Chapter 12 –– Pureblood Curse

Not long after knowing that Dawoud was not there together with him, Noam decided to take a walk to get some fresh air. While walking out of the festival, he was abducted by someone who brought him to a cave nearby.

“Ugh....where am I...?”

Noam just woke up with his hands tied behind his back. He tried to stand up but fell on his stomach instead. He noticed that he also got his legs tied with a rope made out of some kind of plant root.

“Took you long enough.”

The person who abducted him appeared from behind the shadows. That person turned out to be Amal, Dawoud’s ex-girlfriend whom they met at the sanctuary inside the catacomb.

“Amal...!”

“Sorry, who were you again? I lost count of all the names of Dawoud’s partners he used to have,” Amal said mockingly.

Noam struggled to break free from the rope he was tied in. Amal made sure that she tied him so that in order for him that Noam not to break free so easily unless she wanted him to.

“It’s no use. You’re just gonna hurt yourself.”

Noam looked at his wrists and she had a point. By wriggling his whole body around, Noam bruised his wrists and ankles due to the friction with the ropes.

“You know, this is the place where Dawoud and I first did it.”

Amal suddenly revealed some unnecessary information that put Noam to disgust. He wished he didn’t what she just said.

“What do you want!?” Noam shouted, confronting Amal directly.

His voice echoed through the cave which reverberated and returned to his ears. Noam noticed that they were in a cave.

“Simple. Bring Dawoud here.”

Noam frowned in disgust.

“You mean to...?”

“No, idiot! You think I’m that lewd that I'd do it in front of you!?”

At that point, Noam truly believed that she would do such a thing.

“Well, in any case, I don’t know where he is,” Noam told her nonchalantly.

“Don’t lie! He must be with his family. He’ll come soon once he found out you’re not with them.”

Oh, right. She didn’t know that. Noam thought to himself.

“He didn’t come to the festival,” Noam answered truthfully.

“He didn’t?” Amal asked, suddenly starting to believe Noam.

“Unfortunately, no.”

“Why wouldn’t he––”

Before Amal could finish her sentence, she finally realised something and started to make sense of the situation.

“You, who were your parents, again?”

"Why should I tell you?" Noam said, resisting her.

Amal then came to him and grabbed his face. She took a look at him carefully, inspecting his ears and tail.

“I see....That’s it....It all makes sense now....”

Noam looked at Amal weirdly. She seemed to have figured out something that he had no idea about.

“I know that you are his intended because of you two’s parents. I mean, why else would he agree to such a thing, when all he did was play with people’s feelings?”

Noam started to take Amal’s words seriously. The more she spoke, the more sense she made.

“And yet, have you ever thought, why would he–– and his parents–– chose you out of anyone in the village? Or from other tribes, perhaps? Why you?”

“Well, maybe because my mother announced that I was open to receiving alpha suitors––”

“Wrong. That’s your reasoning. What was theirs?”

Noam didn’t think there was any special reason behind it. In fact, he never thought about it at all. He didn’t even try because all he had in mind was this arrangement was a means for his mother to sell him away.

“It’s because you are their last resort.”

Noam didn’t understand what she meant by saying that, but he felt offended hearing it.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Noam asked, offended.

“Don’t tell me....you don’t know about Dawoud’s condition?”

Noam took a moment of silence to think about what she was trying to say.

“As expected of them. Of course they hide it from you.”

Noam was getting more and more curious about what she was going to say. Even though he was still having a hard time believing her, he thought that she might have some valid points that he needed to know.

“Whatever you’re trying to say, just spill it,” Noam said, in a commanding tone.

“Well, if you say so....”

Amal then started recounting the story of how she and Dawoud met each other, to the point in time when they separated.

“After I introduced Dawoud to the sanctuary on our first meeting, the next day, we met again here, in this cave. We shared about our lives and dreams, what we wanted to be, what we wanted to do.

I discovered the sanctuary years before he did. Ever since then, I had been curious about the origin of the flying creatures, how they came about, and how they arrived at the sanctuary. I told him everything I knew about the creature based on the observation I made myself from the past few years. He was just excited as I was about it, but not to the point that he would make his own observation about the creature. Every time I discovered a new fact about the creature, Dawoud was the first person I told.

Hearing the music and countdown from outside, Dawoud and I danced here inside this cave. Due to the heat of the moment, we ended up making love here.”

Okay, TMI. But, go on. Noam thought to himself.

“The moment the highlight of the event began, the appearance of the moon, everyone started howling, including me. Hearing the howls echo inside this cave and from outside, Dawoud suddenly went frenzy. He started acting violent and I started to get scared of him. After the howling stopped, he passed out here in the cave.

I carried him to take him to his parents. But, in front of the entrance of the cave, his parents saw what happened to him when he went feral and they blamed it on me. They thought that I was the reason he ended up like that. They then took Dawoud immediately and brought him to a healer.

I wasn’t allowed to meet him by his parents for a week after that. I tried all sorts of methods, but nothing worked. I almost gave up, until one day, Dawoud and I met again at the sanctuary. He told me about the day he passed out and what the healer told him and his parents.

He told me that he had a rare genetic curse called the Pureblood Curse. As the name implies, this curse happens when a tribe keeps mating with their own kind; hence no new blood. Even though it is quite rare in other villages, it is in fact not unheard of here in Caninus village. This is due to the fact that our tribe is generally less welcoming of the idea of mating with other tribes, thus, the curse happens once every few generations. Lapinus tribe also has this issue, but due to their high fertility rate, they are much more immune to this curse than we do, apparently.

Ever since that night–– the night of the Bluemoon Festival–– this curse caused Dawoud to have irregular rut. He couldn’t regulate his rut regularly like normal alphas. Even regular hormonal medication that alphas and omegas take oftentimes doesn’t work for him and people with Pureblood Curse. What’s worse is that, this curse can be carried to his children and the next few generations, unless they mate with people outside their tribe. Moreover, because of this curse, the healer told him that he couldn’t come to the Bluemoon Festival ever again in case he goes feral just like the first time.

He asked me if I were okay with that, with his condition and everything. I told him of course, I loved him for all he was–– with or without his condition. Since his parents were against of the fact that we were dating because it could worsen his condition, we ended up dating in secret.

Two and half years later, I received a job offer to work as a biologist and researcher at the capital. I was so happy that I asked Dawoud so that we could meet that very day. He said that he had something to tell me as well, but since I couldn’t keep my excitement in, I told him about my job offer first. He was happy for me and congratulated me, but I could see some sadness in his eyes. I asked him about what he wanted to say but he said it was nothing important and we continued the day with us celebrating the good news by going to my favourite dessert shop near the park. We talked about how we were gonna spend our lives together at the capital and the places we wanted to visit once we were there, the two of us.

A few days later, while I was preparing my stuff before moving to the capital, Dawoud asked me to meet. He told me that he couldn’t come with me to the capital because he couldn’t abandon his responsibility as the heir of the chieftain. I was crestfallen and dejected hearing that. I mean, I didn’t doubt that he loved me, but never would I have thought that he wouldn’t choose me over being the next chieftain.

After sleeping on it for a few nights, I decided that I could let the chance pass by and stay in the village in order to be with him. That’s how much I loved him. However, instead of letting me stay in order to be with him, he cheated on me instead with another omega.

I knew that he did that out of spite. I believed that he still loved me and just wanted me to leave, that was all. Yet, his attitude towards me totally changed. He became cold and distant, as if everything we’d been through didn’t mean anything to him. Every time I asked for us to meet, he ignored me. Every time I greeted him when I saw him, he pretended like he didn’t know me. He became an entirely different person, as if the Dawoud I knew never existed.

In the end, he got what he wanted. I left the village to work at the capital. He was in relationships with multiple omegas–– and some betas, even. Just before I left, I waited at the border of the village to see if he came to see me off. I waited for hours, but he never came. I never saw him ever since.

Until yesterday. A few days before I went to the catacomb, I heard that he was in the process of mating with someone from another tribe. And when I saw you yesterday with him at the sanctuary, I finally realised it was you.

However, I’m sorry to say this, but he didn’t choose you. His parents did. He never made his own decision, not without his parents approval. The reason that his parents didn’t approve me and chose you instead is because you are their last resort in curing his Pureblood Curse.”

Noam was stupefied by Amal’s story. Clearly, everyone has their own interpretation of the event and they all made sense in their own way. Everyone’s story was so believable that Noam felt as if everyone was hiding something from him to the point that he didn’t know which story to believe.

“How do I know if you’re telling the truth?” Noam asked her in aggravation.

Amal approached Noam and untied his ropes. She then whispered to him.

“I brought you here because I thought you knew all this and Dawoud and you were trying to hurt me on purpose. But, now that I realised you’re just as much of a victim as I was, you’re no longer a threat to me.”

Noam was silenced and thought of everything that everyone told him. In one day, he just got overwhelmed with the information regarding his arrangement with Dawoud and the motivation supporting behind it.

“You are free to go. Just, think about what you really want with him, after knowing that they hid all of this from you. Don’t make the same mistake I did.”

Amal let Noam decide what he wanted to do after knowing all of this. With so much things going on inside his head, Noam couldn’t decide which course of action should he pursue next.