Marked by the Cursed Alpha

The blood

A chill crawled up my skin, she wasn’t human and I was certain of it. Something in the way her smile lingered felt… wrong, like a ghost sent to mark me.

I stumbled back from the window, my heart pounding, and I locked the door, then the windows. My hands trembled on the latch and I kept whispering under my breath, as if the act itself could ward her off.

Moments later, footsteps echoed outside the door, slow, heavy, settling right in front of it. Guards, maybe or someone else but either way, I didn’t feel safe.

“Where is Rhydian?” I whispered again. The only name that made my heartbeat calm and race at the same time.

I crept back to the window, just enough to peek.

The palace gates were swarmed by rogues, snarling, clawed, monstrous. Soldiers fought to keep them from breaking through. Steel flashed, bodies fell and blood covered the visible ground, yet my eyes searched the chaos for him.

Finally I saw him,

Rhydian, running straight into the storm, unafraid. His body moved like something born for war, every move he made depicted purpose, power, and control.

Even from that distance, he didn’t look human, he looked… inevitable.

He charged into the fray, and then, mid-run, he leapt and his body arched through the air, and when he landed, he was no longer a man.

A massive wolf stood where he’d fallen.

I froze, my breath hitched and my heart stumbled in my chest, and something unfamiliar twisted deep inside my stomach.

I pulled the curtains shut at once, pressing my palm to my mouth as if I’d witnessed something I shouldn’t have. Like I had seen him bare, stripped of everything human.

And somehow… I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Everything was too still, even the bells had gone quiet, and all I could do was sit in the dimly lit room and hope that it is all over and Rhydian comes back to the room to ease my unrest.

I heard it a faint click, it was the door. I froze.

I hadn’t heard footsteps this time approaching the door, at least I knew the door was locked.

Before I could react, the lock turned from the outside, and the door creaked open slowly, how was that even possible?

“Rhydian?” I said with a trembling voice.

A man stepped in, he was tall, cloaked in dark furs, his eyes had a strange shade of gray that looked like dangerand dread. I didn’t recognize him, he wasn’t one of Rhydian’s guards.

For a heartbeat, I thought he might be here to protect me, maybe sent by the King after Rhydian’s negotiation earlier that day.

Until he smiled and my heart dropped to my stomach.

“I’ve heard tales of the King’s blade taking a human for a mate,” he said, his voice was low, crawling like oil through the air.

He gently closed the door behind him.

“Curious thing, isn’t it? A cursed wolf choosing something so… fragile.”

I took a step back, my hand trembling as it searched for anything, a weapon, a wall, something solid, anything at all.

“Stay back,” I warned, though my voice barely carried any weight.

He laughed softly, the sound sending a shiver down my spine.

“Oh, I’m not here to hurt you,” he lied easily.

“I only need to see what makes you his.”

Before I could scream, his hand caught my chin, forcing me to look at him. His nails pressed against my skin like claws.

“I can smell it,” he whispered.

“There’s power in your blood. If I mark you first, maybe it becomes mine.”

His head lowered, I could feel his breath on my neck, but he paused. Then ran his eyes along my petite body.

“You are not bad-looking too, I can see it now” he said resting his eyes on my n****e that peeked through the simple dress I wore.

“Don’t you even dare, or Rhydian will gauge your eyes out” I said, hoping that Rhydian’s name will scare him,

“Not when I have your power” he said strengthening his grip and running his fangs on my neck and that was when I screamed.

“RHYDIAN!” The sound tore through the walls like thunder, I wasn't sure about him hearing me, but it was the only name I could call to save me.

“Save me!!” I said again, and a heartbeat later, the door exploded inward, the hinges snapping off.

And he was there, not the Rhydian I knew but someone else, entirely.

He was half-man and half-beast, covered in blood that wasn’t his. His eyes glowed red, both of them, his chest heaved with rage, his claws still wet and dripping.