THE LYCAN KING IS HERE

CHAPTER 6

Freya's POV

Selene took a step back, her eyes wide with terror as she looked at me. One second she was standing her ground and the next her body had moved without her permission, and I watched her wolf press flat inside her while mine kept pushing upward, hot and angry and bigger than anything I'd ever felt before.

I didn't understand what was happening to me. All I knew was that the air felt different and every wolf standing within ten feet of me had gone completely still and Selene, for the first time since I'd known her, looked genuinely afraid.

Then I felt the sharp pain hit and I forgot everything else. My head rang with a loud deafening ringing. My vision went white.

I clamped my hand hard down on my ears, my eyes rolling to the back of my head as I felt the terrible terrible pain hit my body and my knees buckled. Whatever had been building inside me collapsed all at once and I pitched forward with nothing left holding me up.

“No. No. No.” I cried, as I felt my knees give up, about to collapse on the floor.

But before I could land on the floor, Aurora caught me, her arms locking hard around my waist.

"I've got you, baby," she said quietly. "Just breathe. Let it go and breathe, Freya."

I gripped her arm and breathed. Forcing myself to calm my racing heart that felt like it would burst anytime from my chest.

That's when I heard it. Selene laughter.

"An artifact!" Her voice carried easily across the entire ballroom, and I weakly looked up at her. She turned to address the crowd directly, like she was giving a speech she'd prepared years for. I could just imagine the satisfaction she felt seeing me this way.

"She used a witchcraft artifact to fake that aura! Did everyone see how fast it disappeared the moment she lost her grip on it?" She paused, and looked back to give me a disgusting look before looking back at the audience. "A wolfless omega, using banned magic to impersonate an alpha heir at the Lycan King's Moonlight Ball." She shook her head slowly, and gave a mocking sad smile. “Freya. I almost feel sorry for you."

The murmuring spread through the hall immediately. The people who had once shifted away as they felt the unusual power from me a few seconds earlier, now looked at me with disgust.

"A witchcraft artifact?"

"I knew something felt wrong—"

"But she's a Valenwood, would she really?"

Rowan stepped forward. "She would! I was engaged to this woman for three years. Deception is the one thing she has always been good at." He looked around the room as he spoke, making sure everyone was listening. "Remove her. Remove both of them before they embarrass this event any further!"

How could he? How could he tell such a lie with a straight face! I had never deceived him.

And just as I opened my mouth to defend myself, Aurora's grip on my arm went tight enough to bruise. I pressed my hand over hers and she stilled, her jaw clenched, saying nothing.

I looked at Rowan and I decided not to say a word. I just looked at him and let him see my face clearly. Let him see the woman who he was purposely slandering for one last time, because the next time he would see me this clearly, he wouldn't know what would be coming for him.

"Your qualifications have been revoked,” Someone suddenly spoke from across the floor. It was one of the official betas, his face completely blank, his posture straight. "Please leave immediately."

Selene let out a long breath. She turned to me with the most satisfied expression I had ever seen on her face and said, "Finally."

I turned to the man sharply, ready to defend myself. I mean…couldn't he see who was in the wrong here.

I looked at Selene and noticed how her eyes tracked the direction of the beta's gaze, a grin spreading on her lips.

And immediately the satisfaction disappeared.

That's when I noticed it.

He wasn't looking at me. He was looking at her.

"That—" Her voice jumped before she pointed sharply at me. "That's the wrong person. She's standing right there with the artifact, everyone saw her, she faked the entire—"

"This is the Lycan King's decision!” The beta’s voice thundered, and everybody including me stilled. Nobody moved. Nobody spoke.

Somewhere at the back of the hall a glass was set down on a table, and the sound carried all the way across the room.

Then Selene found her voice, shaking her head like she couldn't believe what was happening. “That is impossible." She pointed at me, her voice rising, tears welling in her eyes probably from the humiliation. "The Lycan King does not involve himself in minor events. Everyone knows that. She colluded with this beta, she is using his name to protect herself because she knew she was about to be thrown out—"

"The Lycan King is present here. And you will obey everything he says,” the beta cut her off harshly, and I almost felt pity for her.

The Lycan king was here?

The hall immediately broke out into a loud murmur. Just that current running through a crowd of wolves, everyone shifting and turning at once, all that instinct pulling tight at the same time.

"He's here? The Lycan King is actually here?"

"Which one is he?"

"Where—"

Rowan looked around the room once and then fixed his eyes on me, and whatever was on his face had gone past angry into something reckless. "Present," he said slowly. " You mean he's here tonight at a recruitment ball." He let out a short bitter laugh. "And not one of us noticed?" He shook his head. "Stop bluffing. If he is actually here…" his voice rose so the whole room could hear…"then bring him out right now." He stared directly at me. "I dare you."

The moment the words skipped out of his mouth, I felt a shiver run down my back.

A pressure change. Low and heavy, rolling toward the hall from somewhere beyond the entrance doors. Steady. Unhurried. Like it had all the time in the world.

And my breath stopped.

I knew that feeling. I had felt it once before. In the dark. It was close enough that I could hear someone breathing next to me.

Around me wolves went quiet one by one, their heads dropping. Even Rowan had stopped talking, standing there with his challenge still fresh in the air, suddenly very still.

Selene's hand dropped to her side.

The doors at the far end of the ballroom suddenly opened, and slowly every head in the hall turned at once.

Then someone who I had never expected, suddenly stepped inside.

No. It was impossible.

Caelan???