THE ALPHA'S CURSED MATE

He is here

SELENE’S POV

Maybe if this hadn’t been my first time at the Moon Ceremony, I would have understood what the hell was happening. But it was my first time, and from what I’d heard, no female wolf ever got the chance to attend this damned ritual more than once. I had never met Alpha Dante either — all I knew about him came from rumors and half-whispered gossip.

But I didn’t need anyone to tell me that something was horribly wrong tonight. I didn’t need anyone to explain that this wasn’t how the ceremony was supposed to go — not even close.

The looks on everyone’s faces told me enough. No one expected this. No one knew what to do with what they had just witnessed. The Moon Ceremony was meant to continue until only one wolf survived. That was the order, brutal and unforgiving. But Dante had ended it before it even began. Proving once again that this whole thing was about him and nobody else.

I was distracting myself, trying to rationalize what had happened, inventing excuses and explanations that made no sense. But in the end, I couldn’t outrun the truth I’d felt the moment it happened — the truth my wolf had screamed into my bones.

Dante was my mate.

I hadn’t come here looking for a mate. I never even thought it was a possibility — especially not him. Every rumor I’d ever heard said he’d been cursed by the Moon Goddess, doomed to walk this earth without a mate for the rest of his life.

And yet… here I was.

It seemed the goddess had decided Dante had paid enough for whatever sins he’d committed — and now it was my turn to suffer. This wasn’t a blessing. It wasn’t destiny. It was a curse, how was I supposed to see it as anything else? Dante didn’t care about anyone. He had built an empire of blood and dominance — I highly doubted he was suddenly going to let his world revolve around me.

I replayed the moment he ended the ceremony. The instant our wolves whispered mate in unison. I had been shocked, hurt, furious at the goddess for choosing him for me. But him? He was unreadable. Or maybe not. It would have been easier if he had no reaction at all — instead, he looked at me as if I disgusted him. Even as he commanded me to come with him, it felt less like acceptance and more like pity.

Did he think the other girls would tear me apart in the trials?

Did he think he was doing me a favor by removing me from the field?

I hated the idea.

I didn’t want favors from him. I didn’t want his pity. If he didn’t want me — and I was certain he didn’t — I would rather he killed me straight away. It seemed like the kinder option. At least then I could return to the quiet nothingness of my old life, where no one looked at me and no one cared whether I lived or died.

After he commanded me to follow his men, I was escorted into his pack house — if you could even call it that. It looked more like a fortress. Instead of being taken to a room, I was led straight to the dungeon. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting silk sheets or a king-sized bed, but I didn’t expect… this. The fact that they gave me a place to stay at all was shocking enough.

In the dungeon, I was told to keep my head down and only speak when spoken to. When I asked when I would be allowed to return home, I was told that Dante alone would decide that. Rex — the man who seemed closest to Dante — instructed me to avoid eye contact with the alpha altogether. Not even look at him if I could help it.

This was only the beginning of a nightmare. I felt it deep in my soul.

The cell door slammed shut with a finality that settled deep in my bones.

The echo of metal against stone vibrated through the narrow corridor, and for the first time since the ceremony, true silence wrapped around me. I was already used to being alone, I had been alone for my whole life but it had never been like this. This was a different kind of loneliness. It hurt me in ways that I never thought loneliness could ever hurt6. maybe this was because I was lonely in a place where I was meant to be feeling the warmth of my mate.

I stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do. The dungeon smelled of damp stone and old pain, the air heavy with the memories of wolves who had been locked here before me. I wasn’t sure if any of them had survived long enough to tell their stories.

My hands shook as I lowered myself onto the cold slab of stone that served as a bed. It bit into my skin through the thin fabric of my dress, but I barely felt it. My mind was too full, too loud. My wolf paced inside me—nervous, alert, almost frantic.

Mate… mate…

I wanted to scream at her to shut up. To stop reminding me of something I never wanted, something she knew she could never have.

I pulled my knees to my chest and buried my face against them. I had spent my whole life being invisible, unwanted, overlooked. For a moment, I had almost convinced myself that being chosen by no one was safer than being chosen by him. Now, I wished more than anything to disappear again. I wished he could just kill me out of mercy, I was certain that he had already seen how weak and frail I was, all he had to do was take pity on me and not keep me here as his prisoner.

A faint scraping sound made me lift my head. Footsteps echoed faintly from somewhere above. My heart leapt in panic before sinking violently. Was it him? Was he coming to kill me? Or worse — was he coming because he felt the same pull I did?

I didn’t know which terrified me more.

I swallowed hard and tried to steady my breathing. I needed to be calm. I needed to be smart. Dante was not the kind of wolf who showed mercy. If he meant to get rid of me, he wouldn’t hesitate. And I wouldn’t beg — I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

But part of me, a fragile part that made my chest ache, wondered if he hated this bond as much as I did.

The footsteps faded. Silence returned.

I exhaled shakily, rubbing my arms to chase away the cold. The dungeon lantern flickered weakly, throwing shadows across the walls — shadows that twisted and moved as if they were alive. The darkness seemed to breathe with me, inhale my fear, exhale its own.

I wrapped my arms tighter around myself.

This is only temporary, I told myself.

He’ll get rid of me soon. And then it will be over. this was a truth I knew but also a truth that y wolf refused to accept. She could never accept being rejected and yet we both knew that this was the only way that this would end for us.

But even as I thought it, my wolf whimpered softly in the back of my mind — a sound that broke something inside me. She wasn’t afraid of him. She wasn’t worried about death.

She was afraid of losing him.

Pathetic.Dangerous.Deadly.

I forced her back as best as I could. A soft creak sounded outside my cell — slow, deliberate, unmistakably close. My breath hitched, someone was standing just beyond the iron bars.I couldn’t see who, but I didn’t have to. My heart knew, my wolf knew.

He had come.