THE ALPHA'S CURSED MATE

Awakened

DANTE'S POV

Everything in me was screaming that this was a mistake — a decision bound to haunt me later. I knew I had no business stopping the trials. Bringing her back with me was reckless, but what else could I have done? I wouldn’t have known peace if I’d let her go. That was the worst part — I didn’t want to release her, yet I didn’t want to face the danger of keeping her either.

The crowd went silent as I turned to leave. Whispers slithered through them — some questioning why I had ended the trials, others wondering what the girl had done to deserve such a fate. I didn’t care what they said. I just needed to get away before I tore through the crowd to reach her again.

The air grew heavier with every step toward the pack house. My wolf was restless. He had seen her — recognized her — as something he hadn’t realized he’d been waiting for.

Mate.

The word echoed in my skull, relentless and mocking. There was nothing I hated more. My strength had always come from solitude, from the absence of such weakness. No mate meant no vulnerability. But now, her presence had shattered that safety. She was the one weakness I was never meant to have. It was as if my wolf had forgotten how to exist without her around, forgetting that we had existed for all these years without needing her. I realized the biggest challenge in all of this was going to be to get my wolf to forget about her and let her go.

The curse had kept me alive all these years — unfeeling, ruthless. It had stopped being a curse long ago. It was a gift from the goddess, even if she hadn’t meant it that way. Without love, without attachment, I had become untouchable. Now, one trembling girl — too fragile to even survive a night in my world — threatened to destroy everything I’d built. Everything that I had worked for so many years to achieve was going to come down crushing hard if I wasn't careful of this girl. i had to come up with a way to deal with her and yet I still couldn't get her out of my head. That filled me with anger but at the same time it filled me with feelings of lust.

Her scent still clung to my skin. The same hands that had ripped countless wolves apart for defying me now ached to touch her again. It was infuriating. The scent wrapped around me like smoke, searing into my chest, impossible to escape. I wanted her gone, erased from my mind. Yet the thought of anyone else laying a hand on her blurred my vision with rage.

Rex met me halfway up the stairs, his face pale.

“You can’t just end the trials, Dante. The elders are furious, and the alphas are unsettled. You’re disturbing the very order you created.”

“I don’t care.” I didn't understand why rex thought I even cared about what anyone said about me or the decisions I took. If I had ever cared about what they said, I would never have made it this far and this moon ceremony wouldn't exist because it was the one thing that all the alphas were against and yet still couldn't stop me from doing it.

“She’s not like the others,” he pushed. “She’s weak.”

The tone of his voice made me want to break something. It sounded too much like he was defending her. I wanted to ask him why he was defending her but then i couldn't. I didn't want anyone to know what was going on just yet. Rex would probably panick if he knew who she was and what her presence meant for everything he had helped me build.

“I said I don’t care.” My voice came out rougher, almost feral. He backed away — wisely.

When I reached my chambers, I slammed the door shut and braced my palms against the wall, my breathing sharp and uneven. My wolf clawed inside me, begging to be released.

That is where we belong, he growled.

“No,” I snapped through gritted teeth. “I will not be controlled by a girl.”

But control was already slipping.

Her face flashed before me — innocent, defiant. Every instinct screamed to crush that defiance, to see how far she could bend before breaking. Yet beneath that darkness, something colder stirred — a need to protect her. The word itself disgusted me. The only thing I’d ever protected was my pack. Never a woman.

I had built my kingdom on blood and fear. Now one fragile wolf threatened to unmake it all just by breathing the same air as me.

Once again, that voice inside me whispered that this was a mistake. I looked down at my hands — the same hands that had killed for less than a whisper of disrespect — and felt an unease I couldn’t explain. I couldn’t imagine using them against her.

The moon hung high outside my window, bright and merciless. Its light spilled across the floor like liquid silver, and for a heartbeat, I saw her reflected in it — her eyes accusing, her lips parted as if she knew what I was becoming.

I tore my gaze away. I couldn’t let myself be tempted. I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to resist her — and I didn’t know what would become of me if I gave in to the thing she’d awakened.

Tomorrow, I would decide what to do with her.

Tonight, I would try — and fail — to convince myself that she hadn’t already begun to undo me.