Bound by the Alpha's Curse
Nara has spent her whole life at the bottom of the pack.
The weak wolf.
The girl no one defends.
The one everyone believes will never shift, never matter, and never belong.
All she wants is to live quietly and survive another day without being beaten or humiliated.
But the Moon Goddess has a different plan.
During a rogue attack, Nara crosses paths with Alpha Kael Draven-a powerful, ruthless leader known for his strength... and his curse. The moment their eyes meet, the mate bond snaps into place with a force that shocks them both.
Kael rejects her instantly.
A weak mate is the last thing he wants.
But as he walks away, the bond does not break.
Instead, it burns.
Soon, strange things begin happening around Nara-her wounds heal too fast, shadows move when she panics, and wolves who once mocked her now fear her. Whispers spread. Someone demands her capture. And Kael, the Alpha who tried to reject her, suddenly can't stay away.
As an ancient prophecy resurfaces, Nara learns she is the last descendant of a lost bloodline-one powerful enough to break Kael's curse... or unleash a darkness even he cannot control.
Now hunted by enemies, betrayed by those she trusted, and torn between the Alpha who wounded her and the destiny she never wanted, Nara must rise from weakness to strength.
Because Kael's life is tied to hers.
Her power is awakening.
And the bond that was meant to be broken might be the one thing that saves them both-
or destroys their entire world.
Chapters
Share
Chapter 1
The forest was too quiet.
Even the wind seemed afraid to move through the trees, as if it knew something terrible waited in the darkness. Nara tightened her grip on the basket in her hands. The herbs inside rattled as her fingers trembled.
"Just a few steps more," she whispered to herself. "Then back to the packhouse before anyone notices."
The moon hung low and silver above her, its light barely breaking through the heavy clouds overhead. She should have returned an hour ago. Omegas never stayed out this late. But the healer had sent her to gather nightroot, and no one dared refuse the healer-especially not Nara, the wolf everyone saw as the weakest link.
Her breath puffed out in small clouds as she walked. The air was colder than usual, sharp with the scent of winter and something else... something metallic.
Something wrong.
A branch snapped behind her.
Nara froze.
She didn't turn. She didn't breathe. She didn't dare.
Her heart pounded painfully in her chest. Please be a deer. Or even a fox. Please not a wolf.
Another snap. Closer.
Her hands shook. She clutched the basket tighter. Slowly-very slowly-she turned.
A pair of glowing red eyes stared at her from the darkness, unblinking.
Not a pack wolf.
Not a harmless creature.
A rogue.
Before she could scream, the rogue leapt forward.
Nara dropped the basket and ran.
Branches whipped against her arms, tearing at her cloak. She stumbled, her foot catching on a root, but she forced herself up again. Her lungs burned. Her vision blurred with tears. She could hear the rogue crashing through the trees behind her, gaining ground with terrifying speed.
Faster, Nara. Faster!
She ducked beneath a fallen log, her breath ragged. The rogue snarled, its claws scraping against wood as it lunged where her head had been a second before.
She crawled forward, scrambling like a terrified rabbit, pushing herself until her knees hit open ground. She stood and ran again, ignoring the sting in her legs.
She wasn't a fighter.
She wasn't strong.
She barely had enough wolf strength to shift-something she still hadn't done at eighteen.
But she wanted to live.
The rogue howled, a chilling sound that seemed to echo through every bone in her body.
Lights flickered ahead-torches.
The border patrol.
Nara didn't care if they mocked her again. She didn't care if they punished her for being late.
She just needed to reach them.
But before she could shout, a powerful force slammed into her from behind.
She hit the ground with a painful gasp. The rogue's claws pinned her shoulder, burning fire into her skin. She cried out, tears blurring everything.
The rogue leaned in, hot breath brushing her neck. Its teeth snapped near her throat.
"No," she whispered, shaking. "Please... please no..."
The rogue roared-and then something else roared back.
A deeper sound.
A stronger sound.
A sound that didn't belong to a normal wolf.
Something blurred through the trees-a shadow, fast and impossibly large. It ripped the rogue away from her with a violent snarl, sending her attacker flying into a tree trunk.
Nara pushed herself up, breath shaking as she stared through the drifting dust.
A massive black wolf stood between her and the rogue, muscles rippling beneath its dark fur. Shadows clung to him, swirling like smoke, alive and dangerous. His eyes glowed silver, bright enough to pierce the night.
She knew that wolf.
Everyone did.
Alpha Kael Draven.
The cursed Alpha.
Even as a wolf, he radiated dominance so strong it pushed against her chest, making her want to bow her head instinctively. He was power. He was fear. He was a legend wrapped in shadows.
The rogue lunged one last time.
Kael met it mid-air.
The fight was brutally fast. Blood sprayed. Bones cracked. And with a final snap of Kael's jaws, the rogue collapsed.
Dead.
Silence settled again, heavy and suffocating.
Kael stood over the rogue's body, chest rising and falling. The shadows curling around him dissolved slowly, as if sucked back into his skin. Then he turned his head-toward her.
Nara's breath caught.
There was something in his gaze now. Something she didn't understand.
He stepped toward her.
Once.
Twice.
Each step felt like a shift in the earth beneath her. She wanted to crawl away. She wanted to vanish. She wasn't supposed to be near him. She was an omega nobody. He was the Alpha who ruled the entire Northern Territory.
But when he reached her, something impossible happened.
The air changed.
The world tilted.
Kael froze, staring at her like he had been struck.
Nara felt it too-a spark in her chest, small at first, then growing into a burning heat that spread through her veins. Her heartbeat matched his. Her breath matched his.
Her skin tingled, and she knew-without knowing how-that she had just stepped into a nightmare.
Or a miracle.
The bond snapped into place.
Mate bond.
Her heart stopped.
No... no this can't be happening...
Kael's silver eyes widened, and for the first time, she saw fear in them. Not weakness-not even anger.
Fear.
He shifted in a burst of shadow, bones cracking, fur dissolving, until he stood before her in human form-bare-chested, bruised, and terrifyingly beautiful.
"N... Nara," she whispered, unable to stop herself.
He flinched, as if hearing his name from her lips was another wound.
His jaw clenched tightly. He stared at her, chest heaving.
"You..." His voice was deep, harsh, unfamiliar. "You can't be."
She didn't speak. She couldn't.
He stepped closer.
The pull between them grew stronger, tugging at her ribs, her heart, her soul. She swayed forward without meaning to. Her fingers tingled, aching to touch him.
A mate.
She had a mate.
Alpha Kael.
The cursed one.
The feared one.
The one who could kill her without blinking.
"No," he whispered-more to himself than to her. "No. Fate wouldn't be this cruel."
Her eyes filled slowly with tears. He hated this. Hated her.
"Alpha-" she began softly.
He raised a hand. She flinched, but he didn't strike her. He just stared at his own shaking fingers, horrified.
"This bond..." he whispered. "It has to be wrong."
Her chest tightened with pain, sharper than any blow she'd ever taken.
He looked at her as though she was a mistake. A curse. A burden he could not afford.
She swallowed hard. "Alpha Kael... I didn't ask-"
"You're weak," he said, voice cold now. "Too weak."
She looked down, ashamed even though she had done nothing.
"You won't survive me," he muttered. "You won't survive my world."
He took a step back.
Then another.
The mate bond burned in her heart like fire, each step he took feeling like a knife dragging across her soul.
"Please," Nara whispered, tears slipping down her cheeks. "Don't..."
His eyes softened-just a flicker-but it disappeared instantly.
When he spoke again, his voice was an icy blade.
"I, Alpha Kael Draven, reject you as my mate."
The words hit her like a physical blow.
Nara gasped, falling to her knees as pain tore through her chest, white-hot and unbearable. The bond twisted violently, fighting the rejection, refusing to break.
Kael's expression shifted in shock. He staggered slightly, pressing a hand to his chest.
"It... it isn't breaking," he whispered.
Another wave of pain hit her, stronger this time, sending her crashing onto her hands.
He cursed under his breath, shadows swirling around his body again, as if reacting to his panic.
"Why isn't it breaking?" he growled, looking at her like she held the answer.
She didn't. She only felt the pain-sharp, burning, blinding.
And then-
A second howl tore through the forest.
Not a rogue.
Not a border patrol wolf.
Something older.
Something darker.
Kael whipped his head toward the sound, his expression changing instantly-anger melting into something far worse.
Recognition.
"Get up," he barked.
Nara tried. Her arms shook. The pain from the failed rejection still ripped through her chest. Kael reached her in two long strides, grabbing her arm and hauling her to her feet.
"What's happening?" she gasped.
His jaw clenched. "They found you."
"Who?"
Kael looked down at her with eyes that held both fury and something new-fear for her.
"The ones hunting you."
Before she could speak, before she could breathe, the forest behind them erupted with glowing red eyes.
Too many to count.
Kael pulled her behind him, shadows rising like armor around his body.
"Nara," he said, voice low and deadly, "run when I tell you."
Her heart raced. "I-I can't leave you-"
"You're my mate," he said.
She froze.
He met her eyes, silver burning with something fierce.
"And I won't let them take you."
Before she could answer, one of the red-eyed wolves stepped into the moonlight-huge, scarred, and wearing a cruel, knowing grin.
Its voice echoed in her head:
"The bloodline awakens at last."
Nara's blood ran cold.
Kael stiffened beside her.
And the creature lunged.
You may also like
8.7
Bloodhoundhearts
8.7
Aiden is the Bloodhound the Council's most feared assassin, a vampire prince whose soul has been hollowed out by centuries of shadow and state-sanctioned slaughter. Elena is a Seer of the Vance line a woman of the mountain whose silver flame was meant to heal, not to spark a revolution. When their paths collide in the high spires of a corrupt capital, they don't just find love; they ignite a war that spans from the depths of the Sunken Vaults to the spectral currents of the Forbidden Coast.
Now, fleeing the ruins of a broken empire, they carry the ultimate secret: Caelum, a child of the Harmony. Born during a solar eclipse, he is the Third Way a hybrid heir with the power to either unite the warring forces of light and dark or become a beacon of chaos that levels the continent.
With the mechanical genius of a mad inventor, the iron will of a blacksmith's son, and the cryptic guidance of a five-hundred-year-old Oracle, Aiden and Elena must protect their son from enemies both ancient and new. From the obsidian breach-engines of the Council to the void-stained magic of Lyra, the first fallen Seer, the hunt is on.
In a realm where blood defines destiny, can a monster become a father? Can a healer survive the abyss? And when the choice comes to sacrifice half of his soul, will the Child of the Harmony have the strength to forge a new dawn?
8.0
Scarlett Hayes thought marrying James Whitmore would finally make her family see her as more than a burden.
Instead, it destroyed her life.
Framed for crimes she didn't commit, betrayed by the people she trusted most, and sentenced to prison while pregnant, Scarlett lost everything in a single night.
Then came the cruelest blow of all.
After giving birth in chains, she was told her baby had died.
The people responsible believed she would spend the rest of her life rotting behind bars.
They were wrong.
Five years later, Scarlett returns.
No longer the discarded daughter of the Hayes family. No longer the broken woman they left behind.
Now she is Commander Scarlett Hayes-a decorated war hero, the unseen force behind a global intelligence empire, and a woman powerful enough to make governments tremble.
She comes back for one reason only: revenge.
Her ex-husband, the stepsister who stole her life, and the family who buried her alive are about to learn exactly what happens when a woman with nothing left to lose takes back everything they stole.
But as Scarlett tears through the secrets of her past, one truth threatens to change everything-
the child she mourned for years may not be dead.
And the mysterious man connected to the night that changed her life has been watching from the shadows all along.
8.6
"And the night we met again," I whisper, "my wolf recognized you."
Silence.
"Recognized me how?" she asks carefully. My chest burns even as my pulse thunders in my ears.
"As my mate." The word falls between us like shattered glass.
Avara laughs. "That's not funny."
"I know."
"You're my brother."
"I know." I find myself inching closer... closer.
"Thats impossible. This is sick."
"I know," I say again, voice breaking now. "I fought it. Gods, I fought it. I tried to convince myself my instincts were wrong, that my wolf was broken, that I was losing my mind."
Her hands shake. "Stop."
"I can't," I say hoarsely. "Because every second I'm near you, it gets worse. Because my wolf wants to kneel at your feet and tear the world apart to protect you."
.................................
Fifteen years after vanishing from the Silvermoon pack, Kaeden Vane returns, older, lethal, and right on time at thirty-three, the age decreed by the Moon Goddess for succession, having spent years years amassing forbidden knowledge, mastering dangerous magic, and preparing to destroy his father, the man who murdered his mother in a bid for godhood. His return reunites him with Avara Vane, his seemingly fragile, human adopted sister that Silas, their father, adopted as an 'act of mercy'. She is a Nyxarel, whose parents were slaughtered by the man she calls father and who has been conveniently placed and subdued by his father, until it is the right time to use her blood to attain immortality. And one touch is all it takes for Kaeden's wolf to recognize her as his mate, an impossible, unforgivable bond...
7.4
The house was a living inferno, the heat devouring the air in my lungs as I clutched my five-year-old daughter to my chest. Emily was dead weight, her skin already cooling even as the room turned into a furnace of orange and black.
Through the stinging smoke, I saw my husband, Kenney, crawling toward the door with a wet handkerchief pressed to his face. He didn't look back at the crib, and he didn't call my name; he was simply leaving us to burn.
I lunged forward and grabbed his ankle, my nightgown catching fire, but he didn't reach down to save me. He recoiled in horror at the sight of my burning hair and our dead child, kicking me back with a panicked shriek.
"Let go!" he shrieked.
I died as a massive, flaming timber snapped from the ceiling and crushed us both into silence. I couldn't believe that the man I loved would leave his family to die just to save his own skin, but the rage I felt was colder than the death that followed.
But then the burning stopped instantly, replaced by a cold so sharp it made my teeth ache. I gasped, jerking upright in my bed to find the velvet duvet cool under my palms and the nursery quiet, with Emily still breathing softly in her crib.
I had returned to the winter morning two years before the fire, the exact day Kenney finalized the deal to sell me to the King for a promotion. As Kenney stepped into the room with a practiced mask of concern, I realized I was no longer the victim of this story.
"A nightmare, my love?" he asked, reaching out to touch my shoulder.
I flinched away, my eyes burning with a hatred he couldn't yet understand. Tonight was the Winter Masquerade, the night he planned to offer me to the King as a prize, but this time, I was going to turn his social ladder into a gallows.
7.1
The night before her wedding to Wall Street billionaire Everette Baird, Deliah Quinn stood happily in her haute couture gown.
Then, her younger sister Arvilla walked in, handed her a drugged glass of champagne, and slammed an ultrasound on the vanity.
"I'm pregnant with Everette's child," Arvilla sneered.
Before Deliah's paralyzed body could react, Arvilla dragged in a canister of industrial gasoline, soaked the bridal suite, tossed a lighter, and locked the heavy oak doors from the outside.
To escape the roaring inferno, Deliah smashed the glass balcony and threw herself into the freezing, violent waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
For five agonizing years, everyone believed the Quinn heiress was dead.
Deliah returned to New York entirely reborn—a top architectural designer and a single mother, having scrubbed her past clean and forgotten the people who destroyed her.
She only wanted a peaceful life with her five-year-old genius son, Leo.
But she had no idea her son was secretly hacking airport security cameras to find himself a wealthy stepdad.
Leo deliberately bumped into a terrifying, cold-blooded tycoon, spilling scalding coffee on his custom suit to get his attention.
When Deliah frantically rushed over to protect her son and apologize, the air in the terminal vanished.
Everette Baird stared at the exact face he had obsessively mourned for five years, his eyes turning pitch black as he crushed his phone in his bare hand.
7.6
"I will never carry your child," I spat.
The Alpha's grip on my jaw tightened, his eyes darkening with a hunger that wasn't just gold-it was primal. "I don't need you to carry it, Aria. I need you to pretend it's yours. One year as my Luna, or one lifetime in the pens. Choose."
One night, while returning from the clinic where she tended to the sick, Aria sensed she was being followed. Before she could react, three men ambushed her in the shadowed forest, claiming her father had gambled her away. Her desperate pleas went unanswered as she was struck unconscious, only to awaken in the heart of a notorious slave camp. There, she learned she was destined to serve as the breeder for the Alpha of the Hellbound Pack, Draven Darkmoon, a man feared for his cursed bloodline. But when Draven is thrust into Aria's world, her wolf recognizes him as her mate, igniting a dangerous collision of passion, power, and desire that neither can resist.