Page 49 of The Cursed Wolf King

My wolf went silent, his relentless howls muted by the sound of her, as if even he needed to process what she had just said.

She blinked away tears. She looked so small, so fragile—nothing like the figure I imagined when I thought of the curse-sayer who doomed my pack. Nothing like the woman I had convinced myself to hate.

Hope.

The word reverberated in my mind. How could I be her hope? When all I felt was failure weighing on my shoulders,when all I had done for years was scrape together pieces of a pack that deserved better?

“Stop!” I shouted, even though I wasn’t sure who I was commanding—her or myself.

She flinched, her head jerking back slightly, but she didn’t cower. Everything in me wished she would look away. “Stop what?” she asked.

“Stop trying to twist this,” I snapped, though my tone faltered. “You think saying that makes up for what’s happened to my pack? For everything we’ve lost?”

Her lips parted, but no words came. Instead, her gaze was steady, and it burned. I felt exposed. She could see through every wall I had ever built.

My wolf stirred again, heavy and insistent.She’s telling the truth,he growled.She’s ours.

She’s the curse-sayer, I snarled back at him internally, my jaw tightening.

My wolf refused to relent, pacing within me, claws scraping against the edges of my control.She didn’t curse us. She saw us. She saw you.

I ran a hand through my hair, trying to ground myself. Her words were a poison I hadn’t expected, seeping into every crack in my resolve, making me questioneverything.

“You don’t understand what’s at stake,” I finally said. “What you’ve done—what you’ve seen—it doesn’t change the fact that my pack is dying. Everything I’ve worked to protect is slipping away.”

Eve shook her head, her expression anguished. “I didn’t do this to you,” she said fiercely. “I didn’t want this—any of it. You have to believe me, Logan.I can help you.”

Logan.My name on her lips was both a balm and a knife point, soothing and wounding at once. I hated it.

And I needed it.

“This sounds like a trick.”

“Logan,” she said. I needed her to stop saying my name or I was going to come undone before her. “I felt your pain. When you fought Damian. I owe you, and more than that, I’m sure the Shadow Moon Goddess intended me for you. For Orion.”

Her words settled in the air between us, fragile but unyielding, and I couldn’t breathe.

My wolf growled, low and urgent, urging me closer.Take her. Protect her. Don’t let her go.

I stepped back instead, fists clenched at my sides. “I came here to end this, to stop the curse at its source.”

Eve flinched. “I’m not your enemy,” she whispered. “You have to believe me.”

Her scent hit me again, sharp and intoxicating, clouding my thoughts. Baked apples and cloves. I staggered, overwhelmed, gripping a nearby tree for balance.

I can’t kill her.

The realization struck like a lightning bolt, electrifying and terrifying all at once.

“This is messed up.” I buried my face in my hands, momentarily wishing this situation was anything but what it was.

And then my arm pulsed. I could swear the blood ran faster through me and I looked down instinctively to the ink in my skin. The tattoo for my brothers seemed almost alive, the lines shimmering faintly in the dim light, their presenceresonating deep in my chest. There was something primal within me, a command moving through my veins.

Touch her.

My pulse echoed between my ears, drowning out the logic that kept me grounded, leaving only instinct in its wake. A soft glow enveloped her, faint and silvery, like the light of the moon had decided she alone was worthy of its attention.

My wolf surged, drunk on her scent, on the visceral force that poured from her like a siren’s call. Baked apples and cloves. Warmth and fire. I couldn’t stop myself. It struck me—the beauty I saw in her wasn’t just in her face, though that was enough to undo me. It was something that burned in her core, radiant and untamed, as though her very soul was straining against her human form.

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