Chapter 3 The alpha's curse

Just when I thought waking up would be the hardest part of today but I was wrong. It was the silence that came after.

Not the silence of the house or the woods outside. This was inside me , it was deep, cold, unnatural.

My wolf was quiet and I could sense it

At first, I didn’t notice it although I felt it but I thought it was just the lingering pain or exhaustion pulling me down. But as the morning stretched on, I realized something was missing. Usually, I could feel her presence at the back of my mind, breathing with me, feeling with me. Even when I didn’t shift, she was always there, like a heartbeat under my own.

Today, there was nothing.

I stood in front of the small mirror in my room, fingers pressed against the pulse on my neck. It felt slow. Too slow for a werewolf. I stared at my reflection pale skin, dark circles beneath my eyes, dried tear stains that no amount of water could wash away. I looked human. Too human.

A faint dizziness washed over me when I tried to reach for my wolf again. Usually, if I focused, I could feel her claws, her instincts, her hunger for the forest. But now it was like reaching into a void, empty and silent presence so i knew Something’s wrong.

I stepped back from the mirror, my heart thudding heavily and unevenly. My breathing turned shallow, and a cold shiver ran through my spine . I placed a hand on my chest. My ribs still ached from where I hit the ground yesterday, but this was different. This wasn’t pain. This was absence.

I tried to listen to the pack link but i could hear nothing only a distant hum, like hearing voices through thick walls. I caught blurry emotions, muffled thoughts but I couldn’t connect to any of them clearly. I was slipping away from them. From everything.

My mother’s voice drifted from the kitchen, calling my name softly, asking if I could come eat. I didn’t answer. I wrapped my arms around myself and sank onto the edge of the bed.

Why can’t I feel her?

I closed my eyes while trying again. Memories flashed. Xander’s voice declaring his rejection. The pack staring. The way the world spun before everything went black. And now this hollow, cursed silence lives inside me.

This isn’t normal rejection pain. The healer said it. My body shouldn’t be this weak. A rejected mate feels agony, yes but their wolf survives but it wasn't the same in my own case. Their bond breaks, but their wolf doesn’t fade.

Unless…

A chill crawled up my spine.

No, I didn’t want to think it. I didn’t want to give it a name. But deep down, I knew I was under something, Something dark and binding.

The Alpha’s curse.

A whispered legend. A punishment only an Alpha could place on their mate knowingly or not. A rejection so brutal it doesn’t just break the bond it poisons it. It leaves the mate alive, but fading. Trapped between human and wolf. Belonging nowhere.

I didn’t know if he did it on purpose. I didn’t know if he even realized it happened. But I felt it now like invisible chains wrapping around my bones.

My wolf wasn’t gone. She was… dying.

I tried to stand, but my knees trembled. I held onto the wall as I made my way to the window. Outside, pack members moved around, laughing, training, living. None of them looked at my house. None of them wanted to. And I didn’t blame them, it was everybody to themselves.

Who would want to look at the cursed girl?

My fingers pressed against the cold glass. A tear slid down before I could stop it.

I thought rejection was the end.

Turns out, surviving it was worse.

I didn’t leave my room. I couldn’t. The more I moved, the more things felt wrong.

It started with the sounds.

At first, the world was quiet too quiet, like someone had turned down all the pack sounds I’d grown up with. No whispers of wolves sharpening their blades outside. No distant link buzzing in the back of my mind. Just silence.

Then suddenly, it was the opposite. Loud and suffocating.

I heard whispers that weren’t really there. Footsteps in the hallway when no one was around. A voice calling my name in a tone too soft, too broken like it came from inside my own head. I covered my ears, but the sounds were inside me, not around me.

I knew I was losing grip. Not on reality but on myself. I couldn’t let my mother see. If she knew what was really happening, she would panic, call the healer again, or who knows maybe even go to the Alpha. And I couldn’t face him. Not now. Not ever.

So I forced myself to stand. I walked out of my room, slowly and carefully. My legs felt weak, but I kept moving. I splashed water on my face. I braided my hair even though my hands were shaking. I tried to look normal but i was abnormal inside of me.

I stepped outside for air, the sky was cloudy, pressing down like it wanted to rain. The pine trees stood tall on the edge of the training grounds, whispering secrets to the wind. But even nature felt different. The air was colder around me. The wind felt like it moved through me instead of against me.

Then it happened, I saw something that wasn’t there or maybe it was coming towards me and I started gasping and running in my mind.

A shadow moved across the yard, fast, silent, crawling across the grass like smoke. It slithered toward me, then disappeared before it touched my feet. I blinked hard, grabbed the edge of the wall to steady myself. My heart raced, my breath came short.

No. Not real. This isn’t real. Could it be I'm seeing things?

But then I saw another. A flicker of silver eyes in the trees. A silhouette standing behind the fence. Watching me. Tall. Broad shoulders. Wild hair. His eyes held mine for a second.

Xander?

I blinked and he was gone.

My chest tightened. A sharp, violent pain shot through, like someone had plunged claws into my heart and twisted. I gasped, bending forward, pressing my fist against my chest.

Not now. Not here.

I turned, stumbling back inside. My vision blurred. My mother’s voice echoed distantly from the kitchen, asking if I wanted tea. I tried to answer nothing came out. My throat was dry, my tongue heavy.

Then everything started spinning.

Voices. Faces. The moment in the courtyard replayed in my mind the Alpha’s rejection, the cold look in his eyes, the pack staring ,and then a whisper inside my head, soft and cruel.

You’re mine. Rejected or not. You don’t get to leave.

My wolf didn’t answer either.

My knees buckled.

The floor rushed up to meet me.

The last thing I felt was the cold crawling from my fingertips into my bones and the faint echo of my mother screaming my name.

Then everything went dark.