BOUND TO THE ALPHA'S CURSE

a's

sed my palms over my ears, but the echo lived inside my skull, a warning I could not shut out. Whe

that whispered my name as though it carried the weight of centuries. I had seen Kalen in the dream, his eyes no longer the burnished gold of the Alpha b

ision. My father would call

n. Whispers followed me, though no mouths moved. Perhaps they lived only in my head, carried from the fragments of the dre

, smelling faintly of herbs and smoke. They stopped their muttering

ot be here, E

y voice trembled despite m

y-eyed Corvin, lifted a weathe

o bleed through. When he unrolled it, my chest tightened. I recognized the sigil pressed at the

w, resonant. "One tied to the priestess bloodl

t dry. "What

ly. "That the Alpha's curse can b

ed like stones

carved into the room, a presence woven into the words themselves. Was this

aled. "You will

he claw marks near her home. The dreams. The Alpha's unnatural pull toward her. I

to deny it, to scream that they were wrong, that I was no prophecy wrapped in flesh. But part of me,

e council. "You will leave my

s' silence sa

y could see the t

eeking air, seeking space, seeking anything but the suffocating weight of those words

od

rif

es hunted m

. Shadows shifted between the trees, and from them emerged the very m

le

barely chained. "You shou

ded more like a cry. "Alone is

ned. "What did

e word that had been bran

ith feral light. He took a step closer, each stride a warn

nk of a tree. "Not yet?

, voice hushed, dangerous.

ed the ground beneath me. F

t it means,"

into a fist. "It means that fate is cruel. Th

ree before I could cage them. "Then w

obbed, heavy with somethin

choose. They bind. And if the scroll is true,

rds I could not form. His curse. My blood.

pped through the night. Not one

ody tense. "We are not safe here." He caught

ungs burned, my legs screamed, but I kept pace with him, driven by a terror that cl

rger than any I had seen, its fur mottled with s

lun

and muscle and fur. His wolf form struck the beast with a crash that shoo

aving, watching two monsters

ttered th

red wolf's blood soaked into the soil, and from it rose a faint glow, a sigil burning a

lood

he light crawled towar

even in victory, his gaze swung to me, and in those golden eyes I sa

pulse of power rushing upward into my

cre

forest w

inside her, binding her fate to Kalen's