The Alpha's Surrogate Bride

Curse

ROHEN BLACKWOOD



(flashback – 15 years ago)

I was fifteen and still believed I could save someone. I went down those cold stone stairs carrying the ceremonial sword my father had used at his own wedding.

I was shaking so hard the blade rattled against its sheath with every step toward the dungeon. It wasn’t fear of the monster down there… It was fear of discovering the monster was already inside me and there was no undoing it.

When I pushed open the dungeon door, the creak echoed through the damp air like a wail. The torches flickered, illuminating my father’s body hanging from the silver chains he’d had forged himself back when he still believed he could beat the curse.

The stench of iron, piss, burned flesh, and despair hit me before I even opened the basement door. That’s what my father has smelled like lately.

The skin on his wrists was completely gone; the bones gleamed white because the blood had already drained too much. It dripped so slowly it was like time itself had paused out of pity. When I stepped into the cell, he saw me and tried to smile. The smile came out crusted with dried blood cracking across his lips.

“Son…” His voice dragged out, barely recognizable from the warm, gentle tone it used to have. At least before the last three years. Those had been cruel. I couldn’t answer him.

My legs locked at the entrance to the cell and the sword suddenly felt twice as heavy. He lifted his head as far as the chains allowed. His eyes were bloodshot, fully golden, no longer his wolf, just the curse staring back at me.

“You came,” he whispered, a voice so shredded it sounded like his throat was full of broken glass. “I knew you would, my boy.”

I couldn’t speak.

“Kill me, son.” The golden eyes were completely swallowed by the curse. “Before I break these chains and come after you.”

I took one step forward, trying to be brave. My sword dipped an inch.

“Rohen, my boy… look at me.” His voice cracked in the middle like rotten wood. “I’m not me anymore. Haven’t been for weeks. The curse is in my spine, my skull, my soul. It whispers that it’ll rip your skin off with its teeth. That’s why you have to do it now.”

One part of my brain screamed at me to run. The other part, the part that would one day make me Alpha said I couldn’t. The problem was, neither side wanted to raise the goddamn sword and kill my father.

“Dad…” My voice came out so thin I barely heard myself.

He laughed. Or tried to. The sound was a horrible wet snap followed by more blood trickling from the corners of his mouth. I couldn’t hide my grimace.

“You look exactly like your mother when she tried to pretend she wasn’t afraid of the dark.” He squeezed his eyes shut for a second, like the memory hurt worse than the chains. “So soft… so good… my boy…”

“Dad…” My voice broke like a child’s. “I don’t want to…”

“You have to want to,” he growled, and for the first time in weeks real tears ran down his face. “I still feel her, Rohen. Even dead. I still smell her calling me and I want to kill anyone who breathes near what was mine. That’s what the curse does. It turns love into poison. Protection from slaughter.”

He yanked on the chains; the silver hissed against his skin. The stench of burning flesh filled the air.

“I killed the woman I loved more than my own life,” he said, his voice cracking halfway through. “I tore her throat out while she slept because I thought she was cheating on me with the f*****g wind. Then I went back to our room, knelt in her blood, and cried like a pup. Because I still loved her. Even after I murdered her.”

He stared into my eyes for a long time before speaking again.

“You already feel the rune burning, don’t you? When any female walks by, it throbs, right?” He kept going. “When you dream of someone, it bleeds, doesn’t it? You’re going to be worse than me, Rohen. Because you’re stronger. When you love… you’ll destroy everything.”

I raised the sword toward him, feeling what little courage I had draining away. Tears ran hot down my face, soaking into my shirt.

“I love you, Dad,” I choked out through a sob.

“I love you more than anything in this world, son,” he answered, and for one second, just one, his eyes flickered back to pale gray. “Forgive me, and never… never accept a mate. Kill her before she kills you. Promise me.”

I took his head off in a single swing. The blade sliced clean through the air and hit exactly where my grandfather had taught me: the joint between neck and collarbone. His head dropped forward, then rolled across the stone floor. His body swayed once on the chains before going still.

I stood there staring while something inside me cracked, like ice breaking in the dead of winter.

The smell of hot blood, the final thud, the absolute silence afterward… The sound of his head hitting the floor was the sound that broke me forever. I stayed there until sunrise, sitting in my father’s blood, holding the sword, my chest burning where the black rune was starting to bloom like a rotten flower.

From that day on, I had to step up as alpha of my pack. From that day on, I’ve carried a pain that can’t be changed, a pain I can’t even dull. I wanted a quiet life, just leading our pack, keeping our territory safe, keeping everyone alive and healthy.

Eight years later,

I’m on top of her.

My c**k at the entrance of my true mate’s body. My fangs a hair’s breadth from sinking into her throat while the black rune throbs so hard it feels like it’s about to rip my chest in half.

My mate is crying from pure want. I didn’t keep my promise.

“Mark me,” she whispers, voice shattered, nails digging so deep into my back I feel blood running. “Mark me before I die, never having truly been yours.”

I’m shaking all over. Because I feel the curse rising and my beast taking control. I feel the madness trying to swallow me whole. I feel the same urge that made my father kill the woman he loved most in the world.

“I’ll kill you,” I groan against her neck, fangs already descending. “I’ll mark you, and then I’ll kill you. Just like he did to her. I can’t lose you. I can’t become the monster that destroys what it loves.”

She cups my face with both hands, forces me to look into her eyes.

“Then kill me,” she snarls, tears streaming down her beautiful face. “But kill me after you love me. Kill me after you f**k me until I forget my own name. Kill me after you give me one full night of being yours. Because I’d rather die under your teeth than live without ever being marked by you.”

And I killed my first mate. I won’t make the same mistake again.