Lycan King's Regret: Punished The Wrong Daughter

Arabella Toussaint:

"Ara, don’t do this." Maya’s voice trembled behind me. "Run away. I mean it. Go wherever you want. Pick another city, another country if you have to. I’ll send you money. Just... don’t stay here waiting for him."

I looked at her reflection in the mirror before returning my attention to myself. For three years, the woman staring back at me had been Aria. But today, my suitcase was packed behind me. And Arabella Toussaint was going back to that palace.

A small smile touched my lips as I shook my head. "I need to do this, Maya. Enough of hiding."

"Enough of hiding?" she screamed and hurried toward me. "Then stop hiding! Fine! Tell Toby and Tessa everything. Put your real name on a fucking billboard if that makes you happy. But why do you need to stand here and wait for him?"

I turned away from the mirror and reached for her hand. "Maya—"

She pulled it free and pointed at the suitcase. "This is suicide, Ara. Stop this madness and listen to me."

The smile disappeared from my face. Of course, I was aware that this was suicide. But I didn’t have any choice. I was done with this hiding. I was never a criminal. If Lucien wants to take me back, then let him.

"I can’t spend the rest of my life running every time I’m scared," I murmured. "I have a life here now. I have all of you. If I run today, what happens the next time they find me?"

"Then we’ll run again."

A quiet laugh escaped me. "We?" I at last looked at her. "We have a life here, Maya. I can’t drag you all with me. And what about YaRa café? No!" I started shaking my head. "That’s a terrible life plan. This is my fight; let me face it alone."

"This is my fight too! I can’t let you go like this." Her eyes were already shining, making my heart squeeze.

Before I could pull her into my arms, the bedroom door flew open. "Aria, we’ve got a problem downstairs." Tessa barged in with her phone clutched in one hand and a folded invoice in the other. "The idiot supplier sent half our order and is now insisting—"

And then she stopped when her gaze landed on the suitcase, then on the clothes I was wearing. The irritation vanished from her face.

"Umm... are you going somewhere?"

My stomach sank. This wasn’t how I’d planned to tell them.

"Tessa..." I tried to speak when Toby appeared in the doorway. "What the hell is taking you so long? There’s a man downstairs threatening to take the entire delivery back if—" His words died too.

He looked at his sister, followed her stare toward my suitcase, and then slowly turned to me. A frown settled across his face.

"What’s going on?"

I bit my lower lip. Maya folded her arms across her chest and gave me a pointed look that clearly said, go ahead.

Great! Just great!

"Both of you sit down," I said with a sigh.

Toby’s frown deepened. "Why does that sound terrifying? What is it?" He walked inside, dragged the chair from beside my study table while Tessa lowered herself onto the edge of the bed. Neither took their eyes off me. I suddenly had no idea where to begin.

They had been part of my life for three years. They knew I’d escaped Blackthorn. They knew my family had treated me horribly. They knew enough to understand why I never wanted werewolves anywhere near me. But they didn’t know about Lucien.

They didn’t even know that the man we’d watched on that screen last night had once marked me.

I drew in a slow breath. "Guys! I need to leave." My fingers rose toward my neck almost instinctively. "Something I thought I’d gotten rid of three years ago came back." I swept my hair away from my neck where the mark was glowing.

Tessa’s eyes widened as she slowly rose from the bed. "Goddess..." She came closer, staring at my neck as though she didn’t trust her own eyes. "A mating mark?"

I nodded. Her gaze snapped to mine. "Someone from Blackthorn Pack marked you?" A small smile tugged at my lips as I hesitated. "The Lycans! They are coming for me."

Tessa blinked while Toby’s mouth hung open. Neither of them could move for a few seconds. "They’ll reach here anytime," I added quietly.

Maya walked to me and threw an arm around my shoulders while looking at them. "Please, both of you. Put some sense into this woman’s head before I physically tie her to a chair."

Toby looked at me in concern. "If Lycans are coming after you, why the hell are you still here? We should run and start a new life somewhere..." They all started speaking at once.

Tessa wanted to close the café and bring the car to the entrance. I stared at the three of them as they began planning my escape without even asking whether I wanted one.

These idiots. My idiots. I’d miss them.

I swallowed the lump forming in my throat. "Guys. I’m not running." There was pin-drop silence in the room. "Last night you saw the live coverage of the ceremony. Right? He is coming for me! And I’m not going anywhere. Okay?"

Tessa and Toby looked at me like I had lost my mind. "What... what do you... mean?" Tessa asked me in a whisper.

"The Lycan King," Maya announced. "The one who walked off that stage last night and trashed his own engagement in front of the entire kingdom? He’s coming for her."

Tessa and Toby exchanged a stunned look. For once, neither of them had a single thing to say.

Hearing Maya say it out loud sent a strange shiver through me. Three years. Three years had changed almost everything about my life.

In a few hours, I was about to find out whether they had changed King Lucien too.