Breed Me Cursed Alpha (Lyra and Ronan) novel Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Ronan

I leave because if I don’t, I won’t.

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The door clicks shut behind me, gentle but too loud in my ears. Every instinct is screaming to turn around, to go back inside, to finish what that kiss started.

She tasted like heat and defiance and something I was never meant to have.

–

My hand is still tingling from where it held her. My mouth still burning from the way she answered me no hesitation, no fear, just want.

Mate.

The word pulses in my blood like a second heartbeat.

I force myself to walk. One step. Then another. My body keeps trying to turn back, to retrace the pull in the air that leads straight to her.

It takes everything I have not to.

By the time I reach the main hall, my breathing is rougher than it should be. I brace a palm against the nearest wall, stone warm under my skin. The fortress has always responded to me to my mood, my power – but now…

–

–

Now it almost feels alive.

A soft shimmer prickles at the edge of my senses. Footsteps echo even where no one stands. Then a chair near the hearth slides slightly on its own, a playful nudge I haven’t felt in decades.

I look up.

And freeze.

My mother stands near the staircase.

Or the shape of my mother. Her form wavers faintly, like heat over desert stone, but she’s more solid than she has been since the night we were cursed. Her hair is in the braid she always wore when working in the garden, her dress shifting between mist and memory. Her eyes bright, knowing

She smiles.

I take a step toward her, stunned quiet..

“Mother?” My voice cracks on the word I lost a century ago.

meet mine.

Her expression softens. So proud, she mouths silently. Then she lifts her fingers to her lips and blows a kiss – the ancient Blackfang blessing for protection. For love,

Before I can speak, she flickers and disappears into the air, but the warmth of her presence lingers.

I stand there a moment, chest full of a feeling too big to name.

Then Emma is suddenly at my side, practically vibrating with excitement. “Did you see?” she bursts. “We’re stronger! Everyone’s stronger! The curse – it’s shifting.”

I swallow. “Because of her.”

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Chapter 11

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Emma grins. “Because of mate,” she corrects, deliberately dragging out the word like it’s candy she can’t wait to share.

1 glare half–heartedly. It only makes her grin sharper.

“There are more downstairs,” she says, “Your uncle. Two of the guards. They’ve been trying to hold their forms all morning – and it’s working. Ronan. Really working.”

The air thrums with something like hope. Hope I thought I’d buried with the woman who died in my arms long ago.

The Moon Goddess didn’t just curse me.

She cursed a kingdom.

And now the kingdom stirs – stone and soul alike – because I kissed my mate.

Emma pokes me in the side. “She must really like you,” she sings.

I shove a hand through my hair and start walking again, because if I stand still, I’ll turn around and go right back into that room. “It doesn’t change anything,” I mutter, too quickly.

Emma snorts. “Oh it changes everything.”

She zips in front of me, floating backward just to keep her eyes locked on mine. “You kissed her,” she says bluntly. “And she didn’t die. Good start.”

“I wasn’t planning on killing her, even if accidental,” I growl.

“Oh I know,” she chirps. “You were planning on being noble. Stoic. Tragic. Blah blah blah.” She waves a translucent hand. “But then she bit her lip and you short–circuited. I followed you in.”

That hits too close to truth.

“I am still cursed,” I remind her.

“Yes,” she says. “But the curse is cracking.”

I freeze again.

The castle floor hums beneath my bare feet, energy pulsing upward like roots drinking water. The magic here has always been bound to my life – my choices

my failures.

Now it responds to possibility.

I inhale slowly.

–

The scent of her still clings to me – not sharp and overwhelming like the heat wave earlier – but softer now. A thread tying us together through walls and distance.

Mine, my wolf whispers again.

I force air into my lungs. “I need… time to think.”

“You need pants,” Emma counters gleefully. “A king should look like a king, not a distraction.”

I give her a flat look.

She’s not wrong

I head toward my chambers. The hall isn’t empty

–

not anymore. A warrior I haven’t seen in a hundred years nods to me,

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Chapter 11

his form holding steady for a full three seconds before fading again.

He looks proud.

The sight nearly drops me.

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My bedroom feels strange after so long neglecting it. Dust that never settles tries to linger, but the fortress is cleaning itself, like it finally has a reason to wake up.

I grab trousers from a trunk, tug them on, then a shirt – hands shaking slightly.

What am I doing?

I kissed her.

And it was…

Stars.

Surrender.

Everything I’ve denied myself since the curse took my pack.

I brace both hands on the dresser and stare into the mirror.

Eyes wild.

Pulse too fast.

Jaw tight with want.

I am losing myself.

But if I don’t… the curse wins.

The land shivers once, like it’s reminding me:

She is the key.

To our freedom.

To our future.

To me.

My mate.

A soft knock at the door – not physical. A pulse in the bond. Lyra shifting in the bed, reaching for comfort in her sleep.

The tug nearly drags me to my knees.

Emma sticks her head through the wall–literally and raises a brow.

–

“Well?” she asks. “You going to pretend you can stay away? Or are you going to be what she needs?”

–

My voice is a rough whisper. “I already told her ask me again after her heat.”

“Yes.” Emma says gently. “And you will honor that.”

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Chapter 11

Her expression softens, older than her years, older than her death.

“But you should also be there when she wakes,” she finishes. “Mates don’t heal apart.”

I close my eyes.

Ancient magic thrums under my skin, recognizing a vow I haven’t spoken yet but already feel.

1 straighten my shirt, pull my hair back from my face, and nod.

“Then we start with this,” I murmur.

I will stay.

I will protect.

I will give her time to choose me without fire driving her.

And when she does….

Gods help me.

Because I’ll never let her go.

Emma beams, then flickers away in a shower of soft light.

I take one last, steadying breath.

The curse is loosening.

The pack is returning.

The land is waking.

And all of it whispers the same truth:

Lyra is mine.