Claimed By The Alpha’s Curse

The Feeding

LENNOX'S POV

"Then we prepare for war," Davian said.

I nodded but didn't trust myself to speak because the moment the words left his mouth, something inside me changed.

The hunger that had been a constant background noise since the transformation suddenly roared to life, louder and more vicious than it had ever been.

My vision blurred red at the edges.

I could hear Davian's heartbeat from across the room, steady and strong and calling to me. I could smell his blood, hot and rich and exactly what the curse was screaming for.

"Lennox?" Davian's voice sounded far away. "Your eyes."

I looked down at my hands. The black veins were glowing now, pulsing with each beat of my heart, spreading further up my arms than they'd been an hour ago.

"I'm fine," I lied.

"You're not," Thea appeared in the doorway, her face pale. "Your transformation is accelerating. The confrontation with Ryker triggered something. Your body thinks it's under threat and the curse is trying to complete the bond faster."

"How long?" Davian asked.

"Hours," Thea said. "You need to feed now or your organs will start shutting down."

The hunger twisted in my chest so violently I had to grip the edge of the table to stay standing.

"We're doing this now," Davian said.

"I can wait," I shook my head even as my body screamed yes. "I can fight it."

"Look at your hands," Thea said.

My fingers were turning grey, the color draining from my skin. My nails had sharpened into claws without me noticing.

"This is happening whether you want it to or not," Thea said. "The only question is whether you do it controlled or whether the curse takes over completely."

I thought about what happened when I attacked Davian last time. How I'd broken Callum's shoulder and didn't remember any of it and just woke up in chains with blood on my mouth.

"Okay," I whispered.

Davian's expression didn't change. "Callum, clear the house, no one comes near this room for the next three hours."

Callum hesitated, then nodded and left.

Thea moved toward the door. "I'll be right outside monitoring your vitals through the bond. If your heart stops, I'm coming in."

"It won't stop," Davian said, looking at me. "She's stronger than the others. She'll survive this."

Thea left and closed the door behind her.

The room suddenly felt smaller. I could hear everything, Davian's breathing and his heartbeat and the blood rushing through his veins.

"How do we do this?" I asked, my voice shaking.

"However you need to," Davian said, rolling up his sleeve. "The curse knows what it wants."

"What if I can't stop?"

"You will."

"You don't know that."

"Yes I do," he said. "Because you've already proven you're stronger than this curse. You survived the venom, survived the transformation, survived seeing Ryker again without letting the hunger control you. This is just one more thing you're going to survive."

The hunger was getting louder, drowning out everything else.

Davian sat down on the bed and held out his wrist. "Take what you need."

I moved closer slowly, my legs shaking. Every instinct I had was screaming at me to run but the curse was stronger.

I knelt in front of him and wrapped my hands around his wrist. His skin was warm, his pulse strong beneath my fingers. The bond between us was humming, electric and pulling me closer.

"Lennox," Davian said softly. "It's okay. I trust you."

Those three words broke something inside me.

I brought his wrist to my mouth and bit down.

The taste of his blood hit my tongue and the world exploded.

It was fire and ice and lightning all at once, burning through my veins and rewriting everything I was. The hunger roared in triumph and the curse surged forward demanding more.

I drank deeper.

Davian didn't pull away or flinch. He just sat there and let me feed, his free hand moving to the back of my neck, holding me steady.

The black veins on my arms started glowing brighter, spreading faster, crawling up my shoulders and across my chest. I could feel them moving beneath my skin like living things, rewriting my DNA with each swallow.

The pain from before was gone, replaced by power. Raw and intoxicating. I could feel myself getting stronger with each drop, feel my bones reinforcing themselves, my muscles coiling tighter and my senses sharpening to a razor's edge.

This was what the curse had been trying to give me all along and it felt incredible.

"Lennox," Davian's voice cut through the haze. "That's enough."

But I couldn't stop. The hunger was still there, still demanding more.

"Lennox, stop," Davian said, his voice harder now.

I tried to pull back but my jaw was locked, my teeth buried in his wrist.

"Stop!" Davian grabbed my face with his free hand, forcing me to look at him.

His eyes were starting to lose focus, his skin going pale. I'd taken too much.

Panic cut through the hunger.

I wrenched myself backward, my teeth tearing free from his wrist. Blood dripped from my mouth and I scrambled away until my back hit the wall.

"I'm sorry," I gasped. "I couldn't stop—"

"It's okay," Davian said, wrapping his wrist in his shirt. "You stopped and that's what matters."

"I almost killed you."

"But you didn't."

I looked down at my hands. The black veins were still there but they'd changed. Instead of pulsing black, they were glowing a deep red like embers beneath my skin.

"What's happening to me?" I whispered.

Davian moved closer. "The bond is completing. Can you feel it?"

The connection between us was stronger now, so strong I could feel his exhaustion like it was my own, feel the pain in his wrist and the worry he was trying to hide.

"I can feel everything," I said.

"The feeding strengthens the bond and makes it permanent," Davian said.

The door burst open and Thea rushed in, her eyes going wide. "What happened? Your vitals—" She stopped, staring at my arms. "Oh my god. Your veins, they're not black anymore."

I looked down. She was right. The black had faded completely, replaced by thin red lines that pulsed faintly beneath my skin.

"What does that mean?" Davian asked.

Thea moved closer, examining my arms. "It means the curse isn't fighting her anymore. It's bonded with her completely." She looked up at me with something like awe in her eyes. "Lennox, you did it. You actually completed the transformation."

"So I'm cured?"

"No," Thea said. "You're changed. The curse is part of you now, permanently but it's not trying to kill you anymore. It's yours to control."

The hunger stirred again, quieter now but still there.

"What if I can't control it?" I asked.

"Then you learn," Thea said. "The same way you learned to survive the venom. You learn to live with what you've become."

Before I could respond, footsteps pounded down the hallway. Callum appeared in the doorway, his face grim.

"We have a problem," he said. "Ryker's back at the border and this time he's not alone. He brought the entire Mooncrest Council with him."

My stomach dropped. "Why?"

"He's claiming you used dark magic to survive the curse," Callum said. "He's got witnesses, evidence. He's demanding the council examine you before you become a threat to all the packs."

Davian's jaw clenched. "How long do we have?"

"They're demanding an audience within the hour," Callum said. "If we refuse, they'll declare this pack hostile."

I looked down at my hands, at the red veins glowing beneath my skin, at the claws I couldn't retract. I looked like exactly what Ryker was claiming I was.

"Let them come," I said quietly.

Everyone turned to look at me.

"Lennox, you just completed the transformation," Thea said. "You're not stable yet. If you lose control in front of the council—"

"I won't lose control," I cut her off.

"You don't know that."

"Yes I do," I stood up and felt the power coursing through my veins, the curse settling into place like it had always belonged there. "Ryker wants to see what I've become? Fine. Let's show him."

Davian moved to stand beside me. "If we do this, there's no going back. The council will see what the curse turned you into."

"Good," I said, and felt my lips pull back into a smile. "Let them see all see what happens when you throw someone away and they come back stronger."

The hunger purred in my chest, satisfied.

I'd spent weeks fighting the curse, trying to resist what it wanted to turn me into but standing here now with Davian's blood still warm in my veins and power thrumming beneath my skin, I realized something.

I wasn't fighting it anymore and Ryker was about to find out exactly what that meant.