Cult of the Crescent Curse

Chapter TwoTaydyn POV For the first time in weeks…Silence.No pack meetings.No council pressure.No mother hovering like a well-dressed storm cloud.No father’s quiet, disappointed looks that somehow say more than actual words ever could.Just the low hum of his engine and the empty stretch of road cutting through the nearby town.Taydyn Woodson leans back in the driver’s seat, one large hand draped loosely over the wheel, and lets himself breathe.Finally.Zey stirs faintly in the back of his mind — restless but calm for once, the massive brown-red wolf pacing slow, lazy circles.“We should not be here,” Zey grumbles.Taydyn exhales through his nose.We’re at a gym, not committing treason.“Still suspicious.”Despite himself, Taydyn’s mouth twitches.He hadn’t been able to slip away in weeks. Every time he tried, something dragged him back — pack

Chapter FourTaydyn POV I step back out of the bathroom, every nerve ending on fire.I know she’s still here.Not because I can see her — she’s gone from the front desk — but because the scent doesn’t lie. Sea salt, amber, vanilla. Calm, warm, hers.Zey is already pacing in my mind like a caged wolf.“Where is she? Where is she?”I know, I know, I hiss back internally, trying to force my own heartbeat to behave. Trying to appear… normal.Impossible. Every sense is screaming in opposite directions. Sight says she’s gone. Smell says she’s right here. Sound says the hum of empty treadmills is safe. Zey says she’s mine.I head toward the free weights. A large mirror runs the length of the wall, reflecting the deserted gym. I can see the front desk in it. Empty. Of course.I spot a small call bell, the kind you press to summon someone if the desk is unattended. Too obvious, I think. What would

Chapter SixTaydyn POVShe’s still there.Zey’s howls pound through my mind like thunder, frantic and sharp. Mine. Mine. Mine.I grit my teeth and force myself to stay put, to breathe, to behave like a normal human. Because running up to her, throwing all caution to the wind? That would be a disaster. Probably terrifying. And she doesn’t know. She can’t know… there must be something wrong with her wolf. If she had had any idea that I was her mate this would be as hard for her as it was for me. Instead, I watch.I watch her move through the gym — folding towels, wiping down benches, her hands precise, careful. Every now and then, she glances at her phone, her fingers hovering over the screen before she types. Her brow creases ever so slightly, like something surprises her. A text, maybe, or a memory. I can’t see the screen, but the subtle reaction is enough.Zey whines, pacing inside my skull.“Mate. T

Chapter NineTaydynI barely make it three steps into the pack house before the day goes straight to hell.Terrance is mid-sentence beside me, probably about to make another terrible joke, when I feel her.Too close.Too familiar.Too—“—There he is.”I stop.Karissa.Daughter of Alpha Gavin of Crescent Creek.Tall. Leggy. Blonde. Built like most female wolves — strong, sleek, confident in a way that used to be… entertaining.Now?My stomach turns.Unfairly, my brain flashes an image of my mother standing in almost the exact same poised stance and—Ew.Zey makes a deeply offended noise in my head.“Do not compare mate’s rival to Mother. She will never measure up to even that of a Luna.”I wasn’t trying to, I shoot back.For the last two years — ever since I turned eighteen — Karissa has made her intention