Tempted By my Evil Lycan Stepbrother novel Chapter 75

Chapter 75: Challenge The King

Riley’s POV

+15 Bonu

For a heartbeat after Ezra pinned the medal to my dress, the entire hall seemed to forget how to breathe.

No one moved or spoke. Hundreds of eyes stayed fixed on the gold resting against my chest.

I could feel the weight of the medal through the thin silver fabric, cool and real and impossibly heavy. And all at once it hit me that this was not some fantasy.

I had really done it. I had achieved the impossible.

I won.

The first sound to break that silence was clapping.

I turned instinctively and saw Silas standing near the edge of the crowd wearing a huge grin on his face.

A second later, another pair of hands joined his. Then another.

To my surprise, two boys from Ezra’s team began clapping too. Hansen, of course, looked thoroughly entertained by the scandal of it all, but the other one nodded at me with respect in his eyes.

Their support loosened something in the room.

A few more guests began to clap, awkwardly at first, as if they were waiting to see whether they would be punished for it. The sound spread across the hall, never growing strong enough to drown out the tension, but enough to let me know that not everyone wanted me erased.

Most of the nobles stayed silent with their hands folded in front of them, their faces fixed into resentment. I could see disbelief in some of those faces, disgust in others. Of course all these people agreed with King Soren—a werewolf like me shouldn’t win

the game.

Ezra, however, acted as if challenging his father wasn’t that big of a deal.

He turned to the musicians with the easy authority and said, “The party starts now. Try not to stand around looking stupid. ”

A ripple of uneasy laughter broke out.

The musicians jumped as though they had been struck, then hurried to resume playing.

One or two couples near the back of the hall exchanged uncertain looks and stepped onto the floor. Others futlowed more slowly

I stayed where I was.

The room had come back to life around me, but I still felt strangely separate from it. My fingers hovered near the medal without touching it. I wasn’t afraid of people’s opinion, but I also could not decide whether I wanted to laugh, cry, or bolt from the hall.

“You look like you just got dropped into the wrong

world.

The voice came from my right, light and amused

I turned and found a girl I didn’t know standing there with a glass of champagne in one hand

She was tail, elegant, and carried herself with the effortless confidense of someone who had been raised among power athl expected to be taken seriously Her skin was the war bronze of sunlit stone, and her dark hair had been braked into a crown around her head, traded through with tiny silver charms

She muted before I could spam.

alie and Ashiers Vale Park My talher is Alpha

11t explained the pavise back her land “Riley.

Her eyes

flicked down to the medal at my chest and then back up to my face. “Yes,” she said, giggling “I know.”

There was no mockery inher tone, which made me want to like her immediately. I had become too used to strangers looking at me as if I were something dirty dragged in from the street.

“I came over because I wanted to tell you I’m glad you won,” she said. “Honestly, I think it’s about time a woman took this title for a change.”

A startled gasp escaped me before I could stop it. “You are not a fan of Ezra? I thought everyone-at least every girl I know wants

him to win.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh please. Prince Ezra is hot, and handsome, and attractive and everything. But you can just tell he’s a big jerk just by looking at his face. A guy like him doesn’t need more fancy titles to boost his already huge ego.”

I laughed. Now I officially loved her.

She took a sip from her glass and leaned a little closer. “…And you should also know that half the young men in this hall are about to become very interested in you.”

I blinked. “Because of the medal?”

“Because of everything,” she said, as though that should have been obvious. “You’re a powerful healer, you survived a competition built for Lycans, and now the prince stood up to his father and endorsed you in front of the whole court. Do you know what that makes you?”

“Trouble?”

She laughed. “That too. But more importantly, it makes you valuable.”

The word should have irritated me, but she meant it differently than the others always had. She meant power and status that had been earned rather than borrowed from someone else’s name.

“Marrying a woman like you would be a point of pride,” Thalia went on. “A lot of families here have already started recalculating ”

I snorted softly. “The king doesn’t exactly approve of my existence. That tends to lower my market value.”

Thalia’s smile turned sly. “Only in this territory. Ashen Vale is far from Full Moon lands. Most packs outside the king’s immediate reach are less interested in obeying his opinions than in making up their own minds. You should remember that. The world is bigger than this court.”

That thought settled inside me with unexpected force.

ľ

I had spent so much time struggling under the weight of Full Moon Pack’s contempt that I had never truly imagined a place where their judgment did not define me. Hearing someone say it so casually, as though it were simply a fact, made the palace walls around me feel a little less suffocating

Before I could answer, a servant in royal colors came over and bowed

“Lady Ruley,” he said carefully, “King Soren requests your presence ”

The warmth from Thaila’s words vanished at once.

turned to look at the servant, and a knot formed in my stomach Ezra was nowhere near me now. My mother stood across the hall, staring at me with a cold gaze. I knew she wouldn’t lift a finger to help me if King Soren decided to cause me trouble.

Thalia set her glass aside and gave me a small sintle. “Gu. If you don’t come back, I’ll assume you murdered someone and try to Sperib well of you

Tiled despite my it, them tallowed the servant of the hall

Grenge

The King

+15 Bonus

The music faded behind me as we went deeper into the palace. The corridors grew quieter, and the golden warmth of the ballroom gave way to the cooler light of wall lamps and polished stone.

My heels clicked softly against the floor. By the time the servant stopped before a narrow side door hidden behind a tapestry, my pulse had climbed so high I could literally hear it.

He opened the door and stepped aside.

King Soren stood alone inside.

There were no guards visible inside, no attendants, no witnesses. Just the king, a low table, and two chairs he had clearly not bothered offering me.

He turned toward me as the servant shut the door.

For a moment neither of us spoke.

Although he had been nothing but kind to me before all these, I had never liked being alone with him. He had the kind of authority that made people lower their eyes without realizing they were doing it, and for a second I felt that old instinct tug at me again, making me to become smaller, quieter, easier to dismiss.

Then I remembered the phone call.

I remembered him trying to hand Ezra the victory as if I never existed in the competition.

The fear in my chest did not disappear, but it burned into anger.

King Soren studied me fer a long moment, his gaze dropping briefly to the medal at my chest. When he finally spoke, his tone

word. was even, but there was steel buried under every

“How dare you challenge me?”

The question came so bluntly that for half a second I almost laughed. He really believed I had done this to wound him.

I lifted my chin. “I didn’t do anything to challenge you on purpose. I simply won.”

A flicker of something hard crossed his face. “You embarrassed me in front of the court.”

“With the truth,” I shot back. “If that embarrassed you, I can’t help that.”

The room seemed to tighten around us.

He took one slow step closer. “Do you understand what this will do to your mother’s place in this palace?”

I nearly smiled, though there was nothing funny in it. Even he wanted to use my mother to manipulate me. Does that old?

“I’m sure she’ll survive,” I said, and let the sarcasm show this time.

His gaze sharpened.

ever get

I meant it, too. If there was one thing my mother had ever proven, it was that she knew how to land on her feet while everyone else was still falling.

He went quiet for a moment, and in that silence I made the mistake of thinking I had already weathered the worst of this

conversatori

Then he asked, “I can let all of those slide. But auswer me this

why are you and Ezra suddenly so close

The question hut me so hard my thoughts scattered

I stared at him.

For one dizzy second, all I could hear was the blood rushing in my ears.

+15 Bonus

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify