Rejected By Alpha, Craved By The Lycan King

Ivara’s POVShe crossed the room like she owned it, and I watched Draven’s face break open into something I had never seen him wear for me.“Selara.” Her name left his mouth like a prayer.She did not even look at me, she just walked straight past me, straight into his arms, and kissed him like I was a piece of furniture in the way. His hands came up to her waist and he kissed her back.I stood there frozen, and watched my husband held another woman the same way he held me last night.“I thought you were dead,” Draven said against her lips, and his voice cracked. “They told me you died.”“I’m here now.” She pulled back just enough to smile at him, then finally, finally, her eyes slid to me like she was noticing a stain on the carpet. “Is this her?”“Ivara.” Draven said my name like an afterthought. “My wife.”“Wife.” Selara laughed, but it was soft and cruel. “How sweet.”My chest was caving in. “Draven, what is going on? Who is she?”He didn't answer right away, he just looked at

Ivara’s POVThe stone floor was the only thing keeping me from screaming.I had lost count of the days and there was no window in this cell, only a small slit near the ceiling where thin light crawled in each morning and disappeared each night. I knew it had been a while because my dress was stiff with dirt and my wrists still bear the marks of the ropes they used to drag me here.Footsteps echoed outside, more than usual, voices laughing, excited and I pressed myself against the bars and listened.“The Moon Goddess Ceremony is tonight,” one guard said to another. “Every unmated wolf in the pack will find out who their true mate is. Can you imagine? A night like that only comes once.”My chest tightened. The Moon Goddess Ceremony. I remember hearing about it as a child, how the goddess herself lit a path between true mates, how the whole pack gathered to watch the reveal. I never thought about it much once I married Draven, since married wolves didn't take part. But I was not ma

Ivara's POVThe fire in my chamber never seemed to go out. I noticed that on my third morning in Emberreach, watching the flames curl around a fresh log while a servant girl set a tray of bread and honey beside my bed. In Ashveil, fires burned low by dawn, and no one bothered to feed them again until dusk. Here, someone always came before I woke.I sat up slowly, my hand pressed against the curve of my stomach. The healer said the baby was strong, stronger than she expected for how thin I had grown in the omega quarters. She said it with a frown, like something about that strength troubled her more than it comforted her."You are awake." The voice at my door was crisp and cold, and I looked up to find a woman standing there I had not met before. She wore silver at her throat and a gown the colour of frost, and her eyes moved over me the way a butcher looked at meat before deciding which cut to take first."I am Lady Serris," she said when I did not answer fast enough. "I sit on the Em

Ivara's POVWe reached the healer's wing to find two guards already inside, and the healer herself pressed flat against the wall, her face pale as bone. On the floor between them lay a shattered vial, dark liquid spreading slowly across the stone."What happened," Kael demanded."I was testing her blood, my lord, as you asked." The healer's hands shook as she spoke, and she pointed at the broken glass. "The sample reacted the moment I tried to seal it. It should never do that. I have never seen blood behave this way in thirty years of practice."Kael crouched to examine the shards without touching them, his expression unreadable. "Explain what you mean by behave.""It moved, my lord. On its own. Like it was alive." She looked at me now, and there was something close to fear in her eyes, though not the kind aimed at an enemy. It was the fear people reserve for something they do not understand. "My lord, I believe her bloodline is not merely rare. I believe it may be one the old texts w