Page 60 of Brutally Mated
“It doesn’t say that specifically. It says:
Power in darkness.
Those who bleed must fall.
Evil stalks the land.
‘Till she does call.
Her hair of red.
Her gown of green.
Her light from lands distant.
Never before seen.
She lifts her voice.
She parts her thighs.
Her essence flees.
Evil cries.
When dark meets light, a new day will rise.”
“Those who bleed must fall,” my father says. “She’ll die.”
“That’s our bloodline, Father. Not hers. Our women die. And it can’t happen anymore. Under any circumstances. No. I forbid it.”
He walks to his decanter and pours some whiskey into a tumbler, handing it to me.
“She could be the difference,” he says. “But you should not have brought her here if you were not prepared to lose her. Prophecies are best avoided, my boy. I should know.”
He glances over at the portrait of my mother that hangs above the fireplace. There is another in his bedroom, and one in the dining room. At least one in each hall, and in most rooms. My mother’s visage looks down at us reproachfully day after day. Her face is burned into my memory, not as a living thing, but as an image that I have surely disappointed. I let her die. I could have saved her if I had broken the curse earlier, but I didn’t. We didn’t.
Our mother died after my youngest sister was born, after the wise woman told us the baby would take everything from us. She was right. My father didn’t believe in curses, but I do.
“How much do you love her?” My father sees me looking at the portrait of my mother, but he is asking the question about Tabby
“With all my heart, Father.”
“Then you will never be the same,” he declares. “You will forever regret this.”
“I thought you would be pleased,” I say, confused.
“Pleased for my pack perhaps, but not for you. This is a reckless plan. There is nothing we can do about the curse. It is better to accept it. Sali has years ahead of her before it comes for her.”
“I lost my mother. I will not lose my baby sister as well. I won’t let a curse destroy our family.”
He takes a long draught of his vessel and gives me a look of pure derision. “You’re willing to sacrifice your mate?”
“If she’s my mate, then she’s part of the curse anyway,” I say. “Sooner or later she bears a female that is subject to the curse, right? It’s time this ended, Father. It’s time. She can do it. She’s the only one who can.”
“So my son left my home to find someone to save his sister, and he came back with a girl barely old enough to be mated, and that is who he pins his hopes on?”
He has no faith in me. He has never had any faith in me. I intend to prove him wrong, because I have to. I knew the moment I met Tabby that we would one day be here. I knew she was the one I needed. He can look down his nose at me all he wants, but if the males of our family were able to end this curse on our own, we would have done it a hundred times over.
