THE ALPHA'S CURSED MATE

Awakened

DANTE'S POV

Everything in me screamed that this was a mistake, a decision that would come back to haunt me. A decision that I shouldn’t have made and yet I thought going against my instinct was a good idea. Never had I ever gone against my wolf, and yet we didn’t agree on this one thing. It was important to him, and it was important to me. If I could, I would have torn my wolf out of my body because it was getting hard to exist with him in the same body.

I had no business stopping the trials. Bringing her back with me had been reckless, impulsive. Yet what else could I have done? The truth I refused to admit was simple: I would have known no peace if I had let her go. That was the worst part of it, I didn’t want to release her.

But I didn’t want the danger of keeping her either. The crowd fell silent as I turned to leave the arena. Whispers slithered through them like snakes in the grass some questioning why I had ended the trials so abruptly, others wondering what the girl had done to deserve such a fate.

I ignored them all. Their opinions had never mattered before, and they certainly didn’t matter now. I just needed to get away before the tension clawing through my chest drove me back into that arena. Before I tore through the crowd just to reach her again. The air grew heavier with every step toward the pack house. My wolf paced restlessly beneath my skin. He had seen her.

Recognized her. Not as prey. Not as a threat. But as something he had apparently been waiting for without my knowledge.

Mate.

The word echoed through my skull, relentless and mocking. There was nothing I despised more. My strength had always come from solitude, from the absence of weakness. No mate meant no vulnerability. No one to threaten. No one to lose. But now her existence had shattered that certainty. She was the weakness I was never meant to have. It was as if my wolf had forgotten how to exist without her already, forgetting that we had survived for years without needing anyone. The realization made my jaw tighten.

The greatest challenge ahead of me would not be dealing with the girl. It would be forcing my wolf to forget her. To let her go. The curse had kept me alive all these years — unfeeling, ruthless. Somewhere along the way it had stopped being a curse. It had become a gift. A twisted blessing from the goddess herself, even if she had never intended it that way.

Without love. Without attachment. I had become untouchable. Feared. Respected. Now one trembling girl — too fragile to survive a single night in my world — threatened to unravel everything I had built. Everything I had fought for. If I wasn’t careful, the empire I had forged through years of blood and discipline could crumble because of one girl. And yet, despite knowing all of this… I couldn’t stop thinking about her. The thought filled me with anger. And something far more dangerous.

Desire.

Her scent still clung to my skin. The same hands that had torn wolves apart for defying me now itched with the memory of her warmth. It was infuriating. Her scent wrapped around me like smoke, seeping into my lungs, burning its way into my chest. Impossible to escape.

I wanted her gone. Erased from my mind completely. Yet the thought of another wolf laying a hand on her sent a flash of red across my vision. Rex met me halfway up the staircase, his expression pale with concern.

“You can’t just end the trials like that, Dante,” he said. “The elders are furious. The alphas are unsettled. You’re disrupting the very order you created.”

“I don’t care.”

The words came out flat and cold.

I didn’t understand why Rex thought the opinions of others would suddenly matter to me now. If I had ever cared about what the elders or the alphas thought, I would never have risen to power in the first place. The Moon Trials themselves had been proof of that.

Every Alpha had opposed them. And yet none had been strong enough to stop me.

“She’s not like the others,” Rex continued carefully. “She’s weak.”

The word grated against my nerves. Weak. The tone of his voice made something ugly stir inside me. It almost sounded like he was defending her. I nearly asked him why. But I stopped myself. No one could know what had happened in that arena. Not yet.

If Rex discovered who she truly was to me what her presence meant, he would panic. Everything we had built together could collapse before I had the chance to think.

“I said I don’t care.”

My voice came out rougher this time. Almost feral. Rex stepped back immediately. Wise choice. I continued past him without another word. When I reached my chambers, I slammed the door shut behind me and braced my palms against the wall. My breathing came sharp and uneven, my control hanging by a thread. My wolf clawed inside me, restless and impatient. That is where we belong, he growled.

“With her.”

“No,” I snapped through gritted teeth.

“I will not be controlled by a girl.”

But the truth was already obvious. Control was slipping. Her face flashed through my mind — innocent yet stubborn, fragile yet strangely unafraid. Every instinct in me wanted to crush that defiance. To see how far she could be pushed before she broke. But beneath that darkness, something colder stirred. Something unfamiliar.A need to protect her.

The thought alone disgusted me. The only thing I had ever protected was my pack. Never a woman. Never someone so dangerously vulnerable. I had built my kingdom on blood and fear. Now one fragile wolf threatened to undo it all simply by existing. Once again that quiet voice inside me whispered the same warning.

Mistake.

I looked down at my hands. These hands had ended lives for far less than a whisper of disrespect. Wolves had fallen beneath them without hesitation. Yet when I imagined using them against her… Something twisted uneasily in my chest. The moon hung high outside my window, bright and merciless. Its silver light spilled across the floor like liquid. For a moment I imagined her standing there within it. Her wide eyes watching me. Her lips parted slightly as if she understood exactly what she was doing to me.

I tore my gaze away, I couldn’t allow myself to be tempted. Because the truth I refused to admit was becoming harder to ignore. I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to resist her. And I didn’t know what kind of monster I would become if I stopped trying. 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.