Lycan King's Savior

Chapter 3: Betrayal's Bitter Sting

Chapter 3: Betrayal's Bitter Sting

"Why?!" I screamed, clutching El's lifeless body to my chest like a vice grip. "How could you do this to your own nephew?"

Jess scoffed, her lips curling into a cruel sneer. "Nephew? Please. That bastard child and I share no blood relation." She glanced back at our parents, as if seeking validation.

"Oh forgive me," she purred, her tone dripping with mock sympathy. "I forget you're still in the dark about the truth." Jess turned her icy stare back to me. "Perhaps it's time Mother and Father finally enlightened their precious little cuckoo."

Mom straightened, smoothing her hands over her silk robe as she nodded towards Jess. "Of course, dear. It's long overdue that she learns the truth."

A leaden knot formed in the pit of my stomach as Mom's cold eyes bored into me.

"You see, Ashley," she began, each word razor-sharp and designed to cut me to the core, "you were never actually Jess's twin sister. Truth be told, you're not even our biological daughter at all."

The room seemed to spin as her callous confession lanced through my heart like a serrated blade. Not their daughter? But then...who?

Mom continued, utterly indifferent to the maelstrom of shock and anguish ripping through me. "When Jess was born, she was...frail. Weak. The pack seer foretold she wouldn't survive her first shift on her eighteenth birthday."

A heavy silence fell, thick and suffocating, until Jess chimed in with a derisive laugh. "The old bat claimed the only way to counteract my 'bad luck' was to have another girl around, one with similar looks and features to, I don't know, ward it off or some superstitious nonsense."

My throat ran dry as her meaning sunk in, dread creeping through my veins like insidious poison.

"So you...you found me? Adopted me just to be some...good luck charm for Jess?"

The naked disdain in Mom's eyes spoke volumes. "We scoured the nearby towns and villages, searching for a child fitting the seer's specifications - similar hair, eyes, general looks to Jess. Lo and behold, we came across a rundown orphanage where you were being kept."

She waved a hand in dismissal. "Since you were five months older than Jess with the right coloring, we figured you'd do. Adopted you under the pretense of being Jess's twin to sell the ruse. And would you look at that?" A twisted smile curved her lips. "It worked. You helped ward off her bad luck, and she survived her shift without issue."

"So that's it?" I rasped, cradling El tighter against the maelstrom of emotions threatening to drown me from the inside out. "I was just...just some good luck trinket you discarded once you had no more use for me?"

"More or less," Jess shrugged, idly inspecting her blood-red manicure. "We only ever needed you long enough for my shift. Yet you just had to get greedy and try to steal my true mate from me too."

She tutted, shaking her head in mock disappointment. "Tsk, tsk. So ungrateful after everything my family did for you. Did you really think a half-breed orphan could ever be worthy of being the Alpha's Luna?"

My throat ran dry, and a roaring filled my ears, drowning out the rest of Jess's sneering taunts. The world around me faded into a swirling vortex of rage and disbelief.

How could this be happening? Everything I'd ever known, every memory cherished of the loving family who took me in and raised me as their own...all a lie? A cruel, twisted deception conceived to serve Jess's selfish whims?

My fists clenched until my nails bit into my palms, hot blood trickling down my wrists as Jess continued to jeer and smirk, utterly uncaring of the utter devastation she'd wrought.

She just wouldn't stop. The mocking words and callous laughter rang on and on in an endless loop, eroding away the very foundation of my reality until something inside me finally snapped.

With a primal scream of rage tearing from my throat, I lunged across the room, El's body tumbling from my arms as I crashed into Jess in a tangle of thrashing limbs and clawing fingers. Searing agony ripped across my scalp as she seized a fistful of hair, wrenching my head back with a vicious snarl.

Somewhere through the chaos, I heard the muffled wail of approaching sirens and squealing tires, but it all faded into meaningless white noise. Nothing else mattered except destroying this vile, vicious succubus who had orchestrated the unraveling of my entire world.

I battered her head against the hardwood with savage force, dull thumps echoing like a warped metronome through the haze as sanguine warmth began seeping between my fingers. Pain, bone-deep and white-hot, exploded across the back of my skull, and stars burst behind my eyelids.

Then Jess was wrenched away, her shrieking curses and insults drowned out by a familiar, thunderous roar.

"Who let that psychotic b***h inside?!"

Every muscle locked rigid as granite at the low, gravelly timbre of King's voice. No...he was here. Witnessing this endless nightmare unfold before his very eyes.

Forcing leaden eyelids apart, I turned towards the origin of that baritone rumble, a fragile spark of hope flaring in my chest despite the maelstrom of rage still churning through my veins.

King would listen. He had to. Once I explained about El, about these vile creatures who dared call themselves my family, he would understand. He would make this right again.

Vision finally clearing, my gaze landed first on Jess, wrapped in King's arms and wearing the most convincing mask of devastated innocence. Her gown was ripped, long scratches marring the porcelain perfection of her throat and cheeks as she trembled against King's chest. There was a nasty gash on her thigh too, shards of broken glass glittering amid the steady welling of crimson.

That's when I noticed the shattered remains of what appeared to be a vase or bottle strewn across the parquet floor, the sharp fragments winking in the dim glow of the lamp light like jagged fangs.

How...?

"She was waiting in the rain," Jess rushed out between ragged sobs, voice dripping with theatric anguish as she gestured wildly towards the tall windows. "I took pity and let the poor thing inside, never dreaming...wh-when I turned my back, she grabbed that vase. Before anyone could stop her, she tried going after El with a hidden bottle!"

A guttural moan slipped past my lips as the terrible implication behind her words sank in like a lead weight in my soul. She was trying to frame me for attacking my own son...for murdering El in cold blood.

"Liar!" I erupted, surging to my feet and lurching towards the small gathering with single-minded purpose. "You evil, vindictive bitch...you killed my son!"

The scream tore from the depths of my shattered heart, a howl of pure, visceral torment and anguish. My legs trembled, body swaying like a sapling in a brutal gale as the word's I'd dreaded most were finally given life.

"She murdered our baby, King! Jess...she...oh god!"

The weight of that horrific truth crashed over me in crushing waves, sapping what little remained of my strength. I collapsed into a boneless heap on the floor, wails of grief and denial ripping free as my fingers clawed at the plush carpet.

In that moment, I wanted nothing more than to sink through the very earth itself. To escape this fresh hell my life had become in the blink of an eye.

But then King was there, his hulking silhouette looming over me, golden eyes two smoldering embers in the gloom. Any second now, he would open his arms and embrace me as I broke down into hitching sobs. He would listen, would offer solace, and then vent the full force of his fury upon those responsible for the death of his son - my son.

He would make this right. He had to.

Lulled by that fragile promise of justice and comfort, I reached for him in silent entreaty.

But King didn't embrace me. Didn't offer a shred of solace or compassion as I reached for him, desperate for his strength and support.

Instead, his massive frame moved past me without the slightest hesitation, drawn straight toward El's tiny, broken body lying crumpled and discarded on the floor.

A broken keen slipped from my lips as I watched King gather our son into his arms, cradling him against his chest with a startling tenderness that seemed to shatter the last vestiges of the ruthless Alpha persona he typically embodied.

In that moment, seeing this mighty, imposing figure reduced to silent devastation over the loss of his child - our child - I felt a pang of kinship, of shared anguish that momentarily overshadowed the swirling chaos and unanswered questions still roiling within me.

For a few, blessed seconds, the bitterness and betrayal faded into the background as we mourned together, unified as the grieving parents we were in our mutual torment over El's brutal murder.

But like all fleeting moments of solace, it was obliterated with startling swiftness, the hammerblow of King's next words cleaving straight through to my very core.

"How could you, Ash?" he rasped, voice little more than a broken whisper muffled against El's matted curls. "I loved you. Gave you everything, even though you weren't her..."

His haunted gaze lifted, silver eyes awash with unspeakable hurt boring straight through me like smoldering brands.

"I hurt my true mate, rejected her, because of you!" he continued, each word slicing through the unnatural stillness with the force of a gunshot. "You made me turn Jess away knowing it wasn't really you I felt that primal bond for. That it was never meant to be you as my mate. But turns out you aren't even my savior."

I shrank back, mouth working soundlessly as a fresh wave of shock crashed over me. His savior?

King seemed oblivious to my inner turmoil, pressing on in that same dull, hollow tone utterly devoid of emotion. "But even that wasn't enough for you, was it? No, you just had to take it a step further by murdering my son in cold blood..."

His words trailed off in a choked rasp, fingers tightening almost convulsively around El's prone little form, and for an insane heartbeat I thought he might actually break down and sob.

But the storm passed with startling quickness, the clouds of grief and agony dispersing to reveal the same impassive, eerily calm façade he always adopted in the face of unimaginable crisis.

With a shuddering inhalation, King rose fluidly to his feet, still cradling El with excruciating care. When his gaze finally swept over me again, all I saw was a infinite, hollow emptiness reflecting back.

"You did this, Ash," he stated, each word dripping with disgust and finality. "You murdered my child simply because I chose to divorce you for my true mate. Because I finally recognized what you are - a scheming, desperate half-breed who tricked me into rejecting my fated mate through lies and deception."

White noise roared through my mind, deafening and all-consuming. I could only kneel there, frozen and mute, as each fresh accusation lanced through me with the force of a physical blow.

It couldn't be...they were all lying! I would never, could never harm El!

But even as the denials formed on my lips, King turned away in one decisive, final motion - my words still unspoken.

Guards I hadn't even registered began flooding into the room like ants, a veritable sea of grim-faced uniforms surrounding me in an inescapable vice with weapons raised and ready.

I tried to protest, to howl my innocence and beg King to simply listen, but it was too late. The damage was done, the venom of Jess and Joy's lies had already taken root in his mind.

Rough hands seized me then, jerking my arms behind my back with bruising force as cold steel bit into my wrists. Dazed and unresisting, I allowed them to drag me towards the exit like a puppet with its strings severed.

After all, what else was there to do? My entire world, my very identity, had been exposed as an elaborate deception. A masterfully crafted illusion of loving parents, caring siblings, and the perfect, doting mate - only to disintegrate into ashes in the space of a few, shattering revelations.

I'd lost everything that night. My family, my love, my child...

As I was hauled across the estate grounds, darkness swirling at the edges of my vision, something inside me broke - or rather, something was born from the devastation.

A tiny, smoldering ember of determination igniting in the hollow pit where my heart and soul had burned mere hours ago. An inextinguishable flame fueled by the bitterest of losses, whispering of retribution and vengeance for those who had so callously slaughtered the purest of innocents.

They would pay for this, I vowed as the heavy ironwood doors of the dungeon clanged shut behind me, swallowing me in shadowed oblivion. Every last one of those monstrous liars and killers would suffer a thousand agonies before I was through with them.

If they thought this night, this unfathomable tragedy, had broken me...they were dead wrong.

It had simply given birth to my new purpose, my sole reason for living and drawing breath.

Vengeance.