The Alpha's Cursed Mate

Chapter 8

I stand against the stone barrier of the terrace which overlooks one of the two main gates of Tophet's keep. This particular one faces the north — where Tabitha is journeying from, once again riding on the back of a wolf to traverse the winter's icy obstacles. It has been a week since I have last seen her, but we have communicated through formal, cautious letters.

My days without her continued to grow as she stayed to arrange the announcement of my mating. The news was released this morning and will surely unfurl to every corner of my land by sunset. But, because Tabitha has finished each duty on our list, she is able to travel back to me. My pack will be alright until Tophet and I make our promise under the moonlight in eight days, and then I will hurry home to tend to my people myself.

I uncross my arms that are tucked in the folds of my cloak and instead place them on the chilled stone top of the terrace's wall. The guard — Harrold — whose turn it is to stand at my door now waits only a few feet behind me. I thought it would be best to have his protection near when wandering the keep alone. Someone may slip through the terrace's door then throw me over the edge. I lean over the wall and peer to the sole-compacted dirt of the courtyard below.

Such a fall would kill me.

"Careful," Harrold calls over my shoulder.

I reel myself in. "I can't wait here a second longer; it's making time go by so slowly. Let's walk."

"Where to?"

I leave the terrace with Harrold at my side. I randomly pick a direction in the hall and let it lead me wherever it beckons, and Harrold keeps up just fine. "It could still be hours until she arrives, so we may as well use our time wisely and familiarize ourselves with this place. We'll be visiting quite frequently, I can imagine."

Harrold nods.

"Tophet is smarter than to keep his secrets out in the open, behind closed doors, don't you think? Even if I wanted to snoop about, I don't think we'd be able to find anything. Just from the short time I've been stuck with him, I can already tell that he has all of his secrets safe in his mind. He's utterly impenetrable."

Harrold only listens, but I don't expect him to gossip with me anyway.

"Now everyone knows we're mated. Goddess, I wonder what people are thinking. Did you know that Alpha Tophet expects me to exchange my title as Alpha for the title of Luna? Don't worry. I would never be so foolish. Just because we've announced our bond, does not mean I've agreed to anything having to do with the merger. If he keeps proposing ridiculous clauses, then there will be no merger, even if I could benefit from it. I'm tired of men constantly undermining me." I sarcastically laugh, "Luna? Never."

My gaze catches on an archway illuminated cooly by what could only be sunlight. I stop walking, causing Harrold to halt. "What's this?" I murmur and stray through.

The archway leads into a narrow corridor that curves right and slopes downward in long, mild steps. At the end is a door to the outside left ajar. Harrold swiftly slides past me and takes the first look, ensuring that the area is secure.

"Is it beyond the keep walls?" I ask, only able to see slivers past his frame.

"No," he says and moves aside, "it's a courtyard."

I push the door open to venture through. On the other side rests a garden of sorts, overgrown yet scraggly and colorless in the season. Moss fills the cracks between the bricks of the stone path — some stones almost entirely coated and others broken by some unknown force. The courtyard itself is quaint compared to others and is obviously far less visited.

I step forward softly as my eyes linger with child-like wonder. My brother and I would have loved to play in a place as magical as this.

I caress the shoulder of the statue that sits in the very center. I hold onto it as I circle to its front, then there I realize it is a woman draped in a waved fabric that gathers at her feet. The fabric covers her face and is held there by a crown, but her feminine features show in the delicate nature of her hands which are uncovered and that grasp upward at something unseen.