The Alpha King Marked Me. I Still Haven't Told Him I'm A Girl novel Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Thirty Two

Lucien

Zyra Duskharrow extends her gift to me--a crystal vial of perfume. Her blue ringlets sway with unseen breeze as she lowers herself into a courtesy that lowers the neckline of her corset. "For you, my King, made with my heart’s blood. One drop is enough to have a room enthralled with you."

Soft ’oohs’ and ’aahs’ of appreciation fills the air.

Leaning forward, I take the crystal, dark amusement curving my lips as her fingers deliberately run along mine. Perhaps, if she knew the last woman who touched me without my permission was nailed to my bedpost, she would desist from it.

Can you blame her? Beauty is catching; it’s a plague I happily suffer. When I look in the mirror, I do, in fact, gasp. Call it pride if you will, but what use is a pretty face if not for the pleasure of adoration?

"Most appreciated, Zyra," I purr, turning the vial so the light shows off its sparkle. "Though, it is slightly insulting that you think I’d need a bottle to make people adore me." I lift my gaze to the assembled. "They already do."

Laughter bellows through the hall, cheers drunken on the high of gaining my acknowledgement. Fools, the lot of them. None greater than the fools on my council for putting me through this torture. My solace lies only in the goblet of wine in my grasp and the thought of punishing my newest pet for escaping his cell.

It was petty, laying the trap for him in the first place, but forgive me if my only entertainment around here was fucking with the one person who didn’t look at me the way everyone else does. They either wanted to fuck me or be me. Valerian looks at me like he wants to kill me. And it is no surprise that it tickles my fancy.

I’ve always been attracted to women who might actually kill me. Toxic trait, I suppose. Oh, but I have too many of those. And it would seem I could add something new to my list. That I was fucking straight as an arrow, but the thought of hurting Valerian, breaking him to my will, making him fall to his knees and grovel before me and oh, those lovely tears of his...

Enticing, even more so that he is the enemy. And a man. Something I can’t want and have.

The Lady’s brown eyes dart to her father, Eryx, on my left and I catch the flash of disappointment in his eyes. They may pretend this is all for my sake, for the sake of the Kingdom, forcing my hand like this, but in truth, this is a war of chess, a grapple for power and each House has put forward it’s best, most cunning and beautiful pawn forward to usurp the place of the Queen and eventually, that of the King as well.

I hand the crystal to Trent as Zyra joins the rest of the Maidens in their designated sitting area. Trent nods at the herald and the doors and opened once more, ushering in the fourteenth maiden.

"Princess Evadne of House Kaldrith!"

She emerges in a leather corseted gown of deep forest green, her skirts slit high to reveal short legs and boots lined with wolf fur. My lips quirk up at the absolute lack of regard of courtly fashion and an even bigger disregard for the lips curling in disdain at her presentation.

Evadne halts before me, and when she moves to take my hand, I let her. She brings my knuckles to her lips and kisses me softly. "My King." Leaning back, "I have brought with me a beast trained to sniff the enemy from miles away and kill at a single command. This is House Kaldrith’s gift to you, that you may never ride alone, ever again." Her voice drops low enough that only I can hear. "Lulu."

Such is the nature of my relationship with my cousin. She irritates the fuck out of me, takes it upon herself to bestow upon me an assortment of names that would have earned her a vacation to the gallows, if she wasn’t all the family I had left from my mother’s side. Lucy-bear. Lulu. Your Darkness. Candle snuffer. Your Royal Pain in my cunt. Every time we meet, she calls me something new, daring me to react.

Problem is, Eva just might be the only bearable person in my life. If I didn’t know she was more into women than she was men, she might have been my first choice. With her, I knew I’d never have to be something I’m not and she wouldn’t ask it of me, either.

The side door parts and the guards hold a cage. In it resides a red wolf with a line of black slit separating it’s golden irises. It snarls against the guards, baring its teeth with feral intensity, and when I tilt my head in interest, it’s eyes lock onto mine. It stills, its ears laying flat on its head as it lowers it with a soft whine.

I clap, truly delighted. "A red wolf. A rarity." Eva’s cheeks pinken at my approval. "A gift to remember."

A cheer rises up in the air, almost deafening, and Evadne courtesies once more before making her way to the firepit.

A disquiet ripples along across the hall and on the dais beside me as murmurs of the name Lilith carries on the wind. Tension tightens my muscles as my should-be bride, the Council’s most hated, yet most necessary choice, is announced to the hall.

"Lady Lilith of House Blackspire!"

The candles in the hall dim as the sole figure threads along the carpets, controlling the scones in the hall with but a fraction of her mind.

"Show off," Margot grumbles in her seat beside me. House Nythorn has no daughters to offer me, cutting down the maidens to an uneven number of fifteen. I’m sure that if Margot wasn’t currently on the council, she’d be down there with them, batting pretty lashes at me and asking my hand. Even if she was once my father’s wife and the last Queen before him.

The hall cries in delight as twin flames glide over Lilith’s head, forming shapes of entwining crescents, and then, a burning moon as she makes her way to me in a gown of pure white silk edged in gold thread so bright, it nearly blinds. A halo-like crown of filigree rests above her flaming her and my grip on the throne tightens as I realize what she has done.

The same steps my Ilya made for me. Almost. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

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