Bedside table for her cell and had to close his eyes as the thoughts of what he
wanted to do with her crowded his mind, driving out the rest of his rationality.
“Brayden?” he heard her surprised voice and his heart sunk as he sat on the bed,
watching her. Jealousy was not new to him anymore. Every time he thought of
her husband, all he wanted was to rip his head off and be done with it. Only that
he had no right to. The Alpha hadn’t offended him in any way, he played by the
rules. If he killed him now, the uprising would have their martyr to put on posters.
Especially if he took his wife afterwards.
No, he had to do this right. Too many people depended on him.
And Riannon... He wasn’t sure that she would appreciate him doing things by
force. Some she-wolves were into this. But she didn’t look like the kind.
He had to repeat to himself again and again that her wolf would be back
soon.And then she would know. And even if the wolf wouldn’t return, he would do
whatever it took to get her out of her marriage and make her fall in love with him.
Riannon was annoyed. It was 2 am at night and he had the audacity to call her. If
he cared, he could do that during the day. But he didn’t. He just threw a tantrum
prior and that was it.
“What are you doing?” he asked, sounding impatient. “I am sleeping,” she
muttered, “What else could I be doing at this hour?!”
“I...” He was not saying anything and then it suddenly occurred to her. Could he
sense what she was actually doing with Gideon right now? She bit her lip
instinctively.
That was it.
“I missed you, Ri,” he said all of a sudden and she noticed how the lycan king’s
eyes flashed gold.Yet he hadn’t made a sound. He just sat there, clenching his
fists and watching her every move.“That’s very nice of you,” she replied calmly, “But I am tired, and I want to go
back to sleep. Can we talk tomorrow?”
“How are the lycans?” he ignored her words completely, “Do they treat you well?”
“Well enough. You have nothing to worry about.” Her response was dry and she
could sense her husband not being happy about it. “Anyway, I’ll tell you
everything when I get back. Right now all I want is sleep.”
“Not yet, Ri,” he growled at her, “I want to talk to my wife more.” hurt herself
again and blame it on someone else without any consequences?”
There was silence at the other end of the line, and she hoped that he would end
the conversation first. But, of course, he didn’t.
“Ri, I understand that the situation is not easy. I promise I will handle it. Roxy will
behave.“ Brayden assured her.
“Oh, Goddess,” she covered her eyes with her free hand, “How lucky!”
“RI,” he tried to appease her, “When you come back, we are going to take a few
days off just for us.It’s going to be great, and we will talk about everything.”
“Sounds amazing,” she lied, “I am exhausted. I need to go now.”
“Ri,” he stopped her yet again,“Just... don’t do anything stupid there. And if
anyone tries to force you into anything, call me. I will always come to your
rescue. No one will hurt my girl.”
Her lips parted in shock. What was in that man’s brain? It was like she never
knew him in the first place. Just this morning his precious mate tried to hurt her
and he hadn’t been there for her.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she sighed, ready to finally hang up.“Ri, I really miss you,” he said in that husky voice of his he always used when he
wanted to seduce her. She used to go crazy about it. But now it had no effect on
her. She was cured.
“Sweet dreams, Brayden!” she said firmly and swiped her finger to end the call,
sighing.
Only now she remembered that the lycan king was watching her the whole time
and she stayed like that for a while, trying to gain back her composure.
Just when she was about to turn, a sound of a text message beeped, and she
looked at her phone again.
Ri, just remember that you are mine forever.
She stared at this message for a while before slowly putting the phone back.
What was that right now? In her past life he wasn’t that possessive of her since
the moment he met Roxanne. And the text didn’t have any sweet vibes to it. She
did not like it. She did not like it at all.
A bad feeling stirred up in her chest. She was careless. He probably felt what she
was
doing and it could go wrong in so many ways from here. Husbands had more
power in this world. Her best card was him not suspecting a thing. If she lost that
surprise element... It could end badly for so many people. Herself included
abruptly, almost hitting his chest with her face when he caught her in his arms.
And she flinched...
It hurt him on a physical level to see this reaction after she just talked to her
husband.
Did she still have feelings towards him? Or was it something else? The
atmosphere in the room changed.
“It’s fine,” he said caressing her cheek, “You can tell me. I...”“We can’t do anything,” she bit her lips as she said it and it made him growl
menacingly. He hated her husband enough already before that moment. Now he
absolutely despised him.
“Do you still love him?” he asked and she shook her head.
“No,” Riannon replied bluntly, “I don’t. But I need him to be unaware of that until I
am free. Right now...”
“He felt how good you felt with me?” he chuckled, slightly relieved.And when she
nodded with a soft blush on her cheeks, he lifted her up and placed her back to
the bed.
She was about to protest when he hopped over her to the other half of the bed
and lay down there.
“What...” she was about to ask him what he was doing when she saw a smile on
his face.
“If we can’t do anything, then we are going to sleep,” he said simply, “I am not
leaving you alone, though. He may feel me kissing you but he cannot sense me
in the same room as you.”
“Alright,” she mumbled under her breath, secretly happy that he did not leave.
She wanted him close.
“And just so that you know, as soon as that divorce is finalized, I am taking you
straight here,” the lycan added, making blood rush to her cheeks.They lay like
this for a while.
“Did he hurt you?” Gideon found himself asking and the pause that followed
seemed like a torture.
“Not physically,” she let out a heavy sigh, “It’s hard to explain.”“You said that you don’t love him anymore, but from what I know, he only brought
his mate to your week a few days ago. Is it that bad?” He did not know why he
couldn’t shut up. The possibility of him not liking her answer was huge.
“It’s complicated,” Riad admitted, “He turned out to be not what I thought he was.
And as I already tried to explain you before, it’s not only about me. There are
other people that I need to
Something wasn’t adding up to him there. Why was she so sure that something
would happen to those people? According to his research about her, that Alpha
and her were always a good team and he was more or less fair to his
subordinates.
“Why are you worried about your pack like that?” he decided to find that out.
“Because of the woman who would be the next Luna,” Riannon turned to look
him in the eye, “She is not a good person. And I am not saying that because I am
offended by her. Just this morning...”
She suddenly stopped talking, but he placed his large palm onto her tiny hand
and squeezed it.
“Just tell me what she did. What they did.” He hoped that she would be able to
open up to him a little bit. And when she sighed, he almost thought that she
would ask him to leave.
But instead she told him what happened. And he was so angry that he wanted to
burn that pack to the ground the same night. He started asking her question and
she told him everything that happened since the day her husband brought that
mate of his to their house. His blood was boiling, his wolf demanded blood. And
in his fury he was amazed how calm Riannon was talking about all that. As is...
as if it wasn’t the worst thing that happened to her.
He decided to find out everything there was to find out about that omega
Roxanne. A part of him was happy for her being Brayden’s mate, but no onecould touch his and walk out unscathed. He was going to deal with all this one
way or another.
She fell asleep in the middle of their conversation and he allowed himself to
brush her cheek briefly. He scent coated him and just seeing her so close to him,
sleeping peacefully, made him happy.
Riannon woke up in the morning feeling refreshed and full of strength. A smile
curled on her lips as she turned to find Gideon next to her... only that the Lycan
king was already gone.
She pushed the feeling of disappointment to the far corner of her mind and went
to take a
shower and clean up herself properly. She wanted to look good since she knew
that she would be meeting him soon again.
A maid brought her breakfast to her room and in about an hour after, Ria
prepared all the papers that she needed to discuss with the king. She went
straight to his office and found him there with Reid.
“Morning,” the both greeted her warmly and the Beta went for the exit, winking as
he passed her. making it sound as if she was the Luna of his pack. But Riannon
ignored that as her eyes met with Gideons.
“Have a seat,” he politely motioned for her to take a chair in front of his desk and
she did just that.
“Thank you,” she smiled but he averted her gaze and it startled her. After what
happened at night, this wasn’t what she expected.
“Are those the files you prepared?” he stretched his hand and she handed him
the folders.
He was looking through them thoroughly, asking questions and making some
little amendments. And absolutely avoiding looking at her.She knew that she told him herself that they couldn’t... do anything. But was that
it? He wasn’t interested anymore?
She tried to call Onyx in the minutes that he was busy with reading to distract
herself from gloomy thoughts. But it again felt as if she wasn’t even there.
“So, all this looks good now,” he cleared his throat, “Well done. Now just work on
the changes and we can present this to other Alphas.”
Their eyes finally locked and she felt the urgent need to break the ice somehow.
However, his Gamma walked in with some important matters and Gideon looked
at her apologetically.
“I’ll see you later at the party,” he gave her a weak smile and she stood up with
her head held high.
“As you wish, your majesty,” she said unemotionally and slowly walked out of the
room.
Behind the door she stood for a moment, trying to understand what was
happening and why she felt so angry. So, they kissed yesterday. It wasn’t like
they were betrothed now.
And yet she was fuming inside.
She did not meet anyone on her way upstairs as everyone seemed too busy with
the party preparations. She saw Savannah in the window of her room, but the
princess seemed in the middle of a heated argument with one of her helpers.
Riannon tried pacing around the room but it did not calm her nerves.
See you at the party, he said...
She went into the walk-in closet, where all the white dresses were still waiting for
their hour
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