Sebastián's POV
The curse, they call it the Southern Blightveil, in short, Blight. It was as the name suggested—it caused decay and ruin anywhere and everywhere. I remember this used to be a myth, a bedtime story for the kids in the village who were naughty. I was one of them.
The story's contents were actually a song. It went:
In power, there is always weakness. In weakness, there is desperation. And in desperation, there will always be those who venture into the dark.
It was said to be powerful. Long ago, our ancestral lineage sought out a witch. They were a powerful pair, dominating the warring states thanks to their intelligent strategies, but they never saw the attack on their child coming. They went to the witch to seek a second chance. Their child had been killed in an assassin attack, and the alpha and his luna could not accept it. They were devastated.
They never expected that their unborn child would serve as the only weak link into their well-guarded territory. It was said that no witch who practiced light magic could help them, so they were so desperate that they turned to a dark magic practitioner. She helped them in exchange for the boy's life when he grew up. She promised she was not going to kill him; she just wanted an apprentice. The pair agreed.
However, it was later discovered that the witch was actually planning on handing the boy to an enemy pack. To protect the child, the alpha and his queen chose to wage war against the witch. They did not succeed. The witch cursed their lands and then went into hiding. They never found her. On the other hand, wolves were dying, and the curse was not discriminating. It killed all the wolves who came across it. Fur falling off, blackened skin, veins turning black and calcifying, eyes bulging, excruciating pain that makes a wolf run around like a madman—all these happened to those wolves. Warring states stopped because they had a bigger problem on their hands.
It wasn't until fear and despair had settled in that they were saved. A she-wolf. I don't know the details of this, but that she-wolf had her own special fur color, her eyes, paws—everything about her. She contained the curse and hid it, but the witch was never found.
Fast forward about a century later, we are having the same problem. The curse reemerged. The same symptoms, but a different level of intensity. It is not only affecting wolves, and it is not being transmitted from one wolf to the next. Instead, it can be found in odd places like farming lands, rivers, wildlife, and it is destroying the resources we are relying on. Right now, as I speak, I am going to a neighboring pack where it had been spotted. Black, gross lines on a tree and equally black leaves falling off. I know, unbelievable, but I've seen worse in the past three years as I traveled to help contain it.
The car pulled to a stop close to the woods where they had spotted trees with weird leaves, and I got off with my team. As beta of the Crescent, I was not supposed to be moving around a lot. I was supposed to be stuck in an office like my brother, but that was not my area of interest, so I volunteered to do this instead.
"Liam, tell the new recruits that they must not transform. If they so much as transform and step on it or touch it, then they are dead. I am not in the mood to be carrying body bags back to the lands," I instructed one of my friends and drinking buddy, Liam, who was also twenty-four years old but acted like an old, groggy man.
"Saying it nicely wouldn't hurt, beta," he said to me.
"Whatever," I answered back. The Ruby Pack decided to "lend" us some manpower because it was just the two of us, and I honestly didn't have the energy to say no. Besides, it was either this or I'd have been stuck at home watching Zoe turn my apartment upside down for that damned girl. Even the thought of her annoyed me. So, I'd rather be annoyed by a bunch of teenagers who think they're manly enough to help us deal with the curse.
Liam relayed the information, and we went into the woods on foot. We couldn't drive because it was too dense, and turning wolf would only lead to our deaths, so walking with two legs like a human was the only option.
"Ouch!" someone behind me exclaimed. Since I had not signed up for a babysitting job, I didn't bother to turn back. The little boy would have to sort out his own boo-boo. Though I heard Liam asking him if he was alright, so that also worked, I guess. It was dark, probably 9 p.m., and the woods were festering with roots and bushes, so if they didn't walk carefully, they'd likely hit something.
"We're here," the guide said. He was the only one in the Ruby Pack's party who was at least above the age of twenty. He took out his phone and used it as a source of light. For Pete's sake, I had just praised the guy, but he didn't have enough brain cells to bring a flashlight if he was going to venture into the woods. Liam stepped forward with a small black bag and took out two flashlights.
"Alright, time to play is over, kids. Stay behind," I said—the only thing I'd actually said to them since I arrived here. They listened and stayed back. They were frightened. Extra help, my foot.
Liam and I went closer to analyze the place. Usually, my wolf would squirm, feel discomfort if not fear from the place, but this time, nothing. He was just sleeping. I looked at Liam, and he also shook his head. If it felt nothing, that means…
"It's a false alarm," Liam said calmly.
I turned and faced the group behind me. "Tell me, boys, does your pack have a fetish for fucking witches?" I said without a care if I offended them or not.
"What do you mean?" the older guide asked.
"It means that because of your sick and twisted fetish, maybe you, your friends, or even your fathers have, we just wasted resources worth several hundred dollars because the she-wolves here didn't satisfy you." I spat and walked past them. It happened. Not that I was ridiculous or anything. It's not the sex—rather, the witch. If stimulated, they lose control, and the black tree roots, trunks, and leaves thing would happen because that's what this pointed to.
About half an hour after I walked out on them, the group came out of the woods, and Liam joined me at the car. I was bored, so I decided to explain the situation to my brother. Liam got close to me and lit a cigarette. I scrunched my nose.
"Fuck it, Liam. I always tell you to not use that when you're with me," I whined.
"Tsk, it's good to relieve tension from a day's work with a smoke," he scoffed.
"But you didn't work," I said, ignoring the vibrations my phone was suddenly getting, making it beep nonstop.
"Yeah, but I worked up a good sweat being tense over the curse being here, so I need to smoke because of that," Liam said like what he was saying was logical.
I coughed twice, not once, and it was time for me to move away from him. A cigarette to me was like beer. The smoke alone made me think that they grabbed paper from the sewage, dried it, and smoked it. It was disgusting.
Finally being away from the sewage dump Liam was creating with his smoke, I turned my phone to look at it.
She is here, Sebastián. Hurry back. - Kai
"What the actual fuck?" I cursed under my breath. That girl was supposed to come here tomorrow. What the fuck was that bastard Lucian trying to pull here?