The Lycan King’s Forgotten Wife

Arden POV

"Stand up straight, and try not to look like you walked in off the street," Octavia said, her fingers digging into my shoulder as she steered me toward the ballroom doors.

"I am standing straight."

"Then do it better." She let go and swept past me in a rustle of blue silk, not bothering to look back.

The Celestial Crown Hotel glittered under crystal chandeliers, marble floor packed with beaded gowns and tailored suits, waiters weaving through with trays of champagne. I smoothed the sleeves of my plain black dress, bought off a clearance rack, and told myself it didn't matter that I looked like I didn't belong here.

This was my first Marcellis family gala, years of being kept in the back rooms while everyone else went out and shone, and then, out of nowhere, a gold-embossed invitation showed up demanding the whole household show up.

"Is that Darius Marcellis's other daughter?" a woman near the fountain whispered to her friend, not quietly enough.

"I didn't know he had another one," he said, and took a sip of his drink. "She doesn't look like much."

I kept my eyes forward and found my father under the main chandelier, Celeste glowing beside him in red.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Darius announced, loud enough for the whole room, "may I present my daughter, Celeste Marcellis. The true pride of our bloodline, and the future of this family."

The crowd clapped as Celeste bowed her head to a cluster of Lycan lords like she'd been doing it her whole life, because she had.

I stepped out from behind a pillar and lifted my hand. "Father"

His eyes met mine for exactly one second, then slid past me like I was part of the wallpaper. He turned back to Celeste, guided her toward a knot of investors, and didn't say my name once.

My hands curled into fists. The chandeliers suddenly felt too bright, too hot. I scanned the room out of habit, but there was no friendly face to fall back on. Adrian was thousands of miles away at university overseas, leaving me completely alone to navigate Octavia and Celeste.

"He does not see you," Octavia said, appearing at my shoulder.

"He looked right at me."

"He looked through you." She stepped closer so no one else could hear. "You're here to complete the picture, Arden of a united family. That's all."

"I earned my place here. I've spent months on the medical research for the company."

"That research stays in the basement, where it belongs." She turned and walked off, heels clicking against the marble, and left me standing alone against a pillar with my pulse hammering in my ears.

That was when I saw him.He stood on a raised platform near the windows, a full head taller than everyone around him, gold eyes moving over the room like he owned every inch of it. People pressed close, trying to get his attention, lords, executives, men in expensive suits all talking over each other but none of them actually got near him. He looked completely alone in the middle of a crowd, like there was a wall none of them could see.

A man in a blue suit thrust a paper at him, talking too fast. He didn't flinch, just took the paper, handed it off to a guard, and said something low that made the man bow and retreat.

Then, for just a second, his jaw tightened and his fingers brushed his ribs, like he was hiding pain he didn't want anyone to notice.

I didn't get the chance to wonder about it.

"Arden!" Celeste's voice cut through the noise, and she was already crossing the floor toward me, two tall glasses of dark purple juice in her hands, her smile too wide. "I've been looking everywhere. Why are you hiding back here?"

"I'm fine. Just watching."

"You're always just watching." She pushed one of the glasses at my chest until I had to take it or spill it. "It's a party, Arden. Loosen up for once."

The liquid swirled dark against the glass, a sharp scent rising off it that made my stomach turn. "What is this?"

"House special. Father ordered it for the head table." She took a sip of her own to prove it. "Come on, this is your first gala. We should toast."

"I don't really want to"

"Stop being so paranoid." Her smile flickered, just for a second, before it came roaring back twice as bright. "Everyone's celebrating. You're finally here with the rest of us or do you want to spend the whole night against a wall like an outsider?"

That word landed exactly where she meant it to.

I looked at my father's back, still turned toward the investors, and felt the old, stupid ache of wanting in. Some small, smarter part of me said to walk away but I didn't listen.

"Fine." I took the glass.

"To family," Celeste said, raising hers.

"To family."

I drank half of it in two swallows. The juice was thick, too sweet, coating my throat on the way down. I handed the glass back, and Celeste's smile dropped clean off her face, replaced by something cold and satisfied I'd never seen on her before.

"Good girl," she whispered.

"What does that"

Heat surged up my neck before I could finish the sentence, my knees buckling under me as the room tilted hard to one side.