Chapter 56: Chapter 56

Chapter 56 Only hope

MAIA'S POV

On the way back to the castle, Neal filled me in with what happened during the past 7 months, and it shocked me. It broke my heart hearing how hurt and depressed Lucius was when I left. A part of me was mad because I left, but a part of me was justifying my reasons.

'I told you we should have gone back a long time ago. I knew there was something wrong with our mate. You never listened,' Avi scolded me.

'Really, Avi? Do you want to do this right now? You know what? I will just ignore everything you said and assume that it was the mate bond speaking. Why don't you just sit back and relax until we get home, huh?' I replied, not wanting to argue with her.

"So, Maia. How has it been? How did you end up in Nana's place?" Neal asked.

"To be honest, I was just strolling around town when I saw Nana's shop. I took the guts to apply for a job, which she gladly gave me and even offered me a place to stay. She is such a wonderful lady. I owe her so much for how she looked after me these past months." I replied.

"Nana is a nice person. She used to be a part of the pack until her mate died and she traveled the world. Losing her mate took a toll on her, so she settled with the humans. Every once in a while, she would visit the pack house. She's like everyone's Grandma." He said.

"Sounds like Nana," I added with a smile.

For the rest of the trip, we casually talked about random stuff from how the Omegas were always looking for me and the people at the pack house requested my presence. It was overwhelming to hear that many people missed my presence, and that I was that important to them.

I made a mental note to make a lot of brownies when we had settled down and figured out what was going on with Lucius.

A few hours later, I fell asleep. The nightmares had been becoming worse the past few days, which kept me awake throughout the night. I came to a point where I was too tired to even sleep, so I stayed up crocheting instead. It took a toll on me, and I was thankful for the concealer that could hide the dark circles under my eyes.

I woke up to someone shaking my shoulder.

"Maia. We are here." I heard Neal say.

I slowly opened my eyes and looked around. After a couple of seconds, I realized we were at the Lake House.

"What are we doing here?" I asked, confused.

"Um. There was a slight situation we had, and I had to make sure that he would be safe until we got back." He replied.

I looked at him with so many questions in my head.

"What situation?" I asked.

He let out a sigh and looked at me.

"Remember when I told you he was not feeling well? Well, it's much more than that." He said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

He shifted in his seat and faced me.

"I know that this is not my story to tell, but I have to tell you a bit for you to understand the situation. Five years ago, a witch cursed him after his mom died. Unfortunately, we have not found the witch who did this to him or if that witch was even alive. The pack doctor has been preparing a serum for him. We inject him every full moon to weaken the effect of the curse. No matter how hard the doctor tried, it was never strong enough to weaken him. Over time, he can control himself a bit, but the effects are still there and sometimes it becomes too much to handle." He explained.

"What is this curse that you are talking about?" I asked, still confused after everything he just told me.

"Remember that night I told you to run and never look back? The curse effect was so strong that night that he could break the thick silver chains that we soaked in wolfsbane. We gave him his normal dose of the serum that the doctor made." He said.

"What does this curse exactly do to him?" I asked.

"Every full moon, he would turn into a demonic monster," he said.

"How bad is it?" I asked.

"I think it's better that you see it with your own eyes," he said.

"Okay," I mumbled.

We exited the car, and I waited for him as we headed to the door. There were two guards by the door when we entered. They gave us a curt nod and mumbled "Queen Luna" when I passed by.

Before entering the room, I took a deep breath and readied myself for all the possibilities. What I saw next was not what I had prepared for or expected.

I simply stared at him while having a hard time processing what I was seeing.

"How... How long does he stay like this?" I asked.

"Normally, the effect of the curse would wear off after a day or two, but recently it has been taking longer. Unlike the previous months, this has been worse." He replied.

"How?" I asked.

"He has been like that for almost 2 weeks." He said.

"What!? Two weeks? What will happen then? Is he going to stay like that or what?" I asked, extremely worried.

"I wish I knew what to tell you, but I don't. To be honest, you are my only hope," he said.

"Me? How am I supposed to fix this?" I asked.

"The mate bond." That was all he said.

I stood there rooted to where I was standing with a million questions running in my head.

"I'm going to check the palace. Let me know if there is anything you need." He said before leaving me all alone in the room with him.

After a couple of minutes, I trudged to the bed to have a closer look at him.

'All this time, our mate was going through such pain and we didn't know,' Avi said.

I stayed quiet, not knowing what to say.

Even in his unconscious state, I could see the pain on his face. His face was really scary. If I saw him at a later time, like at night, I would have screamed. His face looked demonic. Just looking at him made me shiver.

I sat on the chair beside the bed.

'How are we going to help him, Avi? I do not know what to do,' I asked Avi.

'I don't know either, Maia. I wish I knew. Sorry.' She replied.

I let out a sigh and slowly reached out for his hand. I let out a gasp when I felt the sparks. Even in his state, I was glad that the sparks were still there. Somehow, it assured me that the monster on the bed was still my mate.

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