TRADING MY CHEATING HUSBAND FOR THE LYCAN KING novel Chapter 216

CHAPTER 152: THE STORY OF CELESTE

EMBER’S POV

We end up sitting on the floor together, our backs against the wall, the painting watching over us like a guardian.

“I’m so tired,” I admit. “Of all of this. The secrets, the games, the feeling that everyone wants something from me.”

“I know.”

“You’re the only person who doesn’t feel like they’re lying to me right now. And I don’t even trust you.”

Rafael laughs softly. “That’s fair. I haven’t given you many reasons to trust me.”

“No. You haven’t.”

We sit in silence for a while, the gallery’s hush settling around us like a blanket.

“Can I ask you something?” I say eventually.

“Anything.”

“Celeste. You said you knew her. What was she actually like? What was Knox like with her?”

Rafael is quiet for a long moment, considering.

“They were beautiful together,” he says finally. “In that way that doomed things are always beautiful. You could see, watching them, that they were consuming each other. That kind of love that devours in the worst way. Almost toxic in some sense.”

“That’s not a very clear answer.”

“No, it’s not.” He sighs. “Knox was obsessive. Even by Lycan standards. He wanted to possess her completely, own her in every way. And Celeste… she was wild. Untameable. She chafed against his control even as she loved him for it.”

“So she did love him?”

r

“Oh, yes. Desperately. That was never the question.” Rafael turns to look at me. “The question was whether his way of loving was something anyone could survive. Whether being that wanted was worth being that

consumed.”

The words settle into me, finding all my soft places.

“But she cheated,” I say quietly. “She wasn’t a saint.”

Rafael rolls his eyes.

“Trust Knox to tell you only the things she did without naming his own part in it.” He shifts, leaning back against the wall. “Celeste wanted to leave, Ember. She had wanted to for a while. I knew that much

because the woman would complain to anyone with a listening ear.” He pauses. “She felt like a bird in a

gilded cage. Kept long enough to be the object of his whole obsession, but never close enough to know the man beyond the sex and the sweet words.”

My chest tightens.

“And I think that has always been his pattern,” Rafael continues. “I’ve heard women talk.” He makes a repulsed face. “I can’t imagine the kind of things that man could do in bed-”

Heat floods my cheeks, and I have to look away. Because I know exactly what Knox is capable of.

Rafael catches my expression and almost laughs.

“Ah. So you do know.” He shakes his head. “And somehow it manages to turn off every woman’s brain that comes in contact with him. Makes them incapable of asking themselves if they deserve something beyond just an orgasm and a good flash of fancy words.”

I want to argue. Want to defend Knox, defend myself, defend whatever this thing between us is.

But I can’t find the words.

“Celeste wanted a baby,” Rafael says, quieter now. “Knox did not. They fought over it for so long that

Celeste needed to leave. She was tired of his cage and his distance. Tired of good, but never enough. Of

his walls and the damage he held close until he was stripped down to his core.” He exhales. “She wanted to leave. I guess she just wasn’t patient enough to wait around for the divorce papers. Knox was obsessed with fixing things without ever giving her what she actually wanted.”

“Why?” The word escapes before I can stop it. “Why wouldn’t he just give her what she wanted?”

Rafael is quiet for a moment. And when he speaks, his voice is almost gentle.

“Because he is incapable of truly surrendering all his heart.” He holds my gaze. “Or maybe, in a way he hasn’t realized yet, he doesn’t have one that knows what it means to love without destroying it. The mate bond can work all its miracles, Ember. But only you truly decide what you want for yourself. And only you truly decide if you deserve half the mile… or the entire distance. His eyes soften. “And a man who is

r willing to give you that entirety and some more.”

The implication hangs between us.

“He didn’t kill her because he stopped loving her,” Rafael continues, looking back at the painting. “He killed her because he loved her too much in the damaged way he knew how. Because his wolf couldn’t accept the betrayal. Because for Knox, love and destruction have always been the same thing.”

My heart races.

“There’s something else,” I say, unsure how to even broach it. “The 2016 deal. Do you know what it was?”

Rafael frowns, genuinely confused.

“The 2016 deal? That’s vague. It could be anything.”

think Knox made a deal with my… ex–husband,” I say quietly. “A few years back. Something that had to do with me. I want to know what it is.”

His frown deepens.

“A deal with Gale about you?” He shakes his head slowly. “They worked in the same territorial projects a few years back, but I don’t know the details. Why? What’s going on?”

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