TRADING MY CHEATING HUSBAND FOR THE LYCAN KING novel Chapter 132

CHAPTER 89: OVER A DECADE–1

EMBER’S POV

I slump back into my seat unconsciously, not realizing how rigidly I’d been holding myself until the tension drains away.

Knox lifts our entwined hands to his lips and presses a kiss to my knuckles, his eyes on me.

It slows the tightening in my chest. Loosens the knot that Harrison’s questions had wound so tight! thought I might snap.

I give him a small smile, and he returns it – soft, private, just for me.

He didn’t say yes to Harrison’s question.

But he didn’t say no either.

That was the easiest alternative. The safest escape. A simple “no” would have shut the conversation down, dismissed the question as ridiculous, kept his walls firmly in place.

But something held him back. Something pushed against those possibilities – and ironically, that

something felt like… something.

And even if it wasn’t, I was tired.

Tired of basing my entire hopes on waiting to be loved by a man. Tired of measuring my worth by whether

someone chose me back.

I’d have to learn to be enough on my own. Learn that it’s okay to walk away when something no longer serves me, no matter how much it hurts.

But for now?

For now, I’d bask in everything he was to me. I’d enjoy every second of his doting affection, his fierce protection, his quiet moments of tenderness that he gave to no one else.

Whatever this was, whatever it became – I’d let myself have it.

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“Devika,” Harrison says, and the name snaps through the air. “When you sold your daughter to my family, did you know she would be unhappy? Did you care?”

My mother’s face goes white, then red, then a mottled combination of both.

“I didn’t sell her,” she hisses. “I arranged a marriage. A beneficial union between two families. That’s what parents do. That’s what mothers have done for centuries-”

“That’s not what I asked.” Harrison’s voice cuts through her excuses like a knife through butter. “I asked if you knew she would be unhappy. I asked if you cared.”

The silence stretches, taut as a wire about to snap.

< CHAPTERER OVER A DECADE I

“She was seventeen years old,” Harrison continues when my mother doesn’t answer. “Barely more than a child. You handed her over to a man you’d met twice, in exchange for money and status and a treaty that benefited your pack. You didn’t ask what kind of husband Gale would be. You didn’t ask if he would be kind to her, if he would cherish her, if he would treat her with the respect she deserved.” He leans forward, eyes glittering. “So I’ll ask again. Did you know she would be unhappy? Did you care?”

My mother’s chin lifts, defiant even now.

“I knew she would be provided for,” she says, and her voice is steady even though her hands are shaking. “I knew she would have a roof over her head and food on her table and clothes on her back. I knew she would never have to worry about money or status or where her next meal was coming from. If you must know, you weren’t my preferred choice.” Her eyes cut to me, sharp and resentful. “But even then, I gave her more than I ever had. More than she deserved, given how she’s repaid me.”

“That’s not an answer,” Harrison says softly.

“It’s the only answer you’re getting, Alpha Harrison.”

“Very well.” Harrison turns his attention to my father, who looks like he wants to disappear into his chair.”

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