Fated To The Cursed Alpha

Chapter 4

~SEBASTIAN KOL~

The world as I knew it had changed, but one truth still stood firm. Only the powerful thrived. Only those who clawed their way above the masses tasted life the way it was meant to be tasted.

I had always believed a man to be either one of two things. Powerful or weak. Rich or poor. Predator or prey. Those who fell into the second category were toys for the first. It was a simple equation. Either you were at the top or you answered to those who were. And I had no intention of ever becoming a toy or answering to anyone.

I, Sebastian Kol, chose the throne long before the world realized it belonged to me. My veins carried the old blood that existed before the wolves rose into packs and kings carved their borders. I was an apex predator. A god amongst men. The only one deserving of the supreme power.... but I had one restriction. A curse. A torment that gnawed at me every night, releasing a ruthless monster that was out of my control and forcing me into a death-like slumber for seven decades of every century. Five centuries, I endured it, waking only for three decades each to claw my way back to relevance, build my empire anew, and hunt for the one thing that always slipped my grasp. Freedom.

This century, however, greeted me with something different. A whisper. A prophecy. A cure.

Leilani Ravenwood.

A woman born with the mark of the goddess and fated to be my salvation or ruin. And whose touch... gods... whose touch burned me with a pain so exquisite it almost dragged a groan out of me. She was a trick, no doubt. A game the goddess crafted with her own hands to punish me even further with a flicker of hope.

But I was never one to shied away from a game.

I had done as I promised. I left her lands in ruins and I took her and her pack hostage. Now, I sat in my territory, my empire rooted deep in the heart of the House of Veils. A network of pleasure houses, fighting pits, black markets, and power brokers that grew by the hour as more wolves bent the knee. Every day, another alpha swore allegience to me. I was dominating the eastern, southern and western district with an immerse speed as they crawled to me in surrender, begging for a taste of the old blood to have more power. The northern district still posed a strong resistance but I wasn't bothered. It was only a matter of time before their packs would bend the knee to me, their high king.

I reclined on my throne-like chair, draped in royal fabric, gold and black, cut to sharpen the lines of my body. The crest of my lineage, an eclipsed moon pierced by fangs, rested against my chest.

The mighty doors opened, and two Alphas stepped inside.

Behind them, my tainted wolves prowled forward—the ones who had tasted my blood. Their bodies were larger, grotesquely evolved and their eyes glowed a bright red. Wolves, yes, but twisted... more feral and disastrous. Executives, I called them but the world called them monsters who partaked in my curse.

The Alphas fell to their knees before me. Their intent was clear. Their loyalty sealed.

“You have chosen the right path.” I said, my tone cool, almost bored. “Drink of my blood and become one with me. Hold power deeper than anything you have ever dreamt.”

They shivered. Grown men, alphas, shivering like pups.

I extended my hand so they could kiss the obsidian ring on my finger. Each press of their lips sealed a piece of their soul to mine. Artemisia, one of my favoured courtesans approached the two with a goblet, one that contained my blood, for them to have their fill.

I was informed then, through the bond shared with my executives, that Youzab Grey had arrived in the Nocturne Veil. He was the deputy head of state and human royalty in every sense that mattered. The human government knew of my return. They were aware of our existence and considering their war against the werewolf tribe had always failed, they became even more alert since my awakening. Bodies were piling up and Youzab came to negotiate.

I was ready to entertain him on certain terms of mine, but the night was crawling toward the hour I dreaded the most. Midnight. When the curse would seize me and drag its claws under my skin. When my bones would shift into something neither wolf nor man. A creature carved purely from agony and hunger.

Most nights I locked myself behind reinforced walls, trying to maintain even an ounce of control. It never worked. The locks always broke.

I rose from my seat, intending to leave, to find my cage before the transformation began ripping me apart, but the doors slammed again.

My priest entered.

A thin old man with silver etched into his skin, his eyes always distant, seeing everything and nothing at once. He bowed low, his forehead touching the ground with dramatic reverence.

“There is no need to lock yourself tonight." He said quietly.

My brow arched. “Are you saying my curse would take a night off?” I asked mockingly.

He stepped forward, reverence weighing his every movement. “No, High King. I am saying something has shifted.” His hand lifted, revealing a vial. “We examined the girl. The Ravenwood heir. Her blood… it holds power unlike anything I have ever sensed.”

Leilani.

Her name echoed inside me like a taunt.

My priest continued. “She is tied to you. To your curse. The connection between you both is not ordinary. It is ancient… blood-wrought. Painful. Overpowering. Stronger than any mate bond I have ever encountered.”

My fingers tensed. “And you retrieved her blood?”

“Yes, High King. She resisted, but the magic in her blood is potent. It hums with the blessing of the goddess… twisted, as if forged for both salvation and destruction.”

He placed the vial in my hand, the liquid shimmering like captured moonlight. I uncorked it and swallowed the contents without hesitation.

The effect was instant.

Heat tore through me first, violent and consuming, then ice, then something electric that seized my spine and forced my lungs open. My knees nearly buckled. The curse surged, rising like a beast ready to shred its cage...

Then it stopped.

The world steadied around me. My body remained mine. Midnight passed like a sigh.

No bones snapping. No agony. No rampage. No monster tearing me apart.

For the first time in centuries, I felt whole.

My priest exhaled shakily. “Her blood is your cure.”

“Then why…” I lifted my hand slowly, remembering the way her skin had scorched mine. “…does her touch wound me?”

“Because the bond is not gentle.” He whispered. “It is perilous. Her touch burns you because the connection is too strong, too raw. It rejects you even as it pulls you toward her. It appears to be far greater and dangerous than the normal mate bond. Its twisted.”

So that was it. Salvation in her blood. Destruction in her touch. Desire threaded through both. A curse seemingly worse than the one I began with.

I didn’t breathe for several seconds. Relief was foreign to a creature like me, and it felt dangerously close to hunger.

My jaw ticked. “The goddess crafts cruelty with precision.”

His eyes softened. “She crafts purpose, High King. Whatever lies between you and the girl, it will shape everything.”

I said nothing. I didn’t need to. The truth simmered in the air between us.

I remembered the moment her hand had touched mine, how the pain shot up my arm like liquid fire while something deep inside me surged toward her. A pull I’d never felt. A need so violent it bordered on hunger.

Pain and desire. Fire and temptation.

A bond twisted enough to amuse even me.

The prophecy said she could destroy me and it also said she could cure me.

Either way, she belonged to me.

Her blood sang to me now. Called to the monster inside me. Calmed it even as it sharpened my obsession. I would break her and do even worse to attain my full freedom from the curse that has clung to me for years.

I turned to one of my executives, a towering, feral wolf barely contained in human form. “Prepare the Nocturne Veil.” I commanded. “I will meet Youzab Grey tonight.”

He bowed and vanished instantly.

**********

I descended the grand staircase of the Nocturne Veil, one of the three of my most prominent pleasure houses. It pulsed alive with soft moans, laughter and seductive whispers from my human courtesans. And the air hummed with the scent of lust, power, and blood.

My entire empire had grown in the short time since I awakened, expanding faster than the human or werewolf governments could follow. I had become the axis on which their needs spun.

But the Nocturne Veil alongside the Lunaris... was where my influence was ripest.

The doors parted open, and warmth spilled out in waves of golden light and perfume. Human women barely dressed in silk fabrics, danced in slow, hypnotic rhythms. Wine flowed freely. Men with too much money and too little restraint lounged while my courtesans attended to them, their cheeks flushed from the small doses of my blood they had consumed. Just enough to make them irresistible. Just enough to make every human man forget where his loyalties lay.

My blood had different effect on both humans and wolves. It intoxicated humans while it drove the wolves feral, almost close to madness. It was a slight issue that I experienced with my pack of executives. Their ferocity was great and their lust harder to satisfy. Human courtesans who tended to them ended up dead and I had no choice but to seperate the pleasure houses. The Lunaris was a pleasure house for the creatures while the Nocturne Veil was for humans.

They'd both raised me a fortune. Large enough to suffocate cities, large enough to create scarcity whenever I wished. Food, medicine, resources. Both wolves and humans had begun to depend on me.

Youzab Grey waited in a private suite upstairs.

He rose stiffly when I entered, fear rippling through him despite the effort he made to hide it. He was a man used to command. Used to being obeyed. But here, in my house, he was prey.

“King Kol.” He greeted with a strained smile. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with me.”

“You are here because your government is panicking. Because bodies are piling up and you fear what will happen when the masses realise they no longer sit at the top of the food chain.” I spoke, hitting straight at the point.

He stiffened. “We are concerned about stability...”

“Stability is an illusion.” I said flatly. “One I now control.”

The women around the room stilled, sensing the shift in air. Youzab cleared his throat. “We seek peace, King Kol. Collaboration. Negotiation.”

I leaned back slowly, letting the silence stretch. “You came to bargain. But understand something, your government cannot fight me. Not with wolves defecting to my side by the dozens. Not with your billionaires spending their fortunes here, and not with your human elites begging for my favor.”

His jaw tightened.

“So let us speak plainly.” I said. “You want something.”

He hesitated. “My position… the one I’ve been striving for—”

“Yes. Head of State.” I smiled, slow and sharp.

“A seat you have failed to claim.”

His breath caught.

“I can give it to you, and in return,” I continued, “you will give me what I want.”

“Which is?”

“Loyalty. Unwavering.”I paused, letting the weight of the word settle. “And I want a steady supply of human females. Beautiful. Healthy. Young enough to train. I will expand the Nocturne Veil, and your government will funnel me candidates to become my courtesans.”

He froze. “You’re asking for—”

“I am not asking.” I said softly. “I am offering you a crown.”

He swallowed, throat bobbing.

“You want power.” I murmured. “Real power. The kind even your human laws bow to. I can give it to you with one signature. But understand this. If you take my hand, you will not be able to let go.”

Silence pressed tight between us.

Finally, he bowed his head. “Then… I accept.”

I stood.

“Good.” My voice dipped into a low, dangerous satisfaction. A human consumed by greed was very easy to manipulate. They hardly ever thought it through before making deals with me as they thought it was like some random deal with the devil. But what they failed to understand was that I was worse than the devil.