The Alpha King Marked Me. I Still Haven't Told Him I'm A Girl novel Chapter 135

Chapter 135: One Hundred & Thirty Five

Lucien

The ink is black. The letters were meticulously carved into the reddened flesh in thick and bold cursives. It covered her pulse, making it hard to watch if it sped up or slowed as she lied to me.

She is thin. Too thin. Her hair is thinning. Lack of nutrients. She hasn’t been eating enough.

We will fix that.

Blood stains the bandages around her left hand. It hasn’t stopped bleeding. The slash across her cheek has been sewn shut in jagged stitches. The amount of silver inside her--not to speak of the collar--must be enough to have put a stop to her metabolism. It is any wonder she is still breathing at all.

The under of her eyes are bruised with purple, her gaze hollowed out. It looks like fatigue. But most don’t know that there is a reason Silver is called poison. A reason why the first treatment administered to someone who had even a bit of it in their system is to flush it out.

Because eventually, it takes root. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

And from the looks of it, it has begun to. You find yourself always fatigued. And even when you try to sleep, you cannot. I wonder if she’s realized it yet. That she hasn’t slept in days. And I’ve been unable to reach her because of that. I wonder if she’s notice her inability to function isn’t because of her lacking strength.

It’s because her body is using up all of it’s energy fighting what should normally have placed a full blooded Lycan in a comatose state.

My fingers thrum against the table, idly.

There’s a certain calm that settles in once you’ve planned every death in the room. Once you’ve decided who bleeds first, who begs last, and who dies before they even realize it. Premeditated murder is such a soothing hobby.

Valka’s amber eyes do not stay on mine long. Even if that wasn’t her one tell when she’s lying, she should know better than try to lie to me. If I’ve had the liberty of counting how many lashes she has on her eyes and how many times she blinks in a minutes, it is a grave insult to think I cannot tell the disruption in her heart’s rhythm when she lies.

I cock my head towards the pup, the rattle in my chest growing restless. He’d gotten under my skin, but not in the way he thinks. It’s fucking disgusting when you learn you’re about to be a father from your woman’s past lover.

My lips curve into a dark smile. Because if there’s one thing that still gives me joy, it’s being very, very petty.

"How many years ago was it? A hundred and forty?" I begin lightly, as though recounting a bedtime story, "Valka brought a wolf to me. Said he was broken. Asked me to fix him." My chin rests lazily against my fist. The entire room shifts around my every movement, every sharp point moving with my every blink. "Would you like to know what happened?"

The boy-king looks unwell by my lack of a response, and his brows arch slightly.

"She was so used to shoving me around," I say conversationally, "that when she tried to get over me by fucking someone else, she shoved him a little too hard. And broke his spine."

Grey eyes darken slightly with understanding--beautifully so--and I chuckle.

"You’ll have to try harder, boy," I murmur, my gaze flicking back to Valka. "My wife’s a freak in the sheets. If she truly fucked you..." I let the words drag, savoring the stillness that follows, "...you’d be dead."

Valka glares at me. It’s easy to interpret the look--she wants to hit me. Which is incredible foreplay, by the way.

The worry lessens, allowing me a clear mind and vision, as everything around me has been in swirling shades of red since I got the letter.

I knew it was a trap. And it was incredibly foolish to walk in alone and make a bluff about the numbers I had. Truth is, Averis was a success, but it was impossible to travel with that many men across with the urgency that drove me. I’d taken only a fraction of them along. The rest of my legion was three days away from arriving.

I could smell the gunpowder. The fuse lines. The moment I’d stepped inside, I had counted every single man, visible and hidden. And all that keeps me seated isn’t the hope for an alliance, but the single signal that everything banks on. Everything.

Raucous laughter pulls my focus from the chandelier several feet above, where I intend to hang Lilith’s body for all to see. "Well then, I suppose congratulations are in order," he says cheerily.

And in a celebratory fashion, he snaps his fingers. A bow string snaps somewhere and an arrow is released.

It slices through the air with speed and because it comes from directly behind Valka, it skims the slash on her cheek in a slight caress, cutting her stitches open, before hurtling for my head with a spin.

I catch it, plucking it from the air right before my face. And it takes every breath in me not to aim it for his head. Not yet, I think to myself. Not yet.

It crumples in my grasp, turning to bits of snow and Rafael claps wildly, like it is the most delightful display he had ever seen. While Lilith has the sense to shift uncomfortably in her seat, sweat breaking against her pale forehead.

I exhale evenly, feeling the restraint I keep on myself loosen and crack. "Unlike you, I am never taught a lesson twice."

I reach her. Almost.

Then the second explosion hits. Too close.

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