Seducing My Ex's Father, The Lycan Alpha King

Chapter 1: The Betrayal The scent hit me before the sight did. My mate's scent. Jax's scent. And my sister's. Mingled together in our bed. I stood frozen in the doorway of the small apartment I had spent all my savings to decorate for us. In my hands were groceries. I had bought his favorite. Steak. The bag slipped from my fingers and hit the floor with a dull thud. The milk spilled. On the bed, tangled in the white sheets I had washed that morning, was Jax. My mate. The boy I had loved since I was sixteen. The boy who had held me three nights ago when I felt our mate bond snap into place on my eighteenth birthday and promised me forever. And on top of him, wearing nothing but my favorite necklace, was Chloe. My older sister. My blood. For a second, my brain refused to understand. It was like a bad dream. "ARIA?" Jax bolted upright, his face draining of all color. His eyes, which had always looked at me with warmth, were now wide with panic. "Oh goddess, Aria, it's not—" "Not what it looks like?" My voice came out, but I didn't recognize it. It was hollow. Dead. "You are in our bed, Jax. With my sister. In the bed where you marked me. What else could it look like?" Chloe didn't even have the decency to cover herself quickly. She pulled the sheet up slowly, deliberately, a smug, victorious smile playing on her perfect lips. "Oh, please. Don't be so dramatic, Aria. Everyone in the pack knew your bond was weak. You can barely shift. You have no power. How could you ever hold an Alpha's son?" The words struck me harder than any physical slap. Inside my chest, my wolf, Luna, threw her head back and howled in pure, raw agony. The mate bond — that beautiful, shimmering golden thread that had connected Jax and me since my birthday — was shattering. I could literally feel it cracking, splintering, turning to ash inside my soul. "You were supposed to be at your combat class," Jax stammered, scrambling for his pants. He couldn't look at me. "You always stay late on Tuesdays. You—" "So you planned this?" I laughed, and the sound was broken, wet with tears I refused to shed in front of them. "You knew my schedule. You brought her here when I was supposed to be gone. Three years, Jax. Three years I waited for you to turn eighteen so we could be together. I rejected two mating offers from good wolves for you! I waited!" "I can explain—" "There is nothing to explain!" I screamed now, my hands shaking. "My own sister! How long, Chloe? How long have you been sleeping with my mate?" Chloe stood up, wrapping the sheet around her body like a queen. She walked past me, and I could smell Jax all over her. "Long enough to know he's wasted on you, little sister. Mom and Dad will agree. You were always the weak one." I pointed at the door, my whole body trembling. "GET OUT. BOTH OF YOU. GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" They left. Jax paused at the door as if he wanted to say something, but Chloe pulled him away, blowing me a kiss as she walked out. The door slammed. The silence that followed was deafening, heavier than any noise. Then I collapsed. Onto the cold floor, into the spilled milk. And finally, the tears came. Not quiet, pretty tears. Raw, ugly, wrenching sobs that tore from my throat until I couldn't breathe. Luna was howling and howling inside me, mourning a bond that had just been murdered by betrayal. The mate bond doesn't just break when someone cheats. It breaks when the heart gives up completely. And mine had. I felt it snap. A final, painful ping, and then... nothing. Emptiness. I don't know how long I sat there in the dark. Minutes? Hours? Until my phone buzzed loudly against the wooden floor. It was a pack-wide Alpha announcement. MANDATORY MEETING. ALL UNMATED AND YOUNG MATED WOLVES MUST ATTEND THE PACK HALL IN 30 MINUTES. THE LYCAN ALPHA KING IS VISITING OUR PACK. My blood ran cold. The Lycan Alpha King. Magnus Thorne. Even in my broken, shattered state, I knew that name. Every wolf in the country knew that name. The ruler of all Lycans and werewolves. The most powerful creature alive. Unmated. Ruthless. Cold. Terrifyingly handsome. A king who had not taken a Luna in ten years because no she-wolf was strong enough to stand beside him. A king who killed Alphas for sport. He was Jax's father. A crazy, dark, dangerous, utterly insane thought bloomed in my shattered mind, watered by pain, humiliation, and a sudden, burning desire for revenge. Jax had humiliated me. My sister had destroyed me. My pack would laugh when they found out the weak, wolfless girl was rejected. What if I wasn't weak? What if I did the one thing no one, not even the Moon Goddess, would ever expect me to do? What if I seduced the King? What if I made the Lycan King want me, mark me, make me his Queen? Then Jax would have to bow to me. Then Chloe would have to call me Luna Queen. My tears stopped instantly. I wiped my face with the back of my hand and stood up, looking at myself in the cracked mirror on the wall. My eyes were red and swollen, my hair a mess, but underneath it all — there was fury. There was fire. There was a new Aria being born. If Jax wanted to throw me away like trash for my sister, fine. Then I would become something he could never, ever touch again. I would become his mother. I would become his Queen. I would make his father obsessed with me. I grabbed my bag, fixed my hair, and walked out the door toward the Pack Hall, where the Alpha King was waiting. My heart was still bleeding, but my steps were steady for the first time in my life. Let the revenge begin.