BOUND TO THE ALPHA'S CURSE

Elara's POV

The forest always felt different after sunset, quietly, but never calm.

Elara stepped through between the moss-covered root carefully, her fingers brushing over fern tips slick with dew.

Mira's voice resonated in her thoughts, piercing as always: "Remain within the boundary stones. "Don't stray when the sky changes."

But the herbs she needed only bloomed under the full moon's pull, and Mira had been too feverish to gather them herself.

Elara glided through the old stone circle at twilight, basket clutched, her heart calm, senses attuned to the silence of the wilderness. She knelt by a group of Nightthorn flowers, the fragile violet petals already opening up toward the moonlight as if they craved it. The atmosphere hummed with quiet, excessively calm, overly vigilant

She felt it before she heard it.

That shift.

The wind changed. The birds stopped singing.

The trees around her seemed to lean closer. Then he came down.

Iron. Fur. Blood. Elara froze.

It was not unusual to come across an injured animals in the forest, but this scent was heavier, darker.

Not fresh blood.

Old blood.

And not animals.

She rose her eye slowly scanning the underbrush.

A faint path extended forward, shattered limbs, splashes of red smudged on the wood, and claw marks too deep to have occurred naturally.

Her heartbeat speed up. She should turn back.

Mira would say she had no business following signs like this. But something inside her pulsed. She couldn't explain.

Elara followed the trail.

It drew her further into the grove, through areas she didn't know, stone archways engulfed by vines, toppled statues engraved with ancient symbols. In a hollow embraced by twisted roots and untamed moonlight, she noticed him.

A man.

Naked body from his waist up, his body streaked with blood and mud, a tangle of dark hair matted against his brow,

Muscles taut, trembling.

His chest barely moved, like each breath cost him something, and carved into his skin, just over his heart. It was a blackened mark, circular, spiraled, pulsing faintly with blue.

Elara took a step forward.

Then another. He wasn't just hurt, he was dying.

Hey,

she whispered, kneeling beside him.

Can you hear me?

No response.

She stretch out, her fingers brushing the edge of his jaw.

The moment their skin touched, the air exploded around her.

A shock of heat, like lightning in her veins. A heartbeat that wasn't hers.

A voice, deep and broken, in the back of her mind whispering her name.

She gasped,

stumbled back,

heart racing.

The man stirred. His lips parted, dry and cracked. His eyes opened.

And Elara's breath caught.

Silver.

Not just pale.

Not just reflective.

Not Silver, like the moon itself had taken root in his irises.

Bright and feral.

Alive.

He blinked once. Twice, Then he growled, Low and deep, it rumbled through the roots like thunder.

Elara, he rasped.

She didn't know how he knew her name.

She didn't know why her blood was burning.

She knew that something ancient had just happen between them, and it was far too late to run From the trees above, a low howl echoed, answered by another, closer this time. Not mournful.

No warning. Hunting.

And Elara realized she wasn't just in the forest anymore.

She was on a wrong path.

She doesn't realized that she was running until the trees blurred around her

The murmur of something old lingered in my heart, like a cord pulling me further into the woods, distancing me from the security of Mira's cottage and the existence I believed was truly mine. The leaves crunched under my bare feet, yet I continued on.

I Was unable too. The mark on my wrist is still searing, shimmered softly beneath my skin, resembling moonlight carved in blood. Each step I took, it glowed more intensely.

I shouldn't have turned back.

But something in me refused.

Then... I heard it.

Not the wind. Not the usual night sounds.

A growl.

Low. Rough. Closer than it should be.

I froze.

The forest held its breath.

A shadow stepped between the trees. Massive. Mismatched eyes glinting in the dark, one gold, one ice-blue.

My heart lurched.

It wasn't a wolf.

It was a man, barely clothed, blood on his jaw, dark hair wild with leaves and bramble.

But there was something wrong about him. Something ancient and wrong.

He looked at me like I was prey... and something else. Something more dangerous.

His voice sound hoarse when he spoke. "What did you do?"

I don't know, he whispered. "It just happened. my wrist. It burned.

He took a step closer. "The bond... it called me."

I swallowed. "Who are you?"

A pause. A bitter smile.

"No one you should have found."

He turn his head slightly, as if his listening to something I couldn't hear. His nostrils flared. And then, his expression changed. From wary to something wild.

You are not supposed to exist, he growled. Your kind was wiped out.

"What kind?"

His gaze dropped to my wrist.

"That mark... it's not just a bond. It's a curse."

My breath caught. A curse?

But before he could answered, a howl shattered the silence, high, mournful, and close.

Not his.

Not mine.

Others.

He cursed under his breath. They found me.

"Who?"

"Run."

"I'm not leaving"

He grabbed my wrist. "Then stay close and try not to get killed."

Before I could ask another question, the ground trembled.

More growls. Cracks of branches snapping.

Shapes in the trees. Wolves. Three. Maybe four.

And not just any wolves.

Hunters.

The rogue Alpha bared his teeth and stepped in front of me.

"I hope you're worth dying for, little moonblood."

Then he shifte his bones cracking, eyes blazing, just as the first hunter lunged from the trees.

The moment his eyes met i, the world shifted. I felt it, something ancient, binding, burning beneath my skin.

"You have awakened it," he whispered.

Before I could speak, a howl split the air closer than before.

His gaze snapped to the trees. "They're here."

Then he turned to me, voice low and urgent

"Run