Page 5 of Cursed Alien
He took an involuntary step forward, leaves crunching beneath his weight, but something else stirred in the depths of his mind.Not my female.Not the one whose scent had awakened him.
Agatha tilted her head at the sound, but didn’t look in his direction as she sent the young female up the path. The younger female hesitated, then nodded and continued down the path, casting one worried glance over her shoulder before disappearing around a bend.
He remained motionless, fighting the urge to go after her. Even though she was not his female, something about her called to him—the gown, perhaps, or the way she held herself.
A memory flashed: another female in a similar gown, presented to him in a grand hall. He had rejected her with casual cruelty, dismissing her as unworthy.
The memory vanished, leaving only confusion in its wake. He took another step forward, drawn by the need to understand, and Agatha turned towards him, her eyes, sharp and knowing, scanning the shadows where he stood. For a moment, he thought she couldn’t see him—but then her gaze locked with his, and recognition flickered across her features.
“Come out,” she said quietly. “I know you’re there.”
He hesitated, then stepped forward. The last rays of sunlight caught his fur, turning the dark-grey to burnished silver along his arms, but she showed no fear, only a deep sadness.
“Malrik.”
His name. Spoken aloud, it unlocked something—a cascade of fractured memories. A noble house. A betrayal. Pride before a fall.
The beast—Malrik—moved closer, drawn by the sound of his name on familiar lips.
“Agatha,” he growled, the word rough and malformed in his beast throat.
“You remember.”
Did he? Fragments only. This woman. Warnings unheeded. Something about a curse. He growled low in his throat and took another step forward. His gaze followed the path where the younger female had disappeared, and he made a questioning sound.
Agatha shook her head. “No, Malrik. She is not for you.”
He growled again, taking another step towards the path, but Agatha stepped in front of him, her small body somehow blocking his way.
“She is not yours,” she repeated, her voice gentler now. “The one you seek is elsewhere.”
Confusion gave way to rage—hot and sudden. The beast reared up to his full height, towering over her, but she didn’t retreat, just studied him with knowing eyes.
“Your anger changes nothing,” she said firmly. “You made your choice long ago, when you let your pride consume you.” Her voice softened. “But there may yet be hope for you, if you can find your way back.”
He snarled, frustrated by words he half-understood and memories that slipped through his grasp like water. Something about her words struck deep—a truth he didn’t want to acknowledge.
Lost. Alone. Cursed.
The words echoed in his mind, bringing with them a wave of grief and rage so intense that his vision blurred. He threw back his head and howled, a sound of such raw anguish that birds exploded from nearby trees in panicked flight.
When the sound died away, he found Agatha still standing before him, a single tear glistening on her cheek.
“Go home, Malrik,” she whispered. “Wait. Your time will come.”
But the beast had taken control again, driven by a pain it couldn’t understand. With another snarl, he turned and crashed back into the forest, running blindly through the gathering darkness, trying to outpace the grief that followed like a shadow.
Trees whipped past, branches tearing at his fur. He ran until his lungs burned and his muscles screamed for rest, but still he pushed on, driven by an agony that had no name.
Only when the moon had risen high above the mountains did he finally slow, his chest heaving with exertion. He must have circled back because he found himself in front of a familiar building—the overgrown remains of what had once been his home. The keep rose against the starlit sky, its towers like accusing fingers pointing toward the heavens.
Something about it both repelled him and called to him. A sanctuary and a prison.
With a last mournful howl that echoed across the valley, he padded towards the ruins, disappearing into the shadows of what had once been his domain.
CHAPTER4
Bella cursed as her wrench slipped, skinning her knuckles against the sharp edge of the generator housing. She sucked at the beads of blood, tasting metal and frustration.
