Page 7 of Cursed By Fate

Her breathing hitched just slightly, though she mastered her face quickly enough to retort. “So I’m... what, then? Fate’s little experiment? Tied to your life now?” Her chin jutted up defiantly, even as her body tensed.

“Perhaps,” I admitted almost lazily. “But that doesn’t make you safe.”

That struck personal.

Despite myself, an amused exhale slipped from my lips. “Do you ever stop talking long enough to think?”

“I think just fine,” she shot back. “And I think you’re an arrogant wolf with too much time on his hands. What exactly do you want from me?”

I leaned against the bars, broad shoulders barely fitting between them as I folded my arms. “Answers.”

“Well, too bad.” She crossed her arms, raising a brow in mock defiance. “Because I don’t have any.”

I tilted my head, letting the faintest trace of a smirk curl the edge of my lips. “Don’t you?”

The tension between us thickened, her silence sharpening the air around us like an unsheathed blade. She broke eye contact first, glancing briefly at her wrist. I didn’t need to see it to knowwhat she was thinking. She didn’t understand the mark any better than I did, and that fact seemed to unsettle her deeply.

Good.

“It’s nothing,” she said finally, her voice feigned indifference.

“That’s twice tonight you’ve lied to me,” I replied simply, though the steadiness of my voice carried far more weight than the words themselves. “Do you want to try again?”

Her eyes snapped back to mine, fire sparking somewhere deep within their hazel depths. “What do you want me to say? That I don’t know why I have this stupid mark? Or what it means?” Her voice was rising now, her frustration overriding her calculated defiance. “Do you think I asked to be some cursed wolf that doesn’t belong anywhere?”

I paused, the rawness of her words cutting deeper than I expected. Of all the things I anticipated from her, this—vulnerability buried beneath fiery bravado—was not one of them.

“This mark,” I said, tilting my head toward my shoulder, “it means something. To both of us. And until we figure out exactly what, you’ll stay here under my protection.”

“Protection?” She laughed bitterly, though it sounded more like a warning than humor. “Don’t pretend this is about my safety.” She took a step closer, her chin tilting up defiantly despite the bars between us. “You talk about protection like it’s a favor. But I’ve seen that look in your eyes before—on alphas who lost control. You’re not afraid for me. You’re afraid of me.”

My wolf snarled in my chest, but I held myself steady, unwilling to give her the satisfaction of seeing me react. “I’m afraid of nothing.”

She lifted her chin as she smiled slightly, the muscles in her jaw flexing. It was sharp, feral, her exhaustion only making it more dangerous. “That’s exactly what someone who’s afraid would say.”

My grip on the bars tightened, the cold iron creaking faintly beneath my hands. “Careful, little wolf,” I growled, my voice dropping low enough to rumble against the stone walls. “You’re running out of room to push me.”

She met my gaze head-on, unflinching despite the obvious disparity in power between us.Damn her defiance.It shouldn’t interest me. Shouldn’t make my chest tighten the way it did now.

I pushed away from the bars, breaking the charged silence between us. Turning sharply on my heel, I left her standing there in the torchlight, her glare burning into my back.

The mountain wind howled outside my quarters, rattling the narrow window set high in the stone wall. I stared at the world beyond it—vast stretches of darkness interrupted by jagged peaks dusted with silvery snow. The moon hung heavy in the sky, bathing everything in an eerie, pale light.

She was right about one thing.

I was afraid.

Not of her, or of what she might do to my pack. What scared me was infinitely worse—howshewas changing me. How one defiant prisoner could unearth questions I thought I’d buried long ago. Questions about destiny, about sacrifice… about what it meant to trulychooseinstead of simply follow duty’s path.

Her voice echoed in my head, sharp and fiery, but beneath it, the faintest tremor of something softer.

It wasn’t coincidence that our paths had crossed. That much, I was sure of. What I wasn’t sure of was whether I’d survive whatever fate had chained us to.

Chapter three

Serena

The stone walls of my cell were too quiet—just like my room at Silver Ridge. Too quiet, too still. That’s where my mind always went first. Back to the dining table. Back to him. Everyone in the pack was against me. Even my own father, with his constant warnings and secrets, had made it clear that I was an outsider. They wanted to trap me here like a prisoner, but I was determined to break free. No one could keep me locked away forever. I twirled a lock of hair, a nervous habit I couldn'tquite shake, and thought back to when it all began. I was a girl, sitting across from my father. I remember the way his voice shook like an old tree when he said I was in danger.

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