A Cursed Fate

Sera’s POV I tried knocking on the thick oak door, but no one answered me. I yelled for the Alpha, my throat raw, but there was still no response. Frustration and trapped panic clawed at my chest. I paced the length of the room, my heart hammering against my ribs, and started yelling again. When that yielded nothing, I rushed over to the high arched window, threw open the heavy latch, and leaned out into the cool morning air. "Hello!" I shouted down toward the bustling courtyard below. After a few 'hellos' I yelled, "Can someone get the Alpha? I'm locked—" I was cut off as my door swung wide open. "Finally," I gasped, spinning around. Gideon strode into the room, his dark eyes ablaze with intensity. "What's the matter?" he asked, his voice low and tight. "You can't be yelling out the window." He brushed past me, grabbing the wooden frame and shutting it with a sharp click before securing the latch. I crossed my arms over my chest, glaring at him through my swelling vision. "How much longer do I need to stay here?" Gideon turned back to face me. He looked down, and I could tell he was staring directly at my still-bruised eye because his jaw clenched so hard a muscle twitched in his cheek. He closed the distance between us in two long strides and reached out, taking my face gently in his large, warm hands. I flinched slightly—a knee-jerk reaction born of pure survival—but I forced myself not to pull away or move, terrified he might hit me if I did. His eyes softened, a wave of profound sorrow washing over his sharp features as his thumb lightly brushed the tender skin under my eye. Deep within the shadowed corners of my mind, Vera hummed. It wasn't a growl, but a low, desperate plea that sent a surge of heat straight to my chest. Closer, she urged, her dormant strength stirring just enough to press against the walls of her coma. Get closer to him. Hot, bitter tears spilled over my cheeks, burning against my bruised skin. My wolf was waking up—a miracle I had given up on—but the cruel timing of it felt like a sick joke. We couldn't have this. We couldn't afford this hope. Lucian would come for me. He always did. And when he found us, the ending was already written: either I would die at his hands for running, or Gideon would be forced to execute me himself just to prove a point to the monster who claimed me. The warmth of his skin was an agonizing contrast to the icy terror in my head. "Please stop touching me," I whispered, my voice trembling. He paused, his hands hovering inches from my cheeks, his dark eyes burning with a mixture of raw hurt and stubborn devotion. "Why? You are my mate." I took a sharp step back, breaking the contact entirely as the cold air rushed into the gap between us. "I'm already mated!" I cried, wrapping my arms tightly around myself to stop the shaking. "I don't know what you want from me. I have no information. I don't know his war plans, I don't know his troop numbers, and I have nothing left to give you!" Gideon didn't flinch. He didn't step back, and he didn't pull away into the cold, calculated posture of an Alpha dealing with a prisoner. Instead, the intensity in his dark eyes deepened, burning away any remaining trace of anger until only an immovable, steady heat remained. "If Lucian finds out where I am, he won't just come for me—he will burn this whole territory to the ground." He reached out, not to grab me, but holding a single hand in the air between us. His warm, intoxicating scent of rich sandalwood and golden amber washed over my senses, cutting through the thick metallic tang of my own fear. Touch him, Vera whispered again, her voice stronger this time, a tiny spark of life flaring in the dark cold of my soul. He is safety. Touch him. I squeezed my eyes shut, shaking my head violently to drown out both my wolf and the dangerous, terrifying hope rising in my chest. "You don't understand," I whispered, barely able to breathe. "He always finds me." Gideon didn't snap, he just pulled back his hand. He just searched my face with an agonizingly steady gaze, his voice dropping into a rough whisper. "Help me understand." The plea hung heavy in the silence of the room, suffocating in its sincerity. My heart battered wildly against my ribs like a trapped bird. My thoughts raced into a dark, familiar spiral. If I told him the truth—if I admitted to the rare amplifier bloodline running through my veins, if I confessed that my body was a walking battery capable of supercharging an Alpha's power—what then? He would either kill me on the spot to put an end to the threat... or he would use me. He would drain me the exact same way Lucian had, chaining me to a different pedestal in a different fortress. And because Gideon was my true fated mate, the amplifier connection between us would be exponentially stronger. It would unlock a terrifying, unyielding reservoir of raw power that could shatter armies. I was so exhausted that I would have welcomed death with open arms. A clean blade or a snapped neck sounded like a merciful escape compared to another day of breathing. But I couldn't risk it. I couldn't risk being turned into another dictator's power grid, becoming the reason another tyrant ruled this land. I sucked in a shaky, shallow breath, staring straight into the eyes of the man who claimed to be my destiny. "The only thing I can tell you," I whispered, every word tasting like lead, "is that killing me will help you win."