All Chapters of The Cursed Alpha’s Second Chance Mate : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Alpha MalricMy panic should have been tearing me apart, yet it was not, and that was the first thing that felt deeply wrong to me. For most of my life, whenever memory dragged its claws across my mind, it ripped me open from the inside and left me choking on rage and ghosts. Tonight, however, something inside me was loosening instead of breaking. The noise in my head had lowered from a violent roar to something distant and contained, like a storm retreating across mountains.I knew the reason, and it unsettled me more than the memories ever could.It was because of her.I could feel it in the way her fingers held mine, small and warm and steady, as if she did not understand that she was anchoring something that had been drowning for years. My darkness no longer felt like a sealed dungeon with no exit. It felt like a cavern where a narrow opening had finally allowed a thin beam of light to enter.I turned my face away and tightened my jaw as if I could physically resist what that mean

Rhea’s POV The air changed when he stepped toward me. It was not only the storm outside that rose. It was something inside my bones, something that made goosebumps spread across my skin in a violent wave. I had never felt anything like it before. Fear and desire braided together until I could not tell which one owned me. Alpha Malric walked toward me slowly, deliberately, like a predator closing the final distance to prey he had already chosen and already claimed in his mind. My pulse thundered. I took a step back. Then another. “Stay away from me,” I whispered, though the words came out unsteady. “Do not come closer.” He did not stop. My back hit the wall. The impact knocked the breath from my lungs, and suddenly there was nowhere left to go. His presence filled the space, filled the room, filled my senses. Heat rolled off him. Wild, male, dangerous heat. My wolf rose feral inside me. Not in fear, but in hunger. The wind howled through the cracks of the building

Rhea’s POVThe air over the pack ground had changed. It felt heavier now, like the sky itself was leaning down to listen.Alpha Malric rose from his seat with unhurried authority, and the murmurs died instantly. He didnt raise his voice, yet silence obeyed him as if it had been trained.He descended the platform steps and stopped several paces from the chained prisoners. His expression held no visible anger, which somehow made him more frightening. When he spoke, his tone was calm, almost conversational.“You crossed into my territory,” he said. “You slaughtered my sentries and bled my borders. I am giving you one opportunity to explain why.”The tall green eyed prisoner lifted his chin. Even bruised and bound, he carried himself like a man who did not believe he had lost.“You already know why,” he answered coolly. “You have something that does not belong to you.”A ripple moved through the crowd. Alpha Malric’s gaze hardened a fraction.“You are in no position to speak in riddles,”

Rhea’s POVThe world didn’t fall away all at once. It thinned.Sound stretched into distance first, voices turning distorted, as if they were being pulled down a long tunnel. The ground beneath my feet felt soft and far away, and the air around me rippled like heat above fire. I tried to speak, but my tongue would not obey me. I tried to reach forward, but my body no longer belonged to my will.Darkness did not take me. Something else did.I found myself standing in a field washed in pale gray light. There was no sun, no sky, only a suspended glow that made everything look half real. A figure stood before me, cloaked in drifting shadow, neither man nor woman, neither old nor young. I could not see a face, yet I felt watched in a way that reached past flesh and into bone.“It is your responsibility now,” the figure said.The voice did not travel through the air. It sounded inside my chest.“My responsibility for what?” I asked, confusion tightening my throat. “Who are you?”Instead of

Rhea’s POVLyria walked close enough beside me that our sleeves brushed with each step, and I could tell from the way she kept glancing over that she was measuring my breathing, my color, the steadiness of my stride.“You are allowed to change your mind,” she said gently. “No one will think less of you if you decide to rest. You frightened us earlier.”“I frightened myself earlier,” I admitted, letting out a thin breath. “But if I turn back now, I will only imagine worse things than what is real. I would rather face what is real.”“You say that like courage,” she replied, studying me, “but sometimes it is stubbornness and we both damn know you’re stubborn to the core princess.” “Those two are cousins,” I said, resisting the urge to roll my eyes at her. “They visit each other often.”The infirmary doors opened, and the change in air struck immediately. The warmth inside was thick and medicinal, with the strong scent of boiled herbs, crushed leaves, clean linen, and fever. Low lamps bu