Mated To The Cursed Demon King For My Revenge

ALANNA

It was supposed to be my coronation and birthday celebration, but I wanted nothing more than to stab Richard in the face.

A few hours ago, I was preparing for my 25th birthday, a day I was to finally be mated to my one true love, Chase, and also to be crowned the first female Alpha.

My coronation was supposed to be the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecy.

To my pack and beyond, I was the prophecy child they had all been hoping and praying to the Moon Goddess for.

This was supposed to be a moment of divine alignment and a confirmation from the Moon Goddess. It was meant to be the happiest day of my life, but in the twinkle of an eye, it became the worst.

Everything was going exactly as planned. I watched my father, whom I adored and wished to be like, speak to the pack members in preparation to welcome their new Alpha.

My hands trembled, and my heart fluttered heavily in excitement.

Everything happened too quickly.

My mother suddenly collapsed, and while we were trying to make sense of the shock, rogues burst in.

We were under attack.

The sound of screaming and the sounds of footsteps echoed in my brain. We had been betrayed.

The shrieks of my pack members were the last thing I heard before I was stabbed.

A sharp pain snapped me out of my thoughts as stinging sweat dripped from my forehead into the deep gash above my brow. My eyes were fixated on Richard. He pranced around, addressing the crowd.

"Cheers to a new dawn in Ivory Moon Pack!" My supposed pack members repeated after Richard, the man who, until hours ago, I believed was my doting and loving father.

I had trusted him so much and wished to be like him when I rule over the pack. I looked up to him.

I wanted to be like him. He was supposed to be my protector. He made me believe that he had my best interests at heart.

I gritted my teeth and tried to block out the pain blaring through my body and soul.

The silver chains holding me seared into and greedily burned my skin. If it weren't for the pain I was in, I'd have convinced myself that I was dreaming.

This couldn't be right.

My breaths were coming fast and hard. Dark spots danced in the corner of my eyes. I pressed my lips together and fisted my fingers as I fought to control my roaring wolf.

It sought blood and vengeance for this betrayal.

"Together, we will take Ivory Moon to greater heights." Richard echoed to the crowd, waving the mantle of authority that was supposed to be bestowed on me.

"A leader is no good without his followers. I can only succeed if you, the good people of Ivory Moon, cooperate with me."

A low growl emanated from behind me. My heart jumped. Mom. She was finally awake.

She'd been poisoned just before the rogues attacked. Her anger and authority pulse through the auditorium. I knew what Mom felt.

There was nothing more maddening than being betrayed by your mate.

Richard stopped speaking abruptly and whipped around. Another growl escaped Mom's lips.

The hall became silent. Richard may have been posing as Alpha all this while, but he was no Alpha wolf. Before I was born, mom was the most dominant werewolf in Ivory Moon.

Mom contentedly stepped down and took the Luna's position because she loved him and believed he was her second chance mate.

"You're dismissed," Richard said hastily. "Chase, see that everything is in place and return immediately with the council of elders."

Hearing him mention the bastard Chase, who until the moment plunged a silver dagger into my back, I believed was the love of my life and my mate, hurt worse.

During the attack, I was about to rush to Mom, who had collapsed, when Chase sent me to my knees with his blade.

He didn't stop there, and as I struggled to process what was happening, he kicked and stomped me with gleaming eyes, then proceeded to stab me repeatedly.

I hadn't expected Richard's sudden character change, but at least he wasn't the man I'd thought I'd spend the rest of my life with. Chase was.

I believed in him when no one did. I trusted him with my soul.

Yes, I ached to stab Richard in the face, but Chase? I wanted to rip him to shreds. At the moment, my rage was the only thing keeping me conscious.

Mom's growls had become louder. She began to thrash in the chains that were holding her.

Her anger fueled and strengthened me. I only needed her to break free, and all this would be over.

As soon as the auditorium was cleared out, Richard let out a haughty bark of laughter, grabbed my hair, and yanked me toward him.

"Another sound from you, and she gets it," he warned, meaning every word.

Mom's growls became silent, but I could feel her struggle to move. I shut my eyes and fiercely prayed to the Moon Goddess for a miracle.

Who would have believed that today started as the most perfect day ever? I had awoken once again to my perfect family and life and was ready to take on my destiny as the First Female Alpha as prophesied.

Everything was beautiful and going according to plan. Mom had been so proud and excited, and so was Richard. He even gave me a speech that morning, claiming that he loved me and that Mom and I were the best thing to happen to him.

The same Richard whom I called Father... who told me that he couldn't wait to experience the great thing I would achieve as Alpha was dragging my hair like that of a doll.

Just then, Chase returned with the Elders in tow.

"YOU!" Mom roared at them. Her voice shook the hall.

Richard smacked me so hard my vision tripled.

"Are you listening!" He screamed. "Shut up, or she gets it!"

Mom laughed. "You may have bribed them, but those foolish elders will never accept an Alpha without an heir."

Huffing, Richard tossed me to the ground and stomped to Mom. I bit back a smile. He had fallen into her trap. All she needed to do was-

"I have an heir!" He barked, grabbing her by the collar. "CHASE IS MY SON!"

It felt like all the air in the room had been sunctioned out. I gasped for breath.

"Chase, the little boy I made hang around your precious daughter. Yes, that Chase was able to fool her into thinking they were mates. That same Chase is my son, and he is next in line after me!"

Mom's eyes widened.

"Now I have had enough of your cockiness." He declared. His hand moved in a blur.

His movement was too quick to follow, but I caught the glint of a blade just before he struck it right into Mom's heart.

Mom choked and sputtered. Her eyes danced around until they locked with mine. My breath ceased. Time froze, but just for me. Because unsatisfied, Richard retrieved his silver blade and struck again, this time, in her forehead, between her eyes.

I heard her voice in my head just as he let her dead body topple to the ground. 'Alanna, remember the Prophecy, stay alive. I love you. Now and Forever.'

I heard someone screaming in my head. I didn't realize that the screams were mine until Richard growled at me.

My screams were so loud and powerful that the building shook and a few glass windows shattered.

Richard rushed to me, yanked my hair, and smacked me hard. I didn't feel it. Pure, unfiltered rage burned within me. I snarled at him unrentedly.

"Shut up!" He hissed, placing the bloody dagger on my neck and pressing it so it drew blood.

As soon as the silver blade slid into my neck, I let out another piercing scream. He plunged the blade into my stomach and tossed me roughly.

I lay still, wishing death would hurry up with me. I wanted everything to end. The pain was too much to bear.

However, at the same time, Mom's last words kept repeating in my head. Alanna, I love you. Stay alive.

I didn't want to hear it. I didn't want to stay alive. I was a disgrace. I let everyone down.

But I must have been so light-headed that her words kept on repeating in my head. Stay alive. Stay alive. Remember the Prophecy.

I wanted to scream, Fuck the Prophecy. But those words kept on ringing in my head.

Richard and Chase had moved away and were arguing about something that I couldn't hear.

Then they began slaughtering some of the elders whom they deemed to be Mom's supporters.

I writhed in pain, feeling hot. My throat was parched. Water. I needed water, I thought weakly.

Then, out of nowhere, I felt a brush of cool air against my face. I wanted to ignore it, but the gentle stream of air increased steadily.

I let out a small sigh and craned my neck in its direction. Moonlight streamed in through the window, seemingly beckoning me.

A bitter smile crossed my face. It was a full moon. If things had gone according to plan, I was supposed to be leading my first run as Alpha with the pack-the Irony.

Mom's words came again, and this time they came with so much intensity that I jerked forward.

It felt like I was entranced by the sheer magnificence of the moon. At first, I found myself leaning closer to the window for the beautiful air.

Then I realized that the window was open. Do whatever you can to stay alive, Alanna. Mom had once instructed during our many drills.

Slowly and as silently as possible, I crawled to the window. I got to its edge soon enough, but I was too weak to pull myself up. Even breathing was difficult.

"Hey!" Chase said suddenly.

Somehow, a burst of energy rushed through me. I jumped up and threw myself out. As I fell to what felt like freedom, I heard Richard curse and yell.

"Find her. Give the rogues her scent. Hunt her down! Don't come back here until you've either pierced her heart with a silver blade or made the rogues tear her apart!"

A couple of my bones ruptured as soon as I made impact with the ground. But I couldn't sit down to wait, nor think of the pain rippling through me.

I leaped up and hobbled away with one thing on my mind. My survival. I needed to live. I needed to stay alive. It was Mom's last wish. I couldn't let her down.

I tried to run faster than I'd ever done in my entire existence. My several injuries, though, made me clumsy, I fell more times than I could count.

Yet I pushed myself back up.

My newfound energy was a mystery to me, but it didn't matter as much as my will to survive.

In a few minutes, I crossed Ivory Moon's boundary. Behind and all around me, I heard hunting howls, they were gaining on me too quickly.

If they were in their wolf form, I wouldn't stand a chance. I skidded to a stop, crouched low, and shifted.

It was my swiftest transformation and my most painful. I was disoriented for a few minutes before I darted away.

There was one thing I was certain of, no one in Ivory Moon had ever matched my wolf's speed.

Being injured may slow me down, but I would be miles away from them.

I ran blindly, trespassing on the boundaries of allies and enemies. I couldn't care less.

The most frustrating thing was that no matter how hard I tried to shake them off, they were always behind me.

Soon, it became a multipack hunt. I had broken a dozen codes by blindly trespassing.

The worst part was that my energy was waning.

Desperately, I swerved into a part of the forest that I had only heard rumors of. They were supposedly forbidden and were every wolf pup's nightmare.

Soon I noticed that the wolves chasing me had reduced, and just as I thought that I was home free, something lunged at me. Giant jaws sank deeply into my hind legs, effectively paralyzing them.

I let out a howl and tried to hobble away. But I was surrounded.

"You thought you could escape, didn't you?" Chase panted, stepping forward after shifting.

I whimpered and willed myself to shift, too, but my wolf was too weak.

Chase let out a bark of laughter. I staggered backward but stopped when I realized that I was at the edge of a cliff.

Staring at me with malice, he let out a low whistle, and at once the rogues surrounding me lunged at me. Biting and tearing away at my fur.

I was one breath from death when he whistled again. They stopped. He knelt beside me and patted my bloody fur.

"I had always been jealous of your fur." He mused. Then smiling he held up my wolf's head and slit its neck. My wolf whimpered its last.

At once, I shifted back to my human form.

I let out a choked sob at the loss of my wolf.

"Finally," Chase jeered, lifting me and pushing me to the very edge of the cliff. "It's over. Your stupid prophecy can die with you."

He plunged his blade into my chest and pushed me off.

My last thought was a one-word plea to the Moon Goddess. Revenge.

I was already dead. All I needed was to be reincarnated in Ivory Moon.

But it was too late.

If anything, today proved that the Moon Goddess was nonexistent or simply uninterested.

ALANNA

The sounds that brought me back to consciousness were definitely not what I expected to hear in the afterlife and pain?

Why was I in so much pain?

Wasn't the afterlife a place of peace and no feelings or emotions?

Wasn't I supposed to be running around untethered in wolf form and free of my humanity?

The beeping sound emanating beside me made my head ache. Disjointed memories from my fall wafted through me.

I had smashed my bones and probably my skull and was drifting away as I awaited the cold embrace of death.

My life flashed before my eyes. Good memories and the bitter ones I'd just experienced, and then, just as I thought I was taking my last breath, footsteps shuffled around me.

I heard voices, curious eyes peered at me. Then I was lifted off the ground, and it went dark.

I exhaled, and the beeping sound got louder and became more frantic.

Breathing became more and more difficult. I heard voices, then footsteps rushing to me.

"We're losing her," a voice declared. "Check her vitals. Give her another dose."

My head was still spinning in confusion. I didn't understand half of what was happening.

Where was I?

The voices, however, had made one thing clear, I wasn't in the afterlife.

Maybe I was stuck in some limbo and waiting for my turn to enter the afterlife because nothing could convince me that anyone much less me could survive that fall and everything I underwent before it.

The first thing that hit me the next time I regained consciousness was a horrible smell.

At first, I thought, 'Ahh, this is more like it. Finally, the afterlife.' But the more my senses awoke, the worse the stench became.

The putrid smell of decay mixed with a whole lot of other things that my senses couldn't recognize.

It was so terrible that I thought I would hurl. I tried bringing my hands to my mouth when I realized that I was suspended in the air.

My eyes snapped open, and my heart rate spiked. What the hell was happening?

The room I was in was so dark that I couldn't make out anything. My heart began thudding in my chest.

Had I been caught and kept alive by Richard and his sadistic son? How had they been able to revive me after all that? What more did they want from me?

Even as I ruminated on these thoughts, my gut kept insisting that I was eons away from Ivory Moon.

The room I was in didn't feel one bit familiar. I squinted and tried to get a better look at my surroundings, but it was futile. Everywhere was plunged in darkness.

That's when It occurred to me that it was too quiet in my head. I paused, trying to understand the unearthly silence.

A growl echoed from outside, and a chill ran down my spine. My wolf! I couldn't feel her.

My chest felt constricted, I forced myself to swallow a lot of air, but it wasn't helping. I reached into the deepest part of me and tried to make her respond.

There was nothing, and I gasped.

Chase's attack at the cliff flashed in my memory, and I choked back a sob as I relieved the moments when those rogues tore at my flesh and when Chase slit my throat.

He killed my wolf first, then waited for me to shift completely before throwing me off the cliff.

My already broken heart, pulverized. I was in so much agony that it felt like I'd been injected with liquid silver.

Heartbreak burned through my body, and I bit my lips and tried to swallow my pain, but it was too much. What was I without my wolf? Wasn't I better off dead?

I was so wrapped up in my pain to notice the arrival of my captors, and it was their scent that caught my attention.

My eyes shot up to see just glowing red eyes glaring at me. Terror like I'd never felt before crawled up my spine. I wasn't staring at any ordinary wolf.

Echoes of the childhood fables Mom teased me with rang in my head.

...So dark, they blend with darkness.

Red eyes that see the depths of your soul.

Savages. Nature's abomination...

They carry the scent of death with them

Worse than rogues...

They call them cursed, worse still untamed.

If you're unfortunate to ever meet them

Best believe you'll be ravaged to death.

Wild Wolves.

The wolf before me snarled and began to sniff me, and it was so huge.

From behind, someone lowered me until I was on the floor. I didn't dare move or make a sound, but within me, I was screaming. Scratch that, I was dying of mortification.

How was this possible?

How was this even my life?

I thought they were just a myth.

We all believed that wild wolves were a tale made to scare little children.

We called them untamed.

They didn't exist, and even if they did, they had to be extinct.

I was sure of this because mom had led a research to confirm their existence a few years ago, and she didn't find anything.

The red eyes disappeared suddenly. I let out a shriek and began to look around, but I couldn't make anything out.

"Trespasser," an unnatural voice hissed behind me.

Goosebumps scattered all over my skin, and I immediately my eyes so tight that my eyes were about to burst.

"Spy," the voice continued. "What are you doing here? Who sent you?"

I swallowed.

Rough hands grabbed my face. "Did you really think you could sneak into our territory and survive?" A slithery voice added.

"Why are you here?" The first voice repeated.

My whole body quaked, and my teeth chattered together.

"Answer us!" The second voice commanded. "Why and how are you in our territory?"

"I-" I stuttered, "I...I don't know."

Tears had begun to spill out from my eyes. I was exhausted, and I had already been through too much. There was not a single inkling of stamina left in me.

Heck, I was supposed to be dead. At the moment, death seemed better than what I was experiencing.

The room was silent before both voices laughed. It sounded grainy and made me shudder.

They had barely stopped laughing before my head was roughly yanked backward.

"You think we are stupid. This is your last chance. Who are you? Who sent you, and why did you sneak into our territory?"

"I'm not lying. I swear." I bawled. "I don't even know where I am. I was running for my life. I was killed and thrown off a cliff. I am supposed to be de-"

I was cut short by a whip that landed on my back. The pain was so sudden that I screamed.

"Lies. Lies. Lies." The voices said simultaneously. "We are going to make you regret lying to us."

And they did. They kept to their word. They tortured me till I regretted everything about my existence. But I didn't regret lying to them because I didn't lie.

Instead, I told them through my screams and pleas for mercy the story of my life. Yet it wasn't enough. They tortured me until I began to regret telling them the truth.

I should have just agreed with their accusations from the beginning. Maybe they would have swiftly dealt with me and ended it all.

They tortured me until I began to lose my mind and even began to admire their techniques. I was sure that I'd spent days in wherever it was, they kept me.

Yet, I had not seen light since I opened my eyes, and neither had I seen or perceived food or water.

The worst part was that I was enduring all this without my wolf, and because of this, my body was weak and healing slowly.

I was flogged mercilessly, punched, strangled, my skin was sliced, and a host of others. Despite all this, my story didn't change, and it aggravated them further.

They claimed to have found me left for dead in their territory. They also didn't find anything incriminating on me, yet they were convinced that I was a spy.

It got to the point where I became too weak, and so they stopped the torture but continued starving me. I began to beg them for death.

"We can not crack her." One of them said resignedly after another session. I could barely respond.

"You know what this means? We'll have to report to Alpha." The other muttered.

The atmosphere in the room became tense.

"We have failed him, but we have no option."

"I almost pity her. She has no idea what she just got herself into."

I may have been barely conscious, but the dread in their voices intrigued me. Could anyone torture me worse than they'd already done?

All I wanted was for them to put me out of my misery.

"Feed and treat her. When she's slightly healed, we'll take her to Alpha."

I was so delirious that I almost laughed. If they had to feed and treat me before their Alpha could see me, didn't it mean that he might as well be the nicest person I'd interacted with since I fell to my death?

I found it interesting and funny until I remembered what I heard about the Alpha of Wild Wolves.

According to the rumors, wild werewolves were savages but all of them put together were 100 times more humane than their alpha.

The myths called him a demon and a heartless beast. All mirth vanished from my weak body.

Whatever he was, I already knew that he was only going to make my current situation a lot worse.

I must have really pissed off the Moon Goddess in my past life. That was the only reasonable explanation for what I was going through.

★

It was useless to try to prepare myself for the arrival of the Demon Alpha.

I felt his aura the moment he stepped into the building where I was imprisoned. It was brashful, heavy, and terrifying yet a bit exhilarating?

My previous interrogators didn't keep to their promise of feeding or treating me. It was probably why I thought the presence of the most cruel being in the world was exhilarating.

He wasn't even in close proximity yet, and I could feel him. His power oozed into my prison in a tantalizing yet suffocating way. It was weird. I chucked it up to being too weak to even keep my eyes open.

"I have no tolerance for spies," I heard him say as soon as he entered. His voice was gruff and hard, but it grazed my skin and sent thrills down my spine in ways I couldn't understand.

My eyes snapped open. The dominance of his wolf occupied the whole room. I was struggling for breath, but instead of saving my energy, I angled my head so I could get a better view of him. It was useless, of course. The room was still pitch black.

I couldn't see him, but I could feel him. He remained silent.

Then suddenly he said, "Lights."

At once, windows I didn't know existed were thrown open and... I screamed.

The intensity of the lights streaming in through the windows scorched my eyes and seemed to burn my skin.

It took a while before my eyes could adjust to the light. I squinted them open.

Angry charcoal-gray eyes stared at me. I could see the malice and pure hatred in them, but it wasn't what knocked my breath away. It was him... every part of him. My eyes drank him in greedily.

His dark hair was tousled in a way that showed that he didn't care. He was tall and huge. His lips were drawn in a taut line. His nose was- another tingle ran down my spine.

"Stray..." He growled, stalking me.

I swallowed. Feeling heat rise up to my cheeks. He smelled really good. I didn't understand it.

He grabbed my cheeks and growled into my face.

"You're going to regret trespassing what's mine." He said it with so much malice and disgust that it reminded me of where I was in the first place. But then I couldn't concentrate on all that, not with the sensations dancing on my skin at his touch.

STEFAN

I was mildly annoyed at the amount of strays that had dared wander into my territory in the past month. I had more important things to worry about, though.

We were expanding the eastern borders to accommodate more people because my pack members were reproducing at a high rate. But some foolish pack had hampered our progress by setting up little attacks.

They were wise enough to know that they couldn't challenge even the smallest wild wolf, so they resorted to tricks.

Now, all I could think of was visiting them myself and smashing a lot of skulls and then ripping their flesh apart.

The thought of this consumed me so much that my wolf was already too eager to be on its way.

We loved spilling blood, my wolf and I.

I could already imagine the rush of excitement that would thrum through me as I plunged my claws into their skins and ripped out their organs, or maybe I should try crushing their skulls in my hands.

Once I drew my first blood, I wouldn't be able to stop. I would go ahead and take the life of every living being in that place, whether big or small.

I was so engrossed in this fever dream that when they informed me that there was a stray wolf in my dungeon who was so stubborn that they couldn't extract any information from it, I was enraged

I immediately stormed down into the dungeons to rip its eyes out. As soon as I stepped into the dark passages, I was enraptured by a scent I'd never perceived in my entire life. I halted momentarily, and my anger slightly drained away.

My wolf growled. What the hell was in that room? And why did it possess such a scent? Was this why they couldn't crack it and get it to spill its secrets?

It had to be witchcraft. There was no other explanation, and the thought that the stray had befuddled the minds of my best investigators with witchcraft flamed my anger once again.

I barged in.

"I have no tolerance for spies," I declared. I was immune to any form of witchcraft and trickery.

The room was dark. Yet I could make it out.

It was strapped to a pole, and its head was bent to the side. The scent of its spell was so pungent that it called me. I almost took a step forward.

I didn't understand the overwhelming need to get a better glimpse of it. It aggravated me.

"What the fuck?" I muttered under my breath. I successfully mastered and tame my wants, needs, and desires a long time ago.

The only thing I couldn't control was my need for blood, and that was because I loved it but this stray had managed to awaken one of my most dangerous appetites. I wanted it dead.

"Lights," I commanded. I needed to see it before I rid the world of it.

The windows were thrown open and it screamed. My breath hitched at the sight of her. It was a female.

Of course, I had known from the moment I perceived her scent. But seeing her now...

"Stray..." I growled. The words died in my throat as those green eyes met mine. Before I could stop myself, I approached her and grabbed her face.

Fucking hell what was this female. She was so damn small, I could crush her with my arms.

Her blonde hair was matted with blood and dirt, and her full lips trembled.

Those eyes locked with mine, and the feel of her soft skin.

My wolf had forgotten all about its need for blood and was fighting for control over this woman.

My mind had gone awry. I imagined taking her lips and then grazing my teeth against her skin. Touching and feeling her.

I wanted to dip my nose in the crook of her shoulders and drown myself in her beautiful scent. Fuck!

Her scent. It somehow reminded me of why I was there in the first place. I came to kill her.

She was a witch that had strayed into my territory.

I snapped back to reality and took a closer look. Her eyes were so deep that I could get lost in them. Yet, they were empty, and there was no wolf in those depths.

But I was certain she was a werewolf. Witchcraft. The logical part of my brain screamed. And I agreed.

"You're going to regret trespassing what's mine." I declared.

"Feed her. Make sure her wounds are completely healed before I return for her." I told the guards watching and stepped away swiftly.

As soon as I stepped away, she exhaled and shut her eyes. I paused and couldn't help but watch her.

What's her story? I asked, mind linking the interrogators standing in the corner.

She claims to have been running away from her pursuers, and also claims to have no idea of how she got here. She says she's from a Pack named Ivory Moon and that she and her mother were betrayed. Her name is Alanna.

I couldn't understand what the sound of her name did to me. Alanna.

The name rang in my head and kept resounding even as I walked away from the dungeon. Somehow, my wolf believed her story.

Which was weird because her story had so many loopholes, that it didn't make sense. I'd heard of Ivory Moon pack.

I didn't know its exact location but one thing I was certain of was how far it was from my territory. It could be described as being in a completely different world from ours.

So how on earth did she find her way to this place from there?

Most of all, why was I getting worked up?

I hated that her scent drove me insane. But why did I even care? There was no way she was going to survive by the time I'd be done with her.