Lycan King's Regret: Punished The Wrong Daughter

Arabella Toussaint:

Poison? What was he talking about? Was he implying that I poisoned him?

For a moment, I simply stared at Lucien, trying to understand what he was accusing me of. Had he gone nuts?

"Nothing about you makes sense anymore," I whispered before I could stop myself. "Whatever you said didn’t..." He didn’t let me finish as his voice cut straight through mine. "Dismissed, Miss Toussaint."

I blinked in surprise. "Excuse me?"

"You can leave now."

"You asked me to give you a detailed report, and now you’re ..." I stopped when his golden eyes met mine, and the warning in them was unmistakable.

Lucien didn’t need to raise his voice or repeat himself. The cold look he gave me made it perfectly clear that if I continued pushing him, being dismissed might become the least of my problems.

I pursed my lips tightly and gave him a curt nod. Shoving my chair back, I let its legs scrape loudly against the floor as I got up.

Maybe I was being petty. Did I care? Absolutely not. I marched toward the door without so much as a goodbye and slammed it behind me.

Let him punish me if he wanted for slamming the door. At least now His Majesty knew I was fucking angry too.

I was still fuming as I made my way down the corridor when I spotted Beta Bradley ahead, speaking to a man dressed in a warrior’s uniform. The insignia on his uniform made me assume he was someone important, probably one of the head warriors.

I needed to talk to Bradley, but whatever they were discussing clearly wasn’t meant for my ears. I stopped several feet away and waited, folding my arms while I tried not to replay Lucien’s words.

Why was he acting so weird? He brought me here, asked me to take the case, and then wanted me to report every fucking thing about the case. Yet he didn’t like it when I wanted to talk.

Bradley eventually noticed me. A smile crossed his face before he said something quietly to the warrior and dismissed him. The man nodded respectfully and walked away.

"Yes?" Bradley asked as I approached him.

"Can we talk?" I asked while looking around. He studied my face for a moment, probably noticing that I looked ready to murder someone, but thankfully didn’t ask. Instead, he glanced at the time on his phone.

"Can it wait until dinner? I’m heading out soon."

I paused for a minute to look at him. "Dinner?"

"At the warrior’s café, Arabella," he laughed as soon as he saw my face.

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, Beta Bradley. I know."

"See you later, Arabella." He stepped back with a nod, and I headed back toward the guest building.

***

By evening, Bradley and I were sitting in the corner of the warrior’s café not too far from the palace. I’d changed into a loose white T-shirt and black cargo pants, finally wearing something that felt more like me after spending the last few days surrounded by palace walls.

Our table was crowded with food—grilled chicken sandwiches, a plate of loaded fries between us, and two bowls of creamy chicken pasta. Bradley seemed perfectly relaxed as he ate, while I had been waiting for the right moment to ask him what had been bothering me all afternoon.

I had barely touched my sandwich, my mind too occupied with everything.

"The King said something about poison today." I pushed a fry around my plate. "He asked me about the crime of poisoning someone. He was talking about me, Bradley. What the hell did he mean?"

Bradley barely reacted. He reached for another fry and shrugged. "That’s something you should ask His Highness."

"Urgh." I chewed the fry a little harder than necessary, taking my frustration out on it. "He dismissed me."

That earned a small smile from him. "Then don’t expect an explanation while he’s angry. Give him some time to cool down, Arabella."

I stared at Bradley for a moment, but his attention remained fixed on his food. Fine. If he wasn’t going to tell me, I had another question.

"What about the scars?" That finally made him look up. "The ones on Beta Rick and Vikki’s faces," I clarified. "They said Lucien did it because I ran away and he thought they knew where I was. The king also said the same thing. He didn’t offer any explanation regarding that"

Bradley’s mouth curved into a strange little smile. "Ah. Okay."

Instead of answering immediately, he twirled some pasta around his fork and took a ridiculously large bite. I waited for him to finish chewing, but apparently manners had abandoned the royal Beta because he started speaking with his mouth still full. "He didn’t do that because you fled."

I stopped with my hand around my glass. "What?"

Bradley swallowed and reached for his sandwich. "It had nothing to do with you running away. His Majesty found out how they abused you when you were living there."

For a second, the noises around us seemed to fade as I stared at him, open-mouthed. "W... what do you mean?"

Bradley looked at me as though the answer should have been obvious. "I mean... what I said." He shrugged.

Lucien had done that because my family abused me? All the anger that I’d been carrying since I left his office began to fade. Lucien had scarred all four of them because...

My attention shifted back to the café when the door opened. I wouldn’t normally have paid attention, but the people around us suddenly went silent.

Bradley’s gaze moved past my shoulder as he put his spoon down. I turned and found Lucien walking inside. His golden eyes found our table almost immediately, and he headed straight toward us.

Bradley was already getting to his feet by the time the king reached us. "Your Majesty?"

Lucien ignored him and kept his eyes fixed on me. "What happened while you were at Blackthorn pack?"

I frowned, standing up slowly. "What do you mean?"

"Tell me exactly what happened." That dismissive attitude from earlier was gone, and he looked completely serious.

"Nothing happened. I asked to see Victor, but Beta Rick wouldn’t tell me where he was. So I told him Victor could come to the palace instead." I shrugged, still confused. "That’s basically it."

A frown settled across his face. "What happened before you left the packhouse, Ms. Toussaint?" I opened my mouth, then stopped.

Before I left? I thought hard.

"They were threatening me and saying some awful things." I frowned as the memory returned. "I got angry and told them to... stop." I shrugged. "Why? What happened?"

I waited for him to say something, but instead, he slowly exhaled and dragged a hand over his face. Then his eyes returned to mine.

"Arabella."

My heart skipped a beat. Arabella? Not Miss Toussaint. "We need to go back to Blackthorn pack."

"What!" I looked at him in confusion, not understanding where this was going. "Why?"

"I just received a panicked call from Alpha Chris." His gaze remained fixed on my face. "Beta Rick and his wife are still standing exactly where you left them. They can’t move." He rolled his lips between his teeth. "They’ve been rooted to the same spot for hours."

My fingers slowly loosened around my glass. What was he saying?