The curse claims her

An unbearable pressure seemed to crush the air around me.

The Lycan King stepped forward.

Five hundred years old.

A scar ran along the side of his face.

His eyes were gold.

Cold.

Ancient.

They locked on my glowing arm.Then rested on my face.

I looked at him.

And my heart stopped.

Something inside me snapped.

The mate bond.

Pain exploded through my body.It felt like pleasure, terror and pain all at once.

My hands trembled.

No.

It couldn't be.

Him?

The Lycan King?

The most powerful man in the kingdom?

My mate?

I looked at his face, waiting for something.

Anything.

But he didn't look pleased.

He looked furious which made my stomach twist.

So this was my mate?

Alpha Kieran Dustbane.

The cursed one.

“What abomination is this?” the man said, looking at me.

My chest tightened.

He was looking at me like I was something disgusting.

Like I was a monster.

“My Lord. She is wolfless, yet moon marked. Kill it,” an elder said.

The words barely left his mouth as his throat was sliced open by Kieran's claws.Blood sprayed across the stone.The elder's eyes widened as he stumbled backwards before taking his last breath.

Everyone gasped.

Even more people retreated, leaving a huge empty space between me and the King.

I stared at the body.

My stomach turned.

He had killed him.

Because of me?

“I didn’t... I can’t control it,” I panicked.

Another power surge came.

This time, all the lights flickered.

The flames on the torches roared as if being called.

The King raised his hand and all the guards advancing towards me froze.

He began walking towards me.

One step.

Then another.

With every step he took, I felt heavier.

People around me started smiling.

They thought I was going to get my doom.

Maybe they were right.

He walked until he was only one foot away from me.

He stopped.

His head tilted slightly.

He picked up my scent and closed his eyes.

His jaw ticked.

My heart hammered against my ribs.

Then he opened his mouth.

“Mine.”

The word sent a shiver through me.

When he opened his eyes, they were still gold, but a ring of red covered them.

The moment those words fell, all those who had bullied me felt their knees buckle.

Whispers spread across the crowd.

“I... I’m not.” I shook my head.

I didn't know what I was denying.

The mate bond?

Him?

The fact that fate had chosen me?

“Seize her.”he cut me off.

The guard grabbed my arm and my power flared in defence.

The silver mark on my skin burned.

“If she burns this temple down, let it be by my order.”

His voice was cold.

“Take the Moon Blessed to the dungeon.”

I was placed in the dungeon. Cold stone and wolfbane laced chains on my wrists.

I shivered, not from the cold but from the power that was building up inside me. The chains seemed to be cutting deep inside my skin and every time I moved they dug in even more.

I looked up and saw torchlight flickering and shadows walking towards me.

I could hear the deliberate slow footsteps.

My body stiffened.

The footsteps stopped.Kieran entered my cell with no guards in sight.

He stopped at approximately 10 feet away from me. He studied me like I was a weapon.

I lifted my chin and looked at him and refused to beg.

“What are you?” he asked.

“The girl you're going to execute.” I flipped my messy hair from my face and looked at him.

The moment those words escaped my mouth, his eyes slightly narrowed at my defiance.

He began circling me and smelled the air.

“You don’t smell like a werewolf,” he observed.

I remained silent, counting the ants as they returned to their hole with scraps from the molded rice I had refused to eat.

One.

Two.

Three.

Anything was better than looking at him for too long.

He pulled my chains and made me look at him but the chains frosted over.

My power was reacting to him.

He pulled back, annoyed.

“Show me,” he said.

“No.” I resisted.

“Show me.”He leaned in.

His breath seemed to quench the fire I felt.

For a second my body almost relaxed.

Then I remembered who he was.

I closed my eyes and power sparked from my skin and it burned him.

He hissed.

It was the first crack in his perfect composure.

I opened my eyes and looked at him.

For the first time I had hurt him.

“You're out of control,” he said.

“You can try it by having heat and carry a curse as well.” I returned my gaze to the ants.

He stopped smiling and let go of the chains.

Soon a messenger burst in.

“Council demands execution by dawn,” he said and returned.

“No.”

His eyes went gold and a ring of red covered them instantly.

His aura seeped through the room and even I felt the pressure of it.

“She is under my claim,” he said.

“My King.” The messenger paled when he heard this.

“LEAVE US!”he ordered and closed the iron door behind him.

“Why protect me?”

I looked at him as he had his back to me, his gaze on the moon.

For a moment he remained silent.

“Because you're mine,” he replied in a low voice which was barely a whisper and something tugged in my chest.

The bond.

I hated that my body reacted to him even when my mind didn't want to.

“I’m not your property,” I sternly said.

“Then prove it.”

He said and left me, slamming the iron door hard.

Soon after the guards returned.

“I heard he is 500 years and cursed,” I heard the guards gossiping from the walls.

“He can't have heirs without his true fated mate,” another added.

“Last woman died. No one can handle his mark.”

They laughed but my stomach dropped.

The last woman died?

My eyes went to the place where my mark was.

There was no way I was going to go through with this bond.

Then a healer woman entered my cell.

She squatted and pricked my finger and collected my blood.

When she looked at it her eyes widened.

“This isn't werewolf blood,” she said.