“It’s the curse. It ensures no male is born to the line, though I didn’t realize this is what it meant.”
He sat back down, delivering the second babe, and I took him too, placing him on the bed with his brother beside their mother. Once I’d wrapped both of them, I cradled them in my arms and lifted my gaze to their mother, finding Luna staring at the wall.
“Luna, they’re here.”
“Get them away from me now.” She stared at the wall with tears in her eyes, shrugging me off as I held her stillborn sons.
“Luna, say goodbye to your sons,” I encouraged.
“I said, get them away from me and get Aine in here, you stupid bitch!” I recoiled from her words, nodding my head as I moved out of the room and down the stairs.
I placed the babes in the kitchen on a towel that was freshly laundered and went to tell the others they’d been born male and dead. Once I’d made the sad announcement, I started to cleanse them for their burial.
Silently, I turned on the water as my shoulders shook with silent sobs. Checking that it was lukewarm, I grabbed the smallest of the smaller of the boys. Removing the cloth from his tiny body, I began washing the birthing matter and blood away from his skin. I was careful as I cleaned him, wrapping him in the shroud for burial once I’d finished. I repeated the action with the second child, listening as Luna sobbed above me.
Once they were both wrapped and ready for the altar to bless them into the next life, and hopefully not to be reborn into our line, I leaned over the counter, whispering a prayer for the strength to walk their tiny bodies to the altar alone.
Our bloodline buried our boys, but none of us had ever given birth until now. We’d heard it had happened before, especially to our mother. We’d never been witness to it, nor felt the emotional loss until now. After I’d moved the small bodies into the herb room where sage burned endlessly, I went back and leaned against the counter to clean the mess.
I felt him behind me, yet he said nothing as my shoulders rocked with silent sobs trembling through me. He didn’t move, just stood there, offering me comfort as I prayed for strength. I exhaled, closing my eyes, and a sob pushed against my throat even as I swallowed it down.
“Breathe.” Knox’s mouth brushed against my shoulder, his teeth skimming over his mark, calming me instantly. “Just breathe, Aria.”
“How do you do that to me, Knox? You touch me, and everything fades to black; even in the darkest of times, you can take it all away. How do you make everything fade to background noise?” I fought against the purr that built in my chest, but it exploded in a loud wave. I felt him smiling against my flesh, but he pulled away as a purr sounded from deep within him as well, as if his beast answered mine on a level I couldn’t understand.
“It’s not me; it’s the bite that calms you. Whatever is within you, it’s strong, and it has a profound reaction to what you feel. It’s what a female wolf feels when the alpha touches her with his teeth. Anyone could do it for you, as long as they’re strong enough to survive your beast.”
“I’m not a wolf, though, so am I like you? What are you?” I spun around, looking up at him for answers.
“Are the boys always born dead?” he asked, swiftly changing the subject.
“From what I read, Hecate cursed us to only breed females. It was written in a strange language, and the spell I used to decipher it wasn’t one hundred percent correct. It stated that boys will be delivered dead and then sent to the afterlife to be looked after by her. I had no idea that they were born with no facial features. It isn’t fair to the babes or the mother,” I uttered, watching as a tick began in his jaw.
“You just allow the curse to continue when Hecate isn’t here to ensure it does?”
“It’s not a curse that can be broken easily. It calls for the sacrifices of virgins, and the death of Hecate witches, whether watered down or not, it’s still too many lives to take for one curse. That’s not something we can just run out and collect, Knox.”
He stared at the tiny shrouded bodies and then lifted dark eyes to me. “And you? You just wrap them up to throw them away?”
“Is that what you think I am doing?” I asked as he turned his head back to look at me, prowling toward me.
“I think your entire bloodline is a bunch of murderous bitches that care little what they do to the innocent lives affected because of your actions.” His fangs extended into rows of razor-sharp teeth, and I closed my eyes before opening them again as he boxed me in against the counter. “I think you are all alike and should pay for the innocent lives you and your kind extinguish as if it is your fucking right to do so.”
I nodded, closing my eyes as my heart raced with fear. “I am wrapping them into a blessing cloth. It is also soaked with sacred oils to link them to another bloodline to ensure that they are never reborn to us or any females in our line. I will then place their tiny bodies on an altar and beg another god to take them from us. That is the only thing I can do for their little souls, Knox. I cannot break the curse, nor do I have the power of the goddess who cast it upon us to even try. Get out of my way so I can prepare them for when their grieving mother is ready, so that we may send them to their next life to be reborn to a mother who can carry their tiny souls to full-term and love them.”
Opening my eyes, I started as he lowered his mouth against my throat. My hands lifted, pushing through his thick hair as I held him closer. If he was going to murder me, he needed to get it over with. Teeth touched my throat, and a single droplet of blood ran down my neck, and my mouth brushed against his ear as his hands wrapped around my waist to hold me there.
A cough sounded behind us, and Knox inched back, but he waited for his fangs to rescind before he turned, staring over his shoulder at Reign, who was trespassing against whatever was happening to him. There was a lethal look in his eyes, and the smell of overwhelming pain confused me as he slowly turned back, watching me before he slowly lowered his mouth to my throat, licking the blood he’d drawn.
“I’m all for taking it where you can get it, but this isn’t the place or time to be fucking.” Reign said, her voice thick with emotion. “Are the babes prepared?” I nodded. “If you just nodded, I can’t see your head, asshole.”
“I need a moment to finish.”
“Finish what?”
“Reign, please. They’re almost ready.”
“Luna doesn’t want to be present. She wants them gone. Brander said she is in shock and mixed with blood loss, she won’t be out of the woods in time to bless them into the afterlife.”
“Okay,” I said, still being held in place by Knox, who breathed heavily against my throat, but it wasn’t from lust, it was hatred. The moment she was away from us, I exhaled a shuddered breath and waited for him to move away from me. He didn’t. Instead, he turned black eyes in my direction that were banked with flecks of red, as if a fire burned within him.
“I get that you hate us, Knox. I don’t understand why or what we did to you, but you need to stay away from me. You confuse and disorientate me. I think you do it on purpose. I think you intend to hurt me, and you terrify me. I need you to stay away so that I can fight this need to be with you, please.”