Breed Me Cursed Alpha (Lyra and Ronan) novel Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Ronan

Chloe’s voice hits me like a ghost from a life I thought I buried.

“Hello, Ronan.”

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For a moment, I’m not in my courtyard. I’m back in a different hall, a different time, her hand in mine, the weight of expectation crushing both our shoulders.

I blink it away.

She doesn’t flicker like the others. She’s solid. Fully here. Dark hair coiled in glossy twists, mouth painted the same wine–red she used to wear to irritate my mother. The gown is new, but the way she looks at me isn’t.

Calculating. Possessive.

Hungry

“Chloe,” I say, and my voice comes out rougher than I’d like.

Lyra stiffens at my side.

Of course she does.

Chloe’s gaze slides from me to Lyra, taking her in with one long, slow look. The mark on my shoulder throbs under her stare, heat pulsing where Lyra’s teeth broke skin.

Then Chloe smiles, sharp and sweet.

“So,” she purrs. “The little prophecy wasn’t a lie after all.”

Lyra’s fingers slip out of mine at the word little. I feel the loss in the bond like a cold draft.

“What prophecy?” she asks.

The question slices through me.

I should have told her..

I meant to tell her.

Not like this.

Chloe laughs softly. “You didn’t tell her?” She clucks her tongue, mock–scolding. “Ronan, that’s cruel. Even for you.”

“Enough,” I say.

She ignores me, eyes bright as she focuses on Lyra. “Did he at least explain why his lands have been cursed in darkness for a century? Why his pack was half–gone? Why every woman he touched died screaming after he knotted them?”

Lyra flinches, color draining from her face.

“Chloe,” I snarl. “Don’t. This is between me and the Moon Goddess, not-”

“Not anymore,” she cuts in, stepping closer. “The moment she sank her teeth into you, everything changed.” She gestures upward, to the impossible blue sky. “You feel that, don’t you, Lyra? The sun. The pack. The way the land is breathing again?

12:14 Tue, Feb 3

Chapter 15

That’s you.”

Lyra sways, eyes wide, lips parted.

She looks terrified.

I move toward her, but Chloe is faster with her words.

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“You did what none of us could,” she says. “What I couldn’t, no matter how many times I tried to love him hard enough to make the curse bend.” Her expression twists, something like bitterness flashing through the polish. “I watched him kill every woman who climbed into his bed. Watched what his mark did to them. Watched him decide he was better off alone.”

Her gaze flicks to me, a blade behind her lashes. “He was. Until you walked across his border and offered your throat.”

Lyra swallows. “You’re his…ex.”

A small, humorless smile. “Once upon a time, the packs thought we’d be bonded. Before the Goddess decided to make him an example.”

“I broke the rules.” I grind out. “I tried to claim someone who wasn’t mine. The curse—”

“Oh, tell the fun part.” Chloe says brightly. “The way she worded it. The loophole no one could use until now.”

Lyra’s eyes dart to me. “Ronan?”

My tongue feels like ash.

Chloe doesn’t wait.

“The Moon Goddess cursed him so no woman could survive his touch,” she says softly. “Any bed he shared meant death. Any mark he gave burned from the inside out.” She tilts her head. “Except one.”

“Stop,” I say, magic roughening the air.

She smiles like I’m being adorable.

“Only your true mate can carry your seed and live long enough to give you an heir,” she recites, the old words dripping from her lips like poison. “Only when your son takes his first breath will she take her last. And only then will your pack be fully

restored.”

She lets the silence slam down on us.

Lyra doesn’t move.

I can feel her breathing through the bond–short, fast, shallow.

“When your son is born,” Chloe says sweetly, “you’ll die. The curse will shatter, the pack will live, and Ronan will finally be free.” She shrugs, turning slightly toward me. “Free to take a mate who doesn’t crumble under his hands. Free to finish what we started. Properly. With no more bodies to bury.”

Lyra’s voice is a broken whisper. “What?”

I reach for her. “Lyra-”

She backs away from my hand like it burns.

Her eyes are huge, wet, fixed on my face. “Is that true?”

The bond between us is writhing now fear and betrayal and something too raw to name.

12:14 Tue, Feb 3

Chapter 15

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1 force myself to look at her. To not hide. “The curse was clear,” I say quietly. “My mate is the only woman who can survive me. Long enough to bear my heir. And the moment he’s born…”

I can’t say it

Chloe does, all cheerful malice. “She dies,” she finishes. “But hooray, everyone else lives. What a noble little sacrifice.”

Lyra staggers like she’s been hit.

“You knew,” she whispers. “You knew, and you still-”

“I wasn’t going to touch you,” I say, the words ripping out of me. “I meant what I said. I wanted you to choose me after your heat, if you ever did, knowing all of it. I never meant for you to find out from her.” I glare at Chloe. “Or for you to mark me this soon.”

Chloe rolls her eyes. “Oh please. You were practically vibrating outside her door. Don’t act shocked your wolf grabbed what he wanted.”

Lyra shakes her head, backing farther away. “So I’m…” Her hand presses to her stomach like she’s trying to protect something that doesn’t even exist yet. “I’m a…solution. A walking cure.”

“No.” I snap. “You’re my mate.”

“And your mate.” Chloe purrs, “is a very neat way to fix everything. The pack gets their bodies back, the land gets its light, and you?” She smiles at me. “You get to finally touch someone without killing her. At least for a little while.”

The pack around us is utterly silent.

Some of them are staring at me with dawning hope.

Some are staring at Lyra with a kind of horrified gratitude.

It makes me want to tear the world apart.

Lyra laughs once a short, broken sound.

“I thought,” she says, “for one second, that this was about me. That the Goddess finally threw me something that wasn’t a punishment.”

“Lyra, it isn’t like that,” I say, stepping toward her.

She flinches. “Don’t.”

The word hits harder than any slap the goddess ever gave me.

“I didn’t ask for this,” she says, voice climbing. “Any of it. I didn’t ask to be sold. I didn’t ask to be hunted. I didn’t ask to be your mate. I didn’t ask to be-” She chokes. “Disposable.”

My chest feels like it’s being crushed.

“You’re not disposable,” I say fiercely. “You are the only thing about this curse that feels like a blessing. If I could carry it for you, I would. If I could tear it out of you, out of us-”

“But you can’t,” she whispers. “Can you?”

I don’t answer.

I don’t have to

12:14 Tue, Feb 3

Chapter 15

The silence does it for me

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Chloe’s smile curves again, cold satisfaction gleaming. “So you see,” she tells Lyra kindly, like she’s explaining something simple to a child. “You get him now. For a while. You get to play queen. Then you die, the curse lifts, and I get him after. Whole. Untainted. Finally.”

Lyra goes very quiet.

Something inside her shuts down. I feel it like a door slamming in the bond.

“Thank you,” she says to Chloe, voice flat. “For the clarity.”

Then she turns and runs.

“Lyra!” I lunge after her, but she’s already gone, darting through the crowd, translucent bodies parting around her like water. Somewhere up in the fortress, a door slams.

The bond throbs – distance already hurting.

I pivot on Chloe.

The air crackles.

“Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?” I grind out.

She lifts her chin. “Told her the truth? Someone had to. You were never going to.”

“You humiliated her,” I snarl. “You turned her into a spectacle. A bargaining chip.”

“She is a bargain,” Chloe shoots back, all charm gone. “That’s what this is, Ronan. Her life for all of ours. For mine. And you know what?” Her eyes gleam. “If she’s the girl who can finally carry your son and break this curse, she’s still getting more than she ever had with that sorry excuse for a father.”

My wolf surges, teeth bared. “If you ever speak about her like that again-”

“You’ll what?” she demands. “Kill me? You can’t. You need me. When she’s gone, you’ll need someone who understands what you’ve become.”

“I will never need you,” I say, low and deadly. “Not now. Not after this.”

For the first time, something like fear flickers in her eyes.

Good.

I turn away before I do something that will stain the ground.

The pack watches me with a mix of hope and worry and something like wary awe as I stride back toward the fortress.

All I can feel is Lyra.

Her pain.

Her betrayal.

Her belief that this is just another cage.