The Alpha King Marked Me. I Still Haven't Told Him I'm A Girl novel Chapter 56

Chapter 56: Fifty Six

Lucien

The tavern was a terrible idea. But try telling Evadne that and she’d have my balls mounted on a wall.

I couldn’t decide if she was attempting to get under the barmaid’s skirts or into Valka’s pants. Likely the latter, judging by the amount of liquor she kept sliding down the woman’s throat.

Cyrus is long gone, slumped on the bench, cheeks flushed and head bobbing like a drunk pigeon. Every time he lurches, Trenton’s hand on his shoulder is the only thing keeping him from eating the floor. Humans. I still can’t fathom what Valka sees in a man who can’t even hold his drink.

To be fair, their bodies burn through wine faster than ours. Still, after the endless parade of jugs the doe-eyed barmaid keeps delivering, even Valka’s drunk enough to forget why her clothes are supposed to stay on.

She stands on the table of the packed tavern, feet tapping adeptly as she hooks her arm through Evadne’s, the duo turning a circle and singing along to the loudest of their lungs.

I didn’t know she could dance.

Didn’t know she even knew the meaning of fun.

Her cloak is long gone, all that’s left of her clothing a thin, strapped underthing that’s clinging to her torso. And sure as hell, every man within the mile radius with a pair of eyes can see her nipples poking through it. And they’re all looking, of course.

"Have you decided yet?" Trent murmurs, bringing the beer to his lips. "You’re going to need to appoint a new general soon."

I cut him a sidelong glance. "We both know that job belongs only to one man." Fishing into my pocket, I retrieve his still squashed badge. "I expect you back tomorrow. The hour you keep will be generous enough for the family’s sake. I’ve grown weary of leaving Eva to be my only headache."

True to her name, Eva grabs Valka’s cheeks and plants a kiss square on her lips, and half the tavern erupts into cheers, hoots and stupid bawdy chants. A man shoves a hand under his tunic and makes a private prayer with his fist. The sound in my chest isn’t amusement. It is a low, animal rumble that does nothing to improve my mood.

They pull apart and begin cackling like idiots.

Trent snorts, taking the metal from me. "I didn’t know she had become a part of the family."

I don’t look at him when I respond. Instead, my gaze slides down Valka’s silhouette. "She’s not."

"Uh-huh."

I glare irritatedly at Trenton. "What?"

He shrugs, running his fingers along his goblet. "You get attached. Obsessed. You break ’em. Like clockwork. She’s not the first and most definitely won’t be the last."

The very object of my frustration is currently driving her fingers through her hair, body twisting in an obscene manner that makes lush curves you normally wouldn’t notice under all that nonsense she loves to wear all the more obvious. I take another swig of my wine as her hands run down her chest, the small of her breasts catching the light and gleaming.

Her laugh tolls like something sweet and dangerous and I feel, absurdly, like I’ve been nicked. Another five minutes and she’d be naked.

Not that I care.

Not that I *should* care.

Dismissing them, I change the topic. "I need you to look into Blackspire."

Surprise glimmers in dark eyes. "You suspect them of treason?"

My tongue caresses my fangs. "House Blackspire has been House Draemont’s fiercest ally since the beginning of time, where my father and Zon were the closest siblings amongst the first sixteen. We may have drifted apart across generations, but we have tried to maintain tradition, at best. I never doubted them, not until the attack. No one else knew where I hid Ilya and Jessamine outside family. Mine died in that attack, leaving me the only Draemont left. It’s safe to say they couldn’t have done that. And not even under the torture of those bastards could that information be forced from me. That leaves the Blackspires."

Trent sobers. "Serenya’s too high most days to remember her own name."

"It is not Serenya that worries me."

"Lilith may be a menace," he nutters, "but I don’t think she has any love left for the wolves. Certainly not enough to commit treason and murder her kin. I’ve always been of the mind that she can be trusted, regardless of her shortcomings."

My frown deepens. "I don’t imagine she took kindly to having her arms broken." I recall that first night she’d slipped into my rooms, her way of expressing her grief. And I might have killed her, had she not been Illya’s sister. "Though, there could be a deeper motive there. Besides, while Ilya always did have an unwaning soft spot for Lilith, we knew it wasn’t reciprocated. They couldn’t have been any more different, those two."

At the flash of green eyes and red hair in my mind, a searing pain punches through me like a knife to my ribs, filling my chest with a sorrow so bottomless, not even drowning in all the liquor in the world could’ve spared me from the ache of it.

"I’ll have it looked into," Trent promises.

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