The Cursed King

Three

It is his pain.

The moment the thought solidified in my brain, I violently shoved it into the furthest, darkest corner of my mind. It was a ridiculous notion. Totally impossible.

But literally everything you're looking at right now is just as ridiculous, a tiny, cynical voice whispered in the back of my head.

Yes, okay, fine! I snapped back at my own subconscious.

But there's a massive difference between a telepathic wolf-man and literally absorbing his emotional baggage. Hearing thoughts is wild enough, but actually feeling another creature's grief? That crosses the line into complete impossibility.

Thoughts are a person's deepest, most heavily guarded secrets, and yet he can stream yours like a podcast, my subconscious dryly countered.

Is empathy really that much of a stretch?

I don't know, okay?! I screamed internally, utterly exhausted by my own brain. The whole situation is deeply weird. I don't even know why I'm arguing with myself right now.

I cleared my raspy throat, trying to regain a shred of my professional detective composure. "Um... now that you've thoroughly cleared up my doubts," spoiler alert: they were not cleared up, but I needed to focus on the immediate crisis, "can you just tell me the way out of here? How do I get home?"

The wolf-man slowly turned his massive head back toward me, the distant, sorrowful daze in his eyes snapping away at my words.

"There is no way out of here," he said flatly, his deep voice carrying a grim finality. "Just as there is no physical way to enter this place. Especially for humans. Your kind cannot cross into this realm unless you are already a spirit."

I frowned, gesturing broadly to my very solid, very bruised body. "Okay, but clearly I'm not a ghost. So how did I end up here?"

He stared at me, his sharp gaze scanning up and down my form. "I can sense my mother's essence woven into your soul. It is incredibly faint, but it is there. That is the only reason you managed to drop into this wrecked sanctuary without instantly vaporizing."

My detective brain immediately latched onto the clue. "Right, okay. So if your mother's essence is the bridge that brought me here, we can just use that same essence to send me right back through the portal, right?"

"I wouldn't advise that," the creature rumbled, his tone turning sharply serious. "The lunar essence inside you is the only thing keeping your human lungs from collapsing in this atmosphere. It acts as a shield. If we try to manipulate or extract that power for a spell, you will drop dead before you can even take a single step. Do you understand?"

A heavy, suffocating wave of dread settled into my stomach. "Does that mean... I'm stuck here? Permanently? Forever?"

"Yes," he replied calmly. "Unless, of course, you choose to take your own life to free your spirit from its flesh."

"Why the hell would I kill myself?!" I shouted, my temper finally flaring through my terror. "I want to go back to my life, yes, but I'm not going to commit suicide just to wander the earth as a spooky phantom! What would I even do in ghost form? Wander around the precinct and knock over Blake's coffee? Scare my captain? No thank you."

I crossed my arms over my chest, taking a deep, stubborn breath. "I'll stay here. I'll take my chances with the glowing flowers."

The wolf-man silently stared at me for a long, unreadable moment. Then, without a single word of agreement or reassurance, he simply turned his massive back on me and began to saunter toward the crumbling stone castle.

Just like that? I thought, completely floored. No 'welcome to the neighborhood'? No 'follow me'? Not even a goodbye?

Not wanting to be left alone in a dark field of alien flora, I quickly scrambled to my feet and hurried after him. As we walked toward the towering, ruined fortress, I tried to keep the overwhelming silence at bay by tossing random questions at his back. I had a million things I wanted to ask about the architecture of the castle and the weird biology of the glowing plants, but for some strange reason, every time I tried to formulate the words, my jaw locked up. It was like the sheer magic of the realm was physically forcing me to shut my mouth.

So, I reverted to the one question that kept nagging at me.

"You've been living here all by yourself," I started, my voice softening slightly. "Don't you ever get completely, utterly lonely?"

The beast abruptly stopped dead in his tracks.

Because I was walking directly behind him and completely lost in my own head, I didn't react in time. I crashed face-first into his back. My nose collided directly with his rigid, heavily muscled spine.

"Ouch!" I winced, stumbling backward and instantly cupping my face.

A sudden, warm wetness began to pour down my upper lip, and the sharp, unmistakable smell of iron wafted into my nose. Great. A full-blown nosebleed. Seriously, what was his back made of? Solid titanium?

The beast slowly turned around to inspect the damage, his dark eyes landing on my bleeding face. I assumed he was checking to see if he needed to put me out of my misery.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," I grumbled, waving a dismissive hand.

I grabbed the hem of my shirt, ruthlessly tearing off a strip of the fabric, and pressed the makeshift bandage firmly against my nostrils. It throbbed like crazy, but thankfully, the bone felt intact. Nothing was broken. Small victories.

Seeing that I wasn't about to bleed to death on his lawn, the beast turned back around and resumed his slow, heavy stride toward the castle.

"It doesn't feel as lonely now as it did all those thousands of years ago," he finally replied, his voice incredibly quiet.

"Oh," I mumbled through the cloth on my face. "How old are you anyway?"

"I entirely lost count after seven thousand years," he said casually.

I froze. The strip of cloth slipped right out of my fingers and fluttered to the grass. I stood there in the middle of the field like a completely dumbstruck fool, my jaw practically hitting the floor.

"Seven thousand years?!" I screamed, my voice echoing off the ancient stone walls. "Are you kidding me? You are literally more antique than the actual fossils sitting in our city museum!"

"I walked this realm before your Earth was even constructed," he countered, his words effortlessly shattering every single piece of scientific knowledge I had ever learned in school.

So, the Earth was constructed? I thought, my mind completely reeling. By who? A cosmic construction crew?

"It was forged by the raw essence and collective powers of the ancient Gods," he explained thoroughly, as if reading the frantic questions bouncing around inside my skull. "Each deity performed their specific duties to lay down the physical foundation, and then the Moirai spun the threads to spark life onto the lifeless ground."

I had a massive backlog of doubts and technical questions, but I decided to give my brain a break. The sheer volume of reality-bending information I had digested today was enough to give a seasoned detective a stroke. I needed time to process the fact that Greek mythology was real before I started asking about the logistics of the universe.

"That's... how the Earth came to life? Wow. It's actually pretty fascinating," I murmured.

We walked in silence for another minute before the awkwardness crawled back in.

"You're really not much of a talker, are you?" I asked, rubbing the back of my neck. "I feel like a total babbling i***t over here, just talking nonstop to fill the void. If my voice is annoying you, just tell me and I can shut up."

"No," he said, stopping his stride once again. He didn't turn around this time, but his ears twitched. "Do not stop. I... I haven't heard another voice in a very long time. It is comforting."

I stared at his massive back, the sarcasm draining completely out of me. "Just how long have you been entirely alone here?"

"I was seventy years old when my pack crumbled into ash," he sighed.

The utter desolation in his posture right then was devastating. His broad shoulders slouched, and his silhouette looked so incredibly isolated against the backdrop of the massive sky that tears actually pricked the corners of my eyes. He had been marooned on this silent, lonely planet for literal millennia. No one to talk to. No one to share a meal with. No one to bear witness to his suffering.

Before my logical brain could intervene, a powerful, overwhelming urge to comfort him surged through my veins. I didn't resist it. I stepped forward and wrapped my arms firmly around his massive torso from behind, pressing my cheek against his fur-covered back, hoping against hope that the gesture might swallow up even a tiny fraction of his ancient grief.

The second my arms locked around him, the beast froze as stiff as a marble statue.

The sudden rigidity snapped me right out of my emotional trance. Realization hit me like a bucket of ice water, and I violently ripped my arms back, stumbling three steps away as a scorching, bright red blush painted my cheeks.

Oh my god, why did I just do that? What is wrong with me?! I screamed at myself.

The wolf-man slowly turned around, his dark eyes locked onto my panicked face. I braced myself, fully expecting him to be furious about being randomly accosted by a fragile human. But contrary to my terrifying expectations, his face didn't hold anger. He looked... intensely curious.

Don't tell me this seven-thousand-year-old monster has never received a hug before, I thought, my heart hammering against my ribs.

"Do that again," he rumbled softly.

I blinked at him, my brain stalling out. "Do... do what?"

"Hug me again," he repeated, taking a half-step forward.

My detective suspicion instantly flared up. Oh, great. Don't tell me the beast I thought was a tragic, innocent warrior is actually just a supernatural pervert. I took a deliberate step backward, my eyes narrowing.

Seeing my retreat, the creature let out a low, weary sigh. "I do not harbor any bad intentions, human. I swear it. I just... I need to confirm something."

He looked incredibly honest- as honest as a giant wolf-man could possibly look. I swallowed hard, realizing I still had no real leverage here. "Fine. Okay. Come here."

I hesitantly spread my arms open. The beast took a slow, deliberate step toward me and completely engulfed me in his massive, heavily muscled arms.

The physical contrast was ridiculous. I am not a short woman by human standards- I stand at a solid 5′11", and I'm used to holding my own in a room full of male detectives. But inside his embrace, I felt like a literal dwarf. My face was pressed directly against his solid abdomen, the sheer scale of him making me feel utterly microscopic.

But the moment my bare skin brushed against him, logic completely evaporated.

A sharp, literal bolt of electricity shot directly through my veins. It wasn't painful- it was an intense, intoxicating wave of heat that sent a million wild butterflies fluttering through my stomach. My chest tightened as a sudden, heavy rhythm began to vibrate between us.

Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

Our heartbeats were perfectly synchronizing, racing faster and faster in tandem. With every accelerated thud, the electric sparks under my skin grew crazier, turning into a beautiful, terrifying current of pure energy.

Panicking at the sheer intensity of the feeling, I violently jerked away from him, my cheeks burning a redder shade than the most vibrant lipstick in my makeup bag. I stumbled backward, clutching my chest, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs.

Am I seriously having unholy, highly inappropriate thoughts about a creature who isn't even fully human? I scolded myself frantically, my mind spinning into a blind panic. Have you completely lost your damn mind, Aelia? You cannot be getting physically attracted to a literal beast. That is textbook b********y! I am a respected detective, not one of those weirdos who gets turned on by wild animals!

As I stood there, internally screaming and reprimanding myself with absolute fury, a horrific, chilling realization suddenly dropped into the pit of my stomach like a lead weight.

Oh, s**t.

He can hear every single thing I think.

~•~