breaking the curse would actually require.
And now Victoria was telling him the price.
Lilith’s death.
His blood ran cold.
"You’re lying," he said, but even to his own ears it sounded weak.
"Am I?" Victoria challenged. "Then explain why the witch your father consulted couldn’t see the full prophecy. Explain why it was obscured. Explain why she said ’should break’ instead of ’will break.’"
Nicholas had no answer.
"The curse was designed to punish," Victoria continued quietly. "The Moon Goddess doesn’t hand out curses lightly. And when she does, there’s always a price. Always a balance. You three were cursed because of your bloodline’s crimes. And the only way to break it is for an innocent to pay with her life."
"No," Nicholas said, and he was surprised by how steady his voice sounded. "No. We’ll find another way."
"There IS no other way," Victoria said. "The prophecy is absolute. Three bonds complete, the curse transfers to the female, she dies, you’re free. That’s the trade. That’s the price. That’s what you’ve condemned my niece to by marking her."
"Then we don’t break the curse," Sebastian said suddenly. "We live with it. We manage it. But we don’t sacrifice Lilith."
Victoria looked at him and something that might have been respect flickered across her face. "You can’t manage this curse, Alpha Sebastian. You know that. In six months, maybe a year, the wolves will take over completely and you’ll go completely feral. You’ll kill everyone around you including her. The curse doesn’t give you the option to just endure."
"Then we lock ourselves away...." Sebastian said desperately.
"And condemn her to watch you deteriorate?" Victoria shook her head. "To watch the men she’s bonded to lose their minds and become monsters? That’s not mercy. That’s torture."
"So what?" Nicholas demanded. "We just let her die? Accept that the curse requires her sacrifice and move on?"
"No," Victoria said, and her voice was hard. "You let her GO. You let me take her somewhere safe, somewhere the bonds can’t reach her, and you face your curse like the men you claim to be."
"The bonds don’t work like that," Sebastian said. "Even if we wanted to let her go....which we don’t....she’d die from the separation. Three complete bonds severed at once would kill her."
"Not if I sever them properly," Victoria said. "Not if I use magic to cut the bonds before the trauma becomes fatal. It will hurt. She’ll suffer. But she’ll survive. And she’ll have a life. A LIFE, Nicholas. Isn’t that what you want for her?"
Nicholas looked at Victoria and saw the absolute conviction in her eyes. She believed every word she was saying. Believed Lilith had to die to break the curse. Believed the only way to save her was to take her away from them.
And the terrifying thing was, Nicholas didn’t know if she was wrong.
"Three days," he said finally.
"What?"
"You gave us three days before," Nicholas said. "Give us three more. Let us research the curse. Let us find out if there’s another way. And if there isn’t...."
"If there isn’t?" Victoria pressed.
Nicholas met her gaze and let her see the truth in his eyes. "If there isn’t, we’ll have to make a choice. And it won’t be an easy one."
Victoria studied him for a long moment and then nodded slowly. "Three days. But understand this, Nicholas Blackwood, if you haven’t found another way in three days, if you’re planning to let my niece die to save yourselves, I’m taking her whether she wants to go or not. I’m not asking permission anymore."
"Noted."
"And if you try to stop me," Victoria continued, her power surging one more time, "I will burn this pack to the ground. Every building. Every wolf. Everything you’ve built. I will reduce it all to ash and scatter it to the wind. Do you understand?"