The Lycan King and his Dark Temptation novel Chapter 279

VALERIA

Hearing that heart-wrenching scream from my little pup, I felt the world collapse around me.

I ran at a dizzying speed despite the aches in my body.

Lately, I haven’t been feeling well—I think it’s the stress and the looming disasters ahead.

Dodging trees, with my lycan always at my heels, I find Sigrid sobbing, sitting beside the well.

"Sigrid, calm down, my love, calm down!" I immediately lunged toward her, pulling her into my chest, kneeling on the damp grass.

She was trembling uncontrollably, her skin ice cold. She buried herself against me, clinging to me in despair.

Goddess, what has happened to my daughter in the single hour I’ve been away from her?

"Mama, mama…" She only calls for me and cries in a way that shatters my heart.

All I can do is stroke her hair and try to reassure her.

"Aldric…" I sense him approaching.

He wraps both of us in his arms, sitting on the ground and holding us close with his powerful, protective embrace.

His rough hand gently strokes Sigrid’s short hair. She tries to speak but chokes on her sobs.

"Calm down, little pup, you’re safe now. You’re home, baby, you’re home."

"Pa… pa…" she hiccups, finally lifting her face, flushed, her eyes swollen, her expression filled with anguish and pain.

That… that Goddess—what the hell did she do to my daughter?!

"Sigrid, you did it! You made it back!" Zarek’s voice cuts through as he rushes in with the rest of the family, all of them deeply worried about her.

"YOUR PARENTS, THE SELENIAS… THEY’RE ALL DAMNED, EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM!"

"SIGRID!!" Aldric roars as she collapses in our arms.

Panic floods me, and my magic surges wildly, rushing into her body.

Sigrid had been screaming at Zarek with a burning hatred I had never seen in her before.

Now, she’s unconscious—she’s fainted.

"Everyone, calm down. Breathe, Vale, I’ll check on her with you, just stay calm," my mother kneels beside me, with Quinn helping her.

Here, outside the palace lands, her vision isn’t as sharp.

Her magic and mine flow into Sigrid’s body, coursing through her veins, searching every corner of her mind.

For heaven’s sake—her mind is a complete mess!

"She passed out from the shock. She’s under immense stress, and so are you, Valeria. You need to calm down, my daughter…"

"How do you expect me to stay calm when I leave my daughter for less than an hour, and she gets kidnapped from my side?!"

"Baby, breathe, breathe… she’s safe now. She’s strong, and she’s with us," Aldric intervenes.

I apologize to my mother—I know she only wants to help, but the helplessness is suffocating me.

Aldric tries to hide it, but he’s far worse.

He thinks I don’t notice, but I know him too well—he blames himself for not protecting her, for letting something like this happen right under our noses.

Finally, he lifts her in his arms, and we take her back to the palace.

I’m still shaking from pure nerves, my stomach twisting, waves of pain assaulting my abdomen. It’s just the stress of the moment, I tell myself, as I keep holding my breath.

I just hope my little pup is okay, though something deep inside tells me things won’t be that simple.

*****

ALDRIC

Sigrid is resting in her room, sedated by her grandmother’s magic.

My gaze drifts to the clouds in the sky, to the endless stretch of forest.

But my mind refuses to process what my eyes see.

My fists clench, claws extending and sinking into my palms, drops of blood falling onto the stone floor.

I almost lost her. I almost lost my pup right before my eyes.

That feeling of powerlessness, the one I hadn’t felt in years, coils around my heart again, pure fear suffocating me.

I’m ashamed to even look at Valeria.

I promised to protect her, to protect our daughter… and I failed. I failed.

"No."

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