Alle Kapitel von The Alpha King's Cursed Mate: Kapitel 1 – Kapitel 4

The bucket was too heavy again.Lyra’s arms burned as she hauled it across the kitchen floor, water sloshing over the rim and soaking the front of her thin dress. The boards were already wet from the storm outside, and every step left muddy tracks she would have to scrub later. No one cared. No one ever did.“Move faster, cursed bitch.”Dain’s voice cut through the low chatter of the pack hall. He leaned against the doorway with his arms crossed, watching her the way a man watches a dog that has already been beaten once and might still try to bite. His lip curled when she didn’t answer.She kept her head down and dragged the bucket the last few feet to the hearth. The fire had gone out hours ago. Alpha Caden liked the main room cold when he was in a foul mood. Tonight he was in a foul mood. Everyone could feel it.Lyra knelt and started scooping the cold water onto the floor with a cracked wooden bowl. The smell of old ash and wet wood filled her nose. Her knuckles were already raw. T

The storeroom smelled of damp grain and old dust.Lyra pushed the door shut behind her at two in the morning and leaned against it for a long moment. Every muscle in her body ached. The new bruises from Caden’s fists still throbbed along her ribs and jaw. Older ones layered underneath them, yellow and purple, refusing to fade the way they should have. Her wolf had always been too weak to heal her properly. Tonight the wounds felt heavier than usual.She had no bed. Only a thin blanket folded in the corner and the hard wooden floor. She sat down slowly, back against the wall, and stared at nothing. The single high window let in a thin slice of moonlight. It cut across the floorboards and stopped just short of her bare feet.Something was different.For years her wolf had stayed quiet, buried so deep she sometimes wondered if it had died with her family. It never spoke. Never pushed. Never even howled. Tonight it was restless. A low, constant pressure behind her eyes, like something pac