The Lycan King's Wrong Obsession novel Sorin Carter (by Circeleari) novel Chapter 13

Chapter 13

“I was your pen pal, Your Highness.”

Her voice rings across the training ground as a bell nobody asked to hear.

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The air freezes as gasps scatter through the crowd as if someone just dumped a bucket of icy water over the entire pack. Heads–hundreds of heads whip toward her. The air smells faintly of sweat, damp dirt, and bullshit.

That’s what this is, bullshit. How does she have this sheer audacity?

From the platform. Wade blinks at her. His brows are frowned and he looks as though he’s shaking. Well, nothing like seeing your own fiance commit to cheating with another man, I suppose.

“Ariel?” His voice cracks halfway through, as if he’s just realized his fiancee’s about to publicly humiliate him.

I keep my hood low, but I can’t stop my eyes from flicking upward as I finally stand up slowly. She’s glowing as if she’s on a stage, the perfect saintess–flawless hair, powdered skin, hands clutched around my letters. The Imperial seal stares back at me from the parchment though it knows I’m about to commit murder in my head.

Those are my letters. I’ve written them, folded them, sent them. Did he go through every single one?

Alaric’s golden eyes lift from where he’s slouched on his throne. His gaze hits her. A pause straight at Ariel. Then he stands.

No, he doesn’t just stand. He moves. He moves off the throne and walks at the edge.

The bastard leaps down from the platform like some damn predator, his boots hitting the ground with a heavy thud. He doesn’t break eye contact with Ariel as he crosses the distance.

The crowd parts to let him through as he marches over to her, breathless.

“I missed you,” he says when he reaches her. The deep, rich timbre of his voice slides over the space between them. His arms go around her in this… overly dramatic embrace, like some reunion scene in a cheesy romance drama.

I almost gag. He knows exactly she’s lying so I know he’s taking pleasure in whatever this is he’s doing riding on her lies.

Over Ariel’s shoulder, his head tilts–just enough for his gaze to lice past her.

Straight to me.

His eyes lock on mine like a hook snagging flesh. And then–he smirks. The corner of his mouth lifts like he’s in on the dirtiest joke in the world.

And winks.

I stiffen. What the hell is he doing? Is he gonna blow her cover right here? In front of everyone?

They pull apart, but not far. His hands linger at her elbows, his voice carrying loud enough for the whole damn pack to hear. “I’ve been waiting for you for far too long. Where have you been hiding from me?”

Every idiot in the crowd collectively exhales like they’re watchin the most romantic thing in history. Wow, I’m the one feeling the second–hand embarrassment for her. That takes som courage lying like that.

Wade’s still up on the platform, jaw tight. “Why didn’t you ever ll me this?”

Ariel turns to him with the perfect amount of wounded sincerity “You can check every letter I wrote him. I rejected the Alpha King’s advances every time.” Then she turns back to Alaric lashes fluttering. “And I’m sorry, Your Highness… but I must reject you again.” Her hand slides to her stomach. “I’m carving Alpha Wade’s child. I love him.”

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16:31 Sat, Dec 20 GGA

Chapter 13

The crowd erupts Gasps, whispers, the sound of a hundred women deciding she’s the luckiest bitch alive.

“She’s so pure…*

“Two Alphas in love with her..

“She must be the most beautiful woman in the world…”

*

I actually have to bite the inside of my cheek to stop my face from twisting. Secondhand embarrassment is a full–body experience, and I’m drowning in it.

Ariel’s basking in it all–eyes shining, cheeks flushed like she’s bathing in attention. She doesn’t even notice Alaric has stepped back a fraction, his gaze no longer on her.

It’s on me.

And now–oh no. He’s laughing.

Not a belly laugh. Not even a chuckle. Just this deep, sharp exhale through his nose, the kind that says you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

Ariel’s head snaps toward him. “Why are you laughing?”

I drag my fingers across my brow. This man cannot keep it together to save his life.

Alaric straightens, forcing the laughter down, voice velvet–smooth again. “Nothing. My apologies.”

She blinks up at him, clearly trying to pull him back into her narrative.

Instead, he lets the silence stretch. Then, with deliberate weight, he says, “It’s just… I thought you’d choose me. But instead… He glances toward Wade with a look of pained resignation.“… you’ve chosen him.”

The crowd swells with another wave of oh my god murmurs.

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And then–just as people are about to melt into their own fantasies–he tilts his head, smile faint. “But… I do hope you’ll return something to me.”

The air stills.

He takes a step closer to her. “That thing I gave you back then.”

Oh no.

Ariel freezes like a deer that’s just realized the headlights are meant for her.

For half a beat, she just stands there, blinking at Alaric like she didn’t hear him right. Then, right on cue, the performance kicks back in—her chin tilts, lips pull into a smile that’s a hair too tight, voice pitched high enough to make my teeth itch.

“Oh, Your Highness,” she says with this fluttery little laugh that’s supposed to sound sweet but just smells like desperation. “You’ve given me so many gifts over the years, I—well, if you tell me what it is you’d like returned, I’ll be more than happy to give it back.”

Bold lie.

Hell, I almost want to applaud her for the delivery. Almost.

I know for a fact Alaric never gave her shit. And everything he ever sent me, I had sent right back. Boxed. Untouched. Not a single ribbon left behind. Ariel offering to “return” something is like me offering to give back the crown jewels–she never had them to begin with.

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16:11 Sat Dec 20

Tshirt my weight, falding my arms, lening myself sink into the Even realize she’s holding the shuvel

Wade steps forward as if he’s about to mediate some harmless what is you’ve given my wife, Your Highness, I’ll make sure it‘

His tone save!

his will be over the two minutes Pom m

The bastant won’t let you take this enter Imment away from

Hon of watching her dig her own grave She doesn’t

understanding His voice is calm, ton calm “If you tell me

livered to you prompty”

though That’s just the kind of predator Alaric is

The Alpha King doesn’t even look at him when he answers. Histention is still on Ariel, and it’s the kind of attention that makes people confess sins they haven’t committed yet.

“That’s the thing,” he says, voice smooth enough to slip under s “I don’t want you to give it back to me”

The pause is deliberate.

He takes a step forward Aril or

more and runs the tip of his fers on his hair.

“I want my pen pal to give it back to me.”

The words land as a stone dropped into still water–small, but tripples travel fast. Heads tilt. Shoulders shift. I see one of the maid’s smug little mouth open, then snap shut when she realizes the air’s changed.

Alaric’s lip quirks, but his tone stays light, conversational. “It’s. personal. She knows what it is”

Ariel blinks and looks around her. “Pen… pal? Me?”

He finally tilts his head, eyes raking over her in a way that’s not sxual–it’s dissecting. Hunting,

“Yes. Pen pal. That’s what you were, isn’t it?” He says it like he’s offering her a rope, but it’s laced with barbed wire. “Letters. Messages. The kind you can’t fake because the handwriting’s bubed into memory.”

The room humms with quiet chatter, but he cuts through it with e lazy cruelty of a cat toying with a mouse.

“It’s big,” he says, dragging out the word until it feels like it fills e air between them. “And yellow. It’s looks quite a lot like

me.”

I almost choke.

Then his eyes leave her as if she’s not even worth the effort, and hey find me.

And just like that, I’m back in that winter three months ago, holding the single most ridiculous gift I’ve ever received–a life- sized gold statue of him, glaring down at me from my foyer like some sort of overprotective god.

Oh, my goddess. He’s talking about that. That statue?

I meet his gaze, and the corner of his mouth curves in the smallst, smug acknowledgment. No one else in this room would know what passed between us just now, but I do. He’s saying yea, sweetheart, I’m talking about exactly that.

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