TRADING MY CHEATING HUSBAND FOR THE LYCAN KING novel Chapter 65

<CHAPTER 40 THESE SAME HANDS-T

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CHAPTER 40: THESE SAME HANDS-1

EMBER’S POV

I’m terrified this will ruin the moment. This fragile, beautiful thing we’ve built under the Northern Lights.

But I’m tired of everyone telling me what to think about Knox. Tired of Gale’s poison and Rayana’s warnings and rumors whispered behind hands at cocktail receptions.

We don’t owe each other anything. This arrangement is fake.

But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m being pulled in every direction, and I need to hear the truth from

him. Not from Gale. Not from Rayana. From Knox.

“So I’m asking,” I continue, forcing myself to meet his eyes. “What really happened to her?”

For a long moment, I think he won’t answer. I’m prepared for him to shut down, retreat behind those walls

he wears like armor.

Instead, he starts talking. His voice is flat. Distant. Like he’s reciting facts from someone else’s life.

“I told you she betrayed me. With Kieran. What I didn’t tell you is what happened after I found them.” He pauses, and when he continues, there’s something cold in his tone. “My wolf took over before I could stop it. Pure instinct. Pure rage. When I came back to myself, they were both dead.”

The words hang in the air between us, heavy as stone.

“I don’t remember doing it,” he says quietly, and for the first time, there’s a crack in that clinical detachment. “I just remember the blood. Everywhere. The Council ruled it justified under mate betrayal laws. But justified doesn’t mean I’m not a killer. It doesn’t mean their faces don’t visit me every time I

close my eyes.”

I shift to face him fully, searching his expression.

His blue eyes are distant, guarded, bracing for my fear. For me to recoil. To recognize him for what he is.

Instead, I stay.

I don’t know what my face is doing. What expression I’m making.

Any sane person would be running. Any smart person would put as much distance between themselves and Knox Volkov as physically possible.

“But I’m not.”

Something flickers in his eyes. Disbelief, maybe. Or the beginning of a question he’s too afraid to ask.

Why?

I can see it written across his face. Why aren’t you running? Why aren’t you afraid? Why are you still here? His hand comes up to cup my jaw, forcing me to meet his gaze. There’s something desperate in his expression now. Something that looks like warning.

“You need to understand why you can’t-” He stops. Swallows. Starts again. “For your own good, Ember. Don’t seek more than what we have. I know myself better than anyone else. I know what these hands are capable of.” His thumb brushes my cheekbone, almost tender, but his voice stays hard. “I know how obsessive I get when I want something. How consuming it becomes. It’s not safe for us to cross certain

lines.”

“What lines?”

“Trying to know me. Trying to connect with me beyond what we’ve agreed to.” His jaw tightens, muscle jumping beneath skin. “What I’m giving you right now-this honesty-it’s mercy. It’s a warning. I’m not the man you make me in your head when we’re like this. I’m the monster everyone says I am, and you’d de well to remember it.”

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