The Curse (Jesse’s POV)

When I woke up, the first thing I did without even thinking was reach out and touch the other side of the bed.

Cold. Empty.

She wasn’t there.

My eyes snapped open. A sharp growl ripped from my throat as I sat up, fists clenching so tightly my knuckles cracked.

Where did she run off to?!

The audacity.

The nerve.

Leaving my side after everything… after the bond… after the way she reacted to me.

I summoned my beta through the mindlink, and told him to come now.

He arrived quickly, stepped into the room and raised an eyebrow.

“My king… seems your one true love ran away,” he said, tone annoyingly teasing.

I turned slowly, glaring at him with enough fury to level the entire kingdom.

“How dare she run away like that?!” I snarled. “Where were you?”

Immediately, the playful look vanished from his face. He straightened, voice stiffening.

“My king, I thought you wouldn’t want a single disturbance, so I left for a while. I didn’t know she would..”

“Enough,” I growled, cutting him off.

The bedsheets still held her scent soft, warm, maddening. The scent of a mate fate stole from me for years… and finally delivered only for her to run away the moment I closed my eyes.

It didn’t matter anyways.

I could still trace her.I stood, the possessive heat igniting in my blood.

“If she thinks she can run away from me,” I said, voice low with dark promise, “she must be joking.”

My wolf snarled in agreement, restless and eager.

“Now that I finally have her…” I clenched my jaw, eyes burning. “I’ll never let go of her.”

My beta coughed lightly, and I didn’t even glance back.

“You might want to soften your tone when you see her again,” he said, voice careful but teasing. “So she doesn’t attempt running off all the time.”

I spun on him, glare sharp enough to cut steel.

“Not funny, Alaric.”

He held up his hands, grinning. “My king, you haven’t had a woman since your curse. Maybe she got scared by your… endless vigor,” he said, voice dropping into a mischievous whisper.

“Shut up!” I growled, teeth clenched.

He chuckled, unabashed. “I’m just saying… she’s strong. Feisty. You might want to tread lightly… for once.”

I dismissed my beta with a wave of my hand, the irritation still burning beneath my skin, and as soon as the door closed behind him… the silence swallowed me whole.

My thoughts dragged me backward… to the curse.

Selene.

The most powerful witch of her generation. Though she was only able to curse me because I hadn’t fully harnessed my lycan powers yet.

She thought I killed her lover, so she cursed me in her grief.

A curse meant to make me lose control every full moon, lose myself a little more each year, until eventually I wouldn’t even exist anymore becoming a full monster. During each full moon, I lose myself, my thoughts, my voice, my sanity.

And I feel agonizing pain tearing through every muscle, every vein.

Bones snapping, reforming, burning as if fire crawls beneath my skin.

And when the pain becomes too much… the bloodlust comes.

I try to chain myself.

I try to restrain the beast.

But sometimes the chains snap.

Sometimes the monster inside me gets out.

And sometimes… I kill.

Even when I captured her… even when I chained her and demanded she break it… she refused. Refused adamantly. Refused even as I threatened everything she held dear.

Only later, when her lover’s true killer was revealed… only then did she finally soften. Only then did she offer me something resembling mercy.

But she couldn’t undo it.

All she could give me was a path. A solution, not salvation.

Only my mate could break the curse. And I had searched.

Gods, I had searched.

Countless women.

Noble daughters, rogues, witches, warriors, omegas… I had touched their hands, breathed their scents, waited for something to spark inside me.

But nothing.

No pull.

No heat.

No flicker of connection.

Just emptiness.

Until last night.

The moment I saw her at that auction, collared, trembling, eyes wild with fear and fury all at once, my wolf surged.

A violent, primal anticipation tore through me so fast I nearly shifted right there.

Her scent… gods, her scent was so sweet but fierce, warm but sharp that it hit me like a blow to the chest.

My entire body tightened.

My control snapped.

My wolf roared one word in my skull:

Mate. Mate. Mate.

She has to be the one.

There is no other explanation.

No other possibility.

Fuck.

I must have her.