TRADING MY CHEATING HUSBAND FOR THE LYCAN KING novel Chapter 374

CHAPTER 300: UNFUNNY ID.IOT

EMBER’S POV

“Hey Hey.” He’s across the room, catching me in his arms before the first sob even breaks. His large hand cup the back of my head, pressing my face into his chest as his entire body curves over me. “No, no, no. Ember. Baby, look at me. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry-”

He pulls back just enough to look at my face. He looks genuinely stricken. All the wicked delight is gone, replaced by a man who has just realised his joke landed wrong.

“Rafael. Fuck, you thought he found us.” He drags a shaking hand through his hair. “I’m an idiot. I just wanted to get you out of your head; I didn’t even think about how you would react to the alarm. I’m so

sorry-”

“It’s not that-” I try to say, but he is already spiralling.

Seeing a man this lethal completely lose his composure just because I shed a tear is so shocking that it

stops my crying halfway.

“I was trying to make up for yesterday.” The words come out in a rush, and he actually stumbles over them which I have never once heard Knox Volkov do. “The fight. I hated how we left it, I hated you going to bed

without me, so I thought – I don’t know what I thought. I wanted to do something. Something big. A grand gesture, the candles, all of it, and I thought a little – a little fun first might-” He drags a hand through his hair, and I realise he’s flustered, genuinely flustered, the terrifying Lycan King tripping over his own tongue. “Everyone says I don’t have a sense of humour. Marjorie’s been saying it for years. And I thought, just this once, a small prank, something light, it’d be funny, and then the romance after, and I’d fix yesterday, and- He exhales, defeated. “Fuck. I’m sorry. It was a terrible idea. I’m not funny. Apparently I’m so unfunny I

made my fiancée cry, which is a new low even for me.”.

“You,” I manage, hiccuping, “tried to be funny.”

“I did.” He looks pained. “It went poorly.”

“You scared ten years off my life, Knox.” I let out a small laugh.

“I’m aware. I’m deeply aware.” He cups my face, thumbs swiping at the tears, watching me laugh with the wary hope of a man not sure if he’s forgiven. “Talk to me. Tell me what I did. I’ll fix it. Whatever it is, tell me and I’ll fix it.”

And here’s the thing, the thing that makes me half-laugh through the crying, the thing that breaks me open

even further: he means it.

He would fix it.

“It’s not “I get out, between sobs. “I promise, it’s not the prank. The prank was-Goddess, the prank was perfect. You mischievous devil, it was perfect.”

CHAPTER 2

UNNY ID IOT

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He blinks. “But it made you cry.”

–

“I know.” I laugh, wet and broken. “I know it did. That’s that’s not-”

I press the heels of my hands against my eyes and try to find the words, and they come out tangled and

true.

“It was perfect because it was exactly what I needed and I didn’t even know I needed it. Something silly. Something that wasn’t real. Do you understand? You scared the absolute hell out of me, and then it was candles, it was peonies, it was a joke, it wasn’t – hobody was dying, nobody was hunting us, it wasn’t real

“Ember-”

“I’ve been waiting for it.” The words come out raw, and once they start, I can’t stop them. “Since we got here. Since before that. I’ve been waiting for the next terrible thing the entire time, every single day, every time a door opens too fast or someone says my name in the wrong voice, some part of me goes, here it is, this is the one, this is the thing that finally takes it all away. And when you woke me up just now and said the alarms and the gate team, I wasn’t even surprised. That’s the – that’s the messed-up part, Knox. I wasn’t surprised. Some little broken piece of me was almost relieved. Like, oh, good, the waiting’s over, here’s the catastrophe, at least now I don’t have to brace for it anymore.” I’m shaking. “What kind of person feels relieved that the worst thing is finally happening? That’s – that’s not normal, that’s not a normal way to live, bracing every second for the floor to come up-”

“Come here.” His voice has gone very low and very rough. “Come here, come sit, come down here with

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