Chapter 4

Aria

"I don't care what he believes," Valerius interrupted, his breath hot against my lips, sending a wicked shiver down my spine. His thumb pressed firmly against my racing pulse point at the base of my throat. "You played a very dangerous game out there, little wolf. Now, it's my turn."

After those words, the heavy tinted door of the royal SUV clicked shut and the car began moving.

Soon we arrived at an unfamiliar and isolated guest cabin on the edge of the Silvermoon territory.

But Valerius still didn't let go of my wrist as we entered the front door.

The air inside the small, rustic living room was thick, laced with the dark, intoxicating scent of rain-soaked cedar and raw power. 

I let out a long, shaky breath, the massive adrenaline rush finally beginning to crash. "Again, thank you," I whispered, staring down at my hand in his wrist. "For playing along. But you didn't have to humiliate him like that. Jace has a temper, and knowing him, he will blame his punishment on me and might try to take revenge, and that is something I really don’t need right now." I sighed.

Valerius turned his head slowly. His molten silver eyes locked onto mine, dark and utterly unreadable as he finally released my wrist and sat on a sofa.

"I told you outside, Aria," Valerius murmured, his deep voice sending a shiver straight down my spine. "I don't play. And most especially, I don’t play about the safety of things that belong to me, so you and the baby have nothing to fear from him." 

I frowned at that, because what did he mean by things that belonged to him?

Before I could even process his words or ask what he meant, a heavy, frantic knocking echoed against the cabin’s wooden front door.

Valerius grunted, his jaw clenching as he stood up from the sofa. He didn't even tell them to enter, but the wooden door creaked open anyway.

And to my utter shock, my father, my mother, Jace, and Chloe all pushed into the cozy cabin. They had followed after us immediately… but why?

The king immediately glared at them, and they all looked very nervous standing on the luxurious woven rug. Chloe was still clutching her ruined, dirt-stained dress, while Jace looked like he was about to vomit from pure terror.

My father was trembling. His face was ghostly pale, his hands shaking so violently he had to fold them behind his back.

Beside him, my mother was desperately trying to smooth down her tailored skirt, her eyes darting nervously toward the royal guards standing posted outside the cabin windows.

"Your Majesty! Please, Your Majesty, forgive us for the earlier meeting!" my father blurted out, bowing his head so low he was practically double-folded. "We hadn’t expected you, so we didn’t have time to prepare a worthy welcome for you my king. And also, I deeply apologize for my daughter's absolute insolence for kissing you! I do not know what has gotten into her! I promise you that we never raised her to act like such a shameless whore!"

Shameless whore?! I gaped at my father in shock.

I told them that Chloe slept with my fiancé, but they told me not to react and cause trouble, but I kissed ONE man, and they called me a whore?!

What the hell?!

Valerius stared at him, saying nothing, until the silence in the cabin began to feel suffocating.

My father took that silence as a sign to keep digging his own grave. He raised his head, glaring past the King directly at me, his eyes flaring with Beta authority. "Aria! Kneel and apologiseright now! Have you lost your mind?! How dare you put your filthy hands on the Lycan King?! How dare you kiss His Majesty in front of the entire pack?! You are an embarrassmentthis family!"

I was struck speechless as he raised his hand, pointing a harsh finger at my face. "You apologize to His Majesty this instant, you stupid, ungrateful girl! You are a delta! You do not address royalty, let alone—"

"Silence!"

The word didn't drop softly, It slammed into the cabin like a thunderclap forcing everyone to seize up immediately.

Valerius stepped forward, his massive shadow completely swallowing the man who had terrified me my entire life.

"You will never speak to her like that again," Valerius said. His voice was terrifyingly calm, but the killer aura bleeding off his body made the glass in the cabin windows rattle. "If you raise your voice to her one more time, I will rip your throat out right here."

My father gasped, stumbling back two steps until his spine hit the wooden doorframe. "Y-Your Majesty... she is my daughter—"

"She is MY woman," Valerius growled, stepping into my father's personal space. "And you are a weak Beta who doesn't know his place."

I sat frozen on the sofa, my breath catching in my throat. My Woman? Since when?!