Cursed to the Alpha

Chapter 3: Exile's Territory

We ran for ten minutes straight. My lungs burned, my bare feet were cut and bleeding, but I didn’t let go of his hand.

When we finally stopped, we were deep in the old part of the forest. The trees here were twisted, blackened at the roots. Even the air felt dead.

“This is your territory?” I asked, catching my breath.

“This is what’s left of it,” Forsaken said. He let go of me and ranked a hand through his hair.

“The council burned the rest eighteen years ago.”

I looked around. Ruined stone walls, collapsed cabins, overgrown paths. This used to be a pack village.

“You lived here?”

“I was born here.” He kicked at a charred beam. “The council called it a purge. I call it murder.”

The curse in my chest pulsed. Not pain. Recognition. Like my body knew this place even if my mind didn’t.

“Why did they do it?” I asked.

Forsaken turned to me, and for the first time, I saw real pain in his eyes.

“Because your mother was pregnant with you. And I refused to give you up.”

The words hit harder than any dagger.

“You think I’m a weapon,” I said.

“I think you’re a person,” he said. “The council thinks you’re a threat. There’s a difference.”

A branch snapped behind us.

We both moved at the same time.

Forsaken shoved me behind him.'Don't move."' claws out, snarling.

It wasn’t the pack. It was a lone wolf, skinny and limping, fur matted with dirt.

“Don’t kill me,” the wolf rasped. “I’m not with them.”

Forsaken didn’t lower his claws. “Then who are you?”

“Ronan,” the wolf said. “Your old beta. I’ve been hiding in the ruins since the purge.”

Ronan’s eyes flicked to me, then widened.

“The girl,” he whispered. “The curse is real.”

Forsaken stepped forward, blocking my view. “She’s not a curse. She’s my mate.”

Ronan sank to his knees. “Then the prophecy is starting. Alpha, you need to leave. The council’s sending hunters. They’ll be here by dawn.”

Forsaken cursed under his breath.

I looked between them. Hunters. Prophecy. My head was spinning.

“What am I supposed to do?” I asked.

Forsaken turned to me. His expression softened for half a second.

“Survive,” he said. “With me.”

He held out his hand.

Behind us, the forest went quiet. Too quiet.

They were here.

The horns didn’t stop.

Three blasts. Council call. Every wolf for a hundred miles knew what it meant: _Surrender the exile or die with him._

Forsaken pulled me behind a half-collapsed wall. His body was tense, ready to move. “Stay low. Don’t use the bond unless you have to.”

“What does that do?” I whispered.

“Links us. If they hurt me, you feel it. If they hurt you, I lose control.”

Great. No pressure.

Footsteps echoed through the ruins. Twenty, maybe thirty wolves. Silver armor glinted in the moonlight. The council didn’t send scouts. They sent enforcers.

At the front was Elder Maren. Cold eyes, white hair, a silver dagger that had killed more alphas than I had birthdays.

“Forsaken,” she said. Her voice carried. “Surrender the girl. The bond will be broken, and you’ll be executed cleanly.”

Forsaken laughed. It wasn’t a nice sound. “Cleanly? You never did anything cleanly, Maren.”

“Give me one reason not to kill her now,” she said, and two enforcers stepped forward, silver blades drawn.

I stepped out from behind the wall before I could stop myself.

“Because she’s my mother.”

Silence.

Maren’s eyes narrowed. “What did you say, girl?”

“Lena Carter. Your Luna. My mother.” I kept my voice steady, even though my hands shook. “She told me everything. Before the horns started.”

That wasn’t true. But Forsaken had told me something on the run here, and I was betting on it.

Maren’s face went pale. “Lena is dead.”

“No,” Forsaken said. “She’s alive. In the human city. Protected by the one man you couldn’t touch.”

“Lies.”

“Then ask her why she ran,” Forsaken said. “Ask her why she begged me to bind her daughter before she was born.”

The bond flared, and suddenly I _saw_ it. A memory that wasn’t mine. My mother, seventeen, bleeding on the ground. Forsaken over her, his hands glowing silver. A rival alpha’s claws in her stomach.

_“Save her,”_ my mother whispered in the memory. _“Save her, and I’ll give you anything.”_

_“I want you,”_ Forsaken said in the memory.