All Chapters of The Curse Within : Chapter 1 - Chapter 5

(Sofia's POV)I should have turned back the moment the trees started closing in. They seemed taller tonight, more oppressive, the branches reaching across the sky like skeletal hands trying to blot out what little light remained. The path ahead was dark, unfamiliar, and yet, I kept going. I didn’t care where I was headed. The aimless drive was all I had left to hold onto.I gripped the steering wheel tighter, the leather cold against my skin. The hum of the engine was a dull background noise compared to the echo of my thoughts,thoughts I couldn’t outrun, no matter how fast I drove.I missed them. God, I missed them so much. It had been years, but the ache was still there, lodged in my chest like a thorn I could never pull out. My parents. The people who had given me everything, who had loved me unconditionally… and who had been taken from me without warning. I could still remember that day as if it had happened yesterday.The phone call in the middle of the night. The police officer’s

Sofia's POVThe cold stone floor of the dungeon pressed against my legs, but I hardly felt it. The guilt was too heavy, suffocating. Every time I closed my eyes, the boy’s face appeared, lifeless, the awful truth crashing over me again: I’d killed him. By accident, sure, but it didn’t matter. He was dead because of me.The air was thick with the smell of damp and despair, but I barely noticed as footsteps echoed down the corridor. When the cell door creaked open, I lifted my head, heart racing. Several men entered, their faces hard, and I instantly felt small. Their attention wasn’t on me, though. Their focus was on one man in particular.I didn’t have to be told who he was. His presence spoke for itself. Power radiated off him like heat from a flame. He was taller than the others, broader too, and though his expression was set in a fierce scowl, it was impossible not to notice how handsome he was. It was the kind of handsome that belonged in a movie, not in the middle of this nightma

Thorn's POV.The weight of grief was unbearable. My chest felt hollow, a deep ache settling in where my heart used to be. How could Alaric stand there and speak of accidents? How could he possibly expect me to believe that the death of my son,the only thing in this life that truly mattered,was an accident?No. My boy was gone, and someone had to pay.I paced the floor of my quarters, my mind racing, a thousand thoughts crashing into each other. The echo of my son’s laughter, his voice, his small victories in the training yard,they haunted me now. Alaric had tried to play the role of mediator, to keep the peace, but his words had only fueled the fire inside me. It wasn’t just the boy’s death that burned in my veins. It was everything. Years of being sidelined, of watching Alaric rule over this pack like some invincible king, while I stood in the shadows, always the loyal warrior. But loyalty had its limits, and Alaric had just crossed mine.He could claim it was an accident all he want