Chapter 1: The origin
It is said that in world survives the strongest, most powerful... and sometimes the ones who has the favor of the gods.
And the Dark Moon pack seemed to have all of that and more. Dark Moon had always been a famous pack for hundreds of years. They were the largest and most powerful pack in the city, and they also had the most important investment company, Dark Moon Corp. Not only their alphas, the Maledettos, were stronger and better at business, but they also had an unparalleled aura, an irresistible attraction, and power over all werewolves and humans that was unmatched.
There seemed to be something… unusual about them, something inexplicable, something that made the other werewolves nervous. They were incredibly attractive, pale skinned and black haired with dark eyes, tall and strong for generations. Those close to them could feel their power, the other alphas struggling with the need to submit to them. It was humiliating for another alpha to be dominated like that, and there was no doubt that the Maledettos were no ordinary alphas.
But no one knew their secret. It was well known that when a Maledetto found their mate, they became even stronger. The only thing that seemed difficult for them, the struggle to find their mat. All Maledettos were always men, without daughters, with few offspring and all with the same features. Every time a Maledetto was born, a danger arises, an alpha more powerful than the rest. The other packs knew it, but there was really nothing they could do.
Matteo Maledetto was in charge of Dark Moon Corp and the pack, he was already almost thirty years old and his mate was still missing. He was handsome, unusually intelligent, and strong. In a short time he had duplicated the businesses of his father, who had died some time ago with his mother. Loyal to his family, he did not take a chosen mate, but waited for his destined one, even when many shewolves dreamed of being his mate, because the power he radiated was maddening.
Matteo had a much younger brother, Luca, who was special like him, although he was not yet of age. Everyone feared that when these two alphas found their mate… the city would be in their hands. Some almost even prayed that they would not have offspring.
But one day Matteo met Anna, an exquisite and beautiful she-wolf. Like any encounter between fated mates… it was wonderful, two halves, reunited, guided by destiny. But it is said that in the case of Max and Anna… it was as if a bomb exploded.
It was a New Year's Eve party, and they saw each other in the dance floor. Time stopped and both fell at each other's feet, it was an encounter like fairy tales, an amazing infatuation. They were about to be marked right there. But there was just one problem... she was the chosen mate of one of the city's rival packs, the Gray Wolf of the Kol family.
The Kols had always hated the Maledettos, mainly because they were their competition in terms of territory and investments in the city, that was no secret to anyone. It was the pack that was second among the most important and the two alphas brothers had their mates, Arnold his fated mate and Shane, the younger one, a chosen one... Anna.
For one werewolf to take a mate from another was simply unthinkable. Nothing like this had ever been heard, it seemed impossible for the laws of the werewolf world. A couple that was chosen had to keep it that way, it didn't matter if they later found their fated mate. Anna was marked and had to respond to her mate. Much less common was that Anna's mark disappeared… and she responded to the bond as if we had never been with Shane Kol.
Matteo took Anna and marked her as his mate, and the first kind of divorce in the werewolf community took place. An atrocity. Shane, after Anna left with Matteo…committed suicide due to pain, sadness and shame. That devastated the Kols, tearing their family into pieces.
It was a great scandal, because there was no way to explain what had happened, and the Kols claimed that what the Maledettos had done was a crime and could not go unpunished. However, Dark Moon was a very powerful pack that now had an alpha that had become even more powerful, after marking Anna. They were an unstoppable Alpha and Luna, they were destined mates... and the damage was done.
One night, Matteo went to talk to Arnold Kol to calm the waters. He told him an important secret: the Maledettos were cursed. For hundreds of years, without knowing the reason, they were cursed with the search for their mates. It was difficult to find them, usually in the worst situations, but they couldn't help it… the bond was more powerful than with other werewolves. That's why Anna was going to be his and he hers, no matter what. That was why her mark and her feelings for Shane had disappeared.
It was the work of the moon godness, the attraction they had was as powerful as it was inevitable. He was very sorry for what had happened with Shane, but his explanation was that there was no way to stop it, nobody can fight a curse and win. And he gave Arnold another information: Anna was already pregnant, waiting for a Maledetto, the next Dark Moon alpha.
Arnold wanted revenge, he wanted the Maledetto blood first and foremost. He felt that it had been an affront against his family, and now that he knew the secret… he was more convinced that they were an aberration, they shouldn't exist. But I had to do it right, after all, revenge is a dish best served cold. So, for a few years he thought of a plan, calculating all the details, waiting for his chance to act.
For that, he would need someone from within the pack, someone who could give him information about what was going on inside Dark Moon pack. So he gradually won the favor of Dark Moon's gamma, Carlo, who was an ambitious werewolf and clearly wanted more in life. It was just a matter of waiting for the right moment, he would avenge his family and also eliminate that awful family from the world. He really believed that was what the moon goddess would want.
Anna had a boy identical to her father, whom they called Massimo, little Max. They were the perfect couple, powerful and also with an heir. The pack was bursting with celebration, and they couldn't be happier. There was a new Maledetto, an alpha who would continue with the pack, with business, and everything would be prosperous.
For a few years they lived happily as Alpha and Luna of the pack. Until one day, everything changed... with the simple birth of a girl, Aurora. But she wasn't just any little girl, she was the only daughter of the beta couple, and there were two important details.
First, little Aurora was human, which was a situation that seemed… impossible. But there she was, the daughter of her parents, and everybody could sense that she wasn't a she-wolf, a simple human with nothing special. The second important detail was as rare as the first, when little Max met Aurora he approached and said the unthinkable.
—Mine— his parents heard him say as the little boy brought his hands closer to the crib to see the little girl.
The Maledettos were ecstatic, the future alpha had already recognized his mate since he was just a child, and it was nothing more and nothing less than the daughter of the beta couple. They didn't mind that she was human, since the Maledettos had unusual mates, and they were also convinced that Aurora would make him stronger.
He was just a boy, and he had already recognized her! without his wolf! The bond should be stronger than they would have imagined. The future of the pack was solid. They had faith that Luca Maledetto would soon find his mate, and the family would be unstoppable.
And right there… Arnold plan begin. There couldn't be another Maledetto with a mate, even less one that recognized his so quickly. Arnold Kol didn't know how, but the curse would continue and make them more and more powerful. He had to prevent it, for the sake of the rest of the werewolves. He proposed to Carlo that he could be beta right away and maybe… in the future, his family could be alpha, as long as they get rid of all the Maledettos. Carlo didn't think twice.
One day, the Maledetto pack suffered an attack by the rouges. Something like this had never happened before, just the power irradiated by Matteo and Anna kept any intruder away. The Alpha and the Luna had been unknowingly taking wolfsbane and when they were attacked they were unable to defend themselves. The Beta family had also passed away. It was one of the most heinous attacks in history. There seemed to be no logical explanation.
Except… rumor has it that the pack was cursed because of what Matteo did, stealing a mate from Shane Kol. Without a doubt, it was a curse of the moon godness. After all, Matteo himself had confessed to Arnold Kol that his family was cursed. The rumor became more and more real to everyone's ears, and soon there were no more doubts.
Miraculously, the younger brother Luca survived, and also protected his nephew at all costs. It is said that a curse seeks to survive in any way. Two Maledettos were left alive, but their Alpha and Luna had fallen, and the pack would never be the same.
Aurora was disappeared and considered dead. But actually, she was saved and taken to an orphan house, in the human world. Although this Arnold never knew.
The Maledetto's infamy grew, and their pack grew small and powerless, even though Luca and Massimo remained unusually powerful alphas. In the following years, they concentrated their efforts on business and clearing their family's name.
Massimo had already forgotten little Aurora, whom he had known very briefly when he was just a child, and left her for dead. He grew up as an orphan, with the pain of losing his parents, in the care of his uncle who loved him like a son, and an omega lady, Nana, who treated him like a grandson and gave him everything he needed.
But neither Luca nor Massimo forgot the shame of what had happened, nor the pain of their loss. They were both terrified of finding their mate. Luca was already almost forty years old, and he had not found her. He truly felt that he will succeed, he would be safe without a mate. Massimo was still young, and he thought his mate was dead, he seemed immune to falling in love.
Until now.