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Chapter five
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2025-12-08 19:19:29The woman stepped out of the sleek black car like she owned the world.
Her heels clicked sharply against the stone path, each sound echoing through the courtyard with a level of authority that sent a chill skittering down my spine. Her presence alone felt… heavy. Like she carried a storm behind her eyes, one she would unleash on anyone who dared breathe incorrectly.
I froze where I stood.
She was beautiful in a way that didn’t feel real—tall, elegant, her dark hair cascading over her shoulders like flowing silk. Her lips were painted the color of blood. Her dress… expensive, fitted, the sort you wore only if you intended to be seen and feared.
The maids who had been walking with me immediately bowed. Their heads dipped so low their foreheads nearly touched the ground.
My heart picked up.
Who was she?
She didn’t look at them. She didn’t look at anyone. Until her gaze found mine.
And when it did, the faintest smile curved at the corner of her red lips. Not a warm smile. Not a polite one. A smile that told me she already knew everything about me, and none of it pleased her.
“Who are you?” I whispered before I even realized the words had escaped.
The maids exchanged horrified glances. One of them—Hayley—caught my wrist discreetly and whispered, “My Lady… that’s her.”
My breath stilled. “Her who?”
Hayley swallowed hard. “Valeria.”
The name hit me like a slap.
Valeria.
Arthur’s former betrothed.
The one the pack elders once insisted would become Luna.
The woman who was supposed to stand beside him until he rejected the arrangement years ago.
She finally stopped in front of me, her eyes sweeping over my body in a slow, assessing motion that made heat prickle my skin. Not admiration. Not approval.
Judgment.
So much judgment.
“I see,” Valeria murmured, her voice smooth like silk but sharp beneath the surface. “This is the girl.”
Girl. Not woman.
Not Tyla.
Not mate.
Just girl.
Her gaze flicked to my hands, the ones Arthur always held protectively. Her jaw tightened barely, but I caught it.
“We have not been properly introduced,” she continued. “But judging by how my staff trembles around you, you must be the one who has… caught Arthur’s attention.”
Heat shot up my neck. “I didn’t catch anyone’s attention.”
Her smile widened. “No? And yet the palace is in chaos over you.”
I took a shaky breath. “Why are you here?”
A soft, humorless laugh escaped her lips. “This palace is my home. I was raised here. Trained here. Prepared here. I was meant to stand at Arthur’s side long before you crawled into his bed.”
I flinched.
She stepped closer. I stepped back.
“Arthur and I,” she whispered, her perfume invading my senses, “share a history your kind will never understand.”
“My kind?” My voice was small, breaking.
“An omega with nothing,” she clarified, not even bothering to soften the blow. “No lineage. No influence. No power. No reason to stand where you are standing.”
My throat burned.
“Arthur chose me,” I finally whispered, clinging to the one truth I had.
Valeria’s eyes hardened. “Mates can be replaced. Luna cannot.”
I froze.
She leaned even closer, her whisper brushing my ear. “You will learn that soon enough.”
Before I could respond, a guard approached hurriedly.
“Lady Valeria, Alpha Lucas requests your presence inside.”
She lifted her chin elegantly. “Of course.”
But before she walked away, she paused, tilted her head, and spoke softly:
“Enjoy your stay, little omega. It won’t last long.”
She turned, her heels clicking like a death sentence as she disappeared into the palace.
The moment she was gone, my legs gave out. I sat heavily on the courtyard bench, my heart pounding so fast I thought it might burst.
Hayley knelt beside me. “My Lady… please don’t listen to her.”
But her words didn’t reach me.
All I could think was:
Arthur is gone.
Valeria is here.
And she wants him back.
My stomach twisted painfully.
And for the first time since waking up in Arthur’s palace…
I felt truly, terrifyingly alone.
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Craving the alpha soldier Chapter sixty-four
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Craving the alpha soldier Chapter sixty -three
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Craving the alpha soldier Chapter sixty-two
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Craving the alpha soldier Chapter sixty -one
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Craving the alpha soldier Chapter sixty
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