Bound by the Alpha's Curse

The forest was too quiet.

Even the wind seemed afraid to move through the trees, as if it knew something terrible waited in the darkness. Nara tightened her grip on the basket in her hands. The herbs inside rattled as her fingers trembled.

"Just a few steps more," she whispered to herself. "Then back to the packhouse before anyone notices."

The moon hung low and silver above her, its light barely breaking through the heavy clouds overhead. She should have returned an hour ago. Omegas never stayed out this late. But the healer had sent her to gather nightroot, and no one dared refuse the healer-especially not Nara, the wolf everyone saw as the weakest link.

Her breath puffed out in small clouds as she walked. The air was colder than usual, sharp with the scent of winter and something else... something metallic.

Something wrong.

A branch snapped behind her.

Nara froze.

She didn't turn. She didn't breathe. She didn't dare.

Her heart pounded painfully in her chest. Please be a deer. Or even a fox. Please not a wolf.

Another snap. Closer.

Her hands shook. She clutched the basket tighter. Slowly-very slowly-she turned.

A pair of glowing red eyes stared at her from the darkness, unblinking.

Not a pack wolf.

Not a harmless creature.

A rogue.

Before she could scream, the rogue leapt forward.

Nara dropped the basket and ran.

Branches whipped against her arms, tearing at her cloak. She stumbled, her foot catching on a root, but she forced herself up again. Her lungs burned. Her vision blurred with tears. She could hear the rogue crashing through the trees behind her, gaining ground with terrifying speed.

Faster, Nara. Faster!

She ducked beneath a fallen log, her breath ragged. The rogue snarled, its claws scraping against wood as it lunged where her head had been a second before.

She crawled forward, scrambling like a terrified rabbit, pushing herself until her knees hit open ground. She stood and ran again, ignoring the sting in her legs.

She wasn't a fighter.

She wasn't strong.

She barely had enough wolf strength to shift-something she still hadn't done at eighteen.

But she wanted to live.

The rogue howled, a chilling sound that seemed to echo through every bone in her body.

Lights flickered ahead-torches.

The border patrol.

Nara didn't care if they mocked her again. She didn't care if they punished her for being late.

She just needed to reach them.

But before she could shout, a powerful force slammed into her from behind.

She hit the ground with a painful gasp. The rogue's claws pinned her shoulder, burning fire into her skin. She cried out, tears blurring everything.

The rogue leaned in, hot breath brushing her neck. Its teeth snapped near her throat.

"No," she whispered, shaking. "Please... please no..."

The rogue roared-and then something else roared back.

A deeper sound.

A stronger sound.

A sound that didn't belong to a normal wolf.

Something blurred through the trees-a shadow, fast and impossibly