Page 22 of The Cursed Wolf King

“You want to be free of the deathly chains that bind you? It’s easy.”

She leaned forward, I did the same, and she hissed into my face.

“Kill the curse-sayer.”

10

EVE

Ilingered across the street, nestled into the shadows as I watched him. The wolf from my vision—it was unmistakably him. He sat in a café for supernaturals, speaking to a woman I couldn’t read, as though she were pixelated. Even from this distance, I could see his jaw clench, his hand shifting slightly. There was nothing flashy or forced about him. It was a quiet, grounded power, the kind that came from confidence.

The sight was strange, almost surreal, like a scene out of one of my visions.

My heart stammered, caught between awe and sheer need that took my breath away. This wasn’t some foolish attraction; it was instinct. He was my way out. The pull between us buzzed, unexplainable yet undeniable. Every inch of me screamed to walk through those doors and face him.

There was a second pull—a more familiar one—keeping me in the shadows.

The instinct to survive.

Staying out here meant I could escape if Damian got too close. Going in meant putting myself in a box. And if Damian followed me in?

There would be blood.

It was a choice I didn’t want to make but couldn’t avoid.

As I stood there, pulse pounding, I felt Damian’s presence on a wave, closer than I’d realized. The edges of his energy were brushing against mine, prickling over my skin in a way that meant he was honing in.

If I waited much longer, he’d be on me.

I swallowed, eyes darting from the café door back to the street. Running was an option. It would buy me time, maybe even a day or two if I managed to lose him in Seattle’s chaos.

But it wouldn’t keep him from coming after me. He was relentless, a storm that wouldn’t stop until he took everything. I’d never be safe. And the prickling on my skin warned me he wasn’t far.

The visions had said this wolf was my chance. I’d have to show him I was more than just another wolf. I was worth protecting. Even if I couldn’t tell him the whole truth, I had to make him see my value. If there was any hope left, it was inside that café.

I crossed the street, took a breath, and hesitated with my hand on the café door. The glamoured threshold flickered under my touch, a thin shimmer that separated the human world from everything else. Once I crossed it, I’d be all in, a fish in a glass bowl with nowhere to hide. But Damian was out here, closing in with every second I wasted. I couldn’t wait.

I stepped forward, knowing this was going to lead to someone’s death, and I prayed to the Shadow Moon Goddess it wasn’t me.

The air changed the instant I stepped through, like slipping into another layer of reality. The dim lighting settled over me, casting shadows across the worn tables, each etched with faint, cryptic symbols.

There he was, still by the window, and my heart jumped. His dark eyes were already fixed on me. The woman he’d been speaking to was gone, leaving him alone. The air around him still buzzed with her strange energy, like an argument hanging in the air. My wolf stirred, lifting her head, her presence stronger than it had been in years, almost alive. She didn’t growl. She didn’t resist him. She watched with silent interest.

The wounds on my back throbbed as I approached him. I took a deep breath to say something, not knowing what words would come.

But I didn’t have to say anything.

He was up like a shot, the sound of his chair falling behind him reverberating throughout the café as he moved toward me, fast. He was so tall he could see over the top of my head, his hand hovering with pulsating heat over my shoulder. He leaned down, and from that position he’d be able to see the jagged edges of my wounds where my dress had slipped.

It was the closest I’d been to him yet, and I could swear I heard his heart beating through his chest. Or maybe it was my own. I felt his power, his rage, his unbridled desire like molten iron pouring over me.

He rolled back his shoulders and lowered his chin, looking me straight in the eye as he growled.

“Who did this to you?”

11

LOGAN

---