TRADING MY CHEATING HUSBAND FOR THE LYCAN KING novel Chapter 275

CHAPTER 205: AN ABSOLUTE DISASTER

EMBER’S POV

I lean forward and press my lips to his wet cheek. Then the other. Then the corner of his mouth where the salt gathers.

Kissing the tears off him one by one, slow and sweet, the way he kissed the bruises off my wrists in the bath.

He closes his eyes and lets me, his hands finding my waist, and the sound of his breathing filling the quiet kitchen is the most honest sound I’ve ever heard him make.

“We’re a mess,” he murmurs against my mouth.

“An absolute disaster.”

“Catastrophic.”

“Legendary, even.”

His laugh is wet and short and real.

“At least we’re consistent.”

I pull back and look at him and his face is open in a way I’ve never seen it – tear–streaked and bruised and smiling slightly and completely, entirely mine.

And I know that if I don’t say the next thing now, while the doors are open and neither of us is hiding, I’ll lose the nerve and carry it for another month and it’ll rot.

“I threatened Nathaniel.”

Knox blinks. The smile doesn’t leave but it shifts, curiosity sharpening behind his eyes.

“You what?”

“When suspected him and Queenie. I didn’t just sit on it – I went to him. Privately Andlí told him I would do everything in my power to ruin him if he was working against you.”

A pause. Knox stares at me. Then his gaze travels slowly down my body and back up again, as if he’s recalculating my dimensions.

“My five–foot–nothing Ember threatened a six–foot–four beta wolf who could snap her in half.”

“I was very convincing.”

“While being roughly the size of an angry kitten.”

“Are you LAUGHING at me right now?”

“I’m admiring you. Aggressively.” The corner of his mouth lifts and it’s the first real grin I’ve seen on his

X CHAPTER JAPAN ARE LOTE DISASTER

face since. “You know he probably went home and had a panic attack. Nathaniel doesn’t know what to do with women who yell at him. Queenie’s the only one who’s ever managed it and she’s had years of practice.”

“Where even are they right now?”

“In the other cabin, being fucking snakes.”

“Speaking of snakes…”

Knox’s expression darkens immediately.

“Let’s not.”

“They saved my life, Knox.”

“Then we send them a thank you card. Case closed.”

“We have to talk to them.”

“Or. I could simply kill them both and save us the conversation.”

“Knox.”

“It’s efficient. Clean. No awkward truth sessions. No tearful apologies. It’d just be a quick, decisive-”

I move and straddle him. His hands catch my hips on instinct, steadying me, and I take his face in both hands and force his gaze up to mine.

“Look at me.”

He looks.

“You are not killing Nathaniel. You are not killing Queenie. And I know you don’t actually want to, even though the grumpy bastard routine is very convincing and I appreciate the performance.”

“It’s not entirely a performance.”

“It’s at least sixty percent performance.” My thumbs trace his jaw, careful of the bruises. “Nathaniel has been protecting you for years. He did it badly. He did it selfishly. He made choices that nearly destroyed

me and nearly destroyed you and I will NEVER forgive him for the recording – never. But he kept you alive,

Knox. Whatever happened the night Celeste died, whatever he injected you with, whatever he cleaned up

and buried and lied about, maybe there was a good reason? I mean, you are breathing because of him. I am sitting in your lap right now because Nathaniel pulled you out of a room full of blood and put you back together and spent a decade making sure the world never found out what happened.”

“He used you as collateral. A disposable asset.”

“Yes. And I’ll deal with that. In my own time, in my own way. But you don’t get to kill him before I’m done being angry, because if he’s dead I can’t yell at him and I have a LOT of yelling saved up.”

The laugh that comes out of him is reluctant and genuine and warm and it vibrates through his chest into

mine

ALSIN UTEPLASTER

“And Queenie… She might not be my best friend anymore, but she was a friend,” I say, softer now. “She’s my friend and she broke my heart and both of those things are true at the same time. I’m not ready to talk to her yet. But when I am, need her alive.”

Knox’s hands tighten on my hips. His jaw clenches and unclenches.

Then: “Fine. They live.”

“Thank you.”

“For now.”

“For now is enough.”

“Did you see Nathaniel’s face when I dropped him in the mud?” Knox’s expression shifts to something darkly delighted. “The great strategist on his knees in the dirt. WEEPING like a newborn.”

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