The Beta's Rejected Daughter (Fiona) novel Chapter 17

Chapter 17

“I’m not your baby,” I breathed, avoiding his eyes.

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He scoffed softly and straightened. “I didn’t call you my baby. I called you a baby.” He shrugged as if it meant nothing. “And that’s simply because you still haven’t told me your name.”

“Fiona,” I snapped. “Can I go now?”

“Fiona…” he repeated, rolling my name across his tongue like he was tasting it. His gaze drifted around the alley once more before returning to me. “Can you find your way home, or should I drive you?”

“I don’t know why you’re helping me,” I said honestly. “This is nothing like the Lycan King everyone knows.”

“You will understand why during our dinner tomorrow,” he answered, voice emotionless, eyes glinting with something I couldn’t decipher. It was impossible to read him as trying was always like staring into a void.

“I’ve already sent a message to our people,” Kieran cut in quickly. “They’re bringing another car to pick us up. Thank you for your help, sir.”

Lucas didn’t even acknowledge him. His gaze stayed locked on me, studying, analyzing, peeling me apart cell by cell.

“You don’t have an inner wolf…” he murmured, stepping back slowly. “Be careful with the enemies you make, Fiona. I may not be there to save you again.”

Those were his last words before he vanished–literally vanished–leaving the faintest rush of air brushing my skin.

My heartbeat didn’t settle until long after the night swallowed him whole.

For a long second, none of us moved. The alley was silent, except for the distant hiss of the crashed car and the drip of rogue blood staining the pavement. Raina’s breathing was uneven, and Kieran looked like he wished he could wake up from a nightmare.

I wished the same.

Except this wasn’t a nightmare.

Raina broke the silence first. “Fiona… you look like you just saw a ghost.”

I forced my muscles to unlock even though my skin still buzzed where he touched me. “I didn’t see a ghost.”

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“Saved you,” Raina corrected. “He followed you, Fiona. He engaged those men because of you.”

“And then demanded dinner as payment?” Kieran muttered. “This is madness. Fiona, you should say no.”

“Oh sure,” I deadpanned. “Tell the Lycan King ‘no‘. I’m sure that’ll go amazing.”

Raina let out a thin, unsteady laugh. “But… he did ask you out calmly like he really wanted to know something about you. That’s the surprising part.”

“He ordered me,” I corrected. “There’s a difference.”

A very big one.

I stepped toward the wrecked car to retrieve my bag. My legs still trembled. “Let’s go home. I need to… think.”

Think about escape.

Think about hiding the bond.

Think about how to survive dinner with a monster feared by kings.

Raina shivered. “He scares me.”

“He scares everyone,” Kieran muttered, lowering his voice. “He’s a psychopath. Look at the rogues–he tore them apart without blinking. He can do the same to anyone if his curse triggers.”

Raina squeezed my hand tightly.

But I didn’t feel fear right now.

I felt anger.

Anger at myself for coming out tonight.

Anger for stumbling into the grip of a man I should never have crossed paths with.

Anger at the bond burning under my skin.

Because if Lucas ever finds out….

His wolf would kill me, not out of cruelty but out of instinct. The same instinct that killed every woman he ever chose to be his mate.

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Or has he found out I was the so–called queen who he wanted to spend the night with to cure

his curse?

There is no way he could know that.

Just then, the convoy arrived, all nine guards spilling out at once.

“Fiona, are you hurt?”

“What happened?”

“Who attacked you?”

“We should track them-‘

Their voices blurred in my head, fading behind the storm inside me, Raina answering their questions for me. I was already exhausted.

Kieran gently steered me toward the car. “Let’s get you home before something else happens.”

They cared. Truly.

But what would they say if I told them my mate was the same evil man we all agreed to avoid?

When we finally reached the villa, I released a breath I didn’t know I was holding because at least for tonight, Lucas wouldn’t reach me.

Here, I could pretend he wasn’t tied to me by fate.

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