by G. K. DeRosa
Wolfish: Curseborne
G.K. DeRosa
Copyright © 2021 Mystic Rose Press
All Rights Reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, Mystic Rose Press.
Print ISBN: 9798533771481
Cover Designer: Sanja Gombar www.fantasybookcoverdesign.com
Published in 2021 by Mystic Rose Press
Palm Beach, Florida
www.gkderosa.com
Created with Vellum
To all the alpha females!
~ GK
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Sneak Peek of Wolfish: Mateborne
Also by G.K. DeRosa
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Prologue
Hunter
Gods, Sierra was beautiful when she defied my father. Just when I thought I couldn’t possibly desire her more, she stared the great Tyrien Silverstalker down, refusing to be intimidated by him or the entire high alpha council. It had taken me years to accomplish the same. She’d been a wolf for all of a month, and she was already challenging the supreme alpha.
My mate.
My wolf prowled to the surface, lurking just below my skin. He wanted out. He wanted to claim what was his. But I couldn’t let him, not when my human half was cursed never to love her. And gods I wanted to. Every fiber of my being wanted her. I cracked my knuckles and curled my fingers at my sides.
This curse was the most wicked of tortures. It split me in half: man and beast. My wolf recognized her as his mate, wanted to claim her, protect her, become one with her. But my human side bore the heavy burden of the curse. My heart was hollow. Despite lingering memories of falling for her throughout my visits at the academy all those years back, my emotions were fleeting. Whispers in the wind of what it felt like to love her. No matter how hard I tried to hold onto them, they’d escape my grasp. It was torture. Constant torture.
“I’ll see you at the Alpha Trials.”
Sierra’s words tore me from my inner musings, and a growl broke through my clenched teeth. “No,” I snarled at my father, at the entire council. He’d never let her leave the battleground alive.
“I’m afraid this isn’t up to you, son.” The great alpha sneered down at me from his throne. My future throne. I’d never wanted it, but now, I’d be forced to take it if only to put an end to his tyranny. I’d always suspected he’d been behind the demise of the Mystic Pack and now I’d have to find out the truth, for her. If my father had instigated the attacks on Sierra, I wouldn’t rest until he was punished. I may not be able to love her, but I’d be damned if I wouldn’t protect her.
I hazarded a glance at Sierra, and my lifeless heart fluttered. Her violet eyes shimmered with intensity as she glared at each member seated on the dais. She ran a hand through her wild locks and turned to me. “Your father’s right, Aristaeus. This is my duty as the last surviving member of the Mystic Pack.” Her lips curled into a mischievous smirk. “You’re not scared of a little competition, are you?”
The mental link between us opened, and I longed for our usual banter, but I couldn’t risk it in front of my father. “Of course not,” I responded instead, injecting steel in my tone. Father could never know of our bond. He’d have her killed; I was sure of it.
Sierra turned her gaze to the council, planting her hands on her hips. “If we’re done here, I’d like to get home and get some rest before the trials tomorrow.”
“I’ll take her.” The words leapt out of my mouth before I could stop them.
The supreme alpha’s eyes darted to mine, his lips pulling into a frown. “Very well. Inform Ms. Wildstone of what is expected for the first round.”
I nodded and moved toward her, every nerve in my body begging to be closer. She was gravity, and I was helpless against her pull. I was so weak. Just like I had been all those years ago. I knew the curse was coming and still, I’d let this happen. I’d hurt her time and again because I was too selfish to control myself.
My hand closed around her upper arm, and energy crackled between us. My breath hitched, and my desire for her strained against my zipper. Control yourself, Hunter. I inhaled slowly as I steered her toward the tunnels, but with each intake of air, her intoxicating scent filled me with need.
By the time we reached the exit, I was certain the button on my jeans would burst open from the pressure. As much as it killed me, I had to sever this bond between us. It would bring nothing but continued suffering for us both.
Can we talk freely now? Sierra’s soft voice in my head startled me.
Let’s wait until we’re in the woods.
She nodded, and I slid my hand from her arm to her lower back. She let out a shudder, and I cursed internally. The mate bond was getting stronger by the day. The more time we spent together, the deeper it ran and the more difficult it would be to break. With the trials starting tomorrow, I couldn’t cut it now. I’d need our connection intact to protect her.
I hadn’t told Sierra yet, but Bea wouldn’t be the one to break the bond. We’d have to travel deep into Maginaria to seek out a powerful high warlock. Dissolving the mate bond was not a simple procedure, and even a gifted witch like Bea wasn’t strong enough to complete the spell.
Sierra squirmed beneath my hand, and I could feel her wolf surging to the surface. She called mine, beckoning him to break free.
“Is it safe to run?” she asked, glancing up at me.
“I—Don’t you think we should talk first? About what happened in there?”
Her head whipped back and forth. “If I don’t run right now, I’m going to lose my mind, Hunter. I need to be free, to forget about everything. Even if it’s just for a little while.”
Invisible tethers tightened around my heart. She was going through hell because of me. The least I could do was protect her. Father already knew what she was, but still I didn’t think flaunting her wolf was the best idea. No one had been able to determine why she was purple or the reason for her odd glow.
Please, Hunter. Her wolf spoke in my mind, the beastly voice markedly different than Sierra’s. I couldn’t deny her.
“Follow me,” I muttered. “We have to stay deep in the forest. I don’t want anyone to see you yet.”
“Fine.”
I quickened my pace, grabbing hold of Sierra’s hand. Excitement thrummed through the bond with our fingers interlaced. I refused to focus on how good her skin felt against mine, on how right she felt. She deserved more than I could give her, and I wouldn’t be selfish anymore. I had to let her go.
Soon.
By the time we reached the deep woods, Sierra was breathless, her cheeks an irresistible shade of warm pink. My thoughts flashed back to the time we’d almost slept together before the curse kicked in and everything went to hell. She had been flustered, her
cheeks the exact same rosy hue. Heat surged down to my lower half as memories of my thighs between hers filled my vision. For a moment everything had felt so right. I didn’t know how I’d found the strength to leave before making her mine.
I shook off the thoughts, banishing them to the furthest corners of my mind. I could never have her like that, not without the risk of sealing the mate bond. And I refused to bind her to me, to a cursed man.
“Ready?” she asked. “She’s close. I think I can make myself shift this time.”
“Okay, let’s see.”
She lifted a brow, screwing her lips into a pout.
“Oh right, sorry. Delicate human sensibilities.” I turned around to give her privacy, but every single one of my senses went on high alert. The tug of fabric as she pulled the sundress over her head made me harden. I shifted uncomfortably, itching to remove my own clothes. At least with my back to her she wouldn’t see the proof of my overwhelming desire. Though I was certain she could feel it through our connection. Sometimes her lusty thoughts bled through the bond, driving me wild. I’d taken more cold showers since she’d moved to Moon Valley than I had my entire life.
Her scent filled the air, sweet magnolias and soothing lavender, and my nostrils flared. She was naked, and a hint of her excitement lingered in the breeze. Oh gods. I groaned, my hardness pressing against my tight jeans. “Ready?” I forced out.
“Almost.” Her voice held a jagged edge, and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could fight my wolf from emerging.
From the corner of my eye, a faint glow caught my attention. I resisted the urge to spin around. “Sierra?”
Done. Her wolf echoed in my mind.
I whirled around and shed my clothes right in front of her. I wanted her to see me, which was just foolish. Her brilliant purple hue lit up the dark forest, her violet irises blazing as her wolfish gaze raked over me. I shifted in record time, my wolf so anxious to reach her. The moment I dropped on all fours, he raced toward her. My heart flared to life, pounding like mad within my wolf skin. These days I only felt alive when I was in this form. The curse had nearly killed me, deadened my emotions, stolen the joy in my heart, but somehow my wolf had been spared.
I nuzzled against Sierra’s white wolf, inhaling her heady scent. A soft rumble vibrated her entire body, and I leaned closer. If I didn’t have such a strong hold over my wolf, he would’ve completed the mate bond by now. He longed for her so badly, it tore me up inside.
Sierra leapt up on her back legs and braced her front paws on my back. Come on, let’s run! She nudged me with her cold wet nose before jumping down and twirling in a circle, her tail wagging like mad. Come on, Hunter, I really need this.
Okay, but stay close. We can’t wander into pack lands. Not with you glowing like that.
I promise. I’ll stick to you like a shimmering, purple shadow.
My lips twitched. Let’s go.
Chapter One
Sierra
I chewed on my lower lip as the steady rush of running water calmed my frayed nerves. I eyed my bathroom door, which was partially ajar, counting down the moments until Hunter emerged from the shower.
The run had been exactly what I’d needed to clear my head after this morning’s meeting with the high alpha council. Thinking about actually competing in the Alpha Trials was too much right now. For the next twenty-four hours, I preferred to live in denial. When the guards came to collect me in the morning, I’d face the harsh reality then.
Right now, I needed to talk to Hunter. My outing as the last of the sparkly unicorn Mystics hadn’t changed the fact that I wanted to be with him. In fact, it had only strengthened my resolve. If I was going to be forced to compete in these trials, the last Mystic wolf and without powers, I’d need all the help I could get. Hunter had said we’d be stronger together, and I hoped it would be enough to convince him not to break our blossoming mate bond.
The door creaked open, and my eyes shot to a bare-chested wolf god. Saliva pooled in my mouth as my gaze traced the droplets of water glimmering against his tanned skin. I followed the trail as it leisurely dribbled down his collarbone, between his sculpted pecs and across the dips of his perfectly carved abs. It dipped lower, sinking between the low-slung towel and the deep V leading down there.
I swallowed hard.
Hunter’s smoldering golden irises met mine, and a whimper squeezed through my pressed lips. His wolf growled in return, the deep rumble inciting a tremor across his bare chest. He palmed the back of his neck and turned toward the bathroom. “Let me throw my clothes back on.”
“I have the shirt you let me borrow the other day. It’s clean.” I slid off the mattress and dug through the clothes piled in my laundry basket. I’d secretly planned on keeping it, but Cass had been right. It was borderline psycho. When I’d returned home from our run, I found the note my bestie had left me. She’d had to return to the Royal Pack to prepare for her first day on the job. I gritted my teeth as I pictured Ransom’s traitorous face. How could he have outed me like that? I’d have to deal with him and catch my best friend up on everything later.
I walked up to Hunter with the shirt clenched between my fingers. Even after washing it, his scent lingered, and I hated letting it go. “I was going to bring it back to you, eventually.” I hugged it against my chest, and the manly perfume drifted up to my nostrils.
“Thanks.” He moved closer, reaching for the shirt, but somehow his hand got derailed and landed on my face. He cupped my cheek, the rough pad of his thumb grazing my skin. “I’m so sorry for today,” he whispered after an eternity of weighty silence. “I’m going to kill Ransom for what he did. You don’t belong anywhere near those trials.”
The hair on the back of my neck bristled. It wasn’t that I didn’t agree, it just irked me that he was so certain I couldn’t handle myself against a bunch of alpha males.
He cocked his head, a crooked smile on his lips. “What?”
“I can handle myself, you know.”
Hunter cleared his throat, and his hand fell away. My body screamed at the loss, but I told it to shut up for a second. “I know that. I just can’t help but blame myself for this whole situation. If I hadn’t brought you here in the first place, none of this would’ve happened. You wouldn’t be in danger because of me.”
“I also never would’ve known who I was. My mom never would’ve come clean about my dad, and I’d still be living a lie.”
“But you’d be safe.”
I shrugged. “Maybe or maybe not. I was attacked in Maginaria, remember? And that was way before you brought me here.”
“I do,” he said, releasing a long breath. He pried the shirt from my fingers and pulled it over his head.
I eyed the towel hanging low on his hips and willed it to fall. Bad, Sierra! Luna, I had no control around this man. “I don’t want you to break the bond,” I blurted.
He shook his head, his shoulders sagging in defeat. “Sierra, we’ve already talked about this.”
“No, we haven’t actually. You unilaterally decided our fate—my fate. You never asked me what I wanted. That might be how things work around here in wolf world, but that’s not what works for me. What if I’m okay with this? What if what we have now is enough for me?”
A spark of emotion flared across his golden irises.
“You say you can’t love me, but I’ve never felt so cared for, protected, hell, even adored as I do when I’m with you.”
“It’s not me,” he gritted out, his jaw grinding.
“What? What does that mean?”
“Everything you feel, it comes from my wolf. Somehow, when the curse was placed, the damned witch must have missed him. My wolf is the one that feels all those things for you. That’s why my eyes go yellow when you’re around. He surges to the surface whenever you’re near. He’s almost impossible to control.”
Another sliver of my heart cracked. Hunter really felt nothing for me?
“But—” He snagged his lower lip between his te
eth and looked down at me, sooty lashes fanning over dark circles beneath his eyes. “I won’t break the bond now that you’re being forced to compete. We’ll do it after.”
A wave of relief crashed over me, and I hated that his words had such a strong effect on me. “Why?”
“So that I can protect you. With our link, we’ll be able to communicate, and I’ll be able to find you no matter where you are.”
A tiny shred of hope rekindled in my battered chest. “Or, once the competition is over, we can find a way to break the curse.”
“I already told you it’s not possible.”
“And I think you just haven’t tried hard enough. You also said you’d never been able to speak the curse aloud and you did with me.”
He nodded slowly. “I know. And I’m not sure how that was even possible, but I’m assuming it had something to do with our bond. Maybe it was my wolf side that allowed it.”
“There’s obviously still more to this curse that we don’t understand. We have to keep trying.”
A rueful smile split his lips. “Sierra, the night I left you at the academy, the night I wanted to make love to you, was the happiest and most terrible day of my life. When I returned home as I lay in bed thinking about you, I felt it happen. The love for you that filled my chest, vanished. It wasn’t gradual either. It was like a blade sliced into my heart and all the love poured out. It was the most excruciating pain I’d ever endured. The very next day, I left Moon Valley. I spent two months traveling through Maginaria, visiting every high witch, mage, wizard and warlock. The curse is bound by blood and without it, can never be undone.”