The Cursed Alpha's Substitute Bride

On the fourth night Reva came to my room.

Not to fight. Not openly. Reva was too clever for open.

She came the way predators came when they had patience and time on their side: casually, with a cup of tea, with the door left deliberately open so nothing could be misrepresented later.

She sat in the chair by my fire without being invited and crossed her legs and looked at me with that copper-haired composure that I was beginning to understand was her greatest weapon.

"I want to help you," she said.

I sat on the edge of the bed and said nothing.

I had learned a long time ago that silence was more useful than a response when someone opened with something obviously false.

She smiled. She had a beautiful smile. The kind that made you want to trust it.

"You're in a difficult position," she said. "Unconfirmed. Unranked. The pack doesn't know what to do with you and neither does he. I've been here for six years. I know how Ironveil works. I can make this easier for you."

"What do you want in return?" I asked.

*A pause.* Slight. Controlled, but there.

I had surprised her with the directness.

She reset her smile."I want you to leave," she said simply.

"Voluntarily. Before the next moon. I can arrange transport, a letter of safe passage,

resources to start somewhere new. You'd never have to see Ironveil again."

I looked at her.

She was serious. This was not a taunt, it was a negotiation.

Which meant she was afraid of something. Which meant I was more of a threat to her than she had initially calculated.

I thought about that road. The curtain. Those gold eyes finding me in the dark.

I thought about the burning on my neck that had not stopped since.

"No,I'm afraid not" I said warmly.

Her smile thinned. Just slightly.

"You don't understand what he is," she said. "What the curse does. I watched it take Lirien; the last one they sent.

I watched her arrive whole and leave hollow.

Three days, Sera.

Three days and there was nothing left behind her eyes."

"I know," I said.

"Then why..."

"Because I have nowhere else to go," I added. "And because whatever is going to happen to me here is still better than going back to a family that put me in a carriage at four in the morning without saying goodbye."

*Silence.* Reva's face changed. To something that I did not expect. Not rage. Not contempt.

Something that looked almost like recognition.

It was gone before I could be certain.

She stood, straightened her dress, picked up her untouched tea.

"You're making a mistake," she said at the door.

"I've been making mistakes my whole life," I replied. "But I'm still here."

She didn't utter a single word and left the room. She closed the door quietly. Not slammed. Reva never slammed doors. Controlled exits were part of the performance.

I sat with the silence after she was gone and turned the conversation over carefully.

She had offered me escape. I had refused. That meant one of two things; either I was

braver than I thought, or I was already too far in to see clearly. I genuinely didn't know

which.

What I did know was that Reva's fear of me was real. And fear was the only currency in

Ironveil that bought anything worth having.

I was still sitting with that thought when I heard it.

From the north wing. Through three walls and a corridor and whatever distance separated me from the part of this house that everyone avoided.

A sound. Not a crash. Not a scream. Something worse; a low, sustained sound, like pressure seeking an exit. Like something enormous straining against the walls of whatever contained it.

It lasted perhaps ten seconds.

Then silence.

The burning on my neck flared so hot I pressed my palm against it while wincing.

In the north wing, something had just gotten worse.

And somehow impossibly I felt it like it was happening to me...