The music grew louder as the evening deepened.
Evryn carried the tray with a focus that was purely mechanical.
When the young maid whispered the truth about the west alcove, Evryn’s fingers didn’t tremble; they turned white.
She walked toward the corridor, but she didn’t want to give Ray the satisfaction of a panicked arrival.
But when she saw them…the casual way his hand sat on that woman’s waist, the comfortable ease of his betrayal…the quiet that settled over her was more chilling than any scream.
He will never change, she thought.
And I will never beg.
She turned away, her pride rising like a fortress.
Her eyes scanned the dark corners, the places where light feared to tread, until she found the silver glint of Auren’s eyes.
He was already watching.
If Ray was still choosing to play games behind her back, thinking she was oblivious, then she would gladly play her own cards right before his eyes.
And she would do it with the only man Ray truly hated.
She stopped in front of Auren, the air between them hummed with the sudden, violent spike of the spell reacting to her internal storm.
“I don’t want to be a victim in this relationship,” she said, her voice a sharp blade.
“I won’t allow it.
Not to myself.” She looked up at the king hidden in a servant’s coat.
“Will you stand still if I use you for a moment?”
A slow, wicked smile spread across his lips, completely understanding the silent challenge in her gaze.
“Make it worth it,” he replied, his voice a low, teasing rumble.
Evryn didn’t wait; she grabbed his collar with white-knuckled intensity and pulled him down to her level.
The kiss was a collision…a desperate, jagged meeting of lips fueled by her heartbreak and the fire of her defiance.
She wasn’t just kissing Auren; she was incinerating her past, her grief, and the life she had once known.
Auren didn’t just stand still.
The second her lips met his, his hand clamped onto her waist, his fingers digging into the fabric of her dress with a possessive strength that yanked her flush against the hard planes of his body.
He was acutely aware of Ray standing just feet away; he could feel the man’s stunned gaze like a physical heat against his skin.
With a dark, triumphant intent, Auren deepened the kiss, his tongue forcing its way past her lips to claim her with an intensity that was far from a servant’s devotion.
It was a king taking what was his.
Inside, Auren was fighting a losing war with his own control.
The moment he tasted her…sweet, fierce, and entirely human…the iron discipline he had spent centuries perfecting began to crack.
He wanted to devour her, to lose himself in the friction of her skin against his.
His other hand slid upward, his palm grazing the curve of her hip.
Evryn let out a soft, broken sound against his mouth, her own hands flying to his chest before sliding up to bury themselves in his dark hair.
She pulled him closer, diving into his unnatural warmth as if it were the only thing keeping her anchored to the ground.
Across the hall, the world stopped for Ray, the “loyal” girl, the “safe” choice, was being consumed by the very man he had tried to belittle.
When Evryn finally broke the kiss, she stepped back, her chest heaving as her fingers dragged down his chest, trying to catch her balance in a world that had just tilted on its axis.
Auren lingered, his dark gaze burning with an intense hunger that made it clear he wanted so much more.
He forced himself to stay grounded, tightly controlling the feral possessiveness ripping through him.
Yet, he couldn’t completely let her go.
His fingers slid gently up to her chin, tilting her head up until her hazel eyes were forced to meet the piercing silver of his own.
“You deserve the world, little bird,” Auren whispered,
Evryn didn’t need to see Ray’s face to know he was destroyed.
As she looked deep into Auren’s silver eyes and heard his words, her own hazel eyes shimmered with a sudden, painful gleam of tears.
Bracing herself against the ache in her chest, she simply turned and walked away.
Auren watched her go, only when she was safe did, he turn his head toward Ray.
A slow, terrifyingly cruel smile spread across Auren’s face as his tongue deliberately slid across his upper lip, tasting the lingering trace of Evryn’s kiss right in front of him.
Ray was standing under the lanterns, his face twisted into something monstrous, his ego bleeding out on the polished floor.
The “wolf” in him was baring its teeth.
Auren didn’t say a word, he simply turned his back on the hall and walked out toward the dark, whispering edge of the forest.
He knew the sound of Ray’s footsteps behind him; He knew the weight of the man’s rage.
Auren stopped in the clearing without turning immediately, he could already hear the change in Ray’s breathing, it was uneven, strained, no longer fully human.
When Auren faced him, Ray’s eyes were already shifting, the monstrous transformation tearing at his seams.
“You think you won?” Ray asked through clenched teeth, his voice cracking with a desperate, animalistic fury.
Auren’s expression darkened, his silver eyes flashing with a chilling, predatory malice as he took a slow step forward.
The cruel smirk on his face cut deep.
“Honestly, I never knew the really meaning of winning until now,” Auren murmured, his voice dropping into a low, terrifyingly smooth rumble, his gaze locking onto Ray’s with absolute malice.
“That was the most delicious kiss I have ever tasted. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
And I am damn too lucky you were such a foolish man.”
He paused, letting the agonizing weight of his words settle over Ray before leaning in slightly, his tone turning razor-sharp.
“So go ahead.
Break.”
Ray’s body twisted.
The shift came fast and violent, Bones cracked and reshaped, clothes tearing as fur burst through skin, in seconds the man was gone and the wolf stood before him.
He was massive.
Light fur thick beneath the moonlight, muscles powerful and trained.
His blue eyes remained sharp and furious, glowing with wounded pride.
In wolf lands, strength showed most in this form, and Ray was no weak creature.
He lunged without warning.
Auren stepped aside at the last second, catching the wolf’s shoulder and redirecting him into the earth, The impact shook the clearing and the Dirt scattered beneath claws.
Ray recovered instantly and struck again, jaws snapping toward Auren’s throat.
Auren blocked with his forearm, Teeth pierced skin briefly before his body healed, but the pressure of the bite was real.
Ray lunged again, powerful and reckless.
Auren met him head on this time, catching the attack with both hands.
The force of the impact shook the clearing, but it did not move him back more than a single step.
Ray was strong for a wolf, massive and trained, his muscles built through years of discipline.
In another fight, against another opponent, he would have been terrifying.
But Auren was not another opponent, and what made this fight dangerous was not Ray’s strength.
It was Auren’s restraint.
As the wolf snapped and clawed, Auren felt his own anger rising higher.
The pain in his chest refused to quiet, fed by Evryn’s heartbreak.
It sharpened his instincts and pushed him forward, tempting him to end the fight quickly, permanently.
He had to think.
He could kill him in seconds.
One clean movement.
One broken neck.
One crushed throat.
But Ray was still her fiancé.
If he killed him, the blood would stain her life as well.
So, Auren forced himself to measure every motion.
He blocked without tearing.
He struck without aiming for fatal points.
He twisted limbs instead of crushing ribs.
He restrained the strength that had won wars and crushed enemies far greater than this wolf.
It required more control to spare him than to destroy him.
When Ray leaped again, blinded by fury, Auren stepped inside the attack and seized the front leg mid-air.
He calculated the pressure carefully before twisting.
Bone cracked under his grip, sharp and deliberate, enough to break but not shatter beyond repair.
Ray crashed down with a howl shifting to his human form.
Auren stood over him, breathing controlled, rage burning but contained.
Even now, with Ray injured beneath him, the pain in his chest lingered, reminding him that this fight was not only about dominance.
It was about her, and he would not allow the source of her pain to walk away untouched.
Auren grabbed Ray’s arm and twisted it further until another crack echoed through the trees.
Ray gasped through pain.
“I am setting rules,” Auren said quietly, his voice steady despite the storm inside him.
“You will not touch her in anger.
You will not corner her.
You will not threaten her.”
Ray glared up at him from the dirt, his breathing ragged, sweat and soil matting his hair.
“Whatever her choice will be,” Auren continued evenly, his voice like the strike of a clock, “understand this clearly.
If you become a danger to her, I become yours.”
There was no scream, no wild threat, Only the terrifying certainty of a predator, he released Ray and stepped back. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Auren turned away first, leaving Ray broken on the forest floor, his pride shattered deeper than his bones.
As Auren walked back toward the farm, the truth finally settled in his chest.
He hadn’t fought tonight because a spell commanded him to.
He fought because her tears had a price, and he was the only one willing to pay it.
Evryn had fled, she didn’t want Brinna’s pity or the maids whispered gossip.
She walked until the lantern light died and the ancient trees swallowed her whole.
Behind a wide trunk, hidden in the velvet black of the woods, her shoulders finally dropped.
She pressed her hand against her mouth, but the tears came anyway…ugly, hot, and unbidden, she had waited for proof, believing that seeing it would make her strong.
She hadn’t known it would feel like her chest was being hollowed out with a rusted knife.
They were so close to marriage.
Even here, away from the palace’s temptations, he still chose to play.
It wasn’t just betrayal; it was the realization that she was never enough to make him want to be better.
The sound of soft footsteps reached her, Auren had felt the bond in his chest shift from a sharp alarm to a heavy, suffocating sadness, he found her behind the tree, her silhouette trembling.
“Stop,” he said quietly.
Evryn stiffened, frantically wiping her cheeks and turning her head away.
“Go away.”
“You are not the only one who hurts,” he added, his voice low.
She frowned, not understanding his riddle, but she refused to let him see her break.
She straightened her spine, forcing a mask of ice onto her face.
“I am not hurt,” she snapped, though the crack in her voice gave her away.
Then, she saw it.
The moonlight caught the dark, wet stain on his sleeve.
She stepped forward, her instincts as a healer overriding her pride.
She caught his arm.
“What happened?” she demanded, her voice sharp with worry.
She began to tear at the fabric, her fingers searching for the gash, the puncture…anything.
But when she pulled the cloth back, there was only smooth, pale skin.
The wound was gone, erased by the unnatural speed of his blood, there was nothing left but the scarlet evidence of a violence she hadn’t witnessed.
“There is nothing,” he said calmly.
“Go to sleep, Evryn.
I am tired.”
She looked from his sleeve to his eyes, frustrated.
“What does your tiredness have to do with me?
If you are tired, sleep.
I am not stopping you.”
Auren didn’t answer immediately, he couldn’t tell her that his rest was tied to the rhythm of her breathing.
He studied her face, the faint redness around her eyes, the raw vulnerability she was trying so hard to hide.
“It is easier for me to rest,” he said quietly, “if you are not wandering alone in the dark.”
Evryn stilled.
The sharpness in her posture didn’t disappear, but a flicker of something new…startled and warm…crossed her eyes.
“I do not require supervision,” she said, her voice losing its edge.
“And I certainly do not sleep on command.”
“You are difficult,” he said.
“And you are secretive,” she replied.
Auren looked at her, and then, the corner of his mouth lifted.
It wasn’t a smirk; it wasn’t a challenge.
It was a real smile…soft, unguarded, and unexpectedly warm, it transformed his face, stripping away the cold servant and the arrogant stranger.
Evryn froze.
She had never seen him look at her like that.
For a moment, the weight of Ray’s betrayal felt lighter, eclipsed by the sudden, quiet glow of the man standing in front of her.
“Goodnight, Evryn,” he murmured.
“Goodnight…
Auren,” she whispered back, watching him walk away, her heart beating a rhythm that had nothing to do with sorrow.
What a strange night it had turned out to be.
She had lost a fiancé, but she had found something much more dangerous: a reason to stay awake.