"Only a bloodline of the Moon Goddess can break the Alpha’s Curse. The Alpha will know her by fate." The paper read, She froze. Alpha. Moon Goddess. Bloodline. Her. Her hands trembled. Thane wasn’t just some mysterious man—he was a wolf. Cursed. And he had known what she was from the very beginning. He didn’t fall for her. He chose her. The door creaked. She didn’t turn. “You used me,” she whispered, voice like ice. “I wasn’t love—I was your way out.” His silence said it all. And in that moment, the man she loved became the curse she never saw coming. Thane took a step forward. “It wasn’t like that—” “Don’t,” Ember snapped, spinning around, eyes glistening with rage and betrayal. “You knew exactly what you were doing. You sought me out. You played the long game. You let me fall.” His jaw clenched. “At first, yes. I needed the bloodline. But it changed. You changed everything.” “Liar.” Her voice cracked. He moved closer. “You think I faked this? The nights I stayed up watching you sleep? The way my chest aches when you cry?” She backed away, clutching the book like a shield. “Then why didn’t you tell me the truth?” “Because I was afraid the moment you found out, I’d lose you.” Tears streamed down her face. “Then you should have never found me in the first place.” Behind them, the wind howled through the open window, echoing the silence now hanging between them—tense, raw, irreversible. She turned toward the door. “You were never just a cure,” he said softly. But her eyes didn’t soften. She held up the piece of paper, tucked as a bookmark in the page the revealed it all. “Then why was this hidden in your things?” His throat tightened. “Ember, it’s not what you think—” She stepped back, voice shaking. “You needed to mate with me to break the curse. That’s why you found me. That’s why you stayed.” Then, she whispered, “You were never in love with me... you were hunting me.”