TRADING MY CHEATING HUSBAND FOR THE LYCAN KING novel Chapter 210

CHAPTER 146: DO YOU KNOW KNOX?

EMBER’S POV

One of them was “I love you.” I remember the way his eyes found mine asross the table when that card was read. The certainty in his expression.

“No,” I say quickly. “I don’t want to know.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not ready for whatever you want to say, and I’m not sure I want to hear it.” I take a breath, trying to steady myself. “I don’t have space in my life for one more complication, Rafael. Whatever you think exists between us, whatever hope you’re holding onto, I need you to let it go. Please, I beg you. There’s no future for us. I’m not available, and I’m not interested, and I need you to accept that.”

Rafael is quiet for a long moment.

“What if I told you we’re meant to be?”

“I’d tell you you’re wrong.”

“You sound very certain.”

“I am certain.” My voice is firmer now, finding solid ground. “I don’t know what I feel for Knox. I don’t know where this thing between us is going, or if it’s even real, or if I’m just another disaster waiting to happen.

But I know I choose him. Whatever we are, whatever we become, I choose him.”

“Even though you don’t trust him?”

The question lands wrong, pulling a fleeting frown from my face.

“I trust him,” I say, but even I can hear the waver in my voice.

“Do you?” Rafael steps closer, and there’s something almost pitying in his expression now. “You trust him, but you were losing your mind last night over a little time with Rayana. You were just eavesdropping on his closest allies, and I bet he doesn’t even know. You trust him, but you can’t even meet my eyes when you

say it.”

“What’s your point?”

“My point is that trust is earned, not given. And from where I’m standing, Knox hasn’t earned much of anything.” He pauses. “Do you even know him, Ember? Really know him? Not the version he shows you when he’s trying to seduce you, but the man underneath. The one who existed before you came along.”

“I know about Celeste.” The words come out defensive. Hard. “If that is your point. In fact, he told me

himself.”

Rafael laughs.

The sound is soft, almost sad, and it makes my stomach drop.

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“He told you. Yes. I’m sure he did. But do you know what their relationship was actually like? Do you know who Celeste was, what Knox was like with her?” He shakes his head slowly. “I knew her, Ember. We ran in the same circles. And I can tell you that Knox Volkov was a difficult man to love even when he had a mate bond singing in his blood. Even when the Goddess herself had blessed their union.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that he has patterns. That the same man who killed his own wife, his own Goddess–given mate, is the man you’re pinning your hopes on.” Rafael’s voice drops, almost gentle. “And you don’t have a mate bond with him. You don’t have anything tethering him to you except choice. So when the darkness in him rises, when his wolf slips its leash the way it did with Celeste… what exactly do you think will protect you?”

The words hit me with a strange brutality.

take a step back, my breath catching in my throat.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I know that I see a woman about to make the same mistake Celeste made. I know that I watch you look

at him like he’s salvation when he might be destruction.” Rafael’s expression shifts, something raw

bleeding through the polish. “I know that my wolf calls for you in ways Knox’s never will, because his is

broken and mine is whole, and I could give you everything he can’t-”

“Stop.”

“Ember-”

“I said stop.” My voice is shaking now, my whole body trembling with a deeper tremor than before. “I don’t know what game you’re playing. I don’t know what you think you’re accomplishing by tearing Knox down to build yourself up. But I’m not interested in being anyone’s prize. Not his. Not yours.”

I turn before he can respond, walking fast toward the cabin, my boots crunching through the snow with each step. My chest is tight, my eyes burning, and I don’t know if I’m about to scream or cry or both.

Rafael doesn’t follow.

But his words do, echoing in my head all the way back to my room.

The same man who killed his own wife.

What exactly do you think will protect you?

***

I stand in front of the bathroom mirror for a long time, watching my reflection and trying to recognize the

woman staring back at me.

She looks scared. Small. Like someone who’s been collecting pieces of a puzzle without realizing they might form a picture she doesn’t want to see.

A deal Knox in 2016? With Gale? Nathaniel scrubbing blood for weeks. My wolf attracting predators?

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I don’t understand any of it. But I understand the feeling in my gut, the cold certainty that something is

very, very wrong

Her wolf isn’t normal.

I need to contact Devika once I get off this trip. She has so much fucking explaining to do. Hell, I might even need to talk to my….

I pause and shake my head.

He is probably long gone after our last conversation. I made myself very clear.

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