TRADING MY CHEATING HUSBAND FOR THE LYCAN KING novel Chapter 176

CHAPTER 120: HIS DOOM IS COMING

EMBER’S POV

He sets down the glass. Tums to face me fully. His eyes are flat and cold, giving nothing away.

“Neither, I fear.”

I almost chuckle.

“The recordings that got leaked to the council.” My voice is steadier than I feel. “The ones that almost got me sent back to Gale.”

Something flickers in his expression. There and gone.

“And the break–in at Knox’s penthouse. The flash drive Logan is searching for. The things you’ve been hiding.” I step closer, refusing to be intimidated, holding his gaze even though every instinct screams at me to back down. “I’ve been connecting the dots, Nathaniel. And the picture that’s forming… I don’t like it.”

“Is that an accusation?”

“It’s a warning.” I keep my voice low enough that it won’t carry to the kitchen. “If you’re hiding something from Knox if you’re working against him in any way, for any reason I will find out. And when I do, I will do everything in my power to ruin you. Everything.”

For a long moment, Nathaniel just looks at me.

Then he moves closer, and when he speaks, his voice is quiet and dangerous in a way that makes ice

crystallize in my veins.

“If anyone should be receiving warnings here, it’s you.”

“Excuse me?”

“I have served Knox for over a decade.” Each word is measured, cold in a way that makes Knox’s rage look warm by comparison. “I have sacrificed everything for him – my time, my body, my conscience. And I will not hesitate to eliminate any threat to his wellbeing. No matter what form that threat takes.”

“I’m not a threat to him.”

“You already are.” He steps closer still, close enough that I have to tilt my head back to maintain eye contact, close enough that I can see the barely–contained hostility burning behind those calm, flat eyes. you care about Knox at all – if there’s even a shred of genuine feeling under all that fucking – you would leave. The moment we’re out of Anchorage, you would disappear. Go off the map. Stay the fuck away from

him.”

I stare at him, frozen. Unable to speak. Unable to move.

“Because he won’t do it himself,” Nathaniel continues, his voice dropping to barely a whisper, intimate and threatening all at once. “He’s too far gone to see clearly anymore. Too wrapped up in you to protect

* CHAPTER 12THIS DOOM IS COMING

himself from what’s coming. So someone has to do it for him.”

“You don’t get to decide-”

“The longer you stay in his life,” he cuts me off, and there’s something almost sad under all that coldness now, something resigned, something that makes his words hit even harder, “the closer you get to dooming him. Whatever you think this is between you–love, fate, destiny, whatever pretty word you want to use it’s a death sentence. And when he falls, when everything he’s built comes crashing down around him, it will be because of you.”

I can’t speak. I can’t move. I can’t do anything except stand there and let his words sink into me like slow poison, spreading through my bloodstream.

The closer you get to dooming him.

It will be because of you.

“Ember?”

Knox’s voice comes from the doorway. I jerk away from Nathaniel so fast I nearly stumble, my heart slamming against my ribs hard enough to bruise.

He’s standing there watching us, a slight frown creasing his forehead. His eyes move between me and

Nathaniel, reading the tension in the air, cataloging every detail even if he doesn’t understand what it

means.

“Everything okay?”

Nathaniel’s demeanor shifts so smoothly it’s almost/frightening – all that cold menace vanishing under a mask of professional calm, like flipping a switch.

“Just discussing the security rotation,” he says evenly, his voice betraying nothing. “I should check the perimeter before it gets too dark.”

He walks out without another glance at me.

Knox watches him go, then turns back to me. The frown deepens.”

“Did you by any chance tell him his cooking was shit?”

I try to laugh. It comes out wrong – too sharp, too brittle, too obviously forced.

“Something like that.”

Γ

He knows I’m lying. I can see it in the way his eyes narrow, the way his head tilts slightly to one side, the way he’s studying my face like he can read the truth there if he just looks hard enough.

But he doesn’t push.

He just crosses the room and pulls me against his chest, his chin coming to rest on top of my head, his arms wrapping around me like he can shield me from everything just by holding on tight enough.

< CHAPTER 120HIS DOOM IS COMING

“Whatever it is.” he murmurs into my hair, his voice low and warm and impossibly gentle, “you can tell me.”

“know.” I press closer, breathing him in, trying to let his presence anchor me to something solid. But Nathaniel’s words keep echoing through my skull, bouncing off the inside of my head like a scream in an empty room. “I want to. But not here. Not with…”

I trail off, unable to finish.

But he understands.

“When we leave the safehouse,” he says.

“Yeah.” My voice comes out smaller than I want it to. “When we leave.”

He nods slowly, his hand stroking down my back in long, soothing movements that make me want to melt into him and never resurface.

Then he pulls back just enough to look at my face.

For a long moment, he just studies me. Takes in every detail, every shadow, every trace of fear I’m trying so hard to hide.

His thumb brushes across my cheekbone, catching a tear I didn’t realize had fallen.

Then he cups my face in his hands with impossible gentleness.

His eyes search mine, gold flickering at the edges like embers catching flame.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify