The Hidden Curse

Amara’s POV

The pain still radiated through my chest, the bond between me and the triplets now frayed, dangerous, and raw.

I could feel something wrong—something deep and dark, like a thread connecting us that refused to break completely. The rejection should have severed it, but instead, it felt like I’d only cut halfway through, leaving jagged edges exposed.

Ryder was breathing heavily, his hands clenched into fists at his sides, as though he was fighting to keep control. His eyes—those dark, angry eyes—held mine, but there was something different now, something beneath the fury. For a moment, I thought I saw fear.

Jaxon knelt beside me, his usual grin gone, replaced by a haunted look that sent a shiver down my spine. "You shouldn’t have done that, Amara," he whispered, his voice barely audible. "You don’t know what you’ve triggered."

My throat tightened, and I tried to speak, but the words stuck. What had I done? It wasn’t just the pain, though that was still echoing through every nerve in my body—it was something deeper. Something I couldn’t see, but I could feel.

I scrambled back, trying to put distance between us. "I don’t care," I rasped, my voice shaking. "I don’t care what it is. I’ll never be yours."

Jaxon’s gaze darkened, and Caden, who had been silent, suddenly stepped forward. His expression was unreadable, but there was a tension in the air now, something thick and ominous. “Amara, you don’t understand. This bond—it’s not normal. It’s not like other mates. We... we didn’t choose this.”

My heart pounded harder, the suspicion creeping in. They had known. For how long? How long had they kept this secret from me? And why? None of this made sense. The triplet Alphas were notorious in the pack for their cruelty, their control, their dominance. Why would they hide the bond? Why torment me all these years?

“What are you talking about?” I demanded, my voice rising. "What bond? Why didn’t you tell me before?"

Ryder’s face twisted, a flicker of frustration breaking through his calm exterior. “We couldn’t,” he muttered, his voice rough. “It’s more complicated than you think.”

Complicated? The word hung in the air like a bitter joke. Nothing about this was just "complicated." It was a nightmare. My rejection hadn’t been about making things difficult. It had been about survival, about breaking free of the hold they had over me. Yet somehow, the rejection had snapped back, leaving the air between us charged with something dangerous.

But it was Caden’s next words that chilled me to the bone.

“If you leave, Amara,” he said softly, his voice laced with warning, “we won’t just lose control. The curse will awaken.”

"Curse."

The word hit me like a punch to the gut. My mind raced, the memories of their torment, the fear, the rumors whispered within the pack about the triplets being… different.

I’d always thought it was just gossip, stories to make them seem more powerful, more terrifying. But now, standing in the moonlit forest, the truth was unraveling faster than I could process it.

“What curse?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to hear their twisted explanations, but something inside me—some morbid curiosity—demanded answers.

Jaxon ran a hand through his hair, his face dark with something between frustration and fear. “The bond between us—it wasn’t normal from the beginning. The Moon Goddess didn’t just choose you to be our mate. She bound you to us, cursed us, because of something our father did.”

I swallowed hard, my mouth dry. “What did your father do?”

Ryder’s jaw tightened, his expression hard as stone. "He broke an ancient law. One that should never have been broken. And because of that, we’ve been cursed ever since we were children."