CURSED TO RISE

chapter 3

CHAPTER 3: HIS PROTECTION

KEIRA POV

The compound is so big I get lost trying to find the bathroom.

Like I walk down this hallway and there's another hallway and then another one and I'm just. lost. In his home. In his fortress. And I feel so small. So stupid.

Ezra doesn't let go of my wrist the whole time we're walking. His hand is tight. I can feel his pulse through his grip. Or maybe that's my pulse. I don't know. Everything is beating so hard.

People see us and they look away. They bow their heads. They make themselves small. Like he's dangerous. Like being near him is scary.

I'm scared of him too but not in the way they are.

We get to this huge room and there's so many wolves in here. So many faces. And they all stare at me. I can feel it. All that looking. All that judgment.

My face gets hot.

"She's under my protection," he says. His voice is like ice. "Don't touch her."

Everyone nods. No one says anything back.

But I'm thinking... why me? Why would he protect me? I'm the girl who can't shift. I'm the girl who's broken. I'm the girl that everyone in the servant quarters ignored because I was too pathetic to even care about.

And now he's saying I'm his. Like I matter. Like I'm something worth protecting.

It doesn't make sense.

He puts me in a room. There's a bed. A real bed with pillows. There's a window that looks out at mountains that are so far away they look like they're made of mist. There's books. Books. I've never owned a book in my entire life.

I touch the bed and the blanket and I feel like I'm dreaming. Like this isn't real.

Then he leaves and I'm alone.

I sat there for hours just sitting.

I hear people talking about me later. I don't mean to eavesdrop but their voices come through the walls.

"Why does he want her?" someone says.

"She's broken. She can't do anything," another voice says.

My stomach hurts. They're right. I'm broken. He's going to figure it out eventually.

But he doesn't send me away.

The next morning it's still dark when he comes to get me.

I open my eyes and he's just standing there. Watching me sleep. It's weird. It makes me feel weird inside.

"Come on," he says.

I get out of bed and my legs are shaking.

The training is so hard I want to die.

My legs burn. My lungs burn. Everything burns.

"Again," he keeps saying.

Again. Again. Again.

I fall and I think I'm going to cry but I don't. I get up. I try again. I fall again.

But every time I fall, his hands catch me. His hands are warm. So warm. And soft. Like he's trying to hold something that might break.

His voice doesn't match his hands.

His voice is cold.

His hands are warm.

It makes me hurt inside. Like something is pulling at my chest.

On the third day I mess up and he cuts me.

His blade catches my shoulder. The blood comes fast and it stings and for a second I think maybe this is it. Maybe he's going to get angry and throw me out.

But he doesn't.

He brings me to a small room and sits me down. And then he cleans the blood. His hands are so careful. So gentle. He touches me like I'm something precious.

Like I matter.

I watch him clean the blood and I feel something break open inside my chest. Something that's been locked up for so long.

I look at him. I really look at him. And I see something in his face. Something sad. Something tired.

"Don't look at me like that," he says.

And it sounds like it hurts him to say it.

"I'm sorry," I whisper.

"Just... don't," he says

Then he leaves

I sit there alone and my shoulder hurts but it's not the physical hurt that's killing me.

That night I can't sleep.

I lie in the bed and think about his hands. How warm they were. How gentle. How he looked at me when he thought I wasn't looking back.

There's something between us. Something I don't understand.

Something that scares me.

The next week is the same thing over and over. Training. His cold voice. His warm hands. I'm getting more and more confused.

I start pushing harder because maybe if I'm good enough at this, he'll look at me differently. Maybe he'll stop acting like he can't stand being near me.

And one day when I hold a position without falling, he just nods.

Just barely.

But I feel it in my whole body. That nod. That tiny acknowledgment.

My chest gets tight.

I'm falling for him.

I don't want to be. But I am.

Every time he catches me, my heart does this thing. This weird jumping thing. Every time he looks at me, I forget how to breathe.

And the worst part is..I think he feels it too.

One day our eyes meet for too long. And I see something in his face. Something raw. Something that looks like he's feeling it too.

Then he looks away and his walls come back up and he's cold again.

But I saw it. I know I did.

That night I can't stop thinking about it.

Does he feel this way about me? Is he scared of it like I'm scared of it? Is he trying to push me away because he knows it's wrong? Because I'm broken and he's the Alpha and this shouldn't happen?

I want to ask him but I'm terrified of what he might say.

What if he says it's all in my head? What if he says I'm just imagining things?

What if he says he doesn't feel anything at all?

So I don't ask.

I just train harder. I just try to be better. I just try to be someone worth looking at without disgust.

But every time he touches me, I feel it. Every time he catches me, I feel his warmth. Every time his eyes meet mine before he looks away, I feel something shift inside me.

I'm not the same girl I was before.

Something is changing in me and it's terrifying.

Because I think when he figures out what I really am when he realizes that I'm worth something everything is going to fall apart.

And I'm going to have to choose between my life and his.

And I don't know what I'll choose.

But I know it's coming.

And I'm so scared.