Page 45 of The Cursed Wolf King

My heart pounded against my ribs, faster and faster as I tracked his movements, desperate for any clue about what was coming. He reached the truck and disappeared into its bed, clattering and shifting tools and supplies. For one fleeting moment, I thought he might drive away, leave me here to freeze in the chill of Heraclid lands.

Then he emerged, a coiled rope in hand.

The blood drained from my face.

Grayson walked back toward the platform, dragging the length of rope behind him. He tossed it over a thick branch that jutted out above me, the fibers brushing against my arm as it dangled in front of my face.

A flash of panic shot through me.

He’s going to hang me.

The thought hit like a hammer, shattering whatever composure I’d been clinging to.

“No! You can’t do this!” The words burst from me, frantic and breathless. My voice cracked as I fought against the command’s invisible chains. “The Shadow Moon Goddess, she’ll never forgive you! You’ll bring her wrath on the entire pack! You’ll never get what you want, and you’ll condemn the Heraclids to misery?—”

“Shut the fuck up!” Grayson bellowed over my desperate plea.

He yanked the rope down, his movements rough and forceful as he stood in front of me and grabbed my trembling hands. The coarse fibers bit into my skin as he tied the rope tightly around my wrists.

“I’m not going to kill you,” he muttered, his tonefilled with bitterness as he pulled the knot taut. His breath reeked of alcohol, burning my nose. “But by the time I’m done with you, you might wish I had.”

Grayson wiped a hand across his mouth, sniffing loudly as he stepped onto the edge of the platform. He stood there, as if basking in the pale moonlight that filtered through the branches above. Then he turned back to me.

“Even as a little girl,” he began, “you had a beauty about you. A special way.” I hated the way he was looking at me. I could sense I wasn’t just an oracle to him anymore. I was transforming into something else to him. And that thought made my stomach turn. “I always thought it was because of your oracle abilities. Your mother sold me well on that, didn’t she? Told me I had to preserve you, make you one of us. Protect you.”

He wiped at his chin, his fingers twitching like he couldn’t keep still.

“But now that you’re a woman…” the sound that emerged from him was more wolf than man, “I see you differently.”

His eyes flashed gold, his wolf surfacing, and my chest tightened. My wolf stirred, weak and panicked, and there was no strength to draw from, nothing to help me fight whatever was coming.

Grayson suddenly commanded, “Speak the curse on Orion.”

The alpha command slammed into me, and my body jerked forward, straining against the ropes that held me in place. Every fiber of my being screamed to obey, to let the words spill from my lips. I clamped my jaw shut, digging my nails into my palms to anchor myself.

No. I won’t do it.

Speaking my visions wasmypower. The one thing he couldn’t control, the one thing I could resist. Even if it meant he’d end me for it.

His growl rumbled through the night, low and threatening. “Speak it,” he commanded again, the force like a wall caving in.

I shook my head, my breaths shallow and ragged. “I won’t.”

Grayson’s eyes darkened, his hand shifting. Claws extended, catching the moonlight as he stepped closer. His anger simmered like boiling water.

In one swift motion, he swiped downward, tearing the fabric of my dress from my hip to my thighs. The sound of ripping cloth echoed through the silence, and I flinched as the sharp edge of his claws grazed my skin, leaving a thin scratch that burned but didn’t bleed.

I gasped, my body yanking against the ropes. His smirk only deepened.

“That’s just the beginning.”

He was relentless, the command sharp and unyielding as he circled me like a predator closing in on its prey. “Speak the curse,” he growled again and again, with fury and a twisted patience.

Every time I refused, he raised his arm, claws slicing through the fabric of my dress like I was a cat’s plaything. Each pass he made around me felt closer, more invasive, the tips of his claws going deeper into my skin with every strike.

Grayson paced around me like a predator savoring the kill, but his rhythm faltered as someone called from the tree line.

“Alpha Grayson.”

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