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The Cursed Alpha

last update Last Updated: 2024-09-27 00:00:27

Aviva

The meeting hall is crowded from wall to wall. I hug one of the walls, my back pressed flat against it as I try to blend in with the dark stone. Everyone is merry as they walk between tables laden with food and drink. Everyone in attendance has worn their finest fabrics and beads. Many of the single, of age, young women have truly gone all out, in fact. 

I cross my arms under my less-than-ample breasts and tap my nails against the long gold chains looping around my neck, inlaid with multicolored beads of turquoise and amethyst. 

The necklace is one of the few things I have left of my mother except for Shosanna and Lora. Mercy didn’t want the necklace because turquoise is a stone rather than a gleaming gem, and amethyst “washes her out,” or so she says. In fact, she didn’t want much of mother’s things at all when she died six years ago, a few days after Lora came into the world. Her dresses were taken ap

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  • The Alpha King's Breeder   I Don’t Like You

    Ryan“You’re sure there’s no way out of this?” Jacob asks Andrew two hours later. We’re sitting around a campfire roughly a half mile outside of the village.Andrew nods, glancing at me before hugging his knees. “These tribes are steeped in tradition, guys. I don’t know what else to say. If Alpha Ryan refused the girl, he would have been offered another, and another, and if he’d refused to marry outright, she would have been given as a… concubine, perhaps.”I close my eyes for a moment and sigh around the rim of my water jug. The sweet, heavy wine and mead I’d been served over and over again, my cup never empty, has my head pounding already.But the second I close my eyes, I see her. Aviva. What a name. It dances over my tongue like a song, and it seems fitting for her.She’s a very strange woman, and I mean that in the nicest way. She has a gla

    Last Updated : 2024-09-28
  • The Alpha King's Breeder   Imprint

    AvivaRain patters across the wooden roof covering one corner of the old temple. I roll off the makeshift bed of hay and wool blankets I keep here. I stretch, rolling my neck. My hands are still bloody from the rogue I encountered last night as I gather my weapons and head down to the creek. I sleep out here sometimes, especially when the weather is nice. The old temple is just far enough from the village where I don’t have to worry about running into anyone during my nightly hunts but also close enough to keep me out of harm's way from the beasts that linger in the thick forest beyond the village.I’m washing my hands when I catch Alpha Ryan’s lingering scent. I forgot he’d come here last night, encountering me by accident, I believe. I try not to think about it as I walk back to the village, but it’s hard not to imagine every facial expression, especially the wry twist of his lips whenever I spoke.

    Last Updated : 2024-09-29
  • The Alpha King's Breeder   A Wager

    Ryan“I feel like we’re in college again,” Jacob murmurs as we lean against the side of one of the earthen buildings on the outer ring of the village. He rolls his shoulders before crossing his arms over his chest, purposefully flexing. Andrew leans forward to peer at him, snorting, “Yeah, and just like in college, the chances of you getting’ any tail tonight is slim to nonexistent.”“I’ve put on like thirty pounds of muscle since then,” Jacob hisses, flexing his biceps in emphasis. I’m standing between them with my arms crossed as we watch the group of hunters–two dozen or so, by my estimation–prepare for the hunt. One group is entirely female and has my group's full, unwavering attention.“Do you remember the night,” Andrew laughs, pointing an accusatory finger at Jacob, “when you brought Gretchen Crosby to the fall formal afterparty?”“I don’t want to talk about that–”“And her boyfriend showed up, and instead of kicking his ass and taking her back to our dorm room, you ended up

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  • The Alpha King's Breeder   Hunter Becomes the Hunted

    AvivaAlpha Ryan is the largest wolf I’ve ever seen by a longshot. While his overall mass is incredibly shocking, if not a little intimidating, he’s much slower than me.I can hear him lumbering through the woods behind me as I dart around trees and fly over creek beds, sprinting deeper and deeper into the outer ring of the ever dark, ever untamed forest that sits on the outskirts of Endovian territory.The spring hunt is technically taking place in the sacred hunting grounds our tribe guards year round, but I’ve had my fill of deer. Plus, Alpha Ryan already snagged a golden elk, which up until two nights ago, had been my ultimate prize. Now that pelt is hanging in the meeting hall–a trophy–and a constant reminder of how my bride price was paid.I shake the thought out of my head and pick my way down a sharp decline into a shadowed valley where the trees rather suddenly drop off, revealing noth

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  • The Alpha King's Breeder   Who’s It Going to Be?

    AvivaAlpha Ryan shifts back to his human form, cloaked in shadows. He’s breathing heavily as he lumbers through the camp, crouching to rip into a clothing cache.I watch his shadow in silence, my heart beating out of rhythm. I only look away when the wind parts the treetops and allows moonlight to spread over the clearing again, illuminating the hellhound lying broken and in pieces at the very edge of the tree line.It takes two shallow breaths before it starts to fall in on itself, turning to ash that’s carried away by the wind.I slowly turn my gaze back to Alpha Ryan who is standing now, wearing a pair of pants that don’t fit him at all, the button holding them in place undone. Moonlight ghosts over his frame. Instead of tight, wiry muscles, he’s just… huge. There’s nothing lean about him. I can see the outline of his abdominals as he turns slightly to face me. The muscles in his che

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  • The Alpha King's Breeder   Day of Change

    AvivaRyan and I walked in our wolf forms back to the village by sunset, each of us dragging makeshift sleds fashioned from items we found at the abandoned camp to carry the meat and pelt from the goat.While I wondered if we could mind-link somehow after I’d heard him call my name when I’d fallen, neither of us spoke. We arrived at the village shortly before the sun set when the sky was painted gold, and the moon had just started to rise again. We weren’t even the last hunters to arrive. The entire village was alight with music and dancing to celebrate a very successful hunt.But I didn’t partake in the celebration. I left the pelt with Ryan and immediately shifted back to my human form and walked out of the village again, to the creek, where I splashed frigid water over my dirty, aching skin until I was clean. I then returned home and sank into the hottest bath I could handle, brushing out my braids, picking ou

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  • The Alpha King's Breeder   Joined by Blood

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  • The Alpha King's Breeder   Wedding Night

    AvivaRyan moves like a large, lumbering animal, but I knew that. He’s not light on his feet whatsoever, but I can’t fault him for not knowing any of the steps to numerous dances passed down from generation to generation as I tug him around the fire, spinning in dizzying circles while my right hand throbs as it heals from being sliced open and slapped against his, our blood mingling.It was, admittedly, a very odd sensation I still can’t put into words. Even now, two hours later, my hand feels all tingly, and those tingles have worked their way up my arm and deep into my chest, blooming into something new, heavy, and strange.I’ve never danced so much in my life, but eventually Ryan and I were parted by other celebrators who joined the dancing. I lost him in the crowd an hour ago, but maybe that’s for the best. I need this veil of delusion to lift so I can think clearly and come to terms with what has to ha

    Last Updated : 2024-10-06

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  • The Alpha King's Breeder   Always

    Brie“Tonight?”“Yes, tonight.”“How?” I laugh, taking a step away from him. “We-we can’t.”“We can,” he says breathlessly, shaking his head. “The temple stays open all night. We’d just need to find a priestess.”“We’d need a witness,” I whisper as the cogs in my mind start turning. “I’d need a dress–”“I’d marry you like this,” he says, taking my hands. “But please, for the love of the Goddess, marry me before I go.”I blink up at Logan, my heart swelling and squeezing simultaneously. There’s still a whisper in my mind that warns me that he could change his mind, that he can’t really want me, but I… banish it, giving myself to him fully. “Are you sure?” I ask, scanning his eyes. “I’ve never been more sure of anything. I want you to be my wife, Brie.”“I’m already your mate.”“It’s not enough.” He brushes my hair out of my face and kisses me, but a rush of air alerts us to a visitor making their way up the stairs to the tower. I pull away as a soft knock sounds on the door. Neither

  • The Alpha King's Breeder   The Proposal

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  • The Alpha King's Breeder   He's Not Like the Rest of Us

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  • The Alpha King's Breeder   In My Own Bed

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  • The Alpha King's Breeder   MY Mate

    LoganI hit solid ground with a crunch that reverberates through my body, shocking me back to life. Dark stone and stained glass come into view, and it’s all familiar. We’re in Veiled Valley, in the castle.I blink, sucking in a breath, then curl to a seated position before swaying to my feet, my vision blurred, but I can just make out the outline of Maeve clutching Brie to her chest as Brie slumps over her arms. I run, slipping over the stone floor, and pull Brie out of Maeve’s grasp just as she begins to fall to the ground. “What is wrong with you?!” I shout at Maeve, kneeling and cradling Brie as my knees hit the ground. “What were you thinking?!”I smooth Brie’s hair out of her face. Her eyes are closed, and she’s pale, barely breathing. “Hey, Brie? Brie, come on–” I run my hand over her face, smoothing pale silver tears from her eyes, but she remains frozen. I look up at Maeve, who’s panting, a horrified look on her face. She shakes her head over, and over, mouthing something

  • The Alpha King's Breeder   Wherever Home Is

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  • The Alpha King's Breeder   Nothing Can Change It

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  • The Alpha King's Breeder   You're Going to Help Me

    MaeveMom stands with her arms crossed on the balcony overlooking the ballroom in our castle. In the city below, the once beautiful, tropical landscape is cast in shadow. The crystal bridges lined with greenery are now painted in banners of black. A field of flowers stretches beyond the gates of the castle, left by mourners. Left for my sister. Veiled Valley has never been this quiet and dark. The sun has barely shown itself since Brie left us. The castle itself has barely stirred in that time. It’s magic just… can’t handle Brie’s loss. It mourns with the rest of us, sometimes sending a low, choked groan through the corridors that make the lights flicker, like the magic is crying. “I’m not ready,” Mom says quietly as she watches the women below mingle in small circles, most, if not all of them, dressed in dark fabric–mourning gowns. “I’ll tell them we’re waiting. It's not a problem,” I reply, gliding to her side, reaching to lay my hand over hers as she grips the balcony, but she t

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