THE ALPHA'S CURSE

rose like a w

reathing shallow, her fists clenched. Around her, the others danced and howl

he night when her wolf would either ascend into full Alph

thing wa

ath her bones like wildfire, like magic. She gritted her teeth and tried to focus on the rhythm of the

hen i

through her spine.

y. Claws burst from her fingers. Her back arched unnaturally. It wasn't the

scre

oon flare

orld

-

ke to

its embers long dead. Trees had been toppled. Te

rembling, and looked a

. Ever

ds. Her p

o

r mouth tasted of iron and fur. Her han

crawling toward the

mand. His eyes were open, frozen in shock. His chest ha

e

hing came too fast, her hea

lashes-screams, flames, s

the

a searing ache pulsed beneath her ski

ched into her flesh like a brand:

g's crest. It wasn

s. On trees near the Wyrdland

mark of the

as glowi

-

av

ared, before reco

g his leg-stood behind a broken tree trunk. H

she wh

dded

re al

ou were... different. Your eyes were glowing w

voice cracked.

were screaming. Then the moon

the sentence. H

idn't remember doing it-but the blood on her hands, the deat

ened inside her, it wasn't normal.

as cu

-

eft the ruins of the

agger. They moved slowly, staying off the trails, skirting the edges of

ross into t

y ancient magics. The place where

e only place

s-they'd hunt her down and burn her at the stake. The

sn't rea

t

ched the treeline. The forest

e trees curled with strange symbols. Rav

e smell

not like any she'd kno

epped from

is eyes glinted silver. His presence rolle

hed Tavi

nt trouble,

smiled

ate fo

gger, body trem

her like a puzzle. "You're t

eath c

you?" she

d kill you now, be

lun

-

ly dodged

it aside and grabbed her wrist, twisting it until the dagger dro

to fight you

exploding through her skin in a burst of pain and fury. Th

topped mid-str

breathed. "The Ho

d. "I'm not

dn't

tep back. "Then you'd better learn fast.

d melted int

agged, blood running down he

that?" he

ed into th

d. "But I think we just

-

't sleep

the Wyrdlands, clutching her d

at she barely understood. And the mark on her chest pulsed like a

omething

unted. Some

someth

at Tavi, curled

ld surv

llow mark meant-what it wanted-bef

bove, swollen a