The Lycan King and his Dark Temptation novel Chapter 96

ALDRIC

Before I left entirely, I turned back to the edge of the abyss. Her blood and mine stained the ground.

Now that the spell was broken, I could smell her clearly—I had attacked her with the intent to kill.

Only Quinn and Celine had defended her from me.

They knew, and they lied to me.

At least they managed to follow her to wherever she was taken. I hoped they could protect her and buy me some time.

This couldn’t have been orchestrated solely by that bastard Vampire King.

How did he know we’d come here?

Everything seemed too perfectly planned, even manipulating me with reports of a vampire to turn me against her.

"Your Majesty! What happened? We heard fighting but didn’t dare approach the fog. You’re injured—here, take a cloak!"

"Gather all the members of your pack, except the pups—NOW!" I roared at the Alpha waiting for me with several warriors at the base of the mountain.

I was seeing red from desperation, but I had to make my mind work, uncover the truth behind all of this.

I took the clothing they handed me, wrapping it around my hips. I climbed onto the old wooden platform and threw the body of that thing in front of everyone.

They recoiled, forming a semi-circle in fear.

"Where is the Pack Regent?" I scanned the crowd. If she wasn’t here, her absence would betray her. But then she stepped forward nervously.

"Your Highness, I... I’m sorry for what happened to your mate. I didn’t know—"

"Didn’t know what? I haven’t even asked you anything. What exactly are you sorry for, you damn liar?" My voice was colder than I had ever spoken to anyone before.

My oppressive aura, full of pain and fury, crushed them mercilessly.

"Who the hell are you? Tell me everything you know right now. All of you—tell me the truth about what’s going on, or I swear by the Goddess I’ll slaughter you with my own claws!"

"Your Majesty, my name is Sophia. I was the lover of the former Alpha of this pack, Dorian—the son of this woman and Valeria’s ex-mate. This boy is my younger brother. He is not Dorian’s son at all,"

She began, her words unraveling the truth Valeria had fought so hard to hide, to conceal the fact that she killed that bastard Alpha because he was a creature of the Dark Realm.

"Fearing her position as pack leader was threatened, this woman took advantage of my family’s misfortune in another pack where we lived"

"I brought her to the hut where they were, begging her to accept them into the pack for old times’ sake. But when she saw my younger brother, who looks a lot like me, she devised a plan. She made me return with him, claiming he was Dorian’s secret son, ensuring she had a ‘grandson’ to continue the bloodline and maintain control of the pack from behind the scenes, as she always had."

"That’s a lie, Your Majesty! It doesn’t make sense! How could I fool everyone into thinking the pup had Dorian’s scent? How could I just take a child from his mother and kidnap him like that?!" The two of them started shouting at each other.

I signaled for them to bring me the boy, who was crying. He was terrified of me, but I didn’t care—I needed to see the wound on his arm.

How could I have been so stupid? It was clearly the work of werewolf claws—or rather, a she-wolf’s.