Chosen By The Cursed Alpha King (Emilia) novel Chapter 50

I froze.

The door stood open, and in its frame was him.

The King’s beta.

My stomach dropped like a stone in water, dread crashing through me so violently I nearly choked on it. His eyes-sharp, stormy, unflinching

—locked onto me where I sat with the King’s head still resting in my lap. His gaze flicked from me to Maximus, back to me again, disbelief flaring like lightning in a storm.

I scrambled for words, for air, for sense.

“-I can explain!” My voice cracked, too high, too desperate. The words stumbled out before I could catch them, tripping over each other like i frightened children. “I didn’t mean-I wasn’t trying to-| just wandered, and then-then somehow lended up here and we-well, we decided to talk and-”

I stopped.

Because even to my own ears, I sounded like an idiot.

The Beta’s brows drew together, his mouth a firm line. He didn’t speak right away, didn’t yell like I expected. He just stared at me, long and unblinking, his shock gradually folding into something heavier.

I swallowed hard, my throat tight. I shouldn’t have been here. I wasn’t supposed to see this. I wasn’t supposed to know.

The Beta shook his head once, a slow, deliberate motion, like he couldn’t quite believe the sight before him. Then, finally, he spoke. His voice wasn’t loud, wasn’t harsh-but it carried weight, the kind that pressed down on me like an iron collar.”Tell me everything,” he said.

I blinked, stunned. I had expected rage. Threats. Maybe even my immediate execution for daring to trespass into this room. But instead

-calm. Controlled. His tone was sharp steel sheathed in velvet, dangerous precisely because it wasn’t raised.

“What?” I whispered.

“Tell me,” he repeated, his eyes narrowing slightly, “how you’re still alive.”

Alive.

The word hit me like a slap.

I stared at him, my mouth opening and closing soundlessly. “I-what?”

“You heard me,” he said, voice steady but laced with something I couldn’t name. Suspicion? Curiosity? Fear? “Tell me how you’re alive when you should not be.”

My lips parted, but no words came. My brain scrambled for something

-anything-that wouldn’t sound insane.

He moved then, stepping further inside the room, and my heart hammered against my ribs so violently I thought it would crack me open. His gaze dropped to the king-still unconscious, his breath steady but ragged, his body swathed in the sheet I had pulled around him. The Beta’s eyes flickered with confusion, with calculation.

Without another word, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a key, and crossed to us.

I froze as he crouched beside the King’s heavy frame, slipping the key into the cuffs still biting into his wrists. With a soft clink, the iron restraints fell free. He moved to the ankles next, repeating the same action until the King was fully unbound. Then, with surprisinggentleness for a man built like carved stone, he lifted him and settled him onto the bed, arranging him so he lay properly instead of slumped half-dead in my lap.

The sheet slid further over him, hiding the sharp planes of his chest, the marks of strain etched into his skin.

I sat frozen, watching, my pulse a frantic storm in my ears.

When the Beta finally straightened, his gaze returned to me. His eyes were harder now, sharper, like blades honed for battle.

“Now,” he said quietly, “tell me exactly what happened.”

gave a nervous laugh, brittle and awkward, the sound scraping at my throat. “I told you-I didn’t mean to come here. Really, I didn’t. I was just gurious. Wandering. I didn’t-”

His stare didn’t waver.

The laugh died in my throat.

He stepped closer, his shadow falling over me, his presence suffocating in its sheer weight. “I’m being serious,” he said, low and firm. “Do not waste my time with lies or nervous excuses. I need the truth, girl. Now.

I nodded quickly, fear clawing up my spine. “O-okay. Okay.”

My mind scrambled, replaying everything in a blur-the lake, the . change in Maximus’s demeanor, the way he had ordered his Beta to chain him, the beast tearing itself apart inside him.

“Yesterday,” I started, my voice shaky but growing steadier with each word, “at the lake-he suddenly… acted strange. He left. I followed him. I-I know I shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t stop myself. I saw him come here. I heard him… tell you to chain him.”The Beta’s eyes flickered, but he said nothing.

“I didn’t understand,” I went on, my words tumbling faster now, desperate to fill the silence. “Why would the King-why would he want that? I—| needed to know. So I came in. I stayed.” My breath hitched, my voice dropping to a whisper. “And then I found him in that state and he..he almost killed me.”

I swallowed, forcing the lump in my throat down. “But he didn’t.”

Silence.

The Beta studied me, his expression unreadable. His eyes felt like knives, stripping me bare, searching for cracks in my words.

I shrugged helplessly, intimidated under the weight of his stare. ” don’t know why. He just… didn’t. I should be dead, but I’m not.”

His jaw tightened. Something flickered across his face-confusion, suspicion, maybe even fear-but it vanished before I could pin it down.

He looked back at Maximus, then at me again.

“Nobody,” he said at last, his voice like a blade dragged across stone, ” is supposed to see the King in this state.”

Panic surged through me. “-I didn’t mean to-”

His head shook, sharp, cutting off my defense. “This is the second time.”

My heart skipped.

He knew.

He knew I had seen the beast before. I didn’t know it was the King then but now I do.

Cold dread raced down my spine.”I swear,” I rushed out, my words tripping over each other, “I won’t tell anyone. I won’t say a word about this. Not to anyone, ever. You have my word.”

His gaze bore intome, unrelenting. Then, slowly, he nodded once.

You’d better not. Because if you do-”

“T won’t!” I cutin, almost too quickly. My lips pressed together, then I mimed zipping them shut, forcing a nervous smile I didn’t feel. “See?

Mouth closed. Forever.”

He didn’t smile back. His eyes, dark and piercing, stayed locked on me.

Finally, he said, “You need to cooperate. You need to understand exactly what you’re tangled in, Emilia.”

Before I could answer, a sound tore through the silence.

A groan.

The air between us thickened, heavy enough to choke on.

Then, suddenly, he released me.

I stumbled back, my hand flying to my throat, skin tingling where his fingers had been. He turned away from me sharply, his broad back cutting me off, his body rigid with tension. The air crackled with silence, thick and suffocating, until his voice cut through it like a blade.

“Lucien.”

The Beta straightened instantly, his presence a looming shadow in the room. “Yes, Your Majesty.”” told you to keep an eye on her.”

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty,” Lucien said quickly, his voice steady but tinged with shame. “I didn’t think she’d be able to sneak out. There was a guard stationed right outside her door. We thought she was in your room all night. We didn’t know she was here.”

I lifted my chin, my voice cracking the heavy silence. “You know, you should be thanking me.”

Both their heads turned toward me.

“I stayed with you all night,” I said, forcing a smile I didn’t feel, my voice wobbling between defiance and nervousness. “You could’ve been-who knows what-but I was here. Watching over you. Making sure you didn’t…” My words trailed off as the King’s eyes darkened further, his futy simmering, his jaw tight.

“I don’t know what stupid superpower you think you have,” he said, each word bitten off like a curse, “but nothing would’ve pieced you back together if I had ripped you to shreds.”

My mouth opened, but no words came out. He was right. Completely, terrifyingly right.

But I wasn’t about to say that out loud.

“Your Majesty,” Lucien interjected carefully, his tone measured, “this confirms it. She’s special. She has been with you twice now-twice-and still, you didn’t kill her. That’s not chance.”

Maximus’s head snapped toward him, his voice a whip-crack.

“Not now,

Lucien.”

The Beta’s mouth shut instantly, his eyes dropping, silent once again.

“Take her,” the King ordered, his voice cold.

“No.” The word shot out of me before I could stop it. My body stiffened, but I held his gaze, my defiance trembling but unbroken. “I’m staying here.”

The silence that followed was worse than his rage. For a second, I thought the room itself might shatter.

Then-he snapped.

“Don’t make me lose it, Emilia!” he roared, the sound reverberating off the walls, shaking me to my core. His fury was a storm breaking open, his chest heaving, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. “You’re really pissing me off!”

My heart thundered against my ribs, but I forced myself to meet his gaze, to keep standing when every instinct screamed at me to cower.

“I know what this is about,” I said, my voice steady despite the terror clawing at my insides. “You’re not just mad I came here. You’re mad that I saw you.”

His eyes blazed, fury and something else-shame?-clashing in their depths.

“You’re mad that I saw you in that state,” I whispered.

His roar cracked through the room like lightning.

“You shouldn’t have fucking seen me like that!”