Breed Me Cursed Alpha (Lyra and Ronan) novel Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I don’t stop running until my lungs are screaming.

The forest is dark, thicker than anything I have ever seen. Branches whip my face, my arms. Roots reach up like fingers trying to trip me. My bare feet are shredded, leaving bloody prints on the frozen ground.

Behind me, I hear them. Voices shouting. Footsteps pounding. The howls of shifted wolves.

I risk a glance over my shoulder and my heart stops.

There are more of them now. Some are in wolf form, some are still human. And the humans are wearing uniforms. Black uniforms with a red logo on the chest.

Trade Sport.

Marcus must have called them the second I ran.

“There!” someone shouts. “She is bleeding, she cannot go much farther!”

Behind me, a gunshot cracks through the air.

I drop, stumbling, catching myself on a tree trunk.

“Do not kill her!” Marcus’s says, irritated. “We need her alive for the broadcast!”

Another gunshot. Closer this time. Bark explodes off a tree inches from my head.

I run harder, gasping, and that is when I see it.

A sign.

Old. Weathered. Hanging from a rusted chain between two massive trees.

NO TRESPASSING

BLACKFANG TERRITORY

ENTER AND DIE

My blood turns to ice.

Blackfang.

Ronan Blackfang. The cursed one.

No one who crosses that border comes back alive.

“Got you now, you little bitch.”

I spin around.

Marcus is there, twenty feet away. Gun in his hand. Behind him, enforcers, Trade Sport traffickers, and Kyle with his swollen cheek.

They form a semi-circle, blocking any path back.

“Nowhere left to run, Lyra.”

“Please.” The word rips out of me. “Dad, please…”

His eyes turn sharp. Cold. “You are not my daughter. You never were.”

Behind him, one of the Trade Sport guys steps forward. “We will take her from here, Alpha Kane.”

“She is all yours.” Marcus does not lower the gun. “Just one thing first.”

He looks at Kyle.

Kyle grins and I see something glint in his hand. A knife.

“You know the law, Lyra,” Kyle says. “Touch an alpha without permission, lose your hands. I will just take one. The right one.”

The scarred man from Trade Sport laughs. “One-armed omega might actually get better ratings.”

My back hits something solid.

The sign.

Kyle takes a step forward, knife raised.

I look at my father’s face and see nothing. No love. No mercy.

“Last chance,” Marcus says. “Come quietly, let Kyle take his payment, and maybe you will last longer than an hour in the Bloodwood.”

They say the alpha who lives in Blackfang kills any woman he touches. They say no one survives.

But I know exactly what waits behind me. Kyle’s knife. Marcus’s gun. Trade Sport’s van. The Bloodwood.

Kyle lunges.

I throw myself backward, across the border, into Blackfang territory.

The moment my feet cross the line, everything changes.

The air turns arctic. So cold it burns my lungs. And the darkness… God, the darkness is alive.

It wraps around me like hands, pulling me deeper into the trees.

Behind me, Kyle skids to a stop at the border. His face goes white.

“Lyra!” Marcus shouts. “Get back here! Now!”

But I am already running again.

None of them follow.

But I run deeper into the darkness, and above me, I realize something that makes my blood freeze.

There is no moon.

The sky is black. Completely black.

The Moon Goddess has turned her back on this place.

Something moves in the shadows ahead of me.

Something big.

I hear a low growl.

And then I see the eyes.

Golden. Glowing. Fixed right on me.

The eyes move closer.

I stumble backward. My back hits a tree and I freeze.

The thing steps into view, and my breath stops.

It is a wolf. But not like any wolf I have ever seen.

He is massive. Easily twice the size of any alpha I have known. His fur is black as the moonless sky above, and his eyes, those glowing golden eyes, are fixed on me.

He does not move like a wolf. He moves like something older. Something wrong.

It rises out of the darkness. Falling apart. Black stone covered in dead vines. Windows like empty eye sockets.

“Welcome to Blackfang.” His voice is cold. “Your new home.”

“I am not staying here…”

“You act like you have a choice.” He shoves me toward the entrance.

The inside is worse.

Debris everywhere. Broken furniture. The walls are covered in claw marks. Deep gouges in the stone.

There is no electricity. No lights. Just darkness and shadows.

“Is anyone else here?” My voice is small.

“No.”

“Then who made all these claw marks?”

“Me.”

He stops at a door and kicks it open. Inside is a torn mattress on a broken frame.

He shoves me inside. “Do not leave this room.”

“Wait…”

“If you try to run, I will find you. If you try to leave the fortress, I will drag you back.” His eyes bore into mine. “Do you understand?”

I nod, too terrified to speak.

“Good.” He turns to leave.

“Wait. Please. I need water. Food. Something for my feet…”

He pauses in the doorway. “You will get what I decide to give you. When I decide to give it.”

“But…”

“You are alive because I am allowing it. Do not make me regret that decision.”

Suddenly footsteps thunder closer. Whispers ripple through the darkness. A child giggles, the sound filling the whole room. The fortress wakes up around me.

My wolf surges, sharpening my vision through the pitch black. Nothing. Only him and me. Then I feel it, fingers, ice-cold, trailing through my hair. I jerk away, heart slamming.

“Leave her alone, Emma,” he says, bored, standing right beside me now. “In fact, all of you, go. Now.”

More giggles, delighted, like this is all a game.

The ghost-pack scatters. Footsteps pound away. The door slams.

I stand there frozen. My breath coming in shallow gasps.

“What is Emma?”

His golden eyes find mine in the darkness.

And for the first time since I crossed that border, I see something flicker across his face.

Fear.