BONDED TO THE ROYAL LYCAN KING

4

Ellie's Point Of View

I remained unmoving while my wildest thoughts took their first breath of life and from there onwards, everything happened so fast. One second, I could hear Daniel's ludicrous protest, and then the next second, Daniel's blood bathed the floor, his cold, lifeless body at the feet of the King.

Nina growled at the thought. But I didn't care. It'd be one less problem for me if he'd just die, freeing me from the cursed mate bond.

“Ellie,” Alina's voice echoed in my head. Low and frantic. She shuffled closer to me. “The King gave you an order,”

Her words sank into my bones. My eyes snapped, and I pulled out of my thoughts to find Karen still standing before me, seething with rage, the hall as quiet as a graveyard. I hadn't moved an inch. Daniel was still in a corner with his friends. The floors were still sparkling clean, not yet tainted with Daniel's blood as I hoped.

It all had been in my mind.

I heard him before I saw him. And instantly knew he was the one. The man I'd met earlier in the woods. A shiver ghosted through me.

“Turn around,” The words were simple, but the command in them was absolute. His words touched the back of my neck. His voice was deep and impatient.

I inhaled slowly and then released it.

Turning around, I looked up and then I saw him. The Lycan King. Killian Riordan Russo. He was my second chance mate.

A shiver rocked through every muscled bone in my body. His honeyed brown eyes locked onto mine and my spine stiffened not from the deep cold stare, but from the angry flame that kicked from the corners of his eyes. The world around me faded, time stood still, and all that was left was a ghost of shock in me.

His gaze was sharp and assessing as they flicked up and held mine, heavy and emotionless as if he was looking straight through me.

My heart turned cold in my chest.

Our exchange lasted only for a second but the glance stretched into slow motion stealing a breath of air from my lungs.

I fought the trembling in my bones, and gathering enough strength, I bowed my head to him.

Stepping forward, Leonardo glanced between a seething Karen and me. “Ellie. What's going on here?”

Karen's voice laced with anger rose sharper. “With all due respect Alpha—”

“Quiet,” King Killian's refined and slightly rough voice cut through her words like a blade. His eyes were still looking straight into my eyes. Heartless. Invasive.

Nonetheless, his gaze burned as if I were standing in front of an open freezer on a summer day, hot and cold air meeting like tendrils of vapor around me.

He moved closer. The set of his shoulders, each step majestic and oozing confidence. I couldn't understand how someone could be so beautiful, yet terrifying at the same time.

*Who are you?” The weight of his stare was on her.

Karen stepped forward. A pleased smile on her face. “Karen McCall,” Her voice suddenly grew soft, and sultry. She made a lousy show of slightly running her tongue over her upper lips in a seductive way, not caring that there were over a hundred guests in the hall. I almost scoffed at the ridiculous way she looked.

His gaze had hardened a flicker to show he was irritated before he returned his gaze to scan the hall. “Whose Luna are you?”

Daniel pushed forward, his head bowed in submission. “Mine, King Killian—”

“Get her out now. Such a show of stupidity is not tolerated within the Council” His voice didn't rise above his calm beat. And the look in his eyes—detached, like he was observing something insignificant. “The meeting will commence now,”

He strode over to the tall table at the center of the hall, and only after he was seated before anyone in the hall moved a muscle.

Karen had left with a show of tears in her eyes, and to Daniel's credit, he didn't run after her.

I was seated at the back with other betas while the meeting began. I still couldn't believe that of all the people the goddess should have paired me with, it had to be him. The King of Beasts. I'd heard the rumors about him and knew enough to know this had to be a mistake.

I wasn't his first mate. We were each other's second-chance mates. He'd had a first mate but I couldn’t remember what happened to her. Rumors said he killed her, some said she either ran away or killed herself because she couldn't bear being mated to him.

My eyes shifted to the King. I couldn't see a future between us, and I wasn't interested in making a fool of myself for the second time. I was determined to have a rejection by the end of the night, despite Nina's protest. I refused to become another spectacle. And something told me that the King would want the same.

It was only after two hours that the meeting wrapped up. I was with Leonardo's mate and Luna, and Kira, in the waiting room right next to Leonardo's office where the King and Leo were currently having a meeting in his office.

“They're taking longer than usual,” I stood by the window. My gaze pierced out into the darkness.

Kira sipped from her cup of tea, before leaning into her chair. “Because there's a lot to discuss,”

I turned to her. “What do you mean by that?”

“We learned the King hadn't just come for the meeting. He's here to find someone. A warrior of ours who'd been in charge of the Maxim academy during the attack months ago,”

The rogue attack? I stalked closer to her. It'd been almost six months since the rogue attack on the packs and Maxim Academy for royals. And Kira was right, we hadn't prepared for the rogues’ attack that day. They'd successfully penetrated some packs, including the academy. But thankfully our warriors had been close enough to join the warriors standing guard and the academy to fight and protect the young ones. Alina and I had been in charge of our pack warriors that day. “Which warrior?”

“We don't know yet. But Leo informed him that you and Alina were the ones in charge. He insisted on meeting you two, that's why we headed to the halls, but then we walked into Karen assaulting you,”

My eyes squeezed shut at the memory. “You all saw that?”

She nodded. “Are you okay?”

My lips parted but they clamped shut when Leonardo stepped in. His narrowed gaze on me, a little disturbed.

“What happened?” Kira was beside her mate in an instant.

“King Killian declined the proposed alliance with our pack,”

His words cut through me like a whip. “What?”

Kira shook her head, confusion swirling in her depths. “Why?”

“I don't know. He didn't say. But he definitely had a last-minute change of heart,”

The pack needed that alliance. So far we were getting by daily, but the number of people in the pack had begun to grow each day. Leonardo had a legal business under his name and another under the pack's name. And even with my partnership with Kira at the Floral home, we needed more financial assistance. We'd work on a pack project and send it to the King. It would have been beneficial not just for our pack but the kingdom as well. And with the promising response we'd received, King Killian had shown interest in the project too. So what had changed?

Me.

The word churned within me. And I knew that was it.

Leo stared at me. “He wants to see you?”

“King Killian?” Kira echoed my thoughts. She sent a worried gaze over to me as well. “Why does he want to see her?”

Leonardo shrugged his stiff shoulders. “I don't know,”

But I did know.

“He looks a little pissed. He wants to see you alone,”

“It's okay, I'll see him,” I said, walking out of the room to Leo's office.

Inhaling for courage which I was suddenly lacking, I went in. He was seated right behind Leo's table. I lifted my eyes, and a warm rush of recognition ran down my spine as I met his heavy gaze. Light brown eyes, the color of whisky on ice, and thick dark lashes. It gave him a brooding expression almost as if he was looking into the sun, yet he was looking at me as though he was looking at one of his servants.

I had the strong urge to avert his gaze and focus it eye level to his black tie but I felt like he'd be winning something if I looked away so I held his stare. My tone was as polite as it always was in company. “You asked to see me—”

“Sit down,” He ordered. His cold, indifferent voice ran down my spine with a strange thrill following in its wake.

The two-word demand grated on my nerves. Even Leo had never ordered me around. I swallowed the lump in my throat and the anger simmered beneath the layers of my skin.

My heart drummed in my ears as I took a seat.

“I'll keep this simple and short,” A streak of light, angry flame burned hot in his eyes. “I do not want a mate,”

My heart rate quickened at the unexpected words. I sensed he wasn't too thrilled either with this mate thing but I still hadn't expected him to take the initiative. A part of me should be happy that he was doing both of us a favor, but strangely, I couldn't find the happiness that should rightfully soar through me.

To hide my confused emotions, I lifted a shoulder and shrugged, feigning an unbothered expression. “I'm glad to hear that. I'm not interested in having you as a mate either,”

His lips pressed against each other and the fire in his eyes burned hotter. The deep dark timber of his voice came to the surface. “Good,”

A cold whisper ran through my blood as he rose up from his seat. I did the same. We were standing so closely apart with Leo's table right between us, that I realized how large and undeniably tall he was compared to me.

He stared down at me.

I stared up at him, ignoring the way his presence had begun to burn and Nina's attempt to take over the wheels of control.

My breath turned shallow as I anticipated his next words.

“I, King Killian Russo, by the moon reject you, Ellie Cross as my mate, Luna and Queen,”

“I, Ellie Cross, accept your rejection,”