All Chapters of BOUND BY THE ALPHA’S CURSE: Chapter 21 - Chapter 25

NovaThe walk to my parents’ house feels longer than usual.The air is cool, brushing against my skin like a whisper, and for once I’m grateful for the quiet. After everything that happened today, the surge of power, the way my vision blurred into red light, the burning heat in my chest, I need some peace and quiet.Lyra hasn’t stopped pacing inside me since.We need answers, she murmurs.Her voice is stronger tonight, more defined. It makes my pulse quicken.“I know,” I whisper back.The pack house fades behind me as the small houses come into view, the area where older mated wolves live, away from the crowds, the noise, the tension. Lantern lights glow through windows. Laughter spills faintly from distant porches. Families. Safety. Normalcy.Things I’ve never quite felt part of.My parents home sits at the edge of the clearing, surrounded by two tall maple trees. The moment I reach the front steps, the door swings open.“Nova?” my mom breathes, happy to see me, her face glowing. “Yo

Nova I don’t sleep.Not really.My mind keeps circling the same questions my father dropped on me like boulders-questions about our bloodline, about the Red Wolves that weren’t just rare…. but hunted. Feared. Hidden.Lyra had been restless all night, pacing inside me, brushing against the edges of my consciousness like she wanted to break free.We must train, she kept whispering.We need to understand what we are becoming.By dawn I’m already dressed, boots laced, heart pounding with a mix of nerves and anticipation. My father waits in the clearing behind our house, the place he used to teach me how to shift when I was sixteen. Back then he’d treated me like something fragile.Today…. he doesn’t look at me that way.He stands in the center of the clearing, arms folded, the early morning light hitting the faint red markings along his forearms-markings I’ve never seen before. They glow, subtle but unmistakable.“Dad?” I step closer, breath catching. “Your arms—”“They only show when I

NovaThe shift ripped through me before I could refuse it.One heartbeat I was standing at the treeline, lungs tight from the day’s training, from Benjamin’s silence, from everything I kept trying not to feel—and the next, Lyra surged forward, clawing through my skin like she’d been shoved awake.Let me out, she snarled inside me. I need air. I need-She didn’t finish, but I felt it anyway.Her need to be let free.I hurriedly took off my clothes and then the world blurred as my bones reshaped and my muscles stretched, the red of my fur spilling across my vision like a living flame.Lyra stood on four paws.The air tasted different like this cold, sharp, alive.I padded toward the riverbank, letting the night cool the heat still pulsing through me after training. I needed space—from the packfrom Benjamin.Especially from Benjamin But the moment I stepped into the open clearing, Lyra froze.A growl rumbled through the shadows. Deep. Dark. Controlled A massive black wolf appeared f