LOGIN"I hate you." He smiled. "You think this is hate?" His fingers lifted my chin. "Stay with me long enough, princess... and I'll show you what hate really looks like." Ashina Crawford had only one dream to escape the family that had spent years calling her cursed. She was six days away from leaving for college and starting over. Then her father sold her. Traded to the feared Rogue Alpha King in exchange for an alliance, Ashina is forced into a mateship with a man whispered to be cursed, a king whose mates never live long enough to become his Luna. Determined to survive, Ashina refuses to become another name on his graveyard of broken promises. But the more she fights him, the more the ruthless Alpha becomes obsessed with the one woman he was never supposed to keep. In a kingdom built on blood, betrayal, and ancient curses, one question remains... Will Ashina break the Rogue King's curse... or become its next victim?
View MoreAshina pov
"Sign it."
My father's voice echoed through the study, cold enough to make my stomach tighten.
I stared at the parchment lying on the polished desk between us. A thick wax seal held it closed.
"What is it?" I asked quietly.
"The last thing you'll ever receive from me."
My fingers hesitated before breaking the seal. As my eyes scanned the page, my heart nearly stopped.
Marriage Contract!!
The room spun.
"N-No..." I looked up at him, praying this was another cruel way to humiliate me.
"It has to be a joke."
Lord Vael leaned back in his chair, his expression as emotionless as stone.
"Do I look like I'm joking?" I shook my head and slowly pushed the contract back toward him.
"I won't sign it."
The sound of his hand striking my face echoed through the room. My cheek exploded with pain, forcing me to stumble sideways.
I barely caught myself before hitting the floor.
"You don't get to refuse me."
I pressed a trembling hand against my burning cheek.
"I've done everything you've ever asked of me." My voice cracked.
"I stayed out of your way. I never complained, never embarrassed this family."
His eyes narrowed with disgust.
"You've embarrassed this family from the day you were born."
The words settled like knives in my chest as It shouldn't have hurt not after years of hearing them. I had always known I was the unwanted daughter, The cursed child. The girl her Father blamed for Murdering her brother no matter how many years passed...those words never stopped hurting.
"You should have died instead of him," Father said without an ounce of hesitation.
"Edric was worth ten daughters like you."
The familiar guilt wrapped itself around my throat.
I forced the memory away before it swallowed me whole.
Mother let out a mocking laugh from beside the fireplace.
"Look at her," she sneered. "Still pretending she's part of this family." I turned toward her.
"Mother..."
"Don't call me that." Her voice was sharper than Father's slap.
"I only had one child." My breathing became uneven.
"Please..." I whispered. "I'm your daughter."
"No." She folded her arms across her chest.
"You're nothing but a curse that refuses to leave this house." Father picked up the contract again.
"The Rogue Alpha King requested a bride."
"I don't care father!!!"
"You should." His eyes met mine.
"I accepted it for the safety of the pack" My entire body froze.
"...You what?"
"I've traded you." The words hit harder than the slap.
"I am not livestock!" I shouted, years of silence finally breaking. "I'm your daughter!"
Father laughed.
"A daughter?" He stood and slowly walked toward me.
"I've never had a daughter."
Before I could react, his hand wrapped around my throat hard enough to choke me to remind me how powerless I was.
"You've done nothing but drain my wealth, shame my name, and remind me of the son I buried." His grip tightened.
"For years I've wondered if keeping you alive was the biggest mistake of my life." He shoved me backward as I crashed onto the cold marble floor.
"You've always called me cursed," I whispered, struggling to my feet. "You've spent years wishing I was dead." My eyes burned with unshed tears.
"But I'm still here." Father's jaw tightened.
"I'm still breathing."
I lifted my chin, refusing to lower my eyes this time.
"And I'll survive this too." Silence filled the study.
"I'll survive... and one day you'll regret treating me like I was nothing."
Mother burst into laughter as the sound was cruel and Almost amused. She slowly walked toward me, shaking her head.
"Have you suddenly gone deaf?" She smiled mockingly.
"Or are you simply too stupid to understand what you've been told?" I frowned.
"The Rogue Alpha King doesn't take wives." She leaned closer.
"He buries them." A chill crept down my spine as Mother's smile widened.
"Haven't you heard? That Every woman who becomes his mate..." She paused, enjoying the fear spreading across my face.
"...dies." The room fell silent For the first time since walking into the study...Fear found its way into my heart. Father calmly signed the marriage contract.
The scratch of his pen against the parchment sounded like the final nail in my coffin.
"There." He placed the quill down.
"Our deal is complete." A knock interrupted the silence.
"My Lord," a guard called from outside. "The Rogue Alpha King's envoy has arrived." Father didn't even look at me.
"Tell them their bride will be ready."
Bride?
Not a bride but a sacrifice.
The sound of Draven's knees hitting stone was a death knell. I tried to scream, but the dagger had stolen my voice along with everything else. All I could do was watch through the darkening haze as the most powerful being in the realm knelt before his oldest enemy. Kieran's laugh echoed off the dungeon walls, bright and broken and terrible. "Oh, Draven. You have no idea how long I've dreamed of this." "Let her go." Draven's voice was rubble. "You have me. You've always had me. Just let her live." "Have I?" Kieran's grip on the dagger loosened slightly, and I gasped as some of the pressure eased. But the damage was done. I could feel the wolf inside me whimpering, curled into a ball of frost and fear. "Because from where I'm standing, you've spent three hundred years running from me. Building walls. Taking lovers." His eyes flicked to me, and something violent twisted his features. "Her." "Kieran…." "Silence." The word cracked like a whip. "You don't get to speak. Not until
The silver chains screamed or maybe that was me.I felt the White Wolf surge inside my chest, a furious, blinding thing. Frost exploded from my skin, cracking across the stone floor. The chains around my wrists groaned, buckling, and for one glorious heartbeat I thought I was free.Then Kieran moved.He was faster than he had any right to be. The black dagger flashed in his hand, and before I could summon another breath, he drove it into my side.Pain, terrible through me. It wasn’t like the silver. Silver burned and suppressed. This dagger drank. It sank into my flesh just beneath my ribs and pulled, dragging the White Wolf’s power out of me in a cold, spiraling rush. My knees hit the stone as my vision blurred. The frost died around me like a snuffed candle.Kieran caught me before I could fall.“There it is,” he murmured against my ear, his arm locked around my waist, hauling me back against his chest. His other hand stayed on the dagger, twisting it just enough to make me gasp. “T
The cold bit into my skin like a thousand tiny needles. The damp stone walls of the Blackwood dungeon smelled of iron, rot, and ancient magic. I tried to move, but the heavy silver chains around my wrists and ankles clanked loudly, biting into my flesh and smothering the strange warmth that always lingered beneath my skin. I was chained. Truly, utterly chained. My mind raced, spiraling back to the last time I saw Draven. The coldness in his eyes. I don't know what you are to me yet. Those words had shattered something inside me pushing me to run, to seek out the truth on my own and now because of my pride because of my foolish, stubborn heart, I was here. What if he doesn't come? The thought was a knife twisting in my chest. Why would he? I walked away. I practically told him I was nothing to him. He’s a king, He won't risk his kingdom, his life for a woman who means nothing. A low, mournful sound echoed in the dark. You are not nothing, a voice whispered from the deepest, most pr
Draven's POVI read the letter again.Then again.The words didn't change. I have your little human. The parchment trembled in my grip, though I didn't feel my hands shaking. I felt nothing but the curse alive and screaming beneath my skin, demanding release.Kieran has her.The thought circled in my mind like a wounded animal, relentless and bleeding.I stood alone in my chambers, the moonlight casting long shadows across the floor. The guards had been dismissed. The court had been told nothing. No one could know that the King was standing in his own room, paralyzed by the simple truth that a woman had been taken from him.I don't know what you are to me yet.The words tasted like ash now. I'd said them to her with such cold indifference, as if she were a puzzle I hadn't yet solved, a mystery I could set aside until convenient but now she was gone.And I couldn't breathe.I paced Five steps to the window. Five steps back. The curse writhed sensing my weakness feeding on it.Go, it wh
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