The Alpha King Marked Me. I Still Haven't Told Him I'm A Girl novel Chapter 154

Chapter 154: Extra Chapters (Lucien & Valka) V

Valka

Past

The branches snap behind me and I jolt, disoriented, my hands raised high in a defensive stance.

"Did I startle you?" the man says, but his blue eyes do not seem the least apologetic as they rove across my face, his cheeks reddening. "I apologize. I’m lost, I think. I never knew people lived in these parts. I’ve been walking around in circles for the last hour. Do you think you could help me?"

"If you thought for a single second," I warn, fingers tightening into a fist. "that I would fall for that shit, you are in for a reckoning. I will gut you faster than you can blink if you so much as move."

He follows my pointed stare to the shears sitting by the plants I’d been tending, and after a moment, he raises his hands to make himself appear harmless. "I have no intent on attacking you. Or whatever it is you think I am here to do. I promise. I really am lost."

It’s the oldest trick in the book. But he looks so genuinely bewildered that I straighten anyway, wiping the dirt from my fingers with the rag. "Where are you going?"

He is dressed too finely for these woods. Fine boots, deep-blue tunic stitched so neatly it’s practically smug about it, and a cloak clasped with actual gold. He scratches the back of his head. "I’m in search of the woodmaker. I hear he makes the best seats in the village."

My eyebrows rise. "That would be my father."

His smile grows, revealing perfect white teeth and I am struck by how handsome he is. In the back of my mind, silver hair and violet eyes flash, but I shove it down. It’s been years since I left his home. I developed a terrible habit of going back and running off again. But the last time, I knew it’d be best if I kept away, when I caught him staring at me with something delicate in his eyes.

And then, he laughed and I thought it the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. It was then I knew it wasn’t lust or a stupid crush anymore. And it suddenly became very real, very scary, I ran away. Because there was no future for us. None that meant I stayed alive, at least.

It’s been many years ever since I made the decision not to return, for both our sakes.

I left without informing him and upon returning, I found my father unwell. I never told him when I was leaving or where I was going, and I didn’t realize being gone for that long would make his heart begin to hurt.

He’d slapped me.

He’d never hit me before. I still remember what it felt like, feeling my head reel from the sheer force of it. When he said I was never to leave home again, I understood. In the weeks I’d been gone, there was an outrageous increase in the number of huntings for Lycans. New government. If you were so much as suspected, you were burned alive or shot dead on sight.

"Ah," the stranger say with a smooth laugh. "Shall I call this fate, then?"

I roll my eyes and begin the long walk home. "Don’t push your luck, sir."

"Malachy," he says, catching up to me. I don’t miss the way he stares at me. The way his eyes keep widening and his cheeks reddening. The way he seems eager to hear what I say next. "You may call me Malachy. Or Mal."

I don’t respond.

"How long have you lived here? You seem familiar with the terrain, whereas all the trees look the same to me," he murmurs after a moment.

My shoulders tense slightly. We’ll have to move again soon. Father often carves his work and takes them to the market himself. No one ever really comes down here. "It’s not so difficult once you understand the markers. I’d take note of it, if I were you. I will not be walking you back."

"And if I get lost again?"

I shrug. "Then I imagine the beasts that roam these woods will have a great feast tonight."

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