Chapter Five

ALPHA LUCIAN

"Is that so?" the old man muttered as he rubbed his stiff wrist, his voice low and laced with resentment. "She’s just as infuriating as she was ten years ago!"

Without warning, he slammed his palm onto the table. A sharp crack echoed through the room as a thin sheet of ice fanned across the surface, swallowing everything in its path — even my whiskey.

I exhaled sharply, suppressing the urge to react.

"Relax, Dad," I said through gritted teeth. "You’re not fit to be getting this angry anymore."

"Not fit?" he bellowed, his voice booming off the stone walls. "How do you expect me to be composed? That girl— is she even my daughter anymore?"

"Father!" I snapped, but he wasn’t done.

"I should have asked Janet before it got her," he cried, anguish cracking through his voice. "First, she screws up the deal, destroys fifty years of planning  against Moonhart—now she’s married to him after everything went to hell!"

I stared at him, feeling the sting of his words but refusing to waver.

"Isn’t it perfect?" I smiled thinly. "Even though our plans were shattered a decade ago, she's exactly where we need her. Closer to him. We can control him through her before he awakens fully. You saw what he’s capable of, we need that power for ourselves."

The old man chuckled darkly, a hollow sound that barely touched his hollowed eyes.

"We don’t need her," he growled. "She abandoned us. Syra is no longer a part of this family. Even if she crawls back on her knees, I’ll never accept her!"

"Come on, Father!" I roared, slamming my fist into the table, sending tiny shards of ice flying. "Stop being so damn stubborn! Whether you like it or not, if you want to save Mom, we need Adrian. We failed ten years ago when Syra ran away, but now she’s in the lion’s den — right where fate intended her to be! Three months, Father. Three months and Adrian will mark her, complete the final bond. His full power will awaken, and if we don’t move before he masters it — we lose Mother forever!"

My voice cracked. I inhaled sharply, trying to cage the surge of desperation flooding through me.

"Dad," I pleaded, "please."

He grabbed his whiskey glass with trembling fingers, downed the amber liquid in one burning gulp, then snatched up his cane.

"Do whatever the hell you want, boy," he rasped bitterly. "I stepped down as Pack Leader. I'm just an old ghost now. You make the decisions."

He turned his back on me and strode away, his steps slow and heavy as he ascended the stairs.

"I need her moonbound!" I called after him, my voice hoarse. "In order to give her wolf back, she has to come home!"

He scoffed but didn’t turn around.

"Whether you acknowledge it or not," I whispered to the empty room, "Syra has always been the one destined to save this pack… and Mother."

He disappeared onto the second floor without a single glance back.

I stood there, the silence closing in, my fists trembling at my sides. Fury gnawed at my insides until it burst free — I seized the whiskey glass still on the table and crushed it in my hand. Sharp shards bit into my skin, blood mingling with the glittering ruins as they scattered across the floor.

Relax, Lucian, my wolf growled deep within me, its voice strained with barely concealed rage. You lose control too easily when you’re worked up.

"Yeah, I know," I muttered, slumping onto the sofa, the weight on my shoulders unbearable. "But we’re running out of time."

I raked a hand through my hair, exhaling a breath that seemed to carry all my frustration. "You heard the doctor. Mother has a year—if we’re lucky. If we don't break the curse—"

"Is that you, Eliud?"

The fragile voice cracked through the air. I shot up. I hadn’t even heard her frail footsteps.

"Mom," I breathed, racing toward her just as she stumbled at the bottom of the stairs.

I caught her, feeling nothing but skin stretched over brittle bones. Her once radiant skin was pale, the black veins of the curse creeping dangerously close to her heart. She blinked blindly, her once brilliant eyes now dull and sightless.

"Lucian?" she whispered, her hands trembling as they clutched my arms. "When is Syra coming home? Where’s my little girl? I need to get her from school..."

"Mom," I said quietly, throat tight, "Syra is gone... you know that."

"No!" she cried out, voice raw with a mother's desperation. "No, she’s here. I can feel her. My baby... my baby’s still here..."

"That’s enough, Janet," Father's voice barked as he stormed down the stairs. He reached her, pulling her gently but firmly into his arms. "Come, love. It's time for your medicine."

I sank onto the stairs, burying my face in my hands as the tears I fought so hard to suppress finally broke free.

She was slipping through our fingers—day by day, hour by hour.

No one outside this house knew the truth.

There’s a curse on the firstborn males of our bloodline—a damnation older than any living memory. It began with my great-grandfather, who, after taking what he wanted from his destined mate, cast her aside like yesterday’s dust. Broken-hearted, she ended her own life... but not before binding us with her final, raging breath.

It’s not us who pay the price. It's our mates.

It starts slow: the wolf dies first, then the senses—one by one—until there’s nothing left but a hollow shell waiting for death to claim it.

Father never told me. Not when I found my mate. Not even after we married.

He only confessed when the truth could no longer be hidden—when I discovered my mother wasn’t dead, but trapped in this slow, agonizing death.

After Syra was born, Mother vanished. We were told she was dead. Lied to, to protect us. But she was fighting the curse alone.

She, on the other han,d was told Syra was dead

Now, she was down to two senses: touch and speech.

And the clock was ticking.

If we don’t break the curse, she’ll be gone within the year.

And after her... it will be my wife.

Then the curse follows my son.

It’s a death sentence written in blood and betrayal.

I tightened my fists until my knuckles turned white. My vision blurred with rage and grief.

What do we do now?

How the hell do we save them?

"We stick to the plan," I growled under my breath. "We bring Syra back to the pack. She’s the only one who can get us Adrian. The only one who can save us."