Chapter 2 The Alpha's Cold Gaze

📖 Moonblooded: The Alpha's Cursed Mate

Chapter Two: The Alpha's Cold Gaze

Shivana awoke to the scent of pine, smoke, and something darker-him.

The world was hazy, blurred like a dream. Her skin felt like fire and ice all at once, and her shoulder ached from the mark, throbbing with a rhythm not her own. It pulsed-alive, connected, tethered to something... or someone.

She blinked, trying to sit up.

"You're awake."

The voice was like frost cracking through silence.

Her heart clenched.

Alpha Kade stood by the stone hearth, tall and composed, dressed in black, a silver emblem pinned to his chest. His sharp jawline looked as if it had been carved from ice, his eyes-moonlit grey-held no warmth. Only questions. Power. Secrets.

"Where... where am I?" she whispered, her voice hoarse.

He didn't move. "You passed out in the clearing. You were bleeding. From the mark."

She touched her shoulder. The crescent moon glowed faintly beneath her fingertips. Still there. Still real. Still cursed.

"I didn't ask for your help," she murmured.

"No," he said, his tone unreadable. "But you were mine to protect."

Shivana laughed bitterly. "Protect? Is that what you call this? Kidnapping me from the forest and locking me in your mansion?"

"You think I want you here?" he snapped, stepping closer. "I should've left you there for the curse to finish. But I didn't."

"Why not?"

He hesitated.

For the first time, something flickered in his eyes. Not weakness. Not pity. Something older. Deeper. Recognition.

"Because the moon marked you as my mate. And if you die... I die too."

Her breath hitched.

The weight of those words settled between them like a blade.

"I'm not your mate," she said softly. "I never will be."

"Whether you want it or not, we're bound now."

She stood, her legs weak but steady. Her voice firm. "Then break the bond."

"I've tried," he said, turning away. "There's no spell, no ritual. The Blood Moon doesn't forge ordinary ties. It chooses when it wants. And it never lets go."

The room fell silent.

She looked around. High ceilings. Ancient stone walls. An arched window with the view of a dark forest wrapped in mist. Bookshelves overflowing with grimoires and battle records. A wolf's pelt hung above the mantle.

This wasn't just a house. It was his domain.

"You're not what I expected," she muttered.

He raised an eyebrow. "What did you expect?"

"A monster," she replied. "Cold. Unfeeling. A tyrant."

He gave her a hard look. "And what do you see now?"

Shivana hesitated. "Someone who's afraid."

Kade's jaw clenched. "Don't mistake silence for fear."

She tilted her head. "Then what is it?"

He said nothing.

The door opened suddenly. A woman in healer robes stepped in-soft brown eyes, her face gentle.

"Alpha," she said with a small bow. "May I tend to her wounds?"

Kade nodded once. "Be careful. The mark is still volatile."

Volatile?

The healer approached Shivana carefully, dipping a cloth into warm herbs. "You're lucky," she whispered. "Most who are marked don't live past the first moonrise."

Shivana's heart stuttered. "Why?"

"Because their bodies can't handle the magic," the woman said. "It burns from the inside out. But yours... you're surviving it."

Her voice dropped lower. "You must be powerful. Or very loved by the moon."

Loved? She didn't feel loved. She felt like a prisoner. Like a ticking bomb.

Once the healer left, Kade remained silent by the window. Shivana sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the flickering fire.

Finally, she asked, "What happens now?"

"You stay here," he said. "Until we figure out how to control the mark."

"And if I refuse?"

His voice was ice. "Then the curse will destroy you... and me."

She swallowed hard.

For a second, she thought she saw something-ache-in his eyes. Like he'd been through this before. Like he had lost something he couldn't speak of.

"Have you ever been in love, Alpha?" she asked suddenly.

He turned sharply. "What?"

"You speak like a man who's known loss," she said. "And you look at me like I'm a ghost."

Kade didn't answer for a long moment.

Then he said quietly, "I once believed in love. Before the moon took it from me."

Shivana felt something inside her crack open.

He wasn't just her captor.

He was broken, too.

They were both marked by something cruel. Something ancient. Something neither of them had asked for.

But the moon had chosen them.

And neither of them could run from it now.

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