Marked By The Lycan King, Betrayed By Fate

CHAPTER 33

(Lucian’s POV)

The council chamber reeked of self-righteousness and old blood. I could smell it in the marble, in the wood-carved chairs, in the lingering cologne of entitled wolves who thought they ran this kingdom.

I slammed the heavy double doors open, the sound echoing like a battle cry across the stone walls. Seven heads turned toward me—stiff, startled, and immediately defensive.

“King Lucian,” Elder Vartan stood first, lips twitching in annoyance. “You could have requested an audience—”

“I don’t need an invitation to enter a room I own,” I growled, my voice slicing the air like steel. My eyes scanned them, locking onto each face. “But since I’m here, let’s have a little chat, shall we?”

There was a tense pause. A few exchanged glances.

Councilman Garrick, with his usual smugness, leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “You seem...agitated.”

I took a step forward, my jaw clenched. “I’m here because someone sent rogues after my mate. And I know it wasn’t random.”

Councilwoman Ysara raised an elegant brow. “Are you accusing this council?”

I smiled. Coldly. “I’m not accusing. I’m stating the obvious.”

“Lucian,” Elder Vartan tried to pacify me, voice low, hands raised. “You’re angry. We understand—”

“Do you?” I snapped, taking another step, making sure the power in my aura surged enough to make even the older wolves bristle. “You understand what it’s like to find your mate bleeding in a forest? Half-dead? To smell fear and death on her because someone wanted to erase her from this world?”

Silence.

Good. Let them feel it.

I paced in front of the long table like a predator. “Let’s not pretend we don’t know who Selene is. The rejected she-alpha. Cast out by her mate—my son. Stripped of her title. Laughed at. Humiliated. And now that I’ve mated her, suddenly she’s hunted?”

“She’s a liability,” Garrick muttered under his breath.

My head snapped toward him. “What did you say?”

He stood. “We didn’t send rogues, Lucian. We don’t play dirty like that. But Selene... she’s not queen material. The people talk. They question your judgment.”

“Let them talk,” I said through gritted teeth. “But if anyone, and I mean anyone, touches her again—I swear on the blood of our ancestors, I will make sure this Council burns. One by one.”

“You’re threatening the governing body of the Lycan realm?” Ysara gasped.

“I’m warning you,” I growled, golden eyes flashing. “I’ve ruled this kingdom with strength and peace. I’ve kept order. But if protecting my mate means war, then so be it.”

“You’re mad,” Vartan muttered, face pale. “You’ve lost your mind over a woman.”

I stopped walking and stood directly before him. My voice dropped. Deadly calm. “She’s not just a woman. She’s my mate. My queen. The one chosen by the Moon Goddess.”

Garrick scoffed. “You expect us to believe it’s divine will that you bonded with your own son’s ex-mate? It’s shameful. Disgusting.”

“I expect you to shut your mouth,” I growled, slamming my fist onto the long oak table so hard the wood cracked. “Dexton already confessed he had no hand in the attack. Which leaves only one possibility.”

Several of them shifted in their seats, their postures tense.

“You couldn’t handle the fact that someone you tried to bury now sits on the throne beside me,” I sneered. “A she-wolf you rejected, deemed unworthy—now carries my mark.”

“We follow ancient laws!” Chairman Darion finally exploded, standing and slamming both hands on the table. His voice thundered. “You’ve broken them, Lucian! You’ve mated the ex-bonded of your own blood. It’s a mockery of tradition!”

I stepped closer to him, staring him dead in the eye. “Tradition didn’t protect Selene when she was thrown aside like garbage. Tradition didn't lift a finger when rogues tried to gut her. And tradition doesn’t rule me—I do.”

“Is your pride so deep,” Ysara hissed, “that you would risk civil war for the sake of a woman?”

“No,” I said slowly. “It’s not pride. It’s love.”

There it was.

The word that made them all recoil like I’d spit acid.

Garrick laughed bitterly. “You? Love? That’s rich.”

“I love her,” I repeated, stepping back now, holding my chin high. “I love her enough to bring kingdoms to their knees if they dare harm a single hair on her head. And you—” I looked each one of them in the eye “—you should start praying that I never find proof of your involvement. Because if I do…”

I leaned forward over the table, voice barely above a whisper.

“I’ll remind this Council why I’m called King of the Blood Moon.”

Darion’s face turned red with fury. “We will call for a tribunal—”

“Do it,” I snapped. “And I’ll show up with her on my arm. Dressed like the queen she is. Marked. Protected. And the entire court will watch as I lay waste to your hollow laws.”

The tension in the room was suffocating.

I didn’t care.

Let them hate her.

Let them hate us.

Because they would never undo the bond that had been sealed.

I turned and walked toward the door, but paused just before leaving.

“Test me,” I said, without looking back. “Touch her again. And I will rain fury on this Council unlike anything you’ve seen before.”

And with that, I walked out—leaving them stunned, shaken, and, more importantly, afraid.

As I stepped into the hall, Harper fell into step beside me, eyes wide.

“You really think they’ll back off now?” he asked under his breath.

I didn’t answer right away.

My jaw tightened. “They’ll try to lick their wounds. Regroup. Plot.”

“And Selene?”

I allowed myself a smirk. “Selene will stay in the palace. Untouched. Unbroken. And when she walks into that court next moon cycle as my queen—every single one of them will bow.”