Claim
.Chapter 12-1
Kane
“Mom?” I breathed, hardly daring to believe it. She was standing in front of me, smiling that warm smile I’d missed so fucking much.
“What are you doing here, boy? You should be in the throne room,” she said, her voice carrying that
gentle authority she’d always used when I was being stubborn.
“Yes, but there was an incident… is this real? Are you truly here, Mom?”
She laughed, that musical sound that had always made everything feel safe. “Of course I am, silly boy.
Do I look like a cheap copy, is that what you’re trying to say?”
“No! No, Mom. I-I just…” My voice cracked as years of grief tried to pour out at once. “I’ve missed you
so much. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
The tears were already running down my face, and my heart felt like it was breaking all over again.
The guilt, the endless, crushing guilt that had been my constant companion since that terrible day,
rose up to choke me.
“Sorry for what? None of this is your fault,” she said, reaching out for my hand with that same loving gesture she’d made a thousand times before.
I wanted to warn her, wanted to pull away, but I couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak. Could only watch in
horror as her fingers brushed mine.
And then I watched it happen again.
Her skin turned pale in seconds, the life draining from her eyes as my cursed touch killed her. Her
warm smile became a rictus of death, and her hand went limp in mine as she collapsed to the ground.
“No,” I whispered, but the nightmare was already starting over.
She was alive again, whole again, reaching for me with that same trusting love. “My sweet boy,” she said, her voice full of warmth and pride. “You’ve grown so much. Come here, let me hold you.”
“Don’t,” I tried to say, but no sound came out. “Please don’t touch me.”
But she was already reaching for me, and I was powerless to stop her. Her hand found my cheek, and I watched the light die in her eyes all over again.
The cycle repeated endlessly. Her resurrection, her love, her touch, her death. Over and over until I wanted to tear my own soul apart just to make it stop.
WED
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Chapter 12-1
“I should have saved you,” I whispered as she died for the hundredth time. “I should have been
stronger, should have fought the curse harder.”
“You were just a boy,” she said, alive again, her hand hovering over my face. “How could you have
known?”
“I killed you. I killed my own mother.”
Claim
“You didn’t kill me, son. She did. The witch who cursed you, she killed me. You were just the weapon
she used.”
But her words couldn’t ease the crushing weight of my feelings. I was the one who’d ignored the
witch’s warning. I was the one whose touch had stolen her life.
The nightmare shifted, showing me other moments. The witch who’d cursed me, standing in my
throne room with a child she claimed was mine. How much I wanted to hug my mother, desperate for
comfort. The way she’d convulsed in my arms, her eyes going wide with shock and pain before they
went blank forever.
“I can’t do this anymore,” I begged whatever cruel deity was forcing me to relive this. “Please just let me die. I can’t carry this guilt for another day.”
I’d wanted to die so many times over the years, wanted to throw myself off cliffs, walk into raging
rivers, even put a blade to my own throat. But my lycan wouldn’t let me. He fought off every attempt at
self-destruction, condemning me to live with my sins.
“Please,” I whispered as my mother died all over again. “I just want the pain to stop.”
But the goddess wouldn’t grant me that mercy. She never had.
Instead, my lycan pushed against my consciousness, forcing me awake with a low growl that
reverberated through my chest. I grunted as I slowly opened my eyes, expecting to feel the familiar agony of my poisoned wounds.
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