Breed Me Cursed Alpha (Lyra and Ronan) novel Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Lyra

Warm light hits the inside of my eyelids.

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Not sunlight–Ronan’s room never sees actual sun–but torchlight, steady and gold, softening the edges of the stone walls.

1 blink awake, disoriented for a breath, then everything snaps back into place.

The fight.

The wounds.

Ronan carrying me here..

His hands on me.

His sinful tongue closing every cut with aching care.

And then-

The moment he froze.

The way he scrambled back like touching me would burn him alive.

Heat curls through my chest, embarrassed and confused and aching all at once. Dear God’s, I crave him still.

I push myself upright. My body protests, but it’s healed now–only a dull soreness humming under my skin. Ronan sits against the far wall. knees drawn up, forearms braced across them like he’s been holding himself together for hours.

His head lifts the second I move.

“Lyra.” Relief softens the tension in his shoulders. Just a little.

His eyes meet mine, and suddenly I understand why fate bothered writing our names in the same story.

I swallow. “We need to talk.”

His jaw locks like he’s bracing for impact. “I know.”

I shift back until my spine meets the headboard. It feels strange–speaking about something so intimate while I’m wearing one of his shirts, too big on my frame, smelling like him.

“So…“I exhale. “Are you going to tell me what happened?”

He looks away, as if afraid of what I’ll see in his eyes. “You were hurt. I was healing you. And your scent changed.”

Heat crawls up my neck, mortifying. “You smelled it.”

“I did,” he says softly. “And I shouldn’t have. I should have left the moment the last wound closed.”

“You practically leapt across the room.”

“I had to.” His voice is low, rough. “If I hadn’t, I might have-” He cuts himself off, shaking his head. “I can’t touch you like that, Lyra. I can’t risk it.”

I pull the blanket into my lap, fingers twisting in the fabric.

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Chapter 20

“Because of the curse.”

“Yes”

“And because you don’t want to get me pregnant.”

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His breath stutters, grief slicing through his expression. “Because if you ever carried my child… you would die giving birth to him. Not might. Would.”

My chest tightens. He’s told me before. Hearing it again feels like having the ground tilt under me.

1 clear my throat, “Okay, But… hypothetically… what about birth control?”

His eyes finally meet mine–steady, sad. “We don’t have anything like that.”

“Nothing?”

“Lyra, we aren’t human. Human medicine barely works on us. Human pharmaceuticals don’t affect wolf biology. And it’s illegal to involve human doctors. Our bodies don’t follow their rules.”

“So human birth control…?”

“Would do nothing.” he says. “Not even slow conception down.”

My stomach sinks.

“Okay. So then… what about the pull–out method?“–

He huffs a humorless laugh. “That would require me not to be a werewolf.”

“So that’s a no.”

“Lyra…” His gaze flicks away again, jaw clenching. “Sometimes, during intimacy, wolves… lose control near the end. The wolf can surface. The knot can form. And once that happens–there is no pulling out. Instinct locks the body in place. There is no

choice.”

I stare at him. “So even if you tried to be careful-”

“I could kill you by accident.”

He says it so quietly the room seems to fold in around the words.

Something cold spirals through me. It’s not fear of him. It’s fear of the curse, fear of what it asks, fear of a future that ends before it begins.

“And your pack,” I whisper. “If you don’t get me pregnant… if the curse never fully breaks…. what happens to them?”

Ronan’s expression darkens. “They remain translucent. Stuck between life and nothing. I know they want to be whole again. Truly alive.” His throat works. “But I will not trade your life for theirs.”

“But they might retaliate,” I say softly. “They didn’t like me before. And they tried to-”

I stop myself, remembering Ronan doesn’t know who grabbed me earlier.

He tenses anyway. “They won’t touch you.”

“But if they think I’m the reason they stay stuck-”

They will still not touch you,” he says firmly. “If they try, I will deal with it.”

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(hapter 20.

I look down at my hands. “This is a big problem.”

“Yes,” he agrees.

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“We can’t even talk about it in here,” I realize suddenly, glancing at the walls. “They hear everything. The house is full of them–they want their lives back.”

His expression twists with something like guilt. “I know.”

“Ronan “My voice softens. “I don’t want to die.”

His entire body reacts–like the words hit him physically. He stands abruptly, crossing the room in three long strides. He kneels beside the bed, but doesn’t touch me–as if even that would be too much temptation, too much danger.

“You won’t,” he says fiercely. “I swear it on my life. I will not let you die for the sake of a curse. I will not let you die for them, You will not die for me.”

My throat tightens. “But we’re mates.”

Something shatters in his face.

“Yes,” he whispers. “We are.”

“Then how do we live like this? Afraid of touching each other? Afraid of wanting each other?”

He mhales sharply. “I’ll find a way.”

“But there isn’t a way.”

“There will be,” he insists, eyes burning. “There has to be. I will find one, Lyra. Even if I have to tear apart every ancient spell in this land to uncover it.”

1 look at him–really look. His hair is messy, his eyes haunted, his hands curled into fists like he’s holding back the urge to reach for me.

And something in me aches with how much he’s already hurting..

“How long were you watching me?” I ask softly.

“Since you fell asleep.” He swallows. “I couldn’t leave you.”

“Even after…”

“Yes.” His jaw tightens. “Even after. Even when it nearly broke me.”

I lift a hand hesitantly.

He freezes.

I touch his check.

He exhales like I’ve pulled a thorn from his chest.

“Ronan,” I whisper. “You can’t kill yourself trying to keep me alive.”

His hand lifts toward mine-

And stops an inch away.

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Chapter 201

“I would die before risking you, he says simply.

The words land like a promise. Like a vow.

But underneath them.. 1 hear something else.

He is terrified.

Not of me.

But of losing me.

I take a shaky breath. “Then we need to figure this out together.”

He nods.

Not like an Alpha.

Like a man who has just been handed a lifeline.

I shift on the mattress, pulling his cloak tighter around me, and say quietly;

“Let’s start with the part where we’re mates.”

The look he gives me is so full of longing it steals the breath from my lungs.

“Lyra,” he whispers, voice shaking, “that’s the part I’m afraid I won’t survive.”