Witch Wolf: Moon Cursed Mates

Poppy.

Timidly, I walk through the woods, the night air feeling cool against my warm skin. I continue to walk slower, maintaining my distance from the rest of my pack. I search for a good place to hide so I can remove my clothes without anyone seeing me before attempting to shift into my wolf. I’m nervous that my wolf will not manifest tonight. I’ve always been seen as different from the others, being an Omega witch and all. If my wolf doesn’t come tonight, the pack will bully me for being without a wolf.

I find a small cove behind some bushes and begin to take off my clothes. I freeze when I hear the sound of footsteps against the ground and laughter in the air. My stomach tightens as I patiently wait to hear if they are walking toward me. Relief flows through me when the laughter begins to fade in the distance, and their footsteps head in a different direction.

I take notice that my senses are heightened more than they usually are, and I eagerly hope that my wolf will appear to me. Removing the last bit of clothing, I stare up into the sky and look at the moon. I smile, for it’s a full moon on my seventeenth birthday, which I take as a blessing from the Moon Goddess.

Echoes of fellow pack members shifting into their wolves travel through the night air as I wait for the pain to start and my bones to break as they start the shift. My heart races as the adrenaline builds up inside me. A shiver travels down my spine just as I cry out in anguish and hear the sound of the first bone inside me begin to crack. My eyes fill with tears as I collapse to the ground on all fours while the shift tortures my body.

My grandmother warned me about the pain, but never did I think it would be this much. After what seems like a lifetime of pain and torture, a small sigh of relief travels through me as my wolf finally emerges and shakes out her fur.

Timidly, I walk over to a small pond filled with water and take a look at my reflection. My eyes widen as my mouth drops a little. My wolf is everything I could hope her to be. With her black fur and silver eyes, she is majestic. She is grander in size than most of the other wolves in the pack, not nearly as large as an Alpha wolf, but she comes pretty close.

My wolf lifts her head to the sky and lets out an intense howl toward the moon. I am giddy with excitement at how beautiful my wolf is. Being an Omega witch, our wolves are different from others. They are powerful beings and can come off as terrifying and feared by others.

Wanting to see how fast she can run, we take off through the woods; the trees are nothing more than a blur as she races past them. She is faster than I anticipate and shocks me as she takes a significant leap into the air over a giant bushel of bushes and out into the wide-open field.

I sense the other wolves from my pack nearby and ask her to slow down so that we won’t intimidate the other wolves around us. But she doesn’t listen; she seems headstrong as she wants to flaunt her strength and abilities for others to see.

I try to explain our place within the pack to her, but she doesn’t understand. She can only see the power that we possess and see us as being unique. We should be appreciated for our talent, not cast away and looked down upon. She senses my anxiety and slows down. I’m appreciative that my wolf respects my emotions and tries not to overpower me. She stills when a peculiar scent fills our nostrils and takes over our senses.

My wolf lets out a howl and starts racing through the night. I try to ask her where she is going, but she refuses to answer. A part of me thinks she is unsure of what she is truly looking for. I start to sense the other wolves running through the woods around us and begin to grow concerned with what my wolf is attempting to do. My heart is racing as I try to tell her we need to stop before something happens, but she will not listen.

She is on a mission, and nothing will stop her until she finds what she is looking for. I try to regain control of my senses and shift back into my human form, but she will not let me.

A cold chill travels down the spine, causing the fur on our back to stand on end. My stomach felt as if it was tying up in knots, not knowing what was going to happen. I try one last time to gain control of my wolf when we collide with another wolf. The moment I caught his scent, I knew who it was. My wolf cried out in my head that he was our mate. I could feel myself go completely white, as if my blood was drained right out of me. I shook my head. My wolf was wrong; she didn’t know who we had collided with, and she had to be mistaken.

A ferocious growl was heard across the forest as I looked up in fear and saw the Alpha’s golden eyes staring down at me. His eyes are filled with anger and hate, while he continues to growl at us with his teeth in a vicious snarl and stands in a defensive pose with his hair raised and ready to attack. My wolf lets out a whine, but the Alpha growls back. My heart races as I quickly put the pieces together.

Our mate doesn’t sense us.

The stories that my grandmother told me about an ancient curse that was cast upon us fill my head. The Alpha takes the first move and jumps into the air, landing on our back. He attempts to wrap his teeth around the back of our neck. I tell my wolf that we need to submit, but she refuses. She is hurt that our mate does not recognize us.

Our eyes start to glow as she chants something in my head in a language I wasn’t familiar with. A burst of wind shifts all around us and pushes the Alpha away from us, forcing everyone around us to fall to the ground.

I scream to my wolf, “RUN,” which she does as quickly as she can before any of them have a chance to come after us. My wolf runs all the way back to the place that we had shifted and allows me to come back to my human form. The tears are falling without my control as I quickly pull my clothes back on. I sit down on the ground, bringing my knees to my chest while rocking myself as I continue to allow the tears to fall.

I shake my head as I make a promise to myself from this day forward that I will never allow anyone to see my wolf again.

Three Years Later…

Poppy.

A heavy sigh escapes from my chest as I continue to mix a batch of my herbs, hoping that this would be the potion that could stop the curse, my curse. I grab a small amount of the mixture and sprinkle it into the small cauldron I have sitting on the back counter, waiting in hopes of a puff of white smoke telling me the concoction was a success. But there is no smoke. This is another dead end.

I turn back around when I hear the bell on the door ring, surprised that I have a customer this late in the afternoon. I close my eyes for a moment as the scent of my visitor hits me. My eyes widen with fear and uneasiness as my heart starts to race against my chest.

What is he doing here?

A tall, muscular man with shaggy blonde hair and cognac eyes that are fierce when you stare into them walks into my small Apothecary shop. It is none other than Adrian, the Alpha of the Rover pack—the pack I allegedly belong to. It’s been years since I saw him, ever since that dreadful night, the first night I attempted to run with the pack with my wolf. Since that night, I have chosen to run on the outskirts of the pack territory so no one can see my wolf.

I quickly pull out another bowl with herbs already inside it and start to stir to make myself look busy. It takes everything I have not to look and stare at the man that I am chosen to be mated to, only he doesn’t even know that I exist. As he gets closer, my body starts to tingle; damn treacherous hormones, why must you defy me.

Adrian strolls up to the counter and waits quietly for me to acknowledge that he’s there. His massive height towers over me.

Why did I have to be so short?

When I continue to stir my herbs and not greet the Alpha of our pack, he leans down against the counter, resting his arms on top of it, bringing himself down to my height.

Bastard, I say to myself as I lift my head and narrow my eyes at him, not caring that he is the Alpha of the pack. The pack that has treated me as an outcast since birth, and my mate, can’t even detect me as I stand right in front of him.

Adrian smirks, knowing full well that he’s annoyed me.

“Hey, Poppy,” he starts as he looks around the deserted shop. “How’s business going?”

I paste a fake smile on my face and answer, “Business is great; you just missed the rush.” It’s a complete lie, but he doesn’t need to know that. He doesn’t need to know anything about my business.

Adrian’s smirk drops from his face as he nods his head but stays quiet for the moment.

I know I should ask him what he wants so I can get rid of him—out of my shop and out of my life. A small part of me loves the fact that he is here in my shop, and we’re all alone, with no one to bother us. But deep down, I know it’s too good to be true.

“Adrian, we both know that you are not here for a social call. So what do you need from me?”

Adrian immediately gets up and goes back to his tall, towering form. “I need a potion that will allow me to talk with my ancestors. Can you help me?”

A faint smile crosses my lips. I know the potion that the Alpha is looking for, and coincidentally, I had all the ingredients right here in my little shop. I also know I am the only witch within a hundred miles who could do this for him. I continue to stay silent as I stir the herbs in front of me.

A rumble comes from Adrian’s chest, telling me that his patience is wearing thin. The rumble sends a shiver down my spine, a feeling my body greets with excitement.

“Yes, I can create the potion for you and write down the incantation you will need to say after you pour the potion over the graves of your ancestors.”

Adrian’s face immediately relaxed, and I could sense the tension escaping from him. “Poppy…”

“The potion shouldn’t take too long,” I interject before he could say another word.

I turn away from him and start grabbing the ingredients I would need off of the shelves.

“So, Poppy, do you plan on attending the festival tonight?” Adrian asks with a hint of curiosity in his voice.

I chuckle but do not turn back to look at him.

“Now, why would I go to that?”

“It would show your support toward the pack. Afterward, we are heading out and going for a moonlight run. You should come run with us,” Adrian suggests.

I let out a huff as I shook my head. “We both know that I can’t do that,” I told him.

“You know there’s a rumor among the pack about a Witch-Wolf who runs on the outskirts of the pack territory in the dead of night. You wouldn’t know who’s wolf that is, would you?” He asks.

I close my eyes as panic starts to grow inside me. Taking deep breaths, I try to calm my nerves. I am grateful at this moment that he is unable to sense me.

I turn back to look him square in the eye.

“As much as I would like to feel like a member of the pack and be able to run in wolf form, unfortunately, I am just a cursed witch without a wolf to connect with my pack. I’m the outcast that no one wants around, except when someone needs one of my potions or herbs to help them through their problems,” I let out. I press my lips together and slowly turn back to mixing the ingredients.

Adrian stays quiet.

I’m sure he doesn’t know what to say to make me feel any different at this moment, which I am grateful for. Once the potion is complete, I tear off a scrap of paper and scribble the incantation on it before turning back to face him.

“Here, once you have poured this over the graves, say this aloud. There’s a new moon tonight, so tonight would be the best time to do it.” I explain.

Adrian smiles as he reaches out to grab the potion and paper out of my hand. At that moment, my heart races, waiting to feel that static feeling that mates feel between one another when their skin touches, but there is nothing.

My shoulders drop as I pull my hand back quickly and stand there quietly, not sure of what else to say.

Adrian pipes in to break the awkward silence between us. “Thank you, Poppy; I appreciate you making this for me as quickly as you did,” he says to me before stepping back and turning, making his way toward the door. He stops and turns his head back over his shoulder. “It would be nice to see you at the festival tonight,” he says quietly before walking out the door and leaving me all alone with my thoughts.