Maggie's POV
after the abduction
The cab door slammed shut and they were gone.
I could not believe it.
The black car had. My best friend, my person was taken.
I just stood there my hands shaking, my lungs burning like I had been running.
I had not moved.
My friend had just been taken from me.
It happened fast.
"What the hell just happened?" I said loud trying to find my phone.
I had no signal.
Course I did not.
I looked around the alley.
It was just me now.
My heart was pounding in my ears as I got out of the cab.
My shopping bags were over the pavement but I did not care.
I turned around trying to find someone, anyone.
The street was quiet.
There were warehouses and shadows.
I could still hear the sound of the tires screeching away.
I finally got a signal on my phone. I dialled 911.
My fingers were shaking as I waited for someone to answer.
"911 What's your emergency?" a voice said.
"My friend was kidnapped " I said.
"Two guys took her from a taxi.
They dragged her into a car and drove off.
I think it was near the mall.
She was screaming."
The person on the phone told me to calm down.
"Are you safe now?" they asked.
"No " I said.
"I am alone.
My friend is not.
Her name is Halia.
We were shopping."
The person on the phone told me that they were sending officers to my location.
They told me to stay put.
I was already moving.
I had to tell Halia's mom what happened.
I had to tell her that her daughter was taken.
"I have to tell her mom " I said to the person on the phone.
I was already hanging up.
I started running.
It was all a blur after that.
I was running down side streets trying to find a bus.
I was out of breath. I could not stop.
I was thinking about what happened.
That cab driver was silent.
He locked the doors like it was planned.
The second car was already waiting.
This was not a thing.
It was organised.
Halia had known something was off.
I saw it in her face when we left the mall.
She was haunted.
She tried to smile. Something was bothering her.
What if that dream she mentioned was not a dream?
The bus doors. I got out.
I started running
Halia's house was a few streets down.
It was familiar.
It was safe.
At least it was supposed to be.
I banged on the door.
Her mom answered.
She was wearing a cardigan and loose joggers.
Her hair was pulled up in a bun.
She looked like she had been reading or doing laundry.
For a second I thought I had imagined everything.
"Maggie?" she asked.
"Is everything alright?"
"No " I said.
"It is Halia.
She is gone."
Her face did not change.
She did not panic.
She just paused.
Then she narrowed her eyes.
"Gone " she said slowly.
"She was kidnapped " I said.
"We got in this cab. It locked the doors.
Then two guys. There was another car.
She screamed.
She fought.
They had her.
They dragged her away."
I was out of breath.
My chest was heaving.
Her mom just stood there.
She was staring past me like she was trying to remember something.
"You called the police?" she asked.
" yes I did " I said.
". They do not know anything.
I had to tell you.
I did not know what to do."
She stepped aside.
"Come in " she said.
I hesitated.
I went in.
"Aren't you going to freak out?" I asked.
"Call someone?
I do not know—cry?
Scream?
She is your daughter."
"I am her mother " she said quietly.
"That is why I know screaming will not help."
That sent a chill down my back.
I followed her into the kitchen.
She was moving like she was on autopilot.
She was making tea.
I did not understand.
"I do not understand " I said.
She faced me.
Her eyes were sharp.
"Maggie did Halia say anything to you lately?" she asked.
"Anything strange?
About how she was feeling?
Dreams?"
"Yes " I said.
"She said she had this dream.
About some guy.
She woke up. There was blood.
She said it felt real."
Her mom nodded slowly.
"It is earlier than we thought " she said.
"I hoped for time."
"What do you mean we?" I asked.
"You knew this could happen?"
She did not answer.
She just poured the water.
The steam was rising up between us.
"She is waking up " she said finally.
"They must have sensed it.
The others."
"The what?" I asked.
Her mom looked at me.
Something was flickering in her eyes.
Something not human.
"She is not like girls, Maggie " she said.
"She was never going to be.
Now they know it too."
I took a step back.
"You are saying you expected this?" I asked.
"No " she said.
"I feared it.
Bloodlines do not stay quiet forever.
Not hers.
Not his."
I did not know what she was talking about.
The way she said his made my stomach twist.
"Who is he?" I asked.
She did not answer.
*****
The city below looked peaceful.
It looked harmless.
I knew better.
This world is built on lies.
Fragile illusions that keep people blind.
We—the cursed—walk among them.
We are unseen.
We are burdened by a truth that's too dark.
I used to think the curse was mine alone.
It belongs to my bloodline.
A mark carved by the Moon Goddess herself.
It is a punishment for a transgression I do not fully understand.
I was young when it happened.
Too young to know that loyalty can be a sin if it is given to the god.
Now the curse is rotting us from within.
My pack and I—we decay slowly.
We unravel at the seams.
Madness, bloodlust and the slow erosion of will.
That is our fate unless we obey the rules of the ritual.
The rules are cruel.
Each year we must claim a girl on the cusp of her year.
The bond formed through the act of sealing halts the progression of the curse.
It buys us time.
A ritual of flesh and spirit written in the blood of ancients.
I have performed it times than I can count.
Detached.
Mechanical.
A necessary evil.
Until her.
Halia.
She was not like the others.
I knew it the moment the dream began.
The first contact between her soul and mine.
The dreamscape is supposed to be cold, structured one-sided.
She reached for me.
She touched back.
When I claimed her—no, when we collided—I felt something break open inside me.
It was not the ritual.
It was not the curse.
It was her.
Her confusion, her fear, the way her body moved with mine.
Her scent, the heat of her skin the defiance in her eyes.
This was not control.
This was connection.
It terrified me.
For the time in centuries I felt.
Not lust.
Not power.
Longing.
A craving I had no name for.
The others were sacrifices.
Halia?
She felt like fate.
Like home.
I watched her after that.
In the crowd.
Just once.
A glimpse.
I should not have.
It was reckless.
I needed to see her eyes in the waking world.
I saw it.
Recognition.
Just a flicker.
Just enough to unravel my resolve.
That night I gave the order.
She was to be extracted.
I hated myself for it.
If I did not someone else would.
The other clans watch the bloodlines.
They would have sensed her awakening.
They would have smelled her dream-claim.
If I waited they would come.
They would not be gentle.
So I sent my men.
I orchestrated the abduction I swore I would never commit again.
Because she deserves better than the cage of this curse.
Yet I am the one who dragged her into it.
When they told me she was secured I should have felt relief.
All I felt was dread.
Because now she is mine—bound claimed, marked.
I cannot pretend this was just duty anymore.
The curse is old.
Relentless.
It. Defiles.
What if she is more than a balm?
What if she is the one thing that can break it?
What if loving her is the transgression?
I stare down at the city at the illusion of safety
She is, in.
With her everything I thought I knew begins to unravel.
I do not know what I am anymore.
I am a monster I am an alpha I am a weapon.
But I do know this:
I would burn this world to keep her breathing.
I would do that for her I would burn this world to keep her breathing.
Even if it means letting the curse consume me instead I would still do it for her I would still let the curse consume me instead.
Her mom just stared at the steaming mug like it might give her some kind of answers.
All she said was: "The one who claimed her."
***