The Alpha’s Curse: The Enemy Within
Chapter 64

Sheila's point of view

"I am in dire need of some help, Lorenzo," I said, rushing to where he was. He led me to the large table in the middle of the room, helping me to sit. "You don't look well." He noted, staring intently at me. I didn't feel so good. Aside from the banging ache in my head, I felt a growing heat in my stomach.

"I just have a hammering ache. But that's not why I am here." I said. Enzo pulled his hand back to cup my face, and slowly it moved to my temple. My eyes pierced into his magenta eyes, and slowly the ache in my head began to vanish. He removed his hand when he was done. "Thank you."

"So, what is the other reason you are here?" He asked.

I rubbed my palms against each other. I wasn't sure where to begin, that wouldn't make me sound insane. So, I decided to start with the dreams I have been having, and then I told him about my childhood, which I can't seem to remember. He kept his gaze fixed on me until I was done.

"If these dreams are somehow memories I have forgotten, then I want to remember. I want to remember everything I have forgotten."

"If these dreams were memories from your childhood, did you ever consider that maybe it was for the best that you couldn't remember anything?" He asked me and I fell silent.

I did. Ever since I began having these dreams, I have considered that thought. I don't know what I'd do if these dreams were memories of mine. That would mean everything was real. The fights, chaos, and deaths would mean it all happened, and that woman, the one my younger self seemed to recognize as my mother, was really dead.

I felt fear travel down my spine and confusion soon found me. If that woman was my mother, and she was a witch, then who the hell was I? And why can't I replace my father in any of these? I didn't know when tears rolled from my eyes.

I felt Enzo's warm hands on me.

"Even though remembering my past might bring me more pain, I want to remember it all," I said.

Lorenzo nodded. The skin around his eyes knitted. "Alright. If that is what you want."

He was on his feet. He moved to the wooden shelf at the end of the room, with his woolen black cloak brushing the floor.

When he returned to me, there was nothing in his hands except a small black stone. He handed it to me. I looked at it with raised brows.

"You will need it." He said, crouching next to where I was seated. "What I am going to do will cause you immense pain. It will feel like someone is prying into the depths of your soul with a piercing dagger. That stone won't take away the pain, but it will lessen it." He said. His every word made my heart pound. But I wasn't going to back out now. I could bear the pain as long as I could get my answers.

Lorenzo was in front of me, his face inches apart from mine. He pulled his large thumb to my chin, lifting my head so I could stare deep into his eyes. Soon, both of his hands were positioned on my face, cupping my face. His deep magenta was boring right through my crystal blue eyes.

I could feel my heartbeat rising.

"Breathe." As Lorenzo calmed me, his eyes began to glow brightly. It was as if the blinding light was piercing through my eyes. His lips began to move. I couldn't hear what he was saying because the next thing I felt was brutal pain.

****

Valerie's point of view

I was on my way back to the pack. I had to visit the witches' village within the capital walls of North Central, and maybe I just needed to clear my head. To think clearly.

These days, there were a lot of happenings around the pack that I just couldn't understand. Last night was one of those strange things that I couldn't understand.

I sighed, tugging harder on the reins of the horse as we were almost at the pack's borders.

"What is it that borders you?" Gwen, one of the coven witches, asked beside me on her horse. Her inquiry pierced the depths of my soul. Everything seemed to be bothering me.

I can feel it. There is a looming darkness lurking within the pack; it's over everyone. Strange things happened that I couldn't explain, starting with the death of Rowan. He was murdered by a witch within the pack's territory. A witch that didn't belong to the coven. Somewhere deep down, I know that whoever murdered him was still within us. The witches and I haven't stopped investigating, and whosoever the witch was, we will unmask the witch.

And there was another thing keeping me awake at night: Sheila Callaso. There was more to her than anyone knew. She had a mighty aura around her that no she-wolf could possess, even being of alpha blood.

I just can't drift my thoughts from the magical door to the energy I felt the night Killian went on a rampage and then the night she found the stone. The energy that caused that destruction that night and brutally murdered the Dark Circle army wasn't from the power of the stone. It was something else. Something I had witnessed before, from the night of the tragedy.

The night everything turned for the worse, and the Dark Circle managed to get their hands on the child that was spoken of on the crystal stones in the fortress, the one destined to save the supernatural realm from the greatest force of evil that would be awoken from the chaos of darkness. Whatever, or whoever that evil was, the prophecy didn't say, but the prophesied child was one of us.

She was the daughter of one of the Crystal Fortress head witches, Fiona Black. A powerful witch from an ancient clan also, Luna of the Black Blood Pack, and mother to the Black Blood Pack's Alphas, Alpha Leonardo and Kaiser Black.

Even at a young age, I still remember that night like it was yesterday. The brutal deaths of the Dark Circle army that was led by Alpha Nell Reid were identical to those of the Dark Circle army that was murdered that night by an unknown power.

I couldn't deny it. At some point, there was a part of me that believed the Alpha's mate was the source of that unknown power. A greater part of me hoped that she was her, the prophesied child that Nell Reid took that night. No one knew what happened to her; we had no idea if she was murdered or not, as the Dark Circle wanted to eliminate the very force that could stand against them.

But if Sheila was truly that child and the sister to both Alpha Leonardo and Kaiser Black, then they would have recognized her, but it felt like they didn't, or maybe they did well to hide it. Leonardo was good at that. But there was no way I could ask them this; they didn't trust me like they did before.

After the night that Fiona was murdered protecting her daughter, I joined Killian's pack, and Leonardo despised me for it. The hatred between Killian's pack and the Black Blood Pack was so immense that I feared nothing could put an end to the enmity. If only they could realize that everyone was a victim of Killian's father, Nell Reid's, cruelty.

Just as much as the Blacks lost Fiona, the late Alpha and their sister, that night, so did Killian. He also lost a brother.

"Valerie!"

I shook abruptly, my purple eyes shifting to Gwen. She had a worried look on her face. As a channeler, she could feel the unsettledness within me and it worried her.

"I am fine." I said, realizing we'd crossed into Killian's territory.

I sighed again. After the night Sheila retrieved the phoenix stone, my suspicion grew stronger. So, I did a spell on her to check if there was an ounce of witch's magic within her. But there wasn't. The spell informed her that she was a full-blooded wolf without any magic within her.

The spell could never lie, but if my suspicion was right, there was a chance that the witch side of her hadn't been awoken. She hasn't had her awakening yet, and her powers could still be dormant. But for how long?

We moved on our horses, reaching the castle. From afar, my eyes fell on Thea. She was just entering the castle. She was the last cause of my unsettledness.

Last night, the witches and I performed a spell with the blood of the gifted one, Thea. It was supposed to be some sort of cleansing ritual for the wolves before the crescent moon night. But something wasn't right. Being the gifted one, blessed by the moon goddess, I could no doubt feel the strong energy in her blood.

There was supposed to be a blood moon in the night sky as a result of the ritual we performed with the gifted one's blood. But there wasn't. That was the highlight of the ritual, yet nothing happened.

And with the crescent moon almost upon us, I can't help but wonder if Killian truly has found the gifted one, the only one who can break his curse.