Chapter 8
CRESCENT
“You tried to damn him!”
I couldn’t see the one who said that through my blindfold, but I could hear the wrath in their voice. The hatred.
“N-no.” This was a misunderstanding. “I didn’t. I swear—”
“You little liar.”
Panic gripped me.
I was forever a curse.
I never meant any of this. I’d repented and begged. But now, I was here again in this room, surrounded by stone walls.
Karma had caught my scent and completely lost his senses.
I was trapped between his massive, warm body and the bed. He was everywhere, a fresh ocean storm, laced with insanity. His fingers gripped my hair, holding me in place as, for the second time since arriving here, teeth grazed my neck.
My breath caught, an unexpected shot of warmth seeping into my heart.
He wanted me. It was a desperate, joyous whisper. We were destined for each other, and he wanted me.
My heart choked instantly with guilt.
What was I thinking?
“She would have seen him suffer hellfire. I need her to feel what that means.”
I was so selfish.
Karma let out a wounded sound, drowning my nightmare. He drew back, and then once more, his teeth grazed my skin. But again, there was no full bite.
I frowned, shaking fingers finding his chest before I realized.
Oh.
He wasn’t pack lead.
That was why he couldn’t bite me into the pack.
And then reality set in.
The inky blackness swallowing his rich brown irises whole. There was nothing left in those eyes but a beast.
What had I done?
I’d corrupted him.
And they were all next.
Sin had claimed me as theirs before they left—they wanted to keep me, I thought, but that would only make this worse.
Karma was mad, already. Corrupted before he’d even completed a bond.
He drew me close, teeth resting against my flesh as he curled up around me as if torn between trying to bite me again, and just holding me close.
I tried to calm my breathing, tugging carefully on the blankets, trying to get another layer between us.
How much more could he take?
Could I corrupt him more?
But I knew the answer to that from the sparks that rolled through our contact. He tensed at my movement, and I slowed, stroking his arm, desperately trying to calm him as I tugged at the towel and sheets. I hummed a shaky tune, something my mother had hummed as she folded laundry, or cooked.
She’d been taken away for damning me, sent to the Convent so I couldn’t harm anyone else. But in the end, I’d been banished, for the alpha I’d damned was Luke Anderson—the son of a High Priest.
And now, even in my punishment, I couldn’t stop. I was more of a blight than she had ever been.
There was a faint banging in the distance.
A rhythmic, metal-like thump, thump, thump that kept going. The shouts and howls of a thousand broken alphas in this place. The noises were sometimes louder, sometimes quieter as I kept up my melody.
It felt like forever before I heard footsteps, then the metal creak of the door.
“Karma—ah shit!” That was Phantom’s voice. His scent of gunmetal. It was like my senses were heightened, and it was a perfect pairing with ocean storm and desert eclipse.
Devastatingly good.
Like the scents could wrap me up and make me forget how awful I was.
I shook the thought loose.
They’d come back.
Oh…
My prayers were rarely real, but right now I sent one up to the heavens. That they wouldn’t lose themselves, too.
Not Phantom or… or Sin. This was his pack, right? He would be able to offer me that bite.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
He couldn’t.
I heard Karma’s growl. It vibrated down to my bones, daring me to curl up closer, to accept his claim. His protection.
But I shouldn’t.
How cruel and wrong.
I dared a glance up, keeping my eyes mostly shut. The room was blurred through lashes, but I could see Phantom standing over the bed. Karma drew me closer, growling again.
For the first time in my life, I was being held the way I dreamed—and it was among the ashes of pure destruction.
He was completely gone.
I’d done that.
I choked back tears.
They were right. The Sisters had been right.
First Luke Anderson, and now… now this beautiful alpha, who’d been cursed for offering me protection.
Ash had always muttered during lessons that ‘corruption’ was a stupid lie, and she knew so because they never told us exactly what it meant. But now I was seeing it—and it was real.
Karma was letting out a threatening growl to his own packmate.
This was true evil.
I jumped at a cool touch on my arm and shifted to see Sin was climbing into the bed beside us both. Karma didn’t react like he had before, though he still drew me tighter. I watched as Sin nudged Karma’s chin with his knuckle, turning his palm and resting it on his packmate’s cheek.
Karma didn’t growl this time, and I thought maybe his grip on me might have loosened somewhat.
Was that a pack lead thing?
Sin shifted closer, hand winding beneath me. His touch was so safe. So cool. He drew me up, towel and blankets and all, forcing Karma to adjust.
I looked into Karma’s eyes properly again, voids of black.
Nothing left…
“W-what…” I could barely find my words. “What have I done?” My voice broke with a flood of tears.
“You, angel?” Sin asked, sounding surprised.
I nodded, hot tears leaking down my cheeks.
Just minutes ago, he was in the shower room, a beautiful smile on his face.
I’d… I’d been too close. Too… much for him. I should have known.
“It’s just more than he’s used to,” Sin murmured. “More than any of us are used to.”
This was all wrong.
“You alright?” Sin asked, and I saw he was fixated on Phantom.
I followed his gaze.
Phantom looked strained as he stared at me, like he was seeing a ghost. His rich olive skin was ashen, and he had a scattering of freckles on his cheeks.
He was running anxious fingers through messy, dark brown hair, and intent eyes were fixed on me, the deep brown almost gone in lieu of dilated pupils.
I hadn’t got a good look at him before, or been able to focus on how pretty he was.
They all were. And kind.
But I’d be their ruin.
Phantom looked sickly, staring at me, jaw clenched tight enough to crack, as if I was hurting him by being here.
I dropped my gaze, guilt twisting me up.
He… knew.
He knew and he hated me.
I’d always despised the blindfolds back in the Convent. But now I knew why they’d made us wear them.
Too curious.
Too selfish.
Tempting those around us just because we hadn’t the restraint to keep our eyes down.
Sin adjusted again, just carefully enough he didn’t upset Karma, who still had his arms around me tight. He was beneath me, now, easily able to keep me on his lap, which should make me more unnerved since there were no towels or blankets on that side.
But he was safe.
I couldn’t explain it.
I felt like he was a whole piece of me in a way I couldn’t describe.
But I didn’t know what it meant.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
I should move away from them alright now—it was the only way to save them. My first twitch of movement made Karma growl, though, his grip tightening on me.
Sin flicked him in the nose with a gentle scoff. “You don’t need to apologize,” he said, continuing under his breath. “Never thought he’d meet his scent match, I bet. He wasn’t prepared.”
My gaze snapped up to his, icy shock seeping down my spine. “S-scent match?”
No, that wasn’t what this was.
It couldn’t be. Scent matching a gold pack omega… It was a true curse. I was cursing them.
Once realized, a scent match was absolute. It locked out all other possibilities. I was all they’d ever have in a match until the moment I died.
I stifled a low whine of panic.
Phantom sat on the bed opposite us, eyes fixed on Karma with concern, which sent another shot of panic through my system.
His friend.
His packmate.
My… No.
I shook my head. “No, I… I’m just not used to being around alphas. T-touch starved. That’s why your scents are all…”
Sin tucked a strand of wet hair behind my ear, a little wrinkle between his eyes. “You’re ours.”
A fresh wave of tears streamed down my cheeks, and I struggled to choke down my sobs. Why did they all seem so comfortable with being cursed?
I corrupted their packmate, cursed them with my scent, and Sin only held me tighter against his chest as I cried.
And like the selfish sinner I was, I let him comfort me. I let their scents wash over me in soothing waves, Karma’s fresh ocean, while Sin’s desert eclipse only clung faintly to the blankets, his blockers still stopping me from experiencing it straight from the source.
When my cries were only hiccups, Phantom cleared his throat.
“Not exactly the expected response,” he said. “But uh… Do we have a plan?” He glanced at the door. “She’s not just our scent match—”
“Shut up!” Sin hissed, and I looked up in time to see him glancing quickly at the door. “We aren’t saying those words out loud again. Not here. Not anywhere.”
“My point,” Phantom snorted, rolling his eyes. “Is that it’s the least of our fucking issues if we don’t—”
“I know.”
“What?” I asked, not keeping up.
“Baby,” Sin murmured in my ear. “You’re going into h.e.a.t,” he spelled the word out in a whisper beside my ear.
“No, I’m not,” I stammered.
But… he was right.
I could feel the clammy sweat beading on my skin. The faint pang of an ache building in my stomach.
Sin chuckled. “I know it when I see it.”
Fuck.
I clamped a hand over my mouth at the obscene thought.
Darn.
I’d known this was coming. I’d just hoped it would be longer. That I’d have time to find my footing.
I couldn’t breathe. My throat felt like it was closing up.
What was I going to do?
“Phantom’s going to…” Sin’s voice was faint. Not making sense as the world spun. Karma let out an unsettled growl, his grip digging into my waist.
“Just calm down—!” Sin was saying, trying to settle me.
Me.
It was me who was making Karma upset.
But I didn’t even know how to calm down. “I can’t… you… you…” The words were spilling from my mouth in a panic. “You don’t understand. I’m going to damn you—”