Fated To The Cursed And Tainted Alpha

INTRO

There are things in this world that were never meant to exist.

I, Sebastian Kol, am one of them.

Six centuries. That was how long the goddess had been taunting me. Cursing me to slumber for seventy years of every century, then waking me for thirty, just enough to remind me what power tasted like before dragging me back under. Just long enough to let the monster out.

I burned cities, tore kingdoms apart, made wolves kneel and kings weep, leaving nothing but ash and screaming where empires once stood. Simply because I could.

Still, the goddess wasn't done punishing me for my sins. And this century, she gave me a prophecy.

A woman.

As if that were supposed to feel like mercy.

Her name was Leilani Ravenwood. She bore the mark of the goddess on her skin and a fate that tied her to mine. Her blood was the only thing that silenced the monster that tore me apart every night, and her touch burned through me like punishment and pleasure at once. Something I had no word for.

I had never wanted anything the way I wanted to destroy her. I had also never desired anything the way I desired her.

Eventually, I did what any monster does when something threatens to bring him to his knees.

I took her. Made her mine, thinking I'd be in control.

And that was where I made my first mistake.

EXCERPT

~LEILANI RAVENWOOD'S POV~

"Strip."

One word. Yet it felt like a blade, piercing through my chest.

Sebastian's eyes held mine across the dim room. Cool. Patient. Absolute. Like he had already decided how this would end and was simply waiting for me to catch up.

"I -"

"The terms." He cut through my protest without raising his voice. "You agreed to them."

I had. Gods help me, I had agreed to become his whore. But it was only because he threatened to kill my pack and my friends. So, I had no other choice.

Hesitantly, my fingers found the ties of my dress. The silk loosened, dropping to the floor, and the room felt like it was closing in on me as I stood stark naked before him. His gaze never moved from mine. Not dropping. Not softening. Just watching with that unbearable stillness that made the silence feel louder than anything he could have said.

"You're trembling." His voice came low across the room, almost thoughtful.

"I'm not." I was.

The corner of his mouth shifted. Not a smile. Something far more dangerous than that.

"I can hear your heartbeat from here, little wolf." He said. "It's very loud."

Heat crawled up my neck. My arms crossed over my chest instinctively and his brow lifted a fraction, a single, silent, devastating response that made me want to put my fist through something.

He rose from the couch then. Unhurried. Each step measured and deliberate, the kind of movement that belonged to something that had never once had a reason to rush.

He stopped close enough that his scent hit me. Dark. Ancient. Something underneath it that made the mate bond stir traitorously low in my stomach.

His eyes dropped to the swell of my breasts. Then rose back to mine.

"I can smell your fear." He murmured. Then, quieter still... "And everything underneath it."

My breath caught.

His head tilted slightly, watching my face with that cold fascination he wore like armour. "Your body already knows what your pride refuses to admit."

My jaw tightened. "Stay out of my head."

"I'm not in your head, little wolf." His eyes dropped again briefly, teasingly, then rose back to mine. "I don't need to be. You've been giving yourself away since you walked through that door."

The silence that followed was the loudest thing I had ever heard.

"On your knees."