Abused. Rejected. Powerful.Nineteen year old Lyra Thorn has spent her entire life at the bottom of the pack hierarchy,an omega orphan, abused by her foster pack and branded unworthy of love. But on the night of her first shift, everything changes.She discovers that her fated mate is none other than Alpha Kaelen Draven,the cruel and cursed Alpha of the Nightshade Pack, a man whispered about in terror, a monster said to have slaughtered his own family.Kaelen is forbidden to take a mate, his wolf unstable, his soul teetering on darkness.But fate has other plans.When war looms between rival packs and ancient secrets rise, Lyra must embrace a dangerous power buried in her bloodline and risk everything for the mate she was never supposed to have.In a world where betrayal is survival and love is a death sentence…Will they break the curse—or each other?
View MoreThe wind howled through the trees like a warning no one else could hear.
Lyra kept her eyes on the ground as she knelt by the stream, scrubbing blood from her hands that wasn’t hers. The frigid water bit at her skin, but she didn’t flinch. She had learned long ago that flinching made them hit harder. Behind her, the forest of Shadow Ridge loomed thick and watching. The moon was hidden behind a shroud of clouds, just like it had been on the night she was born. A Moonless Omega. A bad omen. A curse. She wasn't supposed to survive her first shift tonight. At least, not according to Alpha Dren. "Lyra!" The voice cracked through the trees like a whip, and her shoulders stiffened. It was Beta Elric. He always came to collect the 'trash.' Lyra rose without speaking, brushing dirt from the threadbare cloak that barely clung to her shoulders. Her long dark hair, tangled and unkempt, spilled over her back like a veil. Her wrists were still red from the ropes that had bound her the night before. Punishment for daring to speak out when they mocked a grieving pack sister. "Alpha wants you back in the hollow. You’re late." Elric’s eyes ran over her like she was something beneath him, like a stain on his boots. She said nothing and followed, because silence was safer. The pack grounds were preparing for the Shifting Moon—when all unmated wolves of age would shift under the Goddess’s light and present their wolves for the first time. For most, it was a celebration. For Lyra, it was a death sentence. The Shadow Ridge Pack didn’t allow weak blood to taint its ranks. And Lyra, the orphaned child of unknown lineage, the girl born on a moonless night with no wolf ever whispering back—she was the weakest link. And now, she was of age. Torches lit the hollow as the other young wolves gathered in anticipation. Girls with braided hair and gowns stitched from moon-silver thread. Boys with armor etched in pack sigils and blood vows. And Lyra—shoved into the center of the circle like livestock. She heard them whispering. > “She doesn’t even smell like a wolf…” “They say her mother ran with rogues.” “They should’ve drowned her when they had the chance.” Her heartbeat pounded like a warning drum in her chest. She didn’t cry. Not anymore. She’d wasted all her tears before she ever turned thirteen. Alpha Dren stepped into the circle, his voice loud, commanding. “Tonight, the Goddess will mark her chosen. Let the strong shift and claim their birthright.” He turned to Lyra then, his lips curling in disdain. “And let the cursed finally meet their end.” The howl rose from the crowd—wild, eager. The pack craved blood more than moonlight. "Strip," Dren barked. Lyra obeyed, cheeks burning as she slipped the cloak from her shoulders and stood in her shift, barefoot, trembling. The earth beneath her feet felt heavy, expectant. Like something deep beneath it was stirring. “Face the moon!” someone yelled, and Lyra raised her eyes. But the clouds hadn’t cleared. There was no moon. Still, she felt… something. Not above. Below. As the others began to shift—bones cracking, flesh warping, howls lifting to the sky—Lyra stood alone, unmoved. Her blood felt like fire in her veins. Her breath came in short gasps. Something ancient was coiling inside her, not rising but pulling. Pain struck her chest like lightning. She fell to her knees. The pack laughed. “She’s failing!” “She has no wolf!” But then the air shifted. A silence fell over the hollow so sudden, so total, it was deafening. The fire torches flickered low. And Lyra screamed. Not in agony. Not in fear. In release. Her back arched, and her skin pulsed with dark light. Not silver like the others. Not golden like Dren’s heirs. This light was blue-black, like midnight devouring starlight. Her eyes burned as they snapped open—glowing the same cursed hue. And then she felt it. The wolf. Not tame. Not loyal. Not pack. A beast born of shadow and frost. One that had slumbered her entire life, waiting. Watching. Bound by something deeper than blood. Lyra collapsed, her breathing erratic. Her shift hadn’t happened—not fully. Her bones hadn’t snapped, but her soul had split. The Alpha stepped forward. “She’s corrupted,” he spat, his voice trembling, though he tried to hide it. “That’s not a wolf. That’s a curse.” He raised his hand. “End her.” Several pack warriors stepped forward. She didn’t resist. Her limbs were too heavy. Her mind too shattered. But before the blades could fall— A wind swept through the hollow. Cold and unnatural. And from the trees came a figure cloaked in silver and black, riding the backs of midnight wolves. A howl split the sky—low, powerful, primal. Every warrior froze. Lyra’s heart thundered with something she didn’t understand. The wolf inside her growled—not in pain, but recognition. The stranger stepped into the torchlight, revealing sharp amber eyes and a face carved from shadows and fire. Tall, lean, and deadly. Alpha Kaelen of the Riftwood Pack. Feared. Banished. Cursed. Dren growled. “You dare step on my land, rogue?” Kaelen didn’t even look at him. His eyes were locked on Lyra. A flicker of shock passed over his face. Then something else. Hunger. Rage. Need. He stepped closer. The air thickened with power. “You tried to kill my mate,” Kaelen said, voice like ice cracking over fire. Gasps echoed through the pack. Dren laughed bitterly. “She’s a curse. She has no mate.” Kaelen growled—and the sound made the earth shake. “She’s mine. And you just made a declaration of war.” Lyra’s vision blurred, consciousness slipping. But before darkness took her, she heard it—the words that changed everything. “You carry the mark of the Shadowbound, Lyra. You were never moonless. You were chosen by something older.” And then she knew: This was just the beginning.Smoke still lingered in Lyra’s lungs, even days after the return from the sea. Not the acrid stench of battle, but the cloying, electric residue of ancient magic,it was a scent that clung to her hair and skin no matter how many times she bathed. It had followed them back to the Accord like a shadow that didn’t know when to leave.The Council chambers were quieter than usual.There were no arguments amongst the council members.No raised voices. Just the unease that hung between the leaders like an unspoken pact. Kaelen stood behind her, arms folded, gaze fixed on the massive stained-glass window at the back of the hall. It depicted the first moonrise after the Great rising—a historical myth more symbolic than true. And yet, something about it felt... prophetic now.“They’re afraid,” Lyra said softly.“They should be,” Kaelen replied, his voice low. “The second Gate was sealed. But sealing it wasn’t the same as destroying it. They know that.”Lyra turned toward the Council, where Eld
It wasn’t the smooth silver mirror described in stories, nor the playful tides painted on childhood murals. It was vast and hungry, its waves were blackened by storm-winds and haunted with the breath of ghosts. They reached the coastline in three days, riding under the banner of the Accord, but even that sacred emblem did little to calm the villagers that greeted them.“Stay off the eastern shoals,” a toothless old woman warned as they secured the boats. “That sea remembers the old ones. It remembers who bled into it.”Kaelen thanked her politely and moved on.Lyra paused longer, staring into the foam-crusted surf. The wind tangled her cloak, sent her hair whipping around her shoulders like strands of moonlight caught in a gale. Behind her, Iris stood quietly, her gaze locked not on the horizon, but on the seabirds flying inland as if they were fleeing something they couldn't name.“Is this where the second seal is?” Lyra asked the girl softly.Iris didn’t look at her. “It’s undernea
The Gate was sealed. The Sovereign was gone.But Lyra couldn’t sleep.She sat by the dying embers of the Accord’s victory fires, her cloak wrapped tightly around her shoulders. The scent of ash and blood still clung to the air. Even with the sky quiet and the land no longer weeping shadow, something inside her refused to settle.Not fear. Not even sorrow.Restlessness.Kaelen had fallen asleep not far from her, curled around the small Seer child, whose name they still didn’t know. The girl had wandered into the Gate’s chaos barefoot, fearless and then simply stayed, curling beside Kaelen after the battle as though she’d belonged there all along.Lyra watched them now, trying to understand what the child was. Who she was.Because the girl didn’t speak. She only watched. With eyes too ancient for her face.And now, even the stars felt like they watched through her.A soft voice stirred the air.“You should rest, too.”Lyra turned.Elder Ysara stood at the edge of the firelight, her shad
The moment the Gate fully opened, the world bled.Reality twisted. The valley howled. Darkness didn’t pour from the tear—it poured into it, like a mouth inhaling, ready to consume. Lyra stood at the center of a vortex of wind, magic, and bone, her silver-flamed hands stretched wide, anchoring the protective stakes the Vowbound had carved into the ground.“Hold the circle!” she shouted over the chaos.Veera’s voice came from somewhere behind her, breathless. “One of the wards just snapped! We’re exposed on the west flank!”Kaelen snarled, his wolf tearing through a pair of Hollowed beasts slithering on limbs far too long to be natural. Blood sprayed the earth. His eyes glinted silver beneath the full moon.“Lyra!” he shouted. “They’re breaching faster than we can kill them!”“I know,” she ground out, voice ragged. “But we’re not trying to stop them—we’re trying to draw him out.”As if summoned, the Sovereign’s laughter cut through the storm like glass across skin.“You think I’ll fight
The Gate pulsed.Not with life but with memory.Each beat was a cry from the dead, echoing through the frost-choked air as if the earth itself mourned what had once been buried and now begged to rise. Lyra stood at the edge of the valley, wind whipping her cloak around her legs, eyes locked on the iron-bone monolith that stood crooked in the center of the desecrated grave field.She couldn’t look away.Because it was looking back.The air was heavy with old magic that was older than the Hollowed, older even than the Rift. This was ancestral. Primeval. A kind of quiet madness stitched into soil and sky.Kaelen stood beside her, hand resting near the hilt of his blade. “It’s... watching.”Lyra nodded, her voice thin. “It remembers me.”“You’ve never been here before.”“I don’t have to be,” she whispered. “I was born from what it holds.”Behind them, Veera and the scouts had set perimeter wards. Halden crouched near the treeline, muttering tracking incantations, while the child—the Seer
The snow began to fall again when they left the ruins of the Archives.Not the kind that signaled storm or danger. It was soft,haunting, almost beautiful but Lyra couldn’t feel it the way she once might have. The cold didn’t bite her. The wind didn’t chill. Ever since the vision, ever since the truth had settled in her bones, she felt half fire, half shadow. As though she no longer belonged entirely to the world that had birthed her.Kaelen rode beside her in silence, eyes alert to every crunch of snow beneath hooves. Behind them, Veera and Halden whispered between themselves. The two scouts, trailing at the rear, remained tense—uneasy ever since the vision at the archives had triggered a magical surge that split the ground like a wound.They didn’t ask questions.But Lyra could feel it.They feared her now.“South pass up ahead,” Kaelen murmured. “Two days’ ride to the Accord’s northern post.”She didn’t respond.He looked at her sideways. “You’ve barely spoken.”Lyra turned toward t
Welcome to GoodNovel world of fiction. If you like this novel, or you are an idealist hoping to explore a perfect world, and also want to become an original novel author online to increase income, you can join our family to read or create various types of books, such as romance novel, epic reading, werewolf novel, fantasy novel, history novel and so on. If you are a reader, high quality novels can be selected here. If you are an author, you can obtain more inspiration from others to create more brilliant works, what's more, your works on our platform will catch more attention and win more admiration from readers.
Comments