Sebastian's POV
The city was calm and bustling as expected, but my mind was filled with distractions. As the CEO of the most opulent hotels in the city and worldwide, I was consistently focused on paperwork, but today the documents scattered on my desk remain untouched. Contracts and acquisitions that required accuracy now faded into insignificance before me.
"The ceremony was supposed to conclude yesterday." "It was supposed to be the last night, yet there were no signs indicating the curse had lifted," I reflected while staring through the glass window of my office in bewilderment.
For the last seventeen years, I performed this ritual to lift the curse I received at eighteen after accidentally killing a member of the witch clan who threatened my pack, sparking a full-blown war.
I was only eighteen when the war began. Many witches and werewolves perished that day. From that point on, we became adversaries. I had murdered her, and her final words were, "She merely wanted to stop the curse from entering the immortal realm, but I had brought it to the werewolf domain," which I truly regret to this day; an anonymous person deceived me into taking Esmeralda's life that day.
I was bound to always sleep with a girl who had now become a woman each year, and every time the red moon appeared, she would sadly die before dawn. I primarily felt sorrowful about this, but I had no alternative as Athlen, the pack's magician, thought it might lift the curse.
My fingers gradually formed a fist. "Halia, or whatever she was called, needed to die! She needed to lift this curse! I slammed my fist forcefully on the table in frustration."Why did she survive? All the girls I had fucked every red moon had died of pain; they were humans and couldn't survive sex from an Alpha as strong as me."
The name alone felt unfamiliar in my mind, like something my instincts recognized but my logic rejected.
"That wasn't even the worst part. My wolf soul, Thorne had marked her as my mate, but how... no... I already had a mate, and that was Seraphina. A bond my wolf had chosen to be connected to it and never questioned it, but why Halia then?", I thought as it made no sense to me. The Moon Goddess had prevented our mates from being human since she didn't want the secret of immortals existing in the human world; she wanted to keep us safe.
"Because it hadn't just marked Halia as a mate but had chosen her. She is the key", I sighed out of confusion. Something was definitely not right.
Thorne refused to speak beneath me, and this worried me. This curse had a sole impact on us; if it wasn't broken, we would turn into wolves forever.
For the first time since I became Alpha… I was alone in my own mind.
"What did you do…?" I muttered under my breath because my wolf had never abandoned me before, not even at my worst, and yet, it had pushed me toward a human girl—and disappeared.
"A second mate...No way. It's not possible.
A sudden knock shattered the quiet. I refused to turn. "Come in." The door swung open readily. "Beta." Darius. His tone was calm. It carried a burden suggesting that something had already gone awry and he was making an effort not to voice it.
I finally looked back as he walked in. He was calm, warning, however, observing me closely. "Report," I stated bluntly. He did not respond. That in itself revealed enough to me. "You seem unsettled, Sebastian," he remarked at last, easing himself into the chair across from me as if he already understood this would not be a discussion.
My eyes wandered back to the city outside the window. "I am not upset, " I stated. "The spell remained intact." There was quiet.
Then. "What did you say?" Darius instantly stood up straight. "That's unfeasible. The last ceremony was finished beneath the crimson moon. The bond was intended to provide stability. The pressure from the shift ought to have concluded."
"It certainly didn't, " I replied in a tone. The words felt off even while I was saying them.
Darius inclined his body forward. "What precisely occurred?" I breathed out through my nose, gripping the edge of the desk tighter with my fingers.
"All adhered to the ceremony, " I stated. "However, Thorne... Didn't come back to me completely." That caused his expression to shift. No fear. Computation.
"The group is having a celebration tonight," he said thoughtfully. "Your mom organized a celebration afterward. Everyone thinks the curse has vanished. The elders are getting ready to deliver speeches. I stopped.
"Did Mom already arrange it?"
"Indeed."
"What about Seraphina?" Darius hesitated for a moment too long. "She is currently at the estate awaiting."
That name should have rooted me. It failed to do. Instead, a different name was engraved on my mind. It did not. Rather, a different name was imprinted in my thoughts like a crack in glass. Halia. I didn't vocalize it. I declined to. Yet my wolf responded nonetheless.
There was nothing. Still no response. A quiet that seemed unsettling within my bones. My jaw clenched.
"This is more disappointing than a ceremony, " I whispered.
Darius scowled. "Clarify."
I shifted a bit in his direction now. "When Thorne marked her, " I spoke slowly, "he did not just acknowledge her as a partner." Darius became motionless. "He selected her." That struck more forcefully than it ought to have.
I pushed away from the desk. Walked around once. "My wolf has become quiet." That has not occurred before. Not in combat. Not in blood ceremonies.Not at eighteen when I was first tied to this curse." Darius rose gradually now. "
Sebastian... What do you mean?" I halted. The words were softer this time. "If the curse lacks stability... Then the connection is not whole."
There was a break. "If it's not finished," I said, "the Moon will no longer regard Seraphina as my anchor." Darius's eyes opened a bit. "You're implying—"
"I'm stating that the pack believes we are free," I interrupted. "However, we are not." A different quietness descended upon us.
He softened his tone. "What should we do?"
I glanced back at the city. Illumination. Motion. Festivity is already forming beneath unawareness. Then, softly. "We behave as if everything is fine."
Darius. Closed his eyes. "Is that all?"
"Now," I replied. "I discover the reason." I locate the girl. I "repair anything Thorne initiated without my consent."
My hand clenched into a fist more. However, on this occasion, it wasn't anger that I experienced. It was an acknowledgment. It felt as though something within me had already passed a limit I couldn't reverse.
"Because if I don't, " I stated, "this hex won't cease." There was a break. "It will develop."