The Cursed King

Alastair Lorcàn was born from the purest devotion. His mother was the Moon Goddess herself, and his father was her most loyal, trusted servant. As a demigod, Alastair was powerful from the moment he drew his first breath, holding a special, revered place among others of his kind. When he turned three, his mother gave him a breathtaking gift: a realm of his very own. It was a sanctuary tucked far away from the piercing rays of the sun, yet it possessed a beautiful magic- the ability to grow and sustain life using nothing but pure moonlight. His mother always told him he had a rare gift, that he was the first of his kind. As a child, he couldn't see how he could ever be as special as the goddess who ruled the night skies. But as the years pressed on, the weight of her words began to make sense. At fifteen, Alastair shifted into a wolf for the first time. A year later, he ascended from a mere King to the world's very first Lycan. With this evolution came an extraordinary power: the ability to create more of his kind. Slowly, he built his pack by hand, pouring his soul into them. He loved and protected his pack with every fiber of his being. Alastair was genuinely happy, yet surrounded by so much life, an empty ache grew inside him. Since childhood, he had witnessed the profound, unwavering love between his mother and father. More than anything, he craved a love like that for himself. Sadly, this desperate longing for a soulmate would ultimately become his undoing. During a grand gala hosted by the King of Hell, Alastair's eyes locked onto a child of the night. She was utterly captivating. Her eyes were a fierce, flaming crimson that mirrored the depths of the underworld, contrasting sharply with her pale skin and vibrant ginger hair. Even her feral addiction to blood struck him as nothing short of adorable. He fell for her hard and fast. The girl loved him too, or so he thought, and they were soon married. But in the end, her craving for sin outweighed her love for him. The first time she strayed with another man, guilt ate at her. But as time went on, that guilt mutated into a twisted pleasure. She betrayed Alastair again and again, using her nightly "hunts" as a cover. She would return to their bed and sleep peacefully in his embrace, fresh from the arms of another. What she never expected, however, was to actually fall in love with her dirty little secret. Slowly but surely, her cold, dead heart began to beat for this other man- a creature of her own kind. She genuinely believed she could keep her husband in the dark forever. Then came the night of their wedding anniversary. Alastair walked in on them, catching his wife beneath a stranger. In an instant, the Lycan King lost his sanity. Blinged by absolute betrayal, he let out a guttural roar that shook the very foundations of the room. Before his wife could even scream, Alastair lunged forward, plunging his hand into the stranger's chest and ripping his heart clean out. The man instantly crumbled into ash. Horrified, the woman wailed over the dust of her lover. Looking up at Alastair with eyes full of venom, she spat a devastating curse: "Just as I have lost everything, you will lose your everything. You will watch those you love crumble to dust before your very eyes. You will never see a shred of light again. I condemn you to eternal darkness!" The moment the curse left her lips, she too disintegrated into nothingness. Alastair stood frozen, but the nightmare wasn't over. A horrific chain reaction rippled through his realm. He watched in absolute anguish as the members of his beautiful pack- the people he had created and cherished- began to collapse, turning into piles of grey ash right before his eyes. Within minutes, he was entirely alone. Broken and hollow, Alastair collapsed to his knees. He threw his head back and howled to his mother in the night sky, begging her to end his misery. With everything he loved gone, he had no will to live. But grief quickly twisted into an uncontrollable, blinding rage. Losing his mind to the madness, Alastair went on a rampage, tearing down the very homes and sanctuaries he had built alongside his pack. "My beautiful child," a gentle, weeping voice broke through the chaos. Amidst the ruins, the Moon Goddess appeared. She rushed to her son, wrapping him in her arms and weeping bitterly as she held his trembling, broken form. Seeing her only child completely lose his sanity tore her apart, but her divine powers were useless here. She couldn't reverse the curse, she couldn't bring his pack back, and she couldn't simply create a new one to replace his grief. Desperate, she sought out the Moirai- the three Fates who spin, measure, and cut the threads of destiny for mortals, Gods, and Titans alike. Because the Fates do not possess the power to resurrect the dead, they couldn't undo the tragedy. However, as they examined Alastair's life thread, they noticed something alarming. "His soul is shattered and damaged beyond repair," the Fates whispered. "If things continue down this path, his very existence will fade away into nothing." "Please, what must I do to save him?" the Moon Goddess begged. The Fates looked closely at the tangled thread. "Half of his soul is still salvageable, but if it remains bound to his current, broken state, it will become corrupted too. The only way to save him is to split his soul in half. With your lunar magic, we can heal the severed half, and we will weave it back into the wheel of fate to create a new life. Only his other half- his true soulmate- can be his redemption. She will be the only one capable of saving him from total destruction." With the plan set, Clotho carefully wove the newly healed thread into the great tapestry of time. Thousands of years passed in lonely, agonizing darkness for the Lycan King. But finally, across the vast expanse of time, his missing half drew her first breath- born into the world as a human girl. ~•~