Cursed Ugly Mate: Reborn For Vengeance | Read Free Preview
Read chapters 1–3 of Cursed Ugly Mate: Reborn For Vengeance free. Unlock the full ebook when you are ready to keep going.
Chapter 1
Leah
My name is Leah White, and I was born cursed.
My mother, Louisa, was the chosen priestess of the Silver Moon Pack, sworn to serve the Moon Goddess in her temple with songs and prayers. She was meant to devote her entire life to the Goddess—no love, no mate, no children. But she fell in love with Lycan King Sylus, and I was the result of that forbidden bond.
The Moon Goddess is cunning. Instead of punishing my mother directly, she cursed me: hideous red blotches across my face that would only vanish if someone truly loved me… or if I died. My mother swore an oath to protect me no matter the cost, and she paid for it with her life, bleeding out after a difficult birth.
The Silver Moon Pack’s Alpha was ashamed of the scandal. He erased my mother’s existence and dumped me—an infant—with a family in the distant Night Shadow Pack that shared no blood with me. That’s how I ended up under the roof of my stepmother, Martha Cole.
From the moment I could walk, I was the pack’s punching bag. Martha never hid her hatred. She called me “ugly bastard” to my face and made me sleep in the freezing attic on a rotting mattress, feeding me scraps after everyone else had eaten. Her real daughter, Ella—my stepsister—was the pack’s golden girl: silver-gray hair like liquid moonlight, perfect skin, and a smile that made every male wolf weak. Ella bullied me relentlessly. She’d rip my clothes at gatherings so everyone could laugh at the “monster marks” on my face. She spread rumors that my curse was contagious. And Martha? She whipped me for the smallest mistakes and locked me in the basement for days without food. “A thing like you should have died in the womb,” she’d hiss.
I grew up believing I was worthless, but I clung to one desperate hope: that somewhere out there was my true mate, someone who would see past the scars and love me for who I was.
When I turned twenty, I discovered I had a rare gift for werewolf medicine. I poured everything into it, becoming the best healer the Night Shadow Pack had ever seen. Still, they treated me like trash. Ella sabotaged my work every chance she got, jealous even of the skill I had that she didn’t.
Then came Samuel Black.
He was a warrior who’d been crippled by wolfsbane poisoning—abandoned by the pack, left to rot. I spent months nursing him back to health, using forbidden herbs and techniques no one else dared try. When he finally stood on his own again, he dropped to one knee and proposed. He called me his savior, promised to protect me forever. I believed him.
It was like a dream comes true.
The three-year engagement was hell disguised as heaven.
He refused to announce me publicly, always saying, “Wait until I’m stronger.” In private, his kindness dried up. He flinched when I got too close, muttering that my blotches made him nauseous. Still, I stayed. I healed his lingering injuries in secret, helped him climb the ranks, gave him everything.
A year ago, I found out I was pregnant with his child.
I thought it would change everything. I thought he’d finally see me as more than a tool. I told him with trembling hands and tears of joy.
He laughed in my face.
“You think I’d let that thing live?” he sneered. “Your blood would ruin my line.” That night, he forced wolfsbane-laced tea down my throat. I miscarried in agony, bleeding alone on the floor while he walked out to spend the night with Ella. “You were just a toy,” he said on his way out. “And a bad one at that.”
After that, he didn’t even pretend anymore. He paraded Ella around the pack, let her hang on his arm while I watched from the shadows. He used my skills to gain power, then mocked me openly: “The barren freak couldn’t even keep a pup alive.”
I died inside long before they killed me.
It happened in the Moon Shadow Pack hospital.
The air stank of antiseptic and wolfsbane.
Slap.
His palm cracked across my face. I clutched my burning cheek, staring in disbelief at the man I’d loved for three years—Samuel Black.
“You… want me to save Ella? You know she needs my heart!”
A werewolf’s heart holds pure lunar power—the only cure for severe wolfsbane poisoning. Taking it would kill me.
“So what?” Samuel’s ice-blue eyes glittered with contempt. He dragged a finger across my blotched skin hard enough to draw blood. “Ella is the most desired female in the kingdom. And you? You really thought I could love this?” He gestured at my face. “I endured you for three years because your heart could save her. That’s it. The engagement, the nights I touched you—every second made me sick. And that miscarriage? Best thing that ever happened. I’d never let a monster like you bear my heir.”
Every word carved deeper. Three years of devotion, my healing gift, my body, our lost child—all for nothing. He and Ella had been lovers the whole time, laughing behind my back.
Blood tears rolled down my cheeks as I laughed—broken, hysterical. “I loved a monster.”
Samuel grabbed my wrist, forcing me to obey him.
“Take her to surgery,” he ordered. “Harvest the heart. Make sure she feels it.”
Anesthesia flooded my veins, paralyzing my body but leaving my mind screaming. The side door opened. Martha walked in with fake tears, and Ella—supposedly poisoned and dying—sat up on the table, perfectly healthy, smirking.
“Thank you for the heart, dear sister,” Ella purred, stroking my hair. “Too bad I never needed it. The poisoning was a performance—Samuel’s idea. We just needed you compliant long enough to cut it out and boost his power.” She leaned close. “He told me about the pup. Said it was the most disgusting thing he’d ever heard.”
Rage and grief exploded inside me.
Then Ella screamed, staring at my face.
The blotches were gone.
In the reflection of the steel tray, I saw myself for the first time—flawless skin, luminous green eyes brighter than moonlight, beauty that eclipsed Ella a hundredfold. The curse had lifted in the moment of death.
“No!” Ella shrieked, face twisting with jealousy. “Kill her now! She can’t be prettier than me!”
Martha snatched a scalpel. “She should’ve died years ago—stealing attention, daring to breed—”
I couldn’t speak, but my lips formed the words: I will haunt you. All of you. Blood for blood.
Martha laughed coldly and plunged the blade into my chest.
Pain consumed me. With my last strength, I lunged, teeth sinking into her throat, tearing flesh. She screamed as the knife twisted deeper. Blood filled my lungs.
The Moon Goddess’s lament echoed in my ears as darkness closed in.
I will have revenge. I will make them suffer a thousand times more.
Pain—sharp, blinding pain—yanked me awake.
My eyes flew open to a man’s face inches from mine. He was pinning me down, body heavy and scorching hot against me. Jet-black hair fell in blood-streaked strands over eyes dark as midnight—predatory, intense, burning with raw possession. His broad chest pressed into me, every hard muscle outlined beneath a torn shirt, radiating lethal power and pure Alpha dominance. Rough fingers clamped over my mouth, calloused palm searing my skin.
Blood and pine and wild storm filled my lungs—his scent. It slammed into me like lightning, igniting every nerve. Heat flooded my core, fierce and uncontrollable. My body arched instinctively, thighs clenching as liquid desire soaked through me. I’d never felt anything like this—this desperate, aching need to be claimed, bitten, filled. My breath came in shallow gasps, vision hazy with want.
Who is he? Why does his scent make me want to beg?
Then recognition hit.
The scent of the sea air through the porthole. The gentle rock of waves.
This was the cruise ship cabin—three years ago.
The night before I was supposed to marry Samuel.
I’ve been reborn.
And this time, they will all burn.
Chapter 2
Leah
My heart slammed against my ribs like it was trying to break free. The man on top of me was a stranger—dangerous, bleeding, and far too heavy—yet every breath I took dragged in more of his scent, dark and smoky, like pine resin burning under a winter moon. It sank into my lungs and set my blood on fire. Fear clawed at me, sharp and rational, but beneath it ran something hotter, something that made my thighs clench and my skin prickle with need. I didn’t understand it. I’d never felt anything close to this before.
His black eyes burned into mine, pupils blown wide with the same hunger I felt twisting inside me. For a second I thought he might kiss me—or kill me. Maybe both. His hips shifted, pressing harder between my legs, and I felt the unmistakable ridge of him, thick and rigid against me. A low growl rumbled in his chest, vibrating through my body. My breath hitched; heat flooded me so fast I had to bite my lip to keep from moaning.
He was already working his belt open with one hand, the metallic clink loud in the small cabin. The sound snapped something in me. Panic finally overrode the haze of lust.
“Don’t touch me!” I shouted, shoving at his chest with all the strength I had. “I’m Samuel Black’s fiancée—the second son of Moon Growler Pack!”
The name hit him like cold water. His fingers froze on his zipper, and something icy flashed across those midnight eyes. Good. He knew the name. He knew the consequences.
I pressed my advantage, voice steady even though my pulse was racing. “You know who Samuel is. You know what happens to anyone who touches his future wife. Leave now, and I’ll pretend this never happened.”
Footsteps thundered in the corridor outside, accompanied by furious snarls. “Kaelen’s gotta be on this deck! Search every damn room!”
Kaelen. So that was his name.
My stomach dropped. He wasn’t some random predator looking for an easy mark—he was a hunted man. Someone was after him, which meant he was either incredibly valuable or incredibly dangerous. Probably both.
Before I could process that, something cold and impossibly hard pressed between my legs. I glanced down in horror—and saw the glint of a dagger, not… what I’d thought. Heat flooded my face. He hadn’t been undoing his pants to take me. He’d been reaching for a weapon.
He shifted his weight, powerful arms caging me in, the flat of the blade now resting against my throat. Alpha pressure rolled off him in waves, thick and suffocating. Desperation etched tight lines around his mouth; he knew he was cornered.
Warm wetness seeped through my shirt. I looked at my hand—blood. His blood. A gunshot wound in his side, edges already blackening from wolfsbane. The poison was spreading fast. Without treatment, it would reach his heart in minutes. Whoever wanted him dead had broken kingdom law to make sure it stuck.
He was going to die. And if those wolves outside found him here, they’d kill me too for hiding him.
I swallowed against the steel at my throat. “I can get you out of this,” I said quickly. “I can treat the wolfsbane poisoning. But you don’t touch me. You don’t hurt me. Deal?”
His eyes narrowed, wild and distrustful. “Why the hell should I trust you?”
“You don’t have a choice,” I shot back. “We either both die in the next two minutes, or we both live. Pick one.”
For a heartbeat he just stared, chest heaving. Then the feral edge in his gaze softened—just a fraction. “You better not be playing games.”
“Put the knife away before we’re both dead.”
With a fluid twist of his wrist—smooth, lethal, almost beautiful—he sheathed the dagger and slid it under the pillow.
Footsteps were closer now, voices right outside the door. No time.
I flipped us in one desperate surge, straddling him, pinning his broad shoulders beneath me. My hair tumbled down like a curtain, hiding the blood soaking his side. I rolled my hips slowly, deliberately, letting out a breathy moan that sounded far more convincing than I felt.
He went rigid beneath me, clearly stunned that the blotch-faced female dared to take control. I leaned down, lips brushing his ear, and whispered, “Play along.”
At first he did—mechanical, tense, hands hovering without touching. But then his palms settled on my waist, thumbs pressing into bare skin where my shirt had ridden up. His grip tightened. His hips lifted to meet mine, slow and deliberate, and the growl that left his throat this time wasn’t acting. Heat flared low in my belly again, treacherous and overwhelming. I tried to pull back, but his strength was absolute; I couldn’t have escaped if I wanted to.
Just as I felt myself slipping—ready to give in, terrified I might—the door exploded inward.
Chapter 3
Leah
Three armed men filled the doorway, silhouettes against the hallway light. They froze at the sight of us: my back arched, hair spilling everywhere, body moving in a rhythm that left nothing to the imagination.
One of them let out a low whistle—until I turned my head. The red marks on my face hit them like a bucket of ice water. Their expressions curdled.
“Ugh. Wrong room,” one muttered, slamming the door shut.
The footsteps retreated.
I shoved off him instantly, scrambling to the far side of the bed, chest heaving. Moonlight sliced through the curtains, illuminating the wound. The skin around it had gone pitch black; his lips were turning purple. Wolfsbane was minutes from his heart.
He didn’t wait for me. He ripped off his shirt, balled it, bit down on the fabric, and dug his own fingers into the bullet hole. Blood sprayed. My stomach lurched.
“Are you insane?!” I hissed, already yanking clothes on and grabbing my medical kit from the suitcase. “I’m a werewolf physician. I can treat wolfsbane poisoning. Move your hand.”
He didn’t argue. Just watched me with those unreadable eyes while I worked.
I cleaned the wound, sprinkled hemostatic powder laced with lunar silver—rare, expensive, and the only thing that could slow wolfsbane long enough to extract it safely—then threaded a needle. Every time the needle pierced skin he inhaled sharply, muscles jumping under my fingers. I tried not to notice how warm he was, how the raw Alpha power in him seemed to pulse against my palms.
“Can’t handle a little stitching?” I muttered, glancing up. “Not so tough now, huh? Especially after you decided to play surgeon on yourself.”
His gaze was already locked on me—curious, intense, like I was a puzzle he intended to solve. Heat rushed to my cheeks; my hands shook. The stitches ended up crooked and ugly, but they held.
Half an hour later the bleeding had stopped. My fingertips kept brushing his skin accidentally—each touch sending little sparks through me, like static from a storm.
“Done,” I said, sitting back.
His hand shot out, fingers clamping gently but firmly under my chin, tilting my face toward the faint light. He studied me the way no one ever had—slowly, thoroughly. My small face, the bright green eyes everyone said were my only decent feature, and the curse of red blotches that ruined everything else.
I tried to jerk away. The second I broke contact, something inside me howled—a desperate, pained sound from my wolf that made me freeze. She was frantic, clawing at the separation.
Without thinking, I shifted closer. Just an inch. His scent wrapped around me again, and the howling quieted. A satisfied smirk tugged at his mouth—smug, knowing, infuriating.
“Your name,” he demanded. “And pack.”
I pressed my lips together. “The wolves hunting you are gone. You should leave.”
He gave a soft, dangerous laugh. Then, quick as a striking snake, he plucked the necklace from my throat—the only thing my mother had left me, engraved with the Silver Moon priestess sigil.
“Give it back!” I lunged.
He held it high, inspecting the pendant while I jumped uselessly, too short to reach. Amusement glinted in his eyes.
“What, a gift from your mate?” he teased.
“It’s none of your business,” I snapped. Outwardly I was furious, but inside my wolf was practically purring, delirious with the attention. It made me want to scream.
He toyed with me a moment longer—like a cat with a half-dead mouse—then strode to the porthole window.
No way was he escaping with my mother’s pendant.
I threw myself at him. He didn’t dodge. He caught me instead, arms banding around my waist, lifting me clean off the floor. I struggled, but it was pointless; my wolf melted under his touch, turning my limbs to jelly.
He dipped his head, face inches from mine, voice low and velvet-rough. “When you reach Atwak City, come to The Nest Nightclub. I’ll return your necklace then.”
Before I could answer, his hand brushed the nape of my neck—gentle, almost tender—and the world went black.
When I woke, the ship had docked. Sunlight streamed through the porthole. I was alone.
My neck ached where he’d struck the pressure point. I checked myself quickly—clothes intact, body untouched. Relief washed over me.
I rolled over and felt something hard under my arm. The dagger he’d hidden beneath the pillow. I picked it up, blew a strand of hair across the blade; it sliced clean through. Pure Alpha-forged steel—worth a fortune.
Consider it payment for services rendered. As for tracking down a dangerous stranger in some nightclub? Not in this lifetime.
This life was for revenge. I had no time for lethal Alphas who made my wolf lose her mind.
I tucked the dagger away, caught my reflection in the small mirror, and paused. The red blotches… they looked lighter. Faded, almost. Wishful thinking, probably.
No time to wonder. I had plans to make.
The ship’s horn sounded as we docked in Atwak City. Cold, salty wind whipped my hair the moment I stepped onto the gangway. My eyes narrowed against it, resolve hardening in my chest.
Samuel. Martha. Ella.
I’m back.
This time, I’m coming for you.
At the edge of the pier, Night Shadow Pack’s steward Aman stood scanning the crowd, muttering under his breath. “Where is that ugly girl…?”
I smiled—a small, sharp thing—and started toward him.
Finished the preview?
Unlock the full ebook now and continue the story right away. Get instant access after purchase — no shipping, no waiting. Delivered as PDF and EPUB for reading on phone, tablet, or desktop.
👉 Unlock the Full Story — Cursed Ugly Mate: Reborn For Vengeance ($9.99)