All Chapters of Claimed by the Alpha's Curse : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

The wind howled through the ruins of Nightshade Keep, carrying with it the scent of blood, ash, and change.Lyra stood atop the fractured steps of the once-mighty stronghold, her cloak whipping around her like black fire. Below, Accord soldiers and surviving allies combed the rubble, salvaging weapons and burning the cursed remains. But their eyes flicked to her often.She had shattered the Rift.She had survived the curse.And now, something inside her burned hotter than ever.Behind her, Kaelen approached with slow, measured steps. The gash across his shoulder had been bound, but blood still leaked through the linen. His power was quieter now, grounded. He was no longer cursed but he was no less dangerous."You feel it too," he said.Lyra didn't turn. "The magic... it didn’t leave. It’s in me now. And it won’t settle."“It’s not meant to.” He stepped beside her. “Residual Rift energy doesn’t fade like ordinary magic. It fuses. Latches. Evolves.”She closed her eyes. “It whispers. I

The wind howled as if it was mourning the dead. Lyra tightened her cloak around her shoulders, eyes scanning the rough horizon. The once-beautiful stretch of wild valleys known as the Blightlands now resembled a barren wound. Shards of blackened stone jutted from the earth like bones, and the sky above swirled with clouds that pulsed an unnatural crimson at the edges. Magic. Old, untamed, and wrong. Kaelen stood beside her, one hand on the hilt of his blade, the other fisted around a rune-carved talisman Veera had given them for protection. Behind them, Ardyn and Halden worked to construct a makeshift ward circle while Veera surveyed the area with her twin daggers drawn. “This place reeks of forgotten curses,” Veera muttered. “Like it remembers pain and wants to share.” Kaelen nodded grimly. “It’s a memory graveyard.” Lyra crouched at the edge of a deep ravine they’d reached at dawn, there was a split in the earth that hadn’t been on any map. Inside it, darkness swirled like ink

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

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

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