h4Chapter 777: 777-They epted Their Fated Mates For A Reason/h4

    strongHnie:/strong

    After Lord McQuoid told us about his past with Darcy and how she had manipted him and the system so many times, he was taken back to his room to rest because he could not stop crying. I guess the stigma around alphas or powerful werewolves was so strong that Mr. McQuoid had kept his tears hidden for too long until he felt like he would not be judged for it. And it just broke my heart.

    "I always had a feeling mom was doing something, something weird." Maximus was the one who broke the silence. Of course, we all expected him. He was usually the one who tried to cheer everyone up, or at least break the silence, like he was doing now.

    "The thing is, now she has extended her ws and they have reached our mate," Norman said as he raised his head and gave me a quick nce before patting Emmet’s back.

    "Great job researching everything from the clues you got." Norman admired Emmet’s efforts, especially the fact that he was able to find the rituals and the curses just by listening to what was happening, what his mom was saying, or what Sage had told us.

    "So what exactly do we need to do in order to end this curse? Because it seems like mom is really not a help. She just makes us keep going in circles," Kaye added, watching our faces before looking at Emmet.

    And we could already tell the news was not going to be good. Emmet hesitated to tell us.

    "Emmet, what is it?" Finally, Maximus pushed him out of silence.

    "We have to kill our fated mate or our firstborn."

    The minute Emmet said that, my face went nk. No expression. My body felt numb. A strange coldness spread through my hands and feet, then the shivers ran down my spine.

    "Never!" Norman was quick to jump in and let his brothers know he would never do that.

    "Well, we have other mates," and then Maximus’s statement turned heads toward him. We all watched him silently before I shook my head and wagged my finger as a no.

    "No, I’m not okay letting someone else die either," I said. I took a deep breath and added, "If it helps you all with your pain, I would rather sacrifice myself than let someone else take the fall."

    As soon as I said that, I noticed them shaking their big heads, all in sync.

    "And what makes you think that will help us with our pain?" Emmet grunted at me. This was the first time I’d heard him use such a tone with me, and it only came when I spoke wrongly about myself.

    "And the reason I asked my brothers to ept their other fated mates was—" Emmet stopped, and everyone else realized what he meant. He had already suspected this oue. The minute he started acting nicely with his mother and gathering information from her, he began making ns. One of them was convincing his brothers to ept other fated mates so they could use themter.

    "Oh my Goddess, that’s not why I asked you all to ept them," I cut in quickly, clearing the air. "I had no clue. I thought they would help with the pain. I didn’t know they would have to die to do it."

    "We know," Maximus replied at once, nodding his head. With a hand gesture, he told me to stay out of it. "When our curses get worse, we’re supposed to kill our fated mates." He added that just so I would know they did nothing wrong by epting the others.

    "I don’t understand," I said, watching their faces because it looked like they were all in agreement.

    "Listen. Whenever curses get worse and we must kill a fated mate, we will kill them," Kaye muttered, barely opening his mouth in a dramatic way.

    "And Hnie, why are you even defending them? Did you not hear what they had to do in order to be mated to us? It was a ritual. In that ritual, they had to kill one of their loved ones and use that blood in the well of sacrifices to feel the mate bond with us. So let’s just say they’re not very innocent." Norman cut me off, shutting me down.

    I calmed down a little. They weren’t wrong. If they really killed someone, then didn’t they deserve punishment too? But then I shook myself out of it when I realized there was another loophole in this idea.

    "Come on, Hnie, you walked me through your thought process." And then Emmet, as always, noticed I was fidgeting with my fingers and probably thinking about something, so he asked me.

    Now all the heads were turned towards me. As I prepared myself for this very important question.

    "Could the blood be drawn from a hand that had identally, or for some other reason, killed the loved one?" I asked.

    Emmet watched my face for a few seconds before he nodded. And I could already tell his brothers were disappointed. I guess it would have been easier to think they would sacrifice the other girls if they had killed someone.

    "It is a possibility," Emmet said.

    "Because from what I remember, Jessica did not kill her brother for some gain. It probably happened a year ago, and I’m pretty sure she had no idea about the ritual back then. Otherwise, she would have found some other way to kill him. Why in that exact moment? She had no clue he would attack me. I just refuse to believe she killed her brother for her own gain," I finished.

    That brought silence to everyone, which made me wonder who the others had killed.

    "Who could Kesha have killed?" Kaye muttered, pouting, staring into the distance.

    I noticed even Emmet looked slightly bothered.

    "Azura was dead herself," Emmet started again. "Or was she?" He made me believe they all had heavy suspicions about their other mates, their fake mates, or in this case, their forced mates.

    "Wait, guys," Maximus said, raising his hand. "We know Charlotte was pretending to be nice, correct?"

    The sudden attention towards Charlotte gave me chills.