All Chapters of Accidentally Marked By The Lycan King: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Xavier’s POVThe scent hit me first — wrong, oily, metallic, and slithering through the corridors like a smear of rot. It didn’t belong anywhere in my wing, not in the guarded heart of the palace, not within twenty steps of where Alara slept.My Lycan surged to the surface before my mind could fully catch up. ‘Intruder. Close.’I moved swiftly, silently, the marble beneath my boots absorbing each step like the palace itself understood the danger creeping through its spine. I followed the stench down the private hallway leading to my chambers — a place where no warrior dared to step without permission.A low growl rumbled in my chest as the shadow ahead shifted.The rogue stepped into view.Except… this was not like any rogue I had encountered in the field or near the borders. His eyes were black — not just dark — but void-like. Empty. As if something had scooped out the soul inside him.He turned his head unnaturally slow, like a puppet being dragged by strings.My claws burst through

Alara’s POVThe morning after my argument with Xavier passed in a suffocating haze of silence.The palace was quieter than usual. As if the walls themselves were holding their breath after the assassin’s intrusion. Guards rotated past my door at regular intervals, their footsteps echoing down the corridor like distant drums. Even without looking, I could feel the change in their posture whenever they neared my room.Wary. Alert. On edge because of me.Or maybe because of what hunted me.Astrid was restless. She paced inside my mind like a caged ember that refused to dim. Xavier’s absence gnawed at her, but she kept her comments to herself after last night. The bond between us hummed faintly, tender and bruised, like we had both been holding knives by the blade.But today, I refused to sit and drown in the aftermath.I needed answers. I needed control. I needed to do something.Even if Xavier didn’t want me wandering around, there was one person who would help me anyway.Just after dawn

Alara’s POVThe palace woke before the sun. Today was different. Despite the ongoing threats from corrupted rogues, it was decided that no palace events would be postponed to portray the image of stability of the crown.Footsteps echoed through marbled corridors, fabrics swished, voices rose and fell in urgent waves. Servants rushed past my door carrying scrolls, polish, trays heavy with silverware that sparkled like stars fallen from the sky. The diplomatic week had begun under tighter security and with it came expectations I wasn’t ready for.Acting Luna.The words alone pressed against my ribs like a too-tight corset.My magic still burned under my skin, my bond with Xavier was frayed to threads, and my nightmares had become so vicious that I jolted awake more than I slept. Being paraded before visiting Alphas and their councils felt like a cruel joke.Yet that was exactly what I was expected to do.I sat at the vanity as a handmaiden pinned my hair into place, the mirror reflecting

Alara’s POVDarkness curled around me, thick and suffocating, as if the very air had turned into molten shadow. I could feel Xavier’s warmth behind me, his presence a tether I wasn’t sure I wanted to hold onto anymore. My wrist throbbed violently, the crescent mark flaring with a force that made my bones ache. Every pulse was like a drumbeat of rage and desire, an untamed, screaming power that seemed to belong to someone else — someone I couldn’t control.And then… the vision came.I was standing in the hall of the palace, but the world was distorted, everything drenched in black and gold. Xavier was there, moving toward me with that fierce, unyielding gaze I had loved and feared all at once. But in this vision, his eyes were not molten gold. They were opaque, empty, as if he had been stripped of his humanity.I raised my hands instinctively. The crescent mark burned through the glove, silver light licking out like liquid fire. I felt its raw, chaotic energy course through my veins, wh

Alara’s POVI couldn't feel my legs.Not when they jolted backward from the half-open door. Not when the breath violently caved in my chest, leaving behind only suffocating emptiness. Not when the familiar, comforting world violently turned into a jarring, agonizing blur of ringing white noise.All I heard, above the roaring silence of my own shattered heart, was one single, devastating sound — Xavier’s voice, intimate and low, demanding satisfaction from Aria.Astrid let out a strangled, primal roar in my head, a sound of profound pain and desperate refusal.‘NO. NO, ALARA—DON’T RUN. WE NEED TO SEE. WE NEED TO KNOW. WE NEED TO—’But I was already moving. Not thinking. Not breathing. Not processing. Just running.The hallway spun past me in sickening streaks of shadow and moonlight. My feet stumbled, caught, slipped on the smooth flooring, but I didn’t stop. I couldn't. My lungs burned like raw fire, every ragged inhale tearing me apart from the inside.‘Mate. Betrayal. Mate. Betrayal.