Curse of the Alpha (Full Moon Series Book 3)
Table of Contents
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
Curse of the alpha
Full Moon Series
Mia Rose
3
Book
Edited by
Natasha Lind
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Contents
1. The Newest Pack Members
2. Decisions
3. Taking Charge
4. Meeting Place
5. Revelations
6. Making Deals
7. Close Encounters
8. Promises
9. Moving Forward
10. Discoveries
11. The Lab
12. The Inspector
13. Home
14. The Prodigal Son
15. Keeping up with Lies
16. Expectations and Disappointments
17. Facing the Past
18. The Cure
19. Annabelle
20. Monsters, Men, and Wolves
21. The Escape
22. The Ritual
Afterword
About the Author
Chapter 1
The Newest Pack Members
“Conversations can be awkward at the best of times.”
Noelle sat in the passenger side of Declan’s car refusing to speak to him despite Declan’s many attempts to engage her in any sort of conversation.
“Noelle,” Declan said with a frustrated sigh, “listen, I know you’re upset and this whole situation is, well, I mean it’s pretty messed up. I don’t know how else to say it. But there is a silver lining here —your family is not dead, okay? Yeah, they are wolves now, and they’ll have to adjust their lifestyles a bit, but don’t worry because I’ve got them. I’ve helped countless werewolves adjust to their new lives and they’ve all turned out pretty great.”
Noelle looked over at him and opened her mouth as if she were about to say something, but no words came out. She shook her head slightly and turned to gaze back out the window.
“Noelle, they aren’t dead,” Declan repeated.
“They might as well be,” Noelle whispered.
“What?” Declan asked, surprised by her words, “I don’t understand. How can you say that? They are werewolves, now. I mean, this could really be a good thing.”
“A good thing?” Noelle scoffed, finally turning to face him. Declan could see the tears pooling in her eyes, threatening to pass the barrier of her lower lid. “How could this possibly be a good thing? Can you explain that to me?”
“Well,” Declan said before he hesitated. “Well, I meant it could be a good thing for us. You know? Now, we don’t have to hide anything anymore.”
“Wow.” Noelle laughed, but there was no humor there. “You are seriously deluded if you believe that anything will ever happen between us again. You think this is a good thing? Man, who am I even kidding? You probably concocted this entire plan as a way to keep me trapped by your side or something.”
“Noelle, you’re acting crazy. I didn’t know about this, I told you that already. I knew that they wanted revenge, sure, but I told them to steer clear of these woods.”
“Yeah, well, some alpha you turned out to be, huh?”
Declan felt as though she had slapped him across the face with her words. He had already been feeling pretty worthless to the pack and to Noelle, and now he felt more alone than ever. He couldn’t quite understand why she was so upset by the situation. He thought that since her family was still alive, that would be some consolation, but she almost seemed more upset by the fact.
“Noelle, your family will undergo their transformations as soon as they wake up. They are going to feel an extreme hunger, it is almost painful and they will only want the freshest meat they can get their hands on. The first couple of days will definitely be rough, but I will be there with them every step of the way. Trust me.”
Noelle looked at Declan as he pulled into her driveway and she yanked open the door. She tried to stand, but fell over still reeling from the amount of physical exhaustion her body endured on this man —well, wolf hunt.
Declan appeared by her side and offered her his arm. She tried to push him to the side, but she had no strength left and ended up collapsing into him. He scooped her up with his arms and walked to the front door.
Once they were in the house, he laid her on the couch very gently, as if she was porcelain. They could see the sun peeking its head into the sky; holding the telltale blush that could bring the hope of a new day. Declan watched Noelle carefully as she pushed her face into a pillow and began sobbing all over again. He waited a few moments before going over to her side and placing his hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off and held the pillow close to her chest.
“Get out,” Noelle breathed.
“Noelle, you shouldn’t be alone, not right now. You need help from someone, don’t push me away.”
“I said, get out!” Noelle looked Declan straight in the eye as she said the words and he could tell that she was not playing around. He had to make a choice to either ignore her or to leave and accept that this might be the last time she would see him.
“Noelle, I…” Declan stopped himself and shook his head slightly.
He stood up from the couch and walked over to the door. He looked back at her once more; an apology in his eyes, and then shut the door behind him. He hated leaving Noel
le by herself in the house.
Noelle exhaled a breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been keeping. She had so many thoughts running through her mind and no way to handle all the emotions that were coursing through her. Declan had sounded so desperate and that only served to piss her off even more. She had just lost her entire family and he was telling her to look at the bright side? Just proof we were never going to work out, Noelle thought to herself.
Noelle struggled to sit up from the couch; she closed her eyes to brace against the pain in her ribs. She may have broken them again while Declan was running through the woods with her on his back.
She saw the faces of her family in her mind —the color nearly gone from their lifeless limbs. Gashes in their skin and sections of flesh missing from their bones. She tried to fight the thoughts, essentially, it was all she could do to not get sick at the sight again.
She opened her eyes and reached out to the coffee table in front of her. Leaning forward, she rested her hands on the table as she bit down on her lip. The force was so hard, but she did it to keep herself from screaming out. She pressed for the longest time; so forcefully, that the act of doing it drew blood.
Noelle knew she desperately needed water. As if on cue, her tongue peeked out from behind her lips and dragged itself across the chapped area. She sat back against the couch and reached into her pocket for her phone. She found the number she was looking for and pressed to dial.
The line rang a few times before a friendly voice answered, “Hello! Thank you for calling St. Joseph’s hospital. Where can I direct your call?”
“Yes, hi. I need to speak with Ed —I mean with Doctor Edmund Stone. I am a patient of his.”
“Hold please.” Noelle waited on the other end, breathing steadily. She had no idea what to tell the man, but for whatever reason, she felt that she could trust him. “Hello, Miss?”
“Yes, I’m still here.” Noelle tried not to sigh.
“The doctor said he is busy with patients right now, if you can leave a message, he will call you back as soon as he is free.”
“No, Ma’am. I don’t think you understand, I need to speak to him —it’s urgent. Please, tell him it’s Noelle calling.”
“Okay,” the nurse mumbled, her friendly tone slipping, “I will try, but he did say he was busy right now.”
“Thank you,” Noelle mumbled into the phone.
She waited another minute or so before the line began to ring. She almost ended the call thinking that the nurse had hung up the phone, but then a male voice came through.
“Noelle?”
“Hey, Doctor Stone.”
“Please, call me Edmund. What’s going on? Kelly said it was urgent.”
Noelle smiled, despite herself. The sound of his voice made her feel better already. She didn’t know exactly what to tell him but she knew she needed him, somehow.
“I, um, well, I think I may have cracked my rib or something. And no one is home but me. I didn’t know who else to call.” The line was silent on the other end, and Noelle started tapping her finger nervously.
“I’ll be at your house in twenty minutes,” Edmund said and he hung up the phone before she even had time to process what he’d said.
Noelle looked down at herself, her pants were covered in dirt from the woods. She realized there was no hope in cleaning herself up before he got there. She wasn’t concerned about how she looked to impress him, but she was definitely worried about what type of questions might come up about the whole situation.
She laid back down on the couch and scrolled through her recent call list. She noted that she’d tried to reach out to Declan seven times to warn him about her family. He’d said that he hadn’t been able to answer the phone, but now Noelle knew better. He was ignoring her, probably coming up with a strategy to distract her while her family stood surrounded; completely unprepared for the pack of wolves. She closed her eyes to force the tears to stay inside of her eyes, and before she knew it, she drifted off into a fitful sleep.
Declan arrived back at the apartments and realized he had no recollection of the drive at all. He’d been replaying the conversation with Noelle over and over in his turbulent mind. He couldn’t help but cringe every time he remembered her saying that he must be deluded. And that there was nothing between them anymore.
He felt torn up inside and he had no idea how to remedy this situation with her. As he walked toward his apartment, he caught sight of a few female pack members whispering at the sight of him.
“What is it?” Declan growled.
“Nothing.” One of the girls giggled and they all scurried into the nearest apartment, closing the door behind them. Gabriel stood by Declan’s apartment door with a solemn look on his face.
“What is it, Gabriel? I’m really exhausted and I don’t have time…”
“They want to speak with you,” Gabriel said, meeting Declan’s eyes.
“Who wants to speak with me?” Declan asked, rubbing his hands over his face.
“The girl’s family.”
Declan looked up at Gabriel’s grave face and sighed. “They woke up quickly,” Declan said. “Okay, lead the way.”
Gabriel walked toward the stairs and began heading down, two steps at a time. He didn’t look back to see if Declan was following and that bothered Declan. He shouldn’t assume I’ll just follow, Declan thought, becoming annoyed by Gabriel’s seemingly alpha-like tendencies.
Gabriel pulled open the door to the basement and Declan saw the family seated in a tight circle, talking quietly amongst themselves. He noticed that one of the members —a young girl, was the only one remaining silent, looking stoically at the wall, located at the opposite end of the room.
“Hello everyone, and welcome,” Declan said, trying his best to sound upbeat despite his mood. The family all turned to look at Declan as he walked further into the room.
“What is this?” Noelle’s father, Garett asked. “Is this some kind of a sick joke you are playing?”
“What?” Gabriel asked, clearly confused by his words.
Garett looked at Declan. “This is… I mean, it’s Declan. We know Declan.”
“What’s going on?” Noelle’s mother piped in, trying her best to control her voice. Declan couldn’t tell if she was on the verge of crying, or a panic attack —or both.
Declan looked back at Gabriel and said, “What’s going on? I thought you said they wanted to speak to me?”
“They did…” Gabriel stuttered. “They did. They asked to speak with…”
“We asked to speak with the alpha of this pack!” Garett roared, clearly battling with his newfound strength and emotions.
Suddenly, Declan realized what was happening. The family had been out cold when he and Noelle showed up in the woods. The last time he saw them, he was sitting by Noelle’s side. It had been just another day as Noelle’s really good friend. They had no idea who Declan really was, so when they asked to speak with the alpha, they didn’t know they were going to be speaking with him.
Declan nodded slightly and then clapped his hands together once. “Here I am, folks,” Declan announced. “I am Alpha of this pack.”
“What?” Garett breathed in a shocked breath. “You can’t be. We thought… you were…” He paused for a moment. “This isn’t happening.”
“I can assure you, friends, that this is very much happening. Well, it has happened. And now, it is my job to take you through the transition to the other side.”
“You —you planned this!” squealed Abigail. “All along we believed you were there to support Noelle, but you were planning this the whole time. What were you doing? Stalking us? Bugging the house to hear in on our conversations?”
“No, Abigail. I’m a werewolf, not an FBI agent.”
“How dare you speak to my wife that way!” Garett yelled, standing up with such force that his chair flew back against the wall.
Suddenly, Garrett’s skin began rippling and without any warning, a loud crack sounded
throughout the basement. His bones were breaking and his skin was shredding, releasing a silvery-gray fur.
“What are you doing to him?” Abigail screamed, frozen in her spot.
“I’m not doing anything,” Declan said. “He’s transforming for the first time. It will get easier and less painful with time, and you will learn to control it instead of having your emotions control you.”
Declan walked over to the newly transformed wolf that was whimpering on the ground and laid his hand on Garett’s head.
“Just breathe, relax,” Declan said soothingly. “You’ll be okay. I understand that you all are very confused by many things, mainly what has happened to you. That’s what my role is in all of this. I can assure you that I played no part in the plan to do this to you and your family. However, I can also say that it is a much better alternative to being dead.”
The family turned to one another as looks of confusion and fear were mixed amongst them. Abigail walked tentatively over to her husband who still laid on the ground. He was happily licking around the sharp claws that had only recently emerged from his paws. She laid a hand on his stomach and patted him gently.
He turned his head to look at her and licked her hand softly and Abigail pulled back, repulsed. “I can’t even look at him,” she whispered.
“Well,” Declan said, “you’re going to need to get used to it because you are all going to transform, very soon. Gabriel here, he’s going to take you on your first hunt, tonight.”
“A hunt?” Another woman gasped, grabbing at her neck where a faint line remained from a gruesome wound.