Greymoor Academy: I Accidentally Bonded With Four Lycan Royals! novel Chapter 55

Chapter 55: 55. Dirty Secret

"Fiancée," I echoed, the bottle of water shaking in my grasp.

The word tumbled out of me in a shaky breath. My face went hot and my limbs went cold, both stretching towards the extremities.

"Your Highness!" Brynn gasped upon rounding the corner, the ever stern woman nearly shoving herself into the ground trying to give a proper curtesy. "We didn’t know to expect you!"

And then, she began gushing about how delighted she was to be in her presence, glazing her with compliment after compliment, until she was ordered to join the help with carrying the rest of the boxes outside.

"Make yourself useful," I believe those were the woman’s exact words.

But there was a wall of air in my ears, a blankness falling over my mind.

The woman’s eyes returned to me. Her lips parted to speak, but at the last second, her grey eyes lifted above my shoulder. I felt it half a second later. The steady wall of heat and the smell of Mercer’s aftershave.

"Koen," she said in a scathing tone.

I heard Mercer’s voice half a second later. "Princess." His tone was edgy and even if I didn’t turn, I felt the tension shoot up to the roof.

"Is that any way to greet your guest?" she said, tone so full of frost, it burned. And I recognized the thing under it. Had seen it in my own eyes every time I looked in the mirror after a hot dream.

It was desire.

"A guest doesn’t often invite themselves over without permission," Mercer growled.

"I wasn’t aware I needed permission to visit my mates." She flashed her perfectly manicured nails. "And besides, if any of you had deigned to pick up your cellphones, you would know Her Majesty sent me here."

Another voice joined in behind me. It was Quinlan’s. "We all know you’ve never needed an excuse."

Tessa Graham smiled. It was not a nice smile. It was cruel. "I missed you the most, Chastain. You weren’t so mouthy when I had my lips around you."

Brynn who was carrying a—a piece of vanity set—choked on a cough.

I hadn’t gotten past the first part. I felt like an observer in a lovers spat. There was a spreading burn in my chest the longer I looked at her. I imagined if anyone would look like they were born wearing a crown, it would be her.

She was regal in a way that spoke of royalty embedded into her very genes.

I hadn’t understood what Brynn meant when she said I had no grace, no decorum or refined qualities or charms. Until now.

Tessa Graham was an anathema to every thing I wasn’t, and it was so staggering, I felt like the dirt beneath her feet.

Erasthai. Fiancée.

A noose tightened around my neck.

"The Queen has been worried sick about you," she continued. "She worries that your attention has been thoroughly divided lately, and you must need a reminder, amongst all of these lesser creatures, what a taste of home feels like. The wedding is in a couple weeks. It is her deepest wish that we get properly acquainted in the days leading up to it." A pause. "Did you know? It’s been made a public event. For maximum attendance, the date has been made a nationwide holiday."

Everytime she opened her mouth, the burning sensation in my chest worsened. It felt like someone had shoved glass down my throat.

Soren appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Tessa’s wrist. "We need to talk."

Her shoulder knocked into mine as he tugged her forward, and Tessa went still.

Still as a statue.

Her eyes went wide and her nose tipped to the air, sniffing once.

Her nostrils flared and her perfect brows furrowed in befuddlement as she turned those eyes of steel to me. My body went rigid. Every never in my body began screaming at me to back the hell up.

She was throwing off a terrifying amount of aura. Enough to make sweat break on my skin.

She broke free of Soren’s hold and, without warning, lashed out at me.

Her hands found my hair and she pulled me with such startling strength, my body had no choice but to follow. She crushed me into her chest, clutching my shoulder firmly. She was taller than me. She was even more startling beautiful up close. And her eyes were filled with confusion as her pink tongue darted out of her mouth and licked the air in front of me, as if to taste it.

"Is that..." Her voice tracked off. Something feminine, yet animal rattled in her chest.

In my peripheral, I saw someone move to get me away from her. But they weren’t fast enough.

Tessa Graham struck like a viper and sunk her fangs into my neck.

My blood dribbled down her chin. Her eyes were wide and filled with such anger, I felt it shake everything.

"What have you done?!"

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