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Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Curse of Alpha Danearo: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

13 Kabanata

Chapter 1

DANERO’S POVI stood silent in the darkness and watched the celebrations of Brynwick's female child union to Leonard MacLeod.My fingers tightened on the hilt of my daggerShe should have been mine.The joy that erupted around the humans in praises was a mockery, blasphemy to what had been promised to me twenty years ago.Twenty years. Twenty years since that bastard Brynwick betrayed me. It was a wound that never quite healed, rotting in the marrow of my bones.It began with a lost traveler… a human, a unique creature we called him at first. Who wandered too far into our lands. He was weak, unarmed, and terrified when we found him. We thought nothing of him, he couldn't transform like us, just another creature trespassing. But when more came to retrieve him… armed, we learned of the humans, and realized they were others of their kind. We stayed our separate ways, none of us taking notice of the other's existence. Highlanders humans ruled their territories, while we wolves ran our woo

Chapter 2

ELYSIA’S POVI was never meant to know what it feels like to be loved.I have known this ever since I have known my name--Elysia. A name that should have stood for something magnificent, instead, it stood for a woman who was three times doomed.The first was uttered with my first breath, an infant girl with tiny bright eyes and very pale skin… the harbinger of misfortune with a Barren Womb.What a cruel fate for a second daughter under the rule of a powerful lord and father Brynwick. No sane man would wish for a wife who could not have his heir, and no father would want to love a daughter who could not strengthen his lineage.It wasn't like I cannot bring a life into this world, if I ever would, that child would not survive… or worse, it would come into the world unnatural, cursed, like me. The midwives said that the Goddess had marked me, but no one knew whether it was a punishment or a warning. The pregnant women held onto their swollen bellies in my presence as if I would suck away

Chapter 3

ELYSIA'S POVI was scrubbing the kitchen floor on my hands and knees when the first noise reverberated through the castle.Father had finally allowed me out after days of being locked in my little room in the basement. Not that I was grateful… I actually preferred that tiny room to the heavy chores they piled on me the moment I was free.The castle walls trembled with noise. The floor beneath me vibrated, furious voices cutting through the air. They were running.I scrambled to my feet, my heart hammering. Has another war broken out? Had my father angered the wrong nobleman? Was this one of his debts coming to collect?Before I could spring into action, a hand clamped onto my arm. "Where do you think you're going?" Jenada, the head maid, sneered.Her nails dug into my skin. I stared at her in shock. Even with the walls shaking around us, she was still cruel."You stay here," she snapped, shoving me backward.I hit the floor hard, my palms scraping against the hard floor. Before I coul

Chapter 4

ELYSIA’S POVThe wind howled through the darkened forest, as sharp as a blade against my skin. The movements of the horse were jarring, not nearly as bad as the weight of the man behind me.His arm locked around my waist, his grip possessive, frightening. Heat radiated from him, seeping through my thin dress, and I hated it. Hated how my body recognized the warmth when my mind recoiled from him.I could hear his heartbeat. Slow and calm which is in contrast to mine that rattles inside my ribs like a caged bird. His breath fanned against my neck with each jolt of the horse. Too close. Too solid. Too much."You are a quiet, human." His voice cut through the wind, deep and serrated. "I expected more of a fight."I bit the inside of my cheek and refused to answer.Because what could I say? That I wasn’t the woman he thought I was? That my father had tricked him, given him the wrong daughter?No.I had seen what he did to my father who betrayed him. If he ever realized the truth—that I was

Chapter 5

ELYSIA’S POVI leaned back into my shoulders, my feet moderate as I was ushered into the grand feasting hall. The warmth of the fire should have been soothing, but there was nothing soothing about being here.I barely had time to breathe before his hand was at my back. "Come," Danearo murmured. "Sit with me."It wasn’t a request.I hesitated for half a second… his fingers tightened, merely closed, reminding me that there was no choice to be made. I swallowed hard.He led me to the head of the table, settling himself like a king before gesturing. "Sit."I moved toward the chair beside him.But the moment I shifted to take the seat, his arm went around my waist pulling me onto his lap. I gasped.The murmurs stopped.My pulse hammered, but I forced myself to sit still, back rigid. fingers clasped in my lap, every cell of my body attuned to the intent eyes of the pack while his grip stayed casual, almost lazy, but I wasn’t fooled."Relax," he exhaled against my ear. "Indulge in the banque

Chapter 6

DANEARO'S POVThe grand feasting hall was loud with clamor — wolves laughing, tearing meat from bone, raising goblets — but every sound rang hollow in my ears. The fire burned bright, yet none of its warmth reached me. Not while the whispers swirled around her.Elysia.She moved as though walking to her execution, her steps hesitant, shoulders taut, eyes lowered. When we entered, I laid my hand against her back, guiding her forward.“Come,” I murmured, not a suggestion but a command. “Sit with me.”She stiffened. Just for a breath. My fingers tightened against her spine, a reminder that hesitation had no place here. She swallowed, obeying.I sat at the head of the table, as was my right, and gestured toward the seat beside me. “Sit.”She stepped forward, but before she could lower herself, I pulled her onto my lap.Her gasp cut through the hall.The murmurs stopped. Every wolf’s head turned. Their gazes were knives, some filled with envy, others with doubt.I held her there, one arm lo

Chapter 7

ELYSIA’S POVThe knife sank deep.For one breathtaking second, there was silence.Then pain — hot, sharp, spreading like fire through my stomach. My fingers slipped from the hilt. My knees weakened. The hall swam.Gasps rang out, chairs scraped, voices shouted. But above them all came one sound, tearing through the rafters:A roar.Danearo’s roar.It shook my bones even as my body sagged forward. His arms caught me before I hit the floor, the heat of him overwhelming, the iron grip of his hands forcing me against him as blood poured between us.“Elysia!” His voice was raw, guttural, half-human, half-wolf. “No. No, you don’t.”My vision blurred. I saw torches sway, wolves’ wide eyes, mouths frozen in shock. Someone muttered, “She’d rather die…” Another whispered, “The curse is real.”“I said quiet!” Danearo bellowed, his fury crashing over them. His hands pressed hard against the wound, but more blood welled through his fingers. His jaw clenched so tight I thought his teeth would break

Chapter 8

ELYSIA’S POVThe days blurred together, dripping past like blood from an unhealed wound.I woke. I slept. I bled. I healed.Or at least, that was what the healers whispered — that my body had “mended better than expected.” I wanted to laugh in their faces. What good was a body that healed if the soul inside it begged to end?I lost count after three. Or maybe it was four.Time had no meaning inside Danearo’s chamber. My world was reduced to firelight, heavy furs that pressed down like chains, and the sharp ache that pulsed in my stomach with every breath.The healers called it a miracle. “You were lucky,” they whispered, their hands smelling of herbs and smoke as they pressed bandages against me.Lucky.If I had been lucky, I would have died.Instead, I woke each morning — if it was morning at all — and stared at the stone ceiling while the whispers outside the door leaked in through the cracks. “Cursed thing.”“She tried to cut herself open before the pack.”“He should’ve let her bl

Chapter 9

ELYSIA’S POVThe morning smelled of pine smoke and simmering soup. Someone had set fresh linen by the bed; the cloth felt too clean against the sour-film of my skin. The healers fussed around me like anxious birds, pulling at blankets, tucking in knees, smoothing hair. I moved like a puppet whose strings had been yanked.When Danearo entered, he wore armor beneath his cloak though he had not been summoned to battle. The heaviness of it made him look even more like a thing carved from night: unyielding, inevitable.“Would you rather a repeat of last time?.” He said after spotting the untouched food. His voice was not a suggestion.I did as I was told, forced porridge down my throat until my stomach burned. He watched the slow mechanics of me swallowing like a man who was learning the map of a new land.He did not leave when the healers retreated. Killian arrived half an hour later, all silk and smiles that never reached his eyes. He kept his distance at first, bowing with the practiced

Chapter 10

ELYSIA’S POVThe Great Hall glittered like a jeweled snare. Torches flared in their iron sconces, banners hung heavy from the rafters, and the long tables groaned beneath platters of venison, pheasant, and steaming bread. But beneath the surface splendor, the air pulsed with hunger of a different kind.Kayla shone at the center of it, basking in every stolen glance, every whisper. She let her hand rest conspicuously against her stomach, her smile sweet enough to sour milk. Around her, wolves muttered about heirs, about alliances, about curses undone.Hazel sat beside her, too quiet, her smile too sharp. Every so often her fingers brushed the rim of her goblet, tracing invisible patterns that made my skin crawl. No one else saw. No one else felt it. But I did. Each curve of her fingertip stitched a thread of shadow into the hall.Danearo sat at the head of the table, black and gold like a storm given flesh. He said nothing as the wine flowed, as Kayla laughed, as Killian prowled among

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