Chapter 4 The curse beneath the skin

---

Chapter 2: The Curse Beneath the Skin

POV: Kade

---

They always ask why I live in a tower.

The answer is simple.

Because monsters don't belong among mortals.

I stood in front of the mirror that wasn't a mirror. Not really. It didn't reflect light. It reflected truth.

And tonight, the truth was ugly.

Silver eyes stared back at me, shimmering with something inhuman. My skin rippled for a brief second-like something beneath it wanted out.

The beast was getting stronger. It always did when I brought someone new into the house.

Especially when that someone looked like her.

Sienna Rowe.

I'd done my research-read every file, watched every surveillance tape, scanned her psyche like a surgeon dissecting a soul.

She was a contradiction.

Strong, but soft.

Afraid, yet defiant.

Beautiful.

Deadly to me in ways I couldn't explain.

"Stop thinking about her," I muttered, dragging a hand through my hair.

But I couldn't.

Because the moment she stepped into Valen Tower, something shifted. Something ancient. Something cursed.

The blood in my veins burned for her.

The same way it had burned for her-ten years ago.

And I'd destroyed that one.

This time had to be different.

Or I'd lose control.

Again.

---

The library door creaked open. I already knew who had been inside it. Who had unlocked the secret latch, the one hidden behind the sketch of the burning wolf.

Sienna had found the journal.

Of course she had.

"She's curious," I whispered aloud, pacing across the dark floor.

That made her dangerous.

Because curiosity was how all of them started.

And it was always how they ended.

---

Hours later, I watched her from the rooftop.

The security cameras captured her perfectly-standing in the moonlight with eyes full of wonder and fear.

She reminded me of her.

No.

I wouldn't say her name. Not even in my mind.

I'd buried that part of me. The part that knew love. The part that screamed the night I killed her.

And now, fate had thrown me Sienna.

Not for love.

No.

For atonement.

Or punishment.

---

Luca should've been locked down.

The moment I saw him talking to her, I nearly crushed the glass in my hand.

He was always a snake.

Running his mouth. Stirring what shouldn't be stirred.

I descended the stairs like a shadow, silent, smooth.

The beast in me wanted to snap his neck.

But I didn't.

Yet.

Instead, I stood outside her door, my fist hovering inches from the wood.

I could smell her.

Jasmine and ink. Sweet. Feminine. Curious.

So curious she was going to get herself killed.

I pulled my hand back and turned away, jaw clenched.

---

In the basement, the candles had already been lit.

The circle was drawn. Ancient symbols carved into the floor with blood older than time.

I stepped inside it and let the darkness embrace me.

A growl built in my throat as the transformation began-not fully, not yet-but enough to remind me who I really was.

Not a man.

Not a billionaire.

Not even an alpha.

Just a cursed relic of something the gods abandoned.

"You can't have her," I growled to the thing inside me. "She's not yours."

But the beast didn't answer.

It only laughed.

---

I came back to myself two hours later.

Naked. Shaking. Kneeling on the cold stone floor of the ritual chamber.

My hands were covered in blood.

I didn't know if it was mine.

Or something else's.

---

When I returned to my private study, her scent was still there.

She'd passed through.

And I had a feeling I knew what she'd found.

The dead raven.

A warning.

From them.

I should've burned this whole place down years ago.

But I couldn't.

Because if I did, I'd never find redemption.

And now, for the first time in a decade, I wasn't thinking about vengeance.

I was thinking about her.

Sienna Rowe.

The girl who might be the key to everything.

Or the reason I finally lose control.

---