Moonblooded:The Alpha's cursed mate

📖 Moonblooded: The Alpha's Cursed Mate

Author: Sharon Ndaiga

Chapter One: The Curse Awakens

The rain was soft that night - almost gentle - as though the moon herself wept for the girl below.

Shivana ran through the woods, bare feet thudding against the damp soil, her breath visible in the cold. The storm hadn't touched her skin, but something colder had: fear.

Behind her, the howls grew louder - not of wolves, but of pack guards. Her own people. The ones who should've protected her.

"Find the girl!" someone shouted in the distance. "She's marked!"

Marked. The word sent a shiver down her spine.

At eighteen, Shivana had always believed she was like any other orphaned she-wolf in the Nightfang Pack - quiet, invisible, surviving. But on her birthday, the Blood Moon rose...and the mark appeared.

A silver crescent burned into her shoulder. A mark older than time. A mark that cursed her blood.

She stumbled into a clearing and fell to her knees.

The moon glowed above - massive, crimson, and unblinking. Its light seemed to call her. Whisper to her.

You are not just a girl. You are the storm born beneath my shadow. You are cursed. You are claimed.

A crack of a branch behind her made her heart stutter. She turned - and froze.

He stood there like death in a tailored black coat. Alpha Kade. Tall, ruthless, with eyes like winter storms and a reputation of leaving no heart unbroken.

Her gaze met his. She expected fury. Hatred.

But what she saw was worse: recognition.

"You..." His voice was deep and unfamiliar, yet something in it struck her soul. "It's you."

She tried to back away. "You're making a mistake."

His boots crunched against the grass as he stepped closer. "You bear the mark of the Blood Moon. That mark binds you to me."

"No." Her voice trembled. "I don't want this. I never asked to be your mate."

His jaw clenched. "Neither did I."

She rose to her feet, lifting her chin despite the fear clawing at her ribs. "Then let me go."

"I can't," he growled. "The Moon chose. And if we disobey... you'll die."

A gust of wind surged between them, the trees bowing as if in mourning.

"Then let me die," Shivana whispered. "Because I won't be a prisoner. Not even to fate."

Kade stepped forward, his hand brushing the air near her cheek, not quite touching.

"Fate isn't the enemy," he murmured. "Your blood is."

And with that, everything shattered.

The ground beneath her feet cracked with a burst of silver light. Pain flared in her mark. Her knees gave way.

Kade caught her before she hit the ground.

She looked up at him, eyes wet with more than just rain. "Why me?"

"I don't know," he said bitterly. "But the curse always chooses the one it wants to destroy most."

📖 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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📖 Moonblooded: The Alpha's Cursed Mate

Chapter 3: Blood Moon Ritual

The wind whispered warnings through the trees as Shivana followed the guards through the woods, her wrists bound in silver-threaded rope. Each step was a war between defiance and exhaustion. Her bare feet stung from the cold ground, but she kept her chin high, refusing to show weakness.

Alpha Kade walked beside her in silence. His presence alone sent heat crawling up her spine-an infuriating mix of power and danger. He hadn't looked at her since they left the mansion. Not even once.

The clearing appeared suddenly, hidden beneath the weeping branches of ancient trees. A stone altar stood at its center, glowing faintly under the light of the Blood Moon. Crimson clouds hovered low, casting long shadows that seemed to move on their own.

Shivana stopped in her tracks. "You're not seriously going to-"

"Yes," Kade said without emotion. "The ritual must be completed before midnight."

"You're tying me to a cursed altar under a blood moon and calling it a ritual?"

He finally turned to look at her. "If we don't complete the binding, your body won't survive another night."

Shivana bit back her retort. She didn't trust him-but she trusted the pain in her shoulder even less. The mark burned hotter with each passing hour, spreading tendrils of fire through her chest and spine.

The Elders stood around the altar in blood-red cloaks, murmuring in the ancient tongue of the moon priests. One stepped forward-Elder Malrik, with a face like a vulture and eyes like storm clouds.

"She's late," he hissed.

"She was unconscious," Kade replied. "And she's not a sacrificial lamb. She's a living being."

Shivana blinked in surprise. That almost sounded like... protection.

Malrik sneered. "The moon does not care about feelings. Only blood and bond."

Two female attendants approached her gently and removed the ropes. Shivana flinched, expecting pain-but their hands were soft, respectful. They helped her onto the altar where she lay flat, her heartbeat echoing in her ears.

Silver cuffs locked around her wrists and ankles, binding her to the stone. Not tight. Not cruel. But final.

The chanting grew louder.

Kade stood at her feet, watching. His face was unreadable, but his fingers twitched at his sides. Something was bothering him.

Malrik raised a dagger carved from white bone and dipped it into a bowl of dark crimson liquid. "The Alpha shall speak the oath."

Kade stepped forward.

His voice, cold and commanding, echoed through the clearing.

> "Under the light of the Blood Moon, I bind my soul to hers. I take her pain as mine, her blood as my legacy. Her mark as my burden. We are one, or we are ashes."

Shivana's eyes locked onto his.

The moon flared above them, blazing red.

Malrik dragged the blade across her palm, and the burn was instant. Her blood-silvery and glowing-flowed like liquid moonlight.

The same was done to Kade.

And then, he pressed his hand against hers.

Their blood mingled.

The earth groaned beneath the altar. The air snapped like lightning.

Suddenly, Shivana's mark burst into searing light. Pain shot through her like fire and thunder-memories not her own filling her mind.

She saw visions-Kade as a child, standing over a burning body. A white-haired woman whispering forbidden words. Her own face-older, wilder-howling beneath a black sky.

And then... stillness.

Her body stopped shaking.

The moon dimmed.

The cuffs released.

And Alpha Kade, breathing hard, caught her before she could fall from the altar.

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