Betrayed Heiress: My Second Chance Mate is A Lycan King

Aira’s POV

“So, tell me all about it. How did it go?” Carla asks, biting her bottom lip and waiting for me to respond. My cheeks heat up a bit as I think about our days in Italy.

I can’t even lie; those were the best five days of my life. Every day we went sightseeing, tried out a new restaurant, listened to fascinating music, and, after much convincing, met wonderful new people. Or should I say wonderful new ladies?

Alex still refused to let any man come close to me.

But despite that, it was quite a blast. I almost shed a tear on the day we had to leave, but a queen has to return to her kingdom. No matter how much trouble it might bring her, it is still hers to rule.

I shrug. “It was okay,” is my simple answer, contradictory to the long rant I have sitting on my tongue.

Carla narrows her eyelids to slits and rears her head back. “You don’t expect me to believe that, do you? Girl spill!” And that’s what I do. I tell her everything that went down from the first day to the last, and when I am done, she sighs dreamily and stares blankly into space. “You have the best life. When will my prince charming come along to take me on a vacation to relieve me of my stress?”

“Okay, first of all, I do not have the best life. No one on earth would want my life,” I say as a matter of fact, swinging my legs off the edge of the bed. “And secondly, your prince charming will come around some day; are you trying to tell me not one of the guards has caught your eye?”

I notice her cheeks heat up a bit, and I know I have hit a sensitive spot. She avoids my eyes and mutters, “Well, there is someone.”

“Aha! And you are out here acting like there is absolutely no one who has their eyes on you. I mean, look at you, Carla; you are drop-dead gorgeous. You have the best heart and purest soul I have ever seen. Any guy would be lucky to have you,” I tell her sincerely, tears well up in her eyes.

“Thank you, Aira.”

Before I can tell her that there is no need for that, the door to my room comes flying open, and Alex walks in. My smile falls when I take a good look at him. He looks terrible.

If I am being honest, there were details that I left out when talking about our trip. After that day at the Colosseum, Akex had become incredibly distant. He was always staring off into space, like there was something heavy on his mind.

But whenever I would ask him about it, he would plaster a smile on his lips and act like there was nothing wrong, even though I knew there was.

It went on for days. I could see his effort to try to be happy; he did not want to ruin the mood or our trip, but I knew his smile was fake. And it all started after his phone call with Arnold at the colosseum.

I admired how long he tried to keep up his fa? ade, and I appreciated how he was doing everything within his power not to ruin the mood. But now that we are back home, I am going to get it out of him, no matter what.

I mean, just look at him! It is tearing him up from the inside out. His hair was a mess, and his eyes were so tired. One just had to squint their eyes to notice the bags under his eyes; no one would believe that this man has just returned from a week-long vacation.

Carla clears her throat, then gets off our bed. She dusts it like she has gotten dirt on it and clears her throat. “I will be taking my leave now,” she says, and I pout. As much as I want her to spill more beans on who she is seeing, my mate is more important.

“I will talk to you later, okay?” I tell her, and she nods once before taking her leave. It is just Alex and me in the room now.

Alex releases a long, tired sigh as he takes off his shirt. He makes his way over to me and collapses lousily on the bed. He drops his head on my thighs and wraps his arms around me. He snuggled into me like I was the most comfortable pillow he had ever laid on.

My fingers find their way to his hair, and I begin to play with them softly. He purrs, and his eyelids slowly begin to shut.

“You are tired.” I state the obvious, and he only hums as a response. “You have been keeping something from me ever since our trip to Italy, and I want to know what it is.”

“Just forget about it; I can handle it myself,” he says, and his words bring a scowl to my face.

“After everything we have been through, I expect you to know better than anyone that we are not alone. We are together, mates forever, through thick and thin. Whatever problems you may have, they are my problems as well.” I pause and take his face gently into my hands. His tired eyes met my silently pleading ones; he was just a child. A very tired, misguided child has had to carry so much weight on his shoulders alone for so long.

But I am here now, and I will not stop until he sees that.

“Talk to me, baby,” I whisper, and his eyes searched mine. His eyes sparkled with admiration, but I could also tell that he was struggling with the right words to say.

He shuts his eyes and says, “Instead of telling you, I will show you myself. That will be the first thing tomorrow morning. Is that okay with you?”

I have waited an entire week for this moment for him to tell me what was going on. I suppose I could wait another day.

I nod and place a gentle kiss on the bridge of his nose. “Sure.”

A ghost of a smile lifts his lips, but it is quick to vanish. His breathing becomes more stable, and that is when I realize that he has fallen asleep.

I have never watched him fall asleep that fast before.

Either he was that exhausted or I brought him that much comfort.

Something tells me that it was more of the latter than the former.

The next morning, my hands searched the bed for Alex. My eyes were still shut, but I was forced to open them when I noticed the bed was empty. Don’t tell me he bailed out on me now, did he?

As soon as that thought crosses my mind, the bathroom door opens, and Alex walks out in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist.

He grins once he sees that I am awake and says, “Good morning.”

A relieved smile stretches my lips when I say, “I thought you had left. I was starting to think that maybe you bailed out on what you had said last night.”

He looks somewhat offended by my words and places a hand on his chest. “I am hurt that you would actually think that way towards me. You should know better than anyone that I am a man of my word. Under no circumstances do I back down on what I said I was going to do. You should get dressed and get some food too. You will need all of your energy for the day we are about to have.”

His last words caused me to gulp. But I do as he says nevertheless. I quickly shower, and by the time I am done dressing, a maid comes in with our breakfast. To be honest, I could not eat much. It was becoming very hard to handle the suspense any longer.

Alex, as well, did not eat much. So when we decided we were both full, we made our way out and into the waiting car. There is also a convoy waiting to be escorted-three cars each filled with men armed to the teeth.

“Do they have to come along?” I ask Alex, and he nods.

“With what’s going on now, you won’t be stepping out of the palace without them.” Is his brief answer before helping me into the car? We drove down to God knows where, and you can imagine my surprise when we ended up in a mortuary.

My blood freezes in my veins, and an eerie sensation goes up my spine. “Alex, what are we doing here?” Is the first thing I ask once the car comes to a stop at the mortuary gates?

All forms of emotion have vanished from his face; now there was nothing but the cold, empty shell of a man sitting beside me. “You said you wanted to know what was going on. Well, here it is:Before I can ask any more questions, he steps out of the car, and I do the same.

The second we stepped foot into the home of the dead, a shiver ran through my body, and bile rose within my throat. Four guards remain stationed at the entrance, while the others follow us in. The sound of our footsteps bounced off the walls as we walked deeper into the building.

Alex pushes open a door, and what I see instantly brings tears to my eyes.

There were bodies everywhere.Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

Now I know this is a morgue, but the bodies are meant to be cleaned up and covered with towels. But this was completely different.

This was a whole massacre.

The walls were covered with the blood of the deceased. Bodies upon bodies laid piled up on the floor, some with their throats slits and others with their bodies ripped to shreds. They were all attendants to the morgue, some men, some women.

But there was one body that broke something in me.

The body of a child’s.

It was a little girl, probably not more than seven years old. Her stomach had been split wide open. Her eyes were parted, staring off into space, and I could already see how much she had suffered and how much she must have fought to stay alive.

My fists clench, and I find myself taking a step back. I am not sure if my tears were caused by the awful stench or the gruesome scene before me. It is most likely a mix of both.

I place a hand above my chest, doing my best to calm my racing heart. The world grows darker, and thunder wracks the very earth on which we stand.

“Who did this, Alex?” I demand.

He ran a hand through his hair, and he appeared almost ashamed to respond to that question. “I do not know,” he whispers, and my head snaps to him.

“What?”

“This isn’t the first massacre. One happened while we were in Italy; it happened the night before Arnold called me. The first attack was done at the market square; over ten women were killed and five children,” Alex explains with a strained voice, and my heart grows heavy. “Although I suspect that they are rogue attacks, I am not entirely sure. I cannot think of anyone else who could possibly be responsible for all of this.”

A tear slips past my eyes, and that is when it begins to pour heavily.

I shut my eyes, not wanting to take in this gruesome sight anymore. But the second I do, I see something.

An arrow is aiming right at Alex.

My eyelids part, and I push him out of the way. “Look out!” I scream and push him down to the ground, and an arrow embeds the walls in which he stood in front of them.

“Your highness, it’s an ambush!”

Alex and I shared a glance, and we both harbored the same thought. This was a trap.

Someone lured us out here.