Breed Me Cursed Alpha (Lyra and Ronan) novel Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Lyra

1 don’t remember choosing a direction.

1 just run.

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The fortress isn’t silent anymore. Voices echo. Footsteps. Laughter. Too much life, too fast. My heart can’t hold any of it- the promise, the fear, the future that suddenly feels like a death sentence.

Ronan.

A mate.

A chuld.

An ending.

My breath breaks, sharp and panicked. Tears blur the torchlit corridors – twisting shadows into monsters. I duck into the first open archway, deeper into the fortress, where the walls are still baked in darkness.

Stone cold against my palms.

Air thick, stale.

Just like I feel trapped between too many futures.

I drop to my knees, trying to remember how to breathe.

My wolf pushes against my ribcage not with desire now, but with a fierce, frantic warning.

Not alone.

A flicker in the corner of my vision – like a candle guttering.

Then another. And another.

Three shapes phase into view – translucent, wavering, skin like smoke struggling to stay flesh. Wolves? No. Human shapes. Pack members. But not like the others I just saw.

These ones… hide.

They haven’t come to celebrate.

–

They circle me hesitant and nervous, but something in their posture screams cornered predator.

I scramble back until my shoulders hit stone.

“Stay away,” I manage, voice shredded.

They don’t listen.

–

One a tall male whose form glitches like a faulty hologram – leans in close enough I can feel cold air drag across my cheek.

“Not her,” the one on the left hisses. “She’s just a girl”

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Chapter 16

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“She’s not just anything.” the leader snarls. “Look at the sky. Look at them.” He jerks his head toward the courtyard, where daylight sull bleeds into the fortress. “This is because of her. If the curse breaks all the way-”

“We get our lives back,” the third interrupts, voice shaking.

“We get hunted,” the leader snaps. “Do you want him knowing what we did? Do you want to stand in front of the Alpha King when he puts the pieces together?”

My heart stutters.

What they did?

The doubter glances around nervously. “She could help him,” he whispers. “Isn’t that better than–than this?”

The leader whips toward him. “Better? For you maybe. You weren’t in the hall that night.” His voice drops, vicious. “When we drugged him. When we opened the door.”

Drugged?

Door?

Every cell in my body goes cold.

The leader looks down at me – hollowed–out fear carved into something ugly.

“If Ronan finds out what happened, we die,” he says. “Unless the curse never finishes breaking.”

The doubter steps in front of me, surprisingly protective. “She’s his mate. His Luna. The pack will tear us apart if we touch

her.”

“That’s the point,” the leader whispers. “There won’t be a pack if she’s gone. No curse break. No restoration. No truth.”

He reaches for me.

I choke on a breath and scramble upward, but the third one blocks the path. Not touching me- just close. Too close.

“We take her,” the leader says. “We hand her off before the Council arrives. If she’s gone, everything stays buried.”

The bond between Ronan and me tightens – like a rope pulled hard around my chest.

He feels me.

He knows something’s wrong.

Which only makes the leader more frantic.

“Move!” he snarls to the others. “Do you want to be judged? Do you want him discovering that we drugged him and that led

A sound splits the hallway.

A growl.

Low. Deep.

Not human.

The leader freezes.

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Chapter 16

Because that growl comes from behind him.

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The doubter flickers fully invisible in panic, vanishing like a flame snuffed out. The third slips into shadow, phasing almost entirely out of sight. The leader – stupid or brave – grabs my arm just as-

Ronan appears.

He doesn’t shift fully.

He doesn’t need to

His eyes burn molten gold.

His teeth lengthen.

Claws burst halfway from his fingers razor–sharp and hunger–sharp.

Silent

Deadly.

―

The leader jerks me back like a shield. “You don’t know what she is!” he screams, voice cracking.

Ronan moves.

Not lunges

moves. One moment he’s ten feet away, the next his hand is around the male’s throat, pinning him against the wall like he weighs nothing.

The leader’s form glitches – flickers panics.

“Let her go.” Ronan says.

The tone terrifies something inside me.

Not because he’s dangerous.

Because he’s dangerous for me.

The leader chokes out, “If she lives, we-” and then he glitches harder, body blurring-

He phases straight through Ronan’s grip.

Gone.

The hallway empties in a rush of vanishing light.

The conspirators scatter cowards into the walls.

Silence slams down.

My chest is heaving. My legs are jelly. I’m cold all over.

Ronan turns toward me- claws retracting, breath shaking and everything in him softens at once.

He looks ruined.

–

Guilty.

Terrified.

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Chapter 16

Like he expected to be too late.

He closes the distance slowly, as if I might bolt again.

“Lyra,” he breathes.

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The moment he reaches me, my body snaps forward before my mind catches up my hands curl into his shirt, my forehead slams into his chest.

And I break

A trembling inhale.

A whimper that betrays everything.

His arms come around me instantly – but not crushing like before. Gentle. Steady. His heartbeat thick and wild under my

car.

“You’re safe,” he murmurs into my hair. “I’ve got you.”

My fingers clutch tighter needing him more than air–hating that I do.

His scent anchors me.

Warm stone. Pine. Something that feels like yes.

He pulls back enough to look me in the eyes – his thumb wiping a tear I didn’t feel fall.

“I’m sorry,” he says, voice breaking. “For all of it. For what you heard. For what you’re afraid of. For what I should have told you myself.”

I shake my head because I can’t think about the future. Not right now. I can’t breathe through it.

“I just…” My voice fails. “I just want to exist today. Can I do that?”

–

—

Ronan’s jaw clenches a war he fights silently then he nods once.

“Yes,” he says. “You can exist today.”

His forehead drops gently to mine – a quiet promise.

And the only thing that matters in this moment:

He came for me.

Every time I run, he comes.

Whether I deserve that or not…

… C