Page 35 of Fated to the Lone Shifter (Curse of the Lunaris Alpha #1)

Chapter thirty-two

Wolf Trap

NOAH

T he moment I reach the circle, my heart drops.

There they are—my parents—unconscious, dangling like lifeless marionettes from two crude poles over a pyre. Sacrifices waiting to be offered up.

I don’t see the fire. I don’t see Sera. I just run. All I see is red. Feral instinct takes hold, and I charge with everything I have.

But I don’t make it.

The second I hit the wall of fire, I slam back like I’ve crashed into a brick of enchanted glass. The force knocks me on my ass, teeth bared, head spinning. I roll in the dust, smothering the fire that has attacked my fur coat. I’ve seen this before.

Sera.

I see her now. Standing just inside the circle, arms tense, brow glistening with concentration. Her magic. She’s shielding them—even from me. Smart. Annoying as hell, but smart. I give her the faintest nod, equal parts gratitude, annoyance and residual pain.

Then the wolves close in.

Marcus among them. I recognize his scent—his shift is complete now, eyes glowing, posture tight. I sense the war going on inside of him. He doesn’t want this. He doesn’t want to be this. But he doesn’t feel strong enough to fight it alone.

The Lunaris pack, all six of them, circles like vultures around a carcass.

I don’t hesitate. The moment the first wolf lunges, I meet it with a snarl and a claw. Teeth clash with teeth. I duck a swipe, roll under a leaping beast, and slam its head into the ground. I am grossly outnumbered, but I have no choice but to fight for everything I know and love.

Then I hear it—gunshots.

Three. Each one sings with metallic finality.

Silver.

I turn just in time to see Sera—my witch, my mate—standing outside of the circle taking them down one by one. Her FBI training in full force, she does not miss. The wolves she hits crumple with pitiful yelps, curling into themselves as the silver eats them alive.

Not bureau-issued, I think with a rush of admiration. That's witch-issued. Custom work.

Her efficiency buys me time. I twist the head off the nearest wolf with a sickening crack and lunge for another, sinking my fangs into the soft tissue at the throat. Blood gushes. The wolf collapses under me.

Then Marcus is there—hovering over the broken wolf, his body trembling, fists clenched at his sides. His golden eyes shimmer with pain, disbelief, and the weight of a thousand unspoken regrets.

His mate I see.

I freeze for a second.

Her body is motionless. Her neck lies at an unnatural angle. Marcus stares down at her, breath labored, and I feel his pain like it’s my own.

Before I can speak, Sera appears beside me, silent and sure, athame in hand. Marcus bolts into the darkness as she plunges the blade into the dying wolf beneath me. The creature lets out one final, blood-curdling scream before she slices its head clean off.

She’s ruthless. Controlled. And utterly terrifying.

I stare at her, breath heaving, chest soaked in blood—hers, mine, theirs, who knows. There’s something wild in her eyes. But she doesn’t flinch. She pushes the decapitated wolf’s limp body and offers it to me.

Grateful, I feed.

My gaze never leaves her.

Around us, the field is eerily quiet. The dead are finally still. And we—Sera and I—are the last two standing.

The fire wall begins to burn itself out. An eerie silence falls over the space.

Until…

A low laugh echoes through the trees.

I spin, blood still on my tongue.

Bode.

He stands just behind the pyre, in human form, bold as hell.

His salt-and-pepper hair is slicked back, his shirt half-buttoned, chest streaked with sweat and blood.

He doesn’t even glance at the corpses around us.

His eyes—those predatory red-rimmed eyes—are locked on me. He holds a gas can in his hand.

“Ah, you won’t charge me yet, Little Noah.”

The nickname hits like a slap. No one’s called me that in twenty years. Not since—

I snarl, low and warning.

“You have too many questions,” Bode continues, taking a lazy step forward. “Questions momma and daddy couldn’t answer. Questions you’ve always been too scared to ask.”

I study him, calmly pacing. His posture’s loose, cocky. But there’s tension in his limbs, a readiness to strike. He’s baiting me, waiting for the exact right moment.

“You can’t take my fated mate,” he says. “We’re bonded. Aren’t we, Sera?”

I don’t look at her. I don’t have to. My wolf answers for me, a deep, guttural growl that shakes in my chest.

“You can’t take her from me, Noah. I am the alpha. I’ve always been the alpha. Just ask your father.”

I clench my fists so hard my claws pierce skin.

“He thought he could take your mother from me after we were bonded. They thought I’d just let it go. Thought banishment was enough to keep me quiet. But you? You were as much mine as theirs.”

My breath stutters.

Sera steps forward. Her voice is steel. “Then why did you leave him behind?”

Bode smirks, tongue running along his teeth. “Police were sniffing too close. Besides, I thought the little pup had burned with his parents. If I’d known he’d lived…” He shrugs. “Maybe I’d have come back. Raised him right.”

We all know this is a lie. Bode would have eaten his young rather than allow me to live.

Sera bristles. “Then he wouldn’t have become the brave hero he is today. His only crime …falling in love with the woman fate chose for him.”

My heart thunders in my chest. Her words lift me like a punch I didn’t see coming.

Bode laughs. It’s not human. It’s unhinged.

“That’s the problem. Every man in his lineage falls for the wrong woman. And they pay for it. I thought I’d ended that curse. But no—fate is a stubborn mistress.”

I’ve heard enough.

Rage tears through me like wildfire.

I lunge.

But before I reach him, a circle of flame ignites—gasoline-fed and deliberate. It engulfs the pyre, crackling beneath my parents.

Sera runs toward the pyre, establishing a backfire.

Bode stands firm, doesn’t move. I wonder at an ego that would allow him to leave himself so vulnerable. What am I missing. I am almost at his feet. And then—

Snap.

Pain explodes in my leg. I roar as my foot catches in a steel trap hidden in the ground. My body slams sideways into the dirt.

I’m down.

Trapped. By a weapon of my own making. Re-positioned…by Bode.

And now

That’s when I feel it.

The ground beneath me trembles. The air thickens with magic. Dark, ancient, pulsing magic.

The curse has begun.

I wriggle against the track, heart hammering.

And just yards away, rising from the smoke—

Bode’s true form.

Larger. Darker. Crowned in flame.

Eyes burning straight into mine.

Then he’s airborne—teeth bared—leaping not for me--for Sera.

I shout her name, clawing at the trap, yanking with everything I have, but it’s too deep. Too tight.

She casts a blast of magic that sends Bode flying, but I can feel it—her strength is waning. She’s been holding a fire barrier around my parents, hurling spells, and dodging an alpha on a blood rampage. It’s too much for one witch.

I can’t get to her.

Not fast enough.

That’s when I hear him—Marcus. On the wolf channel.

“Why did you take my mate?”

“That was never my intention, Marcus,” I answer, blood roaring in my ears. “I am truly sorry, my friend. No one should lose their true fated mate."

"Not you, Noah. Bode. Marsha wasn’t my fated mate. Bode, you took my mate from me.”

There’s silence.

The trap creaks beneath me. I feel hands. Human.

Marcus.

He wrenches it open and pulls me free, sweat pouring down his face. His golden eyes meet mine, wounded and angry.

“He’s held our pasts over us long enough. Let's end this…for Natalie,” he spits out.

I nod, shift, and launch myself at the monster who dared call himself my blood.

The second the words are out of his mouth, I explode into the night like a cannonball.

Bode is on Sera again—claws out, jaw wide, his massive body shadowing hers in the firelight. Her hands are up, magic charging between her palms, but I can feel the strain in her aura. She’s fading.

He knocks her down.

I see red.

I charge, sink my fangs into his exposed flank mid-leap, and drag him back before he can finish her.

He yowls, spinning to rake claws across my chest, but I’m already ducking, already countering, driving him backward. We crash through the underbrush, a whirlwind of teeth and muscle, snapping jaws and raking talons.

But he’s strong—damn strong.

Bode slams me to the dirt. His paw comes down like a hammer. I barely roll in time. Pain shoots down my ribs. He’s got a good angle on me now, towering, his teeth glinting like daggers in the firelight.

And that’s when she hits him.

Sera’s spell explodes against his back—raw elemental fire.

He shrieks, thrashing wildly as smoke rises from his fur in thick, choking tendrils. The stench of scorched hair floods the clearing, sharp and acrid, mixing with his cries of pain.

I scramble up, blood pounding in my ears.

Sera’s on her knees, panting hard, one hand on the ground for balance, the other fumbling in her pouch for something. She’s empty. Drained. But she still manages a half-smile when she sees me.

That’s all I need.

I launch myself again, catching Bode mid-charge. We tumble, clawing, biting, snarling. My claws find his throat. I go for the kill—but he bucks and flings me off, just as Marcus barrels in from the right, his human form wielding a flaming branch like a club.

He slams it across Bode’s skull. Bode falls to the ground and rolls out the flames as if he’s a demon in hell.

His beast yowls in rage and pain, spinning on Marcus.

But Marcus doesn’t back down. He’s no longer the boy hiding behind excuses or running from his past. He’s here. In it. Fighting.

Bode hesitates—calculating, confused—and that’s when Marcus grabs the burning stick and presses it into the gasoline line.

The flames surge.

Bode snarls and leaps away, straight toward the Bensons.

No.

I race after him, lungs burning, limbs screaming. I can’t let him get to them. I can’t lose anyone else.

Not again.

But he’s faster, fueled by fury and desperation. He’s closing in on my parents—still unconscious, still helpless—when suddenly…

He stops.

I skid to a halt, nearly running into him, confused—until I see it.

He’s holding something.

An old, rusted pistol. Antique but deadly. Silver-tipped. He lifts it toward me with one shaking hand.

Bang.

The bullet sings past my ear, close enough to sear the air.

I dive behind a tree.

Bang.

Another shot. Too close.

Then a screech.

Not mine.

I look up.

A creature of molten flame is tearing through the clearing. Four-legged, feline. Eyes burning like twin suns.

A mountain lion.

A fire familiar.

Sera’s.

The beast pounces, slamming into Bode and engulfing him in flame. He howls, rolling, slapping at the blaze clawing up his side.

I stand mesmerized, just watching, as his body shrivels and shrinks.

At last, when the flames have subsided somewhat, I charge.

My jaws find his throat.

And this time—I don’t let go.

Bone snaps. Flesh tears.

When I finally pull back, his head rolls free, except for one strand of sinew.

It’s over.

It’s done.

I roll through the dust and phase back, limping, panting, my body a patchwork of blood and ash.

Behind me, Marcus is dragging my parents down from the poles. Sera is collapsed in the dirt, sipping from a glowing vial, her magic a thin shimmer barely holding form.

We’re alive.

Barely.

But alive.

The fire crackles behind me as I drag Bode’s mangled body across the circle.

I don't flinch at the sound of his bones scraping against the dirt. His head hangs by a thread of flesh, arms limp, what’s left of his legs twitching from the last nerve impulses of a monster who refused to die with dignity.

I stack his remains atop the others. The wolves who followed him blindly. The ones who made sport of killing. The ones who forgot what it meant to be a pack.

Sera is already on her feet. Pale, swaying, but upright. She doesn't speak as she pulls a small crystal from her pouch and lifts it to the sky.

The fire familiar returns—his molten eyes meeting hers as he emerges from the trees like a god summoned from the underworld. The air around him pulses with heat and power, a divine reckoning in fur and ember. With a gentle, reverent nod, he steps forward, padding over to the pile of bodies.

He breathes.

Flames ignite instantly. Hotter than any fire I’ve ever seen. They swirl with intention, with vengeance, devouring the bodies with a roar that drowns out everything else.

Sera lowers the crystal and whispers, “Thank you.”

The familiar vanishes, the smoke curling behind him like a promise kept.

Marcus drags my mother to an outcrop of rocks, supporting her on one side, while I rush to my father, pulling him with my one good arm and leg. They’re conscious now. Weak, confused, but alive.

I glance over at Sera. She meets my eyes, the gold in her irises still glowing faintly with the last embers of her magic, like coals that refuse to die.

My chest tightens—not just from the pain, but from the weight of everything she’s endured to keep us alive.

I don’t know what to say. So I don’t say anything. I just nod.

She nods back.

For now, that’s enough.

I squeeze my father’s hand as I settle him on the rock’s surface, my limp heavy, my ribs screaming. “We’re going to be okay,” I say, half to him, half to myself.

And for the first time in a long time…I believe it.

But as the night wind picks up, carrying the scent of burning fur and old magic, I can’t shake the feeling that this isn’t over.

Somewhere out there, the curse still lingers.

Watching.

Waiting.