Chapter 3 CHOSEN NOT CURSED

"Have you lost your damn mind, Zara?!" Denice screamed at the top of her lungs. She had been awakened rudely that morning by low groans that seemed to be coming from Zara.

The deep groans didn't sound lady like and Denice had to quit her sleep to find the source of the endless groans that kept her turning and tossing in bed.

She was dumbstruck to find Alpha Kael Draven, the lycan king, lying just next to her on Zara's bed.

"What in the world?!!!" She had screamed and humped out of her bed almost running out of the cabin when she bumped into Zara on her way out.

"What's the matter with you?" Zara asked, making her way inside the cabin.

Denice yanked her by the arm, pulling her roughly. "Don't say a word!" Denice lapped her index finger over her lip as her bulged sockets drifted to where Alpha Draven lay.

"I don't know how the hell he got in here, but we have to get out." Denice's hot breath flushed against Zara's face.

"Calm down, Denice. I brought him in here." Zara revealed ans released Denice's grasp on her arm.

"You did what?!" Denice exclaimed silently, afraid that her rants would awaken the Lycan king.

"You heard me, I brought him in last night."

"What?!"

"Wh-why on earth would you do that?!" Denice stuttered; she was at a loss for words as Hervase kept drifting back to the Lycan king, who was still fast asleep on Zara's bed.

"And you let him lie on your bed? What is he even doing here in the first place, how did he find us-how does he know where we live?!" Denice asked all at once.

"It's a long story, but I'll tell you all about it later. Right now, I need to see if he's doing well."

Denice was still in shock, watching Zara walk past him towards Alpha Kael Draven.

"Can you help me make some tea for him while I try to get him to wake up?" Zara asked politely.

"No way in the world am I too to do that, until you tell me what the hell the lycan king is doing here," Denice whispered sternly.

Zara sighed and was about to head out to go make the tea herself when Alpha Draven began to stir awake.

"On shit!" Denice exclaimed and made her way out of the cabin, leaving Zara alone with him.

Zara's breath hitched in her throat as Alpha Draven's eyes fluttered open, "Where am I?!" These were the first words he uttered as his eyes took in his environment.

"You're in my cabin," Zara informed him, swallowing the bile in her throat.

"Your cabin? How did I get here?!" He asked with furrowed brows, trying to recall the events of last night.

Zara shot him a confused look. Doesn't he have any memories of what had transpired last night, how he had killed that rogue and suddenly passed out?

"I found you in a critical condition, so I had to take you in." Zara lied.

"Gosh, what's the time? I'm supposed to be at a council meeting...." He ignored what she had said and got up from the bed.

"My head hurts so bad." He groaned in pain while grabbing his head. He didn't want to go into much detail about what must have happened to him since he was already running late for his council meeting.

"Thank you so much, Zara, for taking me in, but I will see you when I get back from my council meeting." He said and vanished out of the cabin.

*********

The scent of burning sage and old parchment filled the ancient chamber, the dim torchlight casting flickering shadows along the stone walls. Zara Grey ran her fingers over the brittle pages of the Lycan Codex, her heart hammering as she read the words that had been hidden for centuries.

She had no idea how she found herself in the temple's library. She had paid a visit to the temple because that was the only place she derived solace apart from the woods. But instead, she had wanted to fulfill this pressing instinct to visit the temple's library.

She found a book with a prophecy that was surprisingly written about her-not her in quote, but all of the life's events that took place in the prophecy pointed towards her life.

"The Beta-born with six broken bonds shall stand before the cursed king. She alone shall decide his fate-to free him or to end him. One must fall for the other to rise."

Zara's breath came in short gasps as the truth settled like ice in her veins.

Her mind suddenly went to her six mates who had rejected her in the past and had suddenly disappeared.

It had never been a coincidence. She had been chosen. Prepared. Groomed.

Her fingers trembled as she traced the prophecy's final line, barely daring to breathe.

"By her blood, the curse shall be undone."

Zara swallowed hard. Her rejection, her suffering-it had never been about her. It had always been about Draven. The Lycan King's curse and her tragic fate were bound together in ways she had never imagined.

And now, she had a choice to make.

Her eyes took in the words from the book, her heart heavy. She wanted to make sense of all that was happening, she recalled the event from the night she had first ran into Alpha Draven; it now dawned on her why he had refused to neither mark or reject.

But she remembered something else: The unconfirmed news about a mysterious illness that was killing the Lycans in Alpha Draven's pack.