TRADING MY CHEATING HUSBAND FOR THE LYCAN KING novel Chapter 248

CHAPTER 180: THE BACCHANAL

KNOX’S POV

Rayana scoffs.

“As if. My mother would never let Katherine Volkvov wallow. Not in this life and certainly not in whatever comes after.” She wipes her nose with the back of her hand, graceless and completely unbothered by it. I’m certain Beatrice and Katherine are still the best of friends. Probably driving everyone on the other side absolutely mad with their scheming. And Alexei-” She pauses, and the gentleness in her voice when she says my father’s name is something I wasn’t prepared for. “He’s there too. Only without the beast. He’s just a man now. A man who loves a woman and they have forever to make up for everything that went wrong

in their lifetime.”

I close my eyes and breathe in. The image she’s painted – my father without the monster, my mother without the fear, the two of them somewhere beyond this house and this curse with nothing between them except the love that started everything is so unbearably kind that it sits in my chests and makes everything lighter.

–

“I do love Ember.” The confession comes out soft this time. It is the truth, said plainly, to the one person in this hallway who already knew. “But I’ve fucked it all up. Haven’t I? She asked me to never come back. And 1 – I’m scared, Rayana. I am fucking terrified that I’ve broken something I can’t fix.”

Rayana rolls her eyes with exasperation. “Well, while you’re busy wallowing on this floor, I’m sure Rafael Montenegro is making very good use of your absence.”

Phantom growls. That fucking bastard.

“What do you mean?”

She hesitates – and Rayana Cross does not hesitate, which means whatever she’s about to say is something worth sitting up for.

“Well. I haven’t been completely honest. You know when i said Rafael found me when I was crying? It was a whole thing. He was kind. Charming. Full of plans.” She laughs, short and bitter. “He offered to host my last days – the Fairbanks trip, the cabins, the whole thing. His idea. He said a dying woman deserved one last adventure and he had the property and the means and the generosity of spirit.” Another laugh, harder this time. “I was going to tell everyone at the gathering that I was dying in two weeks. I wanted one good moment to remember.” Her eyes fill again. “But goddess, Ember hates me now, doesn’t she? She thinks I planned this or had this up my sleeve all along-”

“Rayana, sweetie, I need you to tell me what you weren’t completely honest about. Why are you telling me about Rafael?”

She blinks the tears back and steadies herself.

“Because he told me things. When he found me crying. He told me about Ember

about his belief that

she’s his fated mate. That he’s known since the first time he saw her. That Knox is the obstacle between

them and the bond just needs the right circumstances to reveal itself.” She pauses. “He had a plan, Knox. For the last night of the Fairbanks trip. He called it the Bacchanal.”

The air stills between us.

“He told me that in the old days, his father spoke of times when mate bonds were decided by simpler means. A feast where desire ran free. Wine that made a wolf’s blood sing. The full moon overhead and a night of such excess that the primal instinct would overpower everything civilised.” She’s watching my face. “He said the Bacchanal would reveal the true bond. That if Ember was his, her wolf would accept him. And if she was yours, she’d resist.”

“And you didn’t think to mention this?!”

“I didn’t understand what it meant! I thought it was a party, Knox. A romantic evening, wine and moonlight, and since Ember would be with you, I assumed-”

“Wine that makes a wolf’s blood sing.” I repeat it slowly, and the pieces are clicking together in my head like a lock turning. “Desire overpowering everything civilised. Primal instinct.”

Rayana frowns. “What-”

“Heat.” The word drops out of me and takes all the remaining blood from my face with it. “He’s going to force her into heat. He’s going to drug her into a heat cycle and – Rayana, the Bacchanal is a forced bonding ritual. He’s going to-”

I’m on my feet before I finish the sentence, phone out and dialling. The compound number is the first I call, but there is no answer. Ember’s phone is next, but it goes straight to voicemail.

As a last–ditch effort, I call Nathaniel, but there is no answer. I slashed his face open so that’s expected. Queenie – voicemail.

“Knox-”

“Nobody is answering.” My voice sounds alien to my own ears. Calm in a way that means the calm is load–bearing and if I remove it everything collapses. “Nobody at the compound is picking up. Her phone is off. She’s ALONE with him, Rayana. I left her alone with him and nobody is picking. What the fuck was I-” “The jet. The pilots haven’t left the airport yet. We can-”

I’m already moving. Down the hallway, down the stairs, past the kitchen I couldn’t enter, through the front door into the Swiss night.

Rayana is behind me, struggling to keep up, one hand pressed to her ribs, but she’s moving because she knows what I know and the horror of it is pushing past whatever her body is trying to tell her about its

limits.

My mother’s letter is still clutched in my fist, though crumpled now.

The last words she’ll ever say to me, stuffed against my palm as I run toward a car that will take me to a

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