My Cursed Alpha

Chapter 27

Ever since Caine had started acting strangely, Marshmallow started acting overly enthusiastic. Which was not only weird, but suspicious.

I couldn't really think straight at the moment, because the beast who had been keeping me in his room was currently cuddling me, which is sweet, by the way, but it was disturbing my thinking and was just letting me relax, which, at any other moment, would have been fine.

As I drowned in the fluffiness of the beast's fur, I let go of all the worries consuming me at the moment. It felt nice to finally think that everything in the world was going well and that everything would be alright.

But, of course, I was probably giving myself false hope. I did bring this mess upon myself after all. I could have let the curse be and live happily ever after in the pack house, but, of course, stupid me just had to interfere.

But if you hadn't we wouldn't have had our personal cuddly pet, my wolf mumbled inside my head.

For the last time, he's not our pet.

Bummer.

I just sat there like that for a couple of minutes, or maybe even an hour, I wasn't sure.

The hallway we were in was eerily quiet. The only sounds coming from the beast's occasional purr, or me shifting and fidgeting on the seat we were on.

A sudden sound which came from right in front of us made me jump. The door to Caine's room slammed open and he looked around the hallway with eyes that reflected his wolf's.

The beast must have sensed danger because he hid me from his eyes, sheltering me in his black furry arms, but that didn't fool Caine's wolf.

His eyes zeroed on the arm around me and suddenly, everything in his form screamed 'danger,' his eyes turned even darker, if that was even possible. He lunged for the beast and before any harm could come to me, the beast pushed me away.

They punched, kicked, and scratched, but I realized that the beast was only countering Caine's attacks, and it was taking most of the hits.

"Stop!" I screamed just as Caine's wolf sunk his claws into the beast's furry stomach. My eyes widened as blood flowed out of the wound, and a couple of other beasts ran to the hallway to see what the commotion was all about.

Caine- or his wolf looked up at me and pinned me to the wall, and when I finally saw him close-up, I realized that he wasn't being himself.

Red flakes swirled around his sky blue eyes, which were becoming a darker shade of blue with every second passing by.

"Mate, need to mate," his wolf mumbled in a deep, husky voice.

And that was when I realized that the curse might be taking place. The curse probably also speeds up the mating process so that his mind would go haywire sooner than later. I don't know what the curse is doing to his or his wolf's mind, but it was definitely getting on his nerves by the way he attacked the beast.

As if sensing any danger or threat around us, Caine's wolf pulled me tight against his body, and I could feel him heating up. That was definitely not normal.

"No, no, no..." he mumbled under his breath. His eyes started flashing from dark blue to their natural light blue color. The red flakes that used to dance around his eyes started fading, little by little, and when they were finally gone, his tensed body relaxed.

"Sorry about that," he said before he walked off, as if nothing had happened.

So that's what he was trying to hide from me, that was why he'd been avoiding me at all costs. The curse was trying to accelerate the mating process, probably messing with his mind and making his wolf think that he had to do it sooner than later. Marshmallow must have known this from the start, it was probably why he kept acting strange around me.

As if on cue, Marshmallows fox form swiftly ran towards me, then leaped into my arms.

"Hi, 'sup?" His voice asked in my mind while climbing on one of my shoulders and glancing around the room.

"Don't ''sup' me. You knew of this from that start, didn't you?" It was more of a statement than a question.

He flinched and almost fell off of my shoulder.

"Knew what?"

He was playing dumb, it was obvious because of his tone and reaction, and also by the way he had acted when this all started.

"Knew about the curse riling Caine's wolf all up." I answered, my wolf snarling at him at the end of my statement.

"Um, yeah. I mean, sort of. Look, I thought it would be better if you didn't know so that you wouldn't go charging in the woods looking for a curse when who knows what or who took the ingredients. I agree with Caine on this one. It's too dangerous, I'll look for it myself. It was my doing, so I'll clean my mess up myself."

"What? You just said it yourself, it's too dangerous-"

My wolf scolded me for even caring.

It's his curse, let him do it, she said in my mind, in that same annoying tone.

"I'm not a little baby fox anymore, I can handle myself. But thanks for caring anyway," he mumbled, as if he heard my wolf's comment.

"I'll start my search tomorrow, you and Caine could stay here in the meantime. I can't guarantee I can make it back in just a few days but I think he will have less chance of forcing you to mate with him when you are here with the beasts. Just a few of them could restrain him, but when you venture out in the woods with him, it'll be way too easy for him to mate with you without your consent."

I blinked.

"So your saying we should stay here while you're out there looking for the ingredients facing who knows what?"

"It's the most logical thing to do, if, by any chance, I brought you both with me, and then the curse suddenly takes a turn, he'll easily overpower me. But while you're there with a million supply of unlimited beasts, it's safer than having just a fox protect you from an ancient alpha wolf."

That made sense but why is he seriously sacrificing himself? Going alone into the woods with dangerous beasts lurking around is practically suicide, even for a spirit animal like him.

Yes, he had a couple of powers, being a spirit fox and all. But there were probably a couple of other powerful animals who are capable of overpowering his kind. Did he want to die?

"One last thing. Time is running out, the curse would get worse day by day. His wolf's desire to mate with his mate and the curse strengthening this desire... I don't know until how long..." His voice trailed off.

***

I tried stopping Marshmallow from looking for the ingredients of the antidote on his own. I tried persuading him that Caine would be fine without an antidote. I can simply distance myself so far away from him that he wouldn't feel the mate bond anymore, but he was adamant in his decision.

Now, all I could do was watch the fox on my lap snore in his sleep on his last day in the beast's den, then, he will be out in the woods, searching for something, possibly getting killed, and all that for a mistake he did in the past.

A mistake made out of loyalty to his previous owner.

He didn't know what would have happened in the future, and I would never blame it on him, even if my wolf repeatedly did.

The evening flew by quickly, and by the time I woke up, he was gone.