Chapter 2

Isabella's POV

The front door slammed open. I heard Xavier's voice, rough and desperate, and someone else with him. A woman.

I forced myself to walk downstairs. Every step sent waves of agony through my mark, but I had to see this, I had to know what was destroying my life.

Xavier stood in our foyer holding an unconscious woman in his arms. She was beautiful, dark hair, pale skin, blood staining her clothes. And on her neck, fresh and raw, was Xavier's mark.

My stomach dropped.

"Bella—" Xavier's eyes met mine, and I saw my own nightmare reflected there. His mark, the one that matched mine, wasn't just silver anymore. Half of it had turned red too.

"What did you do?" My voice broke. "Xavier, what the hell did you do?"

"I didn't…I couldn't stop…" He looked as destroyed as I felt. "She was hurt, and then the pull…I couldn't fight it…"

"What pull?" But I already knew the answer. Fated mate. The one thing every werewolf feared and wanted at the same time, the one thing that could destroy a chosen bond.

Dr. Miriam rushed in, took one look at us, and went pale. She'd been our pack's witch doctor for thirty years, had delivered Noah, had blessed our mating ceremony. Now she stared at Xavier's mark with pure horror on her face.

"Get her to the medical wing," she snapped. "Now."

Xavier laid the woman on the examination table. I stood in the doorway because I physically couldn't make myself go closer. Every inch she was near him sent knives of pain through my chest.

Dr. Miriam worked in silence. When she finally turned to us, her face was grim.

"This is a double marking," she said quietly. "It's a curse from the blood moon years. Your soul is being torn in two, Alpha. Half belongs to your chosen mate." She looked at me with so much pity I wanted to scream. "Half belongs to your fated mate."

"What does that mean?" Xavier demanded.

"It means you'll go mad." Dr. Miriam's voice was flat. "Your wolf and you will fight for control. You'll be pulled in two directions until you destroy everything around you."

Everything around you. Me. Noah. Our pack. Our life.

"How do we fix it?" I heard myself ask.

Dr. Miriam looked at me with such sadness. "You can't. The curse has to run its course. One of the mates dies, or the Alpha goes insane. Those are the only outcomes."

The room spun around me. This isn't real, this is a nightmare. I'll wake up and Xavier will be beside me and everything will be fine.

But the pain in my mark was very, very real.

Xavier came to our room at dawn. I was sitting on our bed.

He knelt in front of me and took my hands. "Bella, I love you. You are everything to me."

I felt hope flood through me for the first time in hours. "Xavier—"

Then his expression changed. His eyes went distant and cold. He dropped my hands and stood up.

"I have to obey the fated bond," he said in a voice I didn't recognize. "Aurora needs me."

Aurora. Her name is Aurora.

"Xavier, please—"

"She's my fated mate, Isabella." He never called me Isabella. It was always Bella. "Destiny chose her for me."

Another wave of pain shot through my mark, and I gasped. He didn't even notice. He was already walking toward the door.

Then he stopped and turned back. His eyes cleared, and suddenly I saw my Xavier again.

"I'm sorry." His voice cracked. "God, Bella, I'm so sorry. I don't know what's happening to me."

He stumbled back and pulled me into his arms. I felt his tears on my neck, right over our mark. Our mark that isn't just ours anymore.

"Make it stop," I whispered. "Please, Xavier, make it stop."

"I don't know how." He held me tighter. "I don't know how."

We stayed like that until his body went rigid again. When he pulled away, his eyes were cold once more.

"I need to check on Aurora."

He walked out of our room like I meant nothing to him.

I heard Noah's door open and his small footsteps in the hallway. He'd heard everything.

"Mommy?" His voice was so small. "Why is Daddy acting weird?"

I couldn't answer him, I couldn't lie to him, I couldn't tell him his father was being torn apart by some ancient curse and there was nothing any of us could do about it.

Xavier appeared in the doorway again. This time his eyes were wild, not cold, not warm, just completely lost.

He looked at me like he wasn't sure who I was anymore.

"Xavier," I whispered, reaching for him. "Do you even know who I am anymore?"