Claimed And Marked By Her Stepbrother Mates

Helanie:

Blood trickled from her mouth, then her eyes. Her mother clutched the dagger, trying to wrench it out, but the harder she pulled, the more Azura wailed.

"All I wanted was just you!" she screamed through ragged breaths for Emmet.

All these women had choices. All but Kesha and Azura. Those two were serial killers. They had murdered before, and they would have murdered again.

I remembered the gray woman tied to the chair, confessing how her daughter had been the first to kill Zu and Za, the entities. That was when I realized, Azura wasn't just a victim. She was a monster, even as a werewolf.

"My sweet daughter, my only hope," the gray woman whimpered, cupping Azura's face. Azura's eyes rolled back, her body trembling.

"No, no, no. Please, stay awake. I'll take you to the other world. I'll cast magic. I'll save you. Your demise will kill your father. I'll put someone else's heart—" Her words broke off as Azura's body went limp in her arms.

"Azura?" she whispered. Her voice cracked, calling her name again. "No, Azura, you're not going to die. Please."

Her sobs ripped through the air. She shook Azura's body, desperately.

"Azura, please, no! You're not going to die!" she screamed, rocking her. She pressed her forehead to her daughter's, her tears soaking Azura's lifeless face. And then Azura's body stiffened.

When the gray woman lifted her head, her eyes burned with something so dark it froze me where I stood. Rage, purer than anything I had ever seen.

"You," she spat, her jaw clenched tight. "You killed my daughter."

Her hiss turned into a broken smile, twisted and terrifying.

"But do you think you're going to survive?" her voice filled the air like poison.

Maximus stepped forward, standing for his brother.

"What do you mean? We already defeated you," he hissed back.

"Oh, did you little pieces of shit forget the main rule for breaking the curse?" she hissed, smirking wider.

Emmet and Maximus shared a glance. They both looked anxious.

"Shit, we forgot," Maximus said. "If she dies here, how will Emmet discard her in the well? And even if we wake him and he goes there to do it, the poison will be in the air—" he stopped, but the gray woman finished for him.

"He will die, like he should," she snapped under a clenched jaw, holding her daughter's limp body.

She kept crying over her, pouring out her heart as she screamed at us.

"And after that, I will fucking ruin you all. The monsters will not hold back. There will be nothing holding them back," she screamed.

There was a hesitation in her voice, like part of the curse or the killing she didn't want us to know.

"What are we going to do now?" Maximus asked.

I stood calm and stared at the gray woman. A smile started at my lips. I noticed her smile begin to fade.

"What are you smiling at, you freak? Your mate is going to die. Did you hear me?" she screamed, spitting on the ground.

"I'm confused," I said softly. "How are you such a great seer when you don't see anything?" Her brows knotted at my taunting. Maximus and Emmet stepped back, but kept one eye on me.

"Have you lost your mind? Your mate is about to die and you're talking in riddles?" she yelled, holding Azura to her chest.

"The well was filled with your tears," I said, pointing at her. "Once the body meets the tears, the sacrifice is done. Didn't you tell me that? You told me the well is nothing without your tears."

Maximus and Emmet exchanged a look. Emmet stretched his back and laughed. He understood. Of course he did. He was my intelligent professor mate.

"I don't know what's going on, but the smile says it's good news," Maximus said.

Even the gray woman waited for me to explain.

"Come on, keep crying over her," I said. "I couldn't bring the well here, so I brought the tears instead." The realization hit her like a physical blow. She gasped and pulled away, noticing how many tears had already soaked her daughter's body.

"What the fuck?" she grunted, scrambling to wipe her face clean.

I squeezed Emmet's hand. Emmet grabbed Maximus's hand. Maximus looked wildly happy at the turn of events.

"Come on, Emmet, we need to get out of here," I said. "We released the curse in this dream world. We have to get rid of it here."

As Azura's body began to turn to mist under her mother's tears, we decided to leave. Emmet closed his eyes and readied himself to return to the human world.

When Emmet started chanting that he was ready to go home, we did the same and then we woke up in the bedroom.

We all climbed off the bed. Emmet rushed over, hugged me, lifted me, and gave me a wild twirl while Maximus moved to secure the gray woman.

As soon as Emmet set me down, I turned to Maximus.

"What are you doing?" I asked. We both watched him.

"The world is ending, don't you guys see?" Maximus mentioned. Then it hit me, everything outside was noisy, screams and cries filling the air. My heart felt like it stopped.

I bolted out of the room with Emmet and found Lucy fighting with the Zharns in the mansion.

I lunged forward, swung, and sent the Zharns sprawling.

"You're back!" Lucy said, smiling, looking past me at Emmet before she hugged me.

"There's no time to celebrate," I told her, breaking the hug and cupping her face. "Where is everybody else?"

She looked up, pointing at the second floor.

"They've blocked the second floor. It's only a temporary hold. I don't think it'll hold for long." she explained, "sage and the warriors are with the babies,"

Gavin rushed in then, probably to report what was happening outside, but he froze when he saw us.

"Wow, you guys are back. That means you did it." Gavin's relief flipped into questions. "But where's Azura's body? Wasn't Emmet supposed to throw her in the well?"

Maximus dragged out the gray woman, bound and gagged. She was waking but wailing in her sleep.

"It's okay. We handled it," I said. "The curse ended in the other realm. Emmet's fine." I sighed at the gray woman.

"Tell me what's going on," I demanded. Gavin's face went grave.

"It's a disaster. The monsters have been unleashed. There was this brief moment when everything went quiet, like they were fading but the minute you returned, they came back, stronger." Gavin explained. I started to piece it together.

To my left, Maximus hauled the gray woman further.

"It's the witch. We've finished the family, only the father and the witch remain," I hissed, thinking of the last conversation and what we knew about the father.

He needed his children to carry on his legacy. With his children dead, he should be weakening, or probably dead like the gray woman told Azura.

"What can we do to stop it?" Emmet asked.

"Set her on fire," I said and everyone gasped.