Chapter 4

Chapter 4

My mind whirred as I thought of everything I had heard about him.

He was rumored to be the most unattractive among his brothers. He was also the youngest brother and apparently the one most likely to be found between a woman’s sheets.

But what had earned him his nickname was his eyes. Rumored to be darker than midnight, they portrayed exactly how weak he was.

In our continent, Avaloria, the power of the royal family is reflected in our eyes.

The children strong enough to be Lycans are denoted by their light eyes ringed with gold. The more gold a child has, the stronger the child is predicted to become.

After Lycans come the alphas. They are very strong and are denoted by their brown eyes with flecks of gold.

Next are the Betas. Like Prayan, who has light honey-brown eyes.

And then there are the general pack members. Who has dark brown eyes.

But even lower than them is Prince Kael. He was born with black eyes.

And now I’m married to him. How shameful.

————-

My head jerked up as I heard the sound of a key being pushed into a lock and the bedroom door swung open.

I got to my feet immediately and moved back, holding a pillow like some shield in front of me as footsteps entered the room.

“STAY BACK!” I called out in fear. Some part of me already knew who had stepped into the room.

He wasn’t my mate by any means but through the joining, I could feel him.

His footsteps paused and I squinted as light flooded the room.

I had no idea what I expected. Rumors have scarcely reached Calantha about the dark prince. He’s famous only for his eyes but as I stared at the man in front of me.

I suddenly wished more rumors had reached my ears about him; then maybe I would have been prepared.

He was drop-dead gorgeous. No man should be allowed to look this good; it was almost criminal.

I closed my eyes and groaned softly in frustration. Now it would be even harder to hate him.

His jaw looked like it had been cut from stone. He looked like a Greek god.

I swallowed and tentatively looked into his eyes.

A small gasp escaped me. It was true, they were dark as midnight and yet so unbelievably sexy that I staggered towards him to see them better.

He had been staring at me in shock but my gasp seemed to break him as his stare turned into a glare.

“Get dressed! You’re going back to whatever hell you crawled from tomorrow." He growled as he stepped back like I carried some sort of disease.

“What?” Disbelief and humiliation rushed through me.

My cheeks heated as his gaze swept over my red nightdress that was supposed to be for Prayan and I noticed with no small amount of satisfaction that his gaze lingered on my cleavage before he quickly looked back up.

“I already had my fill tonight at the whorehouse. GET DRESSED! I don’t care what deal you made, I’m not having sex with you."

“What the hell are you talking about?!” I found my voice as the shock of my second rejection wore off.

“I don’t want to have sex with you!”

Prince Kael gave me an incredulous look. “You’re dressed as if you belong in the whore house I just left. You can tell the king I rejected you. I don’t want a wife."

“I mean it. I have no intention of seducing you. I didn’t even want to marry you,” my voice cracked and I pressed my shaky palm against my eyes to calm myself down.

Prince Kael sighed. “Okay. Get dressed first and then we’ll talk."

A few minutes later, I was dressed in his t-shirt and folding my arms across my chest while standing opposite him.

“So, you’re saying you were supposed to get married to somebody else but ended up with me?”

“Yeah,” I idly played around with Mami’s gold bracelets on my wrist.

He nodded. “I don’t want this marriage either. Even if I wanted to get married, you wouldn’t be the bride."

I blinked in surprise as annoyance flashed through me. Where did that come from? I don’t care if he doesn’t want to marry me.

I shrugged awkwardly. “I don’t want to be married to you either."

Kael sighed and shook his head. "Look, let’s just go to bed for now. Tomorrow we can dissolve the joining and go our separate ways.

Sleep was the last thing on my mind but my head pounded and my muscles ached from the stress of the day.

“Tomorrow we’ll go back to Calantha and find out why Prayan followed Nadira’s instructions,” Faith, my wolf, whispered.

"Goodnight." I pulled one of the covers from the bed and promptly walked over to the bedroom couch.

——-

I dreamt of what my wedding should have been like. Happiness and laughter bubbled in my chest as I looked into the face of my mate.

Wait. Why was Prayan’s face changing into Kael’s? I woke up with a gasp and looked around me, disoriented.

I was on a couch and the room was dimly lit. With a frown, I silently sat up and glanced towards the bed but found it empty.

My senses went on high alert immediately. Where was he?

My heart thundered as I heard sounds coming from the vanity. Slowly, I turned my head to watch the dark figure that stood in front of the mirror.

With his back to me, I couldn’t see what Prince Kael was doing.

I frowned. It was the middle of the night, why was he fussing in the mirror?

My heart thundered as I realized what I was staring at. In Prince Kael’s hands was a contact lens case.

Masking your eye color is a crime no one in Avaloria has dared to commit.

My gaze trailed up and through the mirror, Prince Kael stared back at me and I let out an audible gasp as our eyes locked.

THEY WERE GOLD. I don’t mean ringed with gold, I mean pure freaking gold!

Prince Kael has gold eyes.