The Luna's Curse

Mason’s POV

A distant sound of water dripping awakened me with a jolt. I blinked severally as I struggled to sit upright. The pain started as a dull ache at the back of my head, which developed into a full-blown searing headache. I writhed uncomfortably as my eyes started to clear, and I took in my surroundings.

I was in the woods, somewhere I had never seen before. I quickly scrambled up to my feet as I felt my hand sting with pain. I had a frostbite. My face contorted into a grimace as I sat down, then placed my head on the bark of the tree behind me.

I couldn’t remember why I was here or who even brought me here. I tried to remember the situation that led me to this place but got a sharp pain in response when I did that. My entire body ached with pain and confusion.

As I got up to my feet, I studied my environment. I needed to get out of the place, or the cold was going to be the death of me. I started to walk haphazardly with absolutely no idea of where I was going to go.

I just needed shelter to lay down and rest until the pain I felt in my body had disappeared. I sighed and rubbed both of my hands together to keep myself a little bit warm. As I walked deeper into the woods, I started to hear noises that irked me.

They made my headache even worse, but I was curious about what they were, so I tiptoed toward the noises. I peeped behind a large tree once I was close enough to see who they were. It was just a bunch of people that were celebrating.

I looked down at the food being distributed, and my stomach growled. My hands began to tremble, which made me realize how hungry I was. I needed to get food from them, or I was going to starve to death in the next minute.

Maybe if I got into the celebration, they weren’t going to differentiate between the rest of them and me. I sighed and braced myself up before I got into the crowd of people. I looked straight ahead, but I could still see how they all passed me with weird glances.

“Who are you?” Someone voiced out behind me, and my entire body went still.

I swallowed the lump in my throat as I turned to face him, and I was met with a man who looked significantly more powerful than the rest of the people. He had bulky and high shoulders with a serious expression on his face.

It was a middle-aged man who looked too young for his age, but I could tell he wasn’t young from the wrinkles on his face. I was still studying him when I noticed his face contort into a deeper frown, which brought me out of my reverie.

“I said, who the fuck are you?” He growled, dropping the glass of champagne in his hands.

“Okay, honey, maybe you are overreacting.” A lady I had not seen before held his arm and rubbed it soothingly as if trying to minimize his anger, which didn’t seem to work.

Everybody had turned to face us, and I felt threatened. They could all gather up and kill me. This wasn’t a time to be weak. I just needed some food, and I would be out of their town before they knew it.

I didn’t know who I was. I didn’t have an answer to give to the powerful-looking man. It felt like all of my memories had suddenly vanished into thin air.

“I am not overreacting. There is a rogue standing in between our people that looks like he had been picked off a dumpster. He could have been sent here in disguise by our enemies for all we know.” The man started to remove his shirt.

I raised a brow in confusion, which turned into shock as the man started to shift into an unrecognizable creature. My jaw slacked as I took a step back when the creature howled. My body was suddenly trembling in fear.

The man was about to pounce on me when instinctively, my body started to shift too. I didn’t know how it happened and didn’t pay much attention to it. I felt my bones crack as my body changed into a creature very similar to his, only I looked even more powerful than he did.

I howled, and shock coursed through me as I didn’t expect to sound even more dangerous and lethal than the man standing in front of me. I could see the clear anger in his eyes as he dragged both of his paws behind, ready to pounce on me.

The woman standing beside him had also shifted and was waiting beside him as a backup. My stomach churned with nervousness, but they asked for it. It was either I killed them, or they would kill me. I was not going to back off.

I took a step back, and he pounced on me, which made me fall onto my back. I growled at the impact as I pushed him away to stop him from lacerating my flesh, then turned him to his back so I was in control.

It didn’t even feel hard at all. There was a clamor in the environment as everyone yelled while they ran for their lives. I didn’t waste time before I sunk my teeth into the neck of the man, which made him let out a loud painful growl that nearly deafened me.

His body started to writhe as he approached death. I turned my back to leave when I saw the lady about to pounce on me. She was livid, which I sensed from her body movements and the red menacing look in her eyes.

I tackled her to the ground once she was close enough. She pawed my arm, which sent a striking pain in my body. My eyes quickly darted to my arm, which was now oozing blood and had started to weaken.

If I didn’t kill her now, she was going to kill me. I sunk my teeth into her neck too, and she started to writhe. I took a step back as I watched her go through all the stages of death before she finally gave up.

Realization dawned on me as I looked at their dead bodies. I was a murderer. I just wanted some food, and now I had the blood of two people on my hands. I turned around to get the food I came here to get before quickly heading back into the woods when I heard someone gasp softly behind me.

It sounded so gentle and soothing that I couldn’t help but turn around to see who it was, and I wasn’t disappointed because she looked even more beautiful than she sounded.

“Who are you?” She asked, her body trembling as she took a step back in fear.

The resemblance between her and the woman I just killed was uncanny. Perhaps she was their daughter. She was dressed up as royalty too, which meant that I had just killed the king and queen of the town.

I quickly shifted back into human form. My hand was weak as it was still gushing out blood. I held it as I glanced around to look for something to tie it with, and the shirt the king took off just a while ago was the only clothing available.

I headed toward the shirt and picked it up, then tied it to my injury before I took a step back toward the woods to leave.

“I said who the hell are you?“ She thundered as she took even more steps back, her voice shaking and her eyes filled with tears.

“I am sorry. They attacked me,” I apologized, changing my mind as I took a step forward, but she turned around and ran away before I could say another word.

I sighed as I looked at the celebration ground. I had just come by and destroyed everything. I should have waited until they were gone before I did all of this. I headed toward the food and started to stuff as much as I could into my mouth.

It tasted so good that I didn’t want to leave even a scrap of it behind. I was still eating when I heard someone clear his throat in front of me. I looked up to see someone that looked very similar to the king I had just killed, but instead, this man had a calmer look on his face.

“Who are you?” He asked, and I was shocked that he didn’t look as surprised as the lady did when she came to meet the king and queen lying in a pool of blood.

“I am Mason. Mason Hiker,” I blurted out without thinking twice.

I hadn’t thought much about what my name was, but with the way the name rolled off my tongue smoothly, I was sure it was my name.

“Get up, Mason. Did you kill both of them?” He asked, still not appearing shaken.

I nodded, “Yes, I did.”

“Come with me.” He whirled his heels and started to head into town.

I didn’t know why he wasn’t scared or even had the guts to invite me inside town after I had just murdered their royal family, but I wanted to see what it was he wanted to show me, so I followed him inside without further thoughts because I was confident about how powerful I was. It wasn’t like I had any business to do in the woods anyways.