Chapter 3: The Cursed King's Arrival

Amelia POV

I woke up entirely hollow.

Sophia was gone. Not dead, but retreated so deeply into the recesses of my shattered mind that I couldn't even feel her faint heartbeat. The suffocating pain of the broken bond had mercifully receded into a dull, permanent phantom ache. I was no longer a werewolf; I was just an empty, broken vessel waiting for the dirt.

"Get her up," a sharp voice commanded through the haze.

Rough hands grabbed my bruised armpits, hauling me violently to my feet. My vision swam as Rebecca and another maid dragged me out of the dungeon and directly into the blinding morning light of the communal washrooms. They didn't speak. They scrubbed the dried blood and dungeon filth from my pale skin with freezing water and stiff brushes, treating me like a contaminated corpse being prepared for the morgue.

When they were finished, Rebecca forcefully shoved a heavy, overly ornate black velvet dress over my head. It smelled faintly of Margaret's nauseating perfume. It was a mourning dress.

"Listen to me carefully, you pathetic breeder," Rebecca hissed, her fingers digging cruelly into my bruised shoulders. "Alpha Brandon, in his infinite, graceful mercy, has found a use for your worthless existence. You are being traded today. To Alpha Leonardo of the Obsidian Fang pack."

My heart, which I thought had completely stopped beating, gave a terrified, violent lurch.

*The Cursed King of the North.*

Every pup was raised on the horrific campfire tales of Obsidian Fang. A bloodline cursed by the Moon Goddess herself. Every single bride forced into Alpha Leonardo's bed tragically withered away and died an agonizing, unexplainable death within a year. He was a ruthless warlord who actively thrived on bloodshed, purchasing expendable omegas from weaker packs just to desperately try to beat the curse and produce an heir.

Leaving Brandon was a mercy, but being sold as a sacrificial lamb to a literal monster was a uniquely cruel form of psychological torture. They marched me like a dead woman walking into the grand pack hall.

The atmosphere was incredibly tense, completely devoid of the usual boisterous pack chatter. The Crimson Crescent warriors stood rigidly at attention, practically sweating with palpable fear. Margaret stood safely tucked behind Brandon’s massive shoulder, her eyes gleaming with wicked, triumphant satisfaction as I was shoved unceremoniously into the dimmest corner of the hall.

Then, the heavy oak doors blew violently open, and the temperature in the room plummeted instantly to below freezing.

He didn't just casually walk into the room; he entirely consumed it.

Alpha Leonardo was a terrifying masterpiece of dark, lethal predation. He towered over every man in the room, his ridiculously broad shoulders draped in a heavy, black fur cloak that swept the polished floors. His midnight-black hair fell slightly over eyes that were as dark, cold, and endlessly deep as a starless abyss. Intricate, aggressive tattoos of creeping thorns lashed up his neck, disappearing behind his sharp, aristocratic jawline. The sheer, suffocating weight of his Alpha aura physically forced several of our elite warriors to instinctively drop to one knee.

He was death incarnate.

"Alpha Leonardo," Brandon greeted, his voice noticeably tighter, lacking its usual arrogant boom. He stepped forward, attempting a smile that looked deeply sickening. "We are immensely honored."

Leonardo didn't even acknowledge the greeting. His piercing, abyssal gaze swept the room with absolute boredom and quiet disgust, completely dismissing Brandon as if he were an annoying insect.

"The treaty is heavily dependent on this transaction, Brandon. Do not waste my valuable time," Leonardo's voice was a deep, violently vibrating baritone that rattled the crystal chandeliers above us. It wasn't a request; it was an executioner's demand.

Brandon's fake smile faltered. He immediately pointed a stiff finger directly toward my dark corner. "There. The omega, Amelia. As explicitly outlined in our terms."

Suddenly, time completely suspended.

Alpha Leonardo slowly turned his massive head, his dark, terrifying gaze cutting through the shadows and locking directly onto mine. The air violently rushed out of my lungs. I braced myself for the familiar, crushing disgust I always received from Alphas. I waited for his lip to curl, for him to reject the broken, bruised bride presented to him.

But as his endless black eyes fully absorbed my frail, shivering frame, something entirely inexplicable happened. The oppressive, freezing temperature of the room suddenly spiked. His sharp jaw clenched so violently the muscles visibly jumped, and the dark, abyssal emptiness in his eyes suddenly fractured, replaced by an intense, terrifying, and fiercely possessive heat that completely rooted me to the marble floor.