Rejected At The Altar, Claimed By The Lycan King

06

Zara's POV

I couldn't sleep.

The conversation with Thorne replayed in my mind like a broken record.

Marry me.

Protect you.

I cannot lose you again.

The words kept replaying in my head and his silver eyes haunted me every time I closed mine.

I tossed and turned in the enormous bed the silk sheets tangling around my legs. The moonlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows casting silver patterns across the marble floor.

Three days.

Three days since I'd arrived at the Lycan Palace and since my entire life had been turned upside down and now I was supposed to marry a stranger to save myself from being hunted like an animal.

“No! I won’t marry him, I can’t. All this is a lie. He must clearly be mistaking me for another person, I’m a nobody, a weakling that can’t even transform… I’m useless” I sobbed seating up abruptly.

And he’s going to learn that too and dispose me just like my pack did.

A floorboard creaked making me freeze for a second with my heart slammed against my ribs as I strained my ears listening.

I reached for the lamp on my bedside table and stopped.

Three shadows moved against the moonlight streaming through my window.

My blood turned to ice.

"Don't scream," a voice whispered from the darkness. "Don't make a sound, we’re here to help you."

I scrambled backward pressing myself against the headboard. "Who are you? What do you want with me? Guards—"

"No one will hear you." Another figure appeared from the shadows, tall, broad and a mask covering the lower half of his face but his eyes glowed a sickly yellow in the darkness. "We've silenced the patrol on this wing so no one is coming to save you. You're coming with us."

My hands trembled as I clutched the blanket to my chest. "Thorne—"

"The Lycan king is occupied." The third assassin stepped forward and I could smell the wolf on him, he’s an Alpha a powerful one. "He won't be coming to save you little Queen."

Thorne.

Thorne wouldn't leave me unprotected but even as I thought it fear clawed at my throat.

"Don't touch me," I warned my voice shaking.

The lead assassin laughed a low, cruel sound. "You think you can stop us? You weakling." He stepped closer reaching for me. "But then the Alphas will pay handsomely for a Moon Blood heir."

His fingers closed around my wrist making something suddenly snapped inside me.

One moment the assassin's hand was on my skin. The next a wave of silver light exploded from my chest so bright it turned the entire room white.

The assassin screamed.

His hand released me as he was thrown backward crashing into the wall with a sickening crack. The silver aura surrounded me like a shield pulsing with a power I'd never felt before.

It was warm and cold at the same time and angry too.

"What the—" The second assassin stumbled back his yellow eyes wide with shock. "She's not supposed to have—"

The silver light surged toward him like a living thing.

He didn't even have time to scream.

One second he was standing there reaching for his weapon, and the next the silver aura touched him and he simply... dissolved.

His body crumbled into ash scattering across the marble floor like dust in the wind.

I gasped clapping my hands over my mouth.

The third assassin stared at the pile of ash then at me his face went white beneath his mask.

"Demon," he whispered. "You're a demon—"

The silver light pulsed again.

He ran.

I watched him flee through the window leaping into the night like a terrified animal and then the silver aura retreated sinking back into my chest like it had never been there.

I fell to the ground losing my balance shaking

violently staring at the pile of ash that had once been a man.

I had killed him without even touching him, without even trying.

The doors burst open snapping me out of my zone.

"Zara!"

Thorne walked in with his silver eyes wild with panic. He crossed the room in three strides his hands lifting me up and cupping my face as he searched for injuries. "Are you hurt? What happened? I felt… I felt your power and I—"

"I killed him." I said the words coming out flat and hallow.

Thorne froze. "What?"

I pointed at the ash. "He was going to take me, all three of them broke into my room and they grabbed me and then..." I looked down at my hands. They were still trembling. "Something happened, a silver light…It came out of me and it... it killed him."

Thorne was silent for a long moment.

Then he knelt in front of me with his hands gently taking mine. "Zara look at me."

I raised my eyes to his.

"You're safe," he said firmly. "You're safe. Do you understand me? No one is going to hurt you."

"But I—"

"Self-defense." His voice was calm and steady. "You defended yourself, that’s all."

I shook my head tears blurring my vision. "It was like something else took over, something inside me that I couldn't control it."

"I know."

"I could have killed you. I could have killed everyone."

"Zara," he said softly, "do you know what that power means?"

I shook my head.

"It means you're waking up."

I stared at him, uncomprehending. "What?"

"Your power, It's been dormant for decades and your body wasn't ready to contain it but now—"

"Now I just killed someone without touching him!"

"Because you're waking up." He squeezed my hands. "Zara that power you just released? That's the Moon Bloodline the first Lycans and ancient queens. It's been sleeping inside you waiting for the right moment to awaken."

"I don't want it."

His expression softened. "It’s a part of you now and it just saved your life."

I looked at the ash again.

My stomach churned.

"The other one," I whispered. "I killed him. I didn't even know what I was doing. He just... he was there and then he wasn't."

Thorne followed my gaze. "He was going to hurt you."

"That doesn't make it okay."

“You did what you had to do."

I pulled my hands free and wrapped my arms around myself. "I'm a monster."

"Don’t say that."

He moved to sit beside me close but not touching. "Listen to me. That power? It's the reason the Alphas want you because they're afraid of what you could become."

"No! I can’t be the Lycan queen… it’s impossible”

He sighed as if he was trying to restrain himself from doing something, “Denying it won’t change anything, you’re the most powerful being in existence and the only one who can bring peace to our world or destroy it."

I remain quiet unable to form coherent words.

What the hell is really going on?

Could this be true?

He kept quiet making us seat in silence for a while the weight of everything pressing down on me.

"Thorne," I finally said.

"Yes?"

"I think I need to learn how to control this."

He turned to look at me.

"I can't keep lashing out like this. I can't accidentally kill people because I'm scared." I swallowed hard. "If I'm going to survive this I need to understand what I am."

“Okay”