The Alpha Who Cursed His Mate novel Chapter 1

"Come on, Magnus, please play hide and seek with me," Nina begs me with her large, brown, doe-like eyes.

I walk towards her with abrupt haste. She steps back until she feels the bluestone wall against her back. I tower over her with ease. My mother, Astrid, the Luna of Shadow Crest, always reminds me that when I was born, I was double the size of a regular wolf baby and almost a foot taller and much broader than any other ten-year-old. She says I may even become the mightiest Alpha of all one day.

Glaring down into Nina's eyes, I huff, "I'm still mad at you for tricking me into putting salt on my cereal this morning instead of sugar,"

Nina's face lights up with a smile. 'The look on your face when you ate it, though, was so worth it," she giggles.

"Why do you always enjoy making me the laughingstock of the family? Do you hate me that much?"

"It's not like that, Magnus. You're my best friend, always and forever. We are just having fun,"

"Fun! You're not the one who gets into trouble for your little pranks and silly games. No one will take me seriously when I become the Alpha,"

"Of course, everyone will take you seriously, Magnus. You're overthinking it. Look, I'm sorry about this morning. Please play hide and seek with me?" She says, batting her eyelids at me.

I'm struggling to say no and instead sigh, "Fine,"

"Yay!" She grabs my hand and pulls me along towards the large walled dam. 'Now, last time was boring though, so this time I brought this." Nina removes a blindfold from her pocket and waves it like a flag in front of my face.

"A blindfold?"

"Yes, I'll blindfold you, and you count to a hundred because I know you have been peeking, and that's how you find me so easily."

She isn't lying. I never fully close my eyes to see which direction she goes. Because she is so tiny and petite compared to me, I kneel so she can tie the blindfold around my eyes.

Holding my hand, she guides me to a nearby area. 'Okay, you can start counting now," she lets out a mischievous giggle.

"Nina, this better not be another prank," I yell out as she runs away, but she doesn't reply. Sighing, I start to count. As soon as I reach twenty, I feel a stronger vibration with each second. Following my gut instincts, I remove the blindfold to see I'm standing in the empty creek that leads water from the dam down to the river. I'm roughly fifty meters from the dam's gate. Warriors open the gate to release water from the dam when it's close to overflowing, which is right now. Water rushes down the creek, washing me away in the rapids. Nina runs alongside the stream giggling as I'm flung around in the water.

"Nina!" I yell and spit water out that has entered my mouth.

"Enjoying your bath?" She yells.