the lycan king's bride

inside the palace

Valeria pov

I tightened my grip on the dagger until the leather wrapping bit into my palm. I couldn't let this Lycan King catch me — not now, not when everything I'd trained for came down to this single, fragile moment. If he found me crouched here like a common thief, it would all end before it had truly begun, and twelve years of preparation would die with me in a garden that wasn't even mine to bleed in.

He took another step closer. Then another.

My mind raced through every possible outcome. I could run — but running meant revealing myself, and revealing myself meant a fight I hadn't planned for, in a place I didn't know, against a man whose full strength I couldn't begin to guess. I could fight — but a single dagger against an Alpha king, in his own territory, surrounded by guards who would come running at the first sound of struggle, was closer to suicide than strategy.

Then a guard came jogging up behind him, heavily built, slightly out of breath. "Your Majesty, we caught another rogue near the north border. We've taken him to the dungeon, but he refuses to say who sent him or who his master is. He just keeps repeating the same thing over and over — that he was never meant to be caught."

The king went still. For a moment I thought he'd ignore the guard entirely — his glowing eyes stayed locked on my hiding place, scanning the dark with an intensity that felt like it could peel stone away and find me hiding beneath it. Then, slowly, he lifted his head and breathed in deep, as if chasing something delicate on the wind. His brow furrowed, confused, almost hungry in a way that made my stomach twist with unease.

What is he doing? What does he smell?

I held perfectly still, not even daring to breathe, my whole body a held note waiting to be released.

"Let's go investigate him," he said finally, turning away with visible reluctance, as though some part of him wanted to stay and finish what he'd started. The beta beside him didn't look convinced — his eyes lingered on the pillar a second longer than they should have, sharp and suspicious — but he followed his king without a word of protest.

I didn't move until their footsteps faded completely into the distance, swallowed by the hush of the garden. Only then did I let out the breath I'd been holding so long my lungs ached with it.

I wasn't caught. At least not yet. But I need to be far more careful than this.

I slipped from behind the pillar on unsteady legs and pressed a silent thank-you to the cold marble that had shielded me, before creeping toward the main palace with every sense stretched taut. The moment I stepped inside, a gasp caught in my throat despite every instinct telling me to stay silent. The interior was even more breathtaking than the grounds outside — a long crimson carpet stretched toward a golden throne bathed in candlelight, and behind it, a massive stained-glass window depicted the Moon Goddess herself, her hands outstretched in blessing over the first Lycan king. Silver threading wound through every wall like frost, catching light from a hundred small candles.

Why am I drooling over this cursed palace, of all places? This is the home of the man who destroyed mine.

I shook the thought away and kept moving, my footsteps silent against the stone. Down a side hall, I spotted a heavily guarded room — the kind of room that only holds things worth protecting, tucked away from the grandeur meant for guests and courtiers. As if the Goddess herself were clearing my path for reasons of her own, the two guards stationed outside suddenly walked off together, murmuring something about a shift change. I didn't care which excuse was true. I only cared that the door stood unguarded.

I slipped inside before I could second-guess the opportunity.

Shelves of sealed documents lined the walls from floor to ceiling, each one stamped with the royal crest — Reino de Luna. Dust hung thick in the air, undisturbed for what looked like years. A dusty frame on the corner desk caught my eye, and something in me — some instinct I couldn't name — refused to let me walk past it. I wiped the glass clean with the edge of my sleeve, gently, as though the portrait beneath might shatter if I moved too quickly.

My breath caught in my throat.

My mother.

Tears blurred my vision before I could stop them, hot and sudden, spilling down my cheeks before I even registered I was crying. I wiped them away hard with the back of my hand, furious at my own weakness. Not now, Valeria. You don't have time to cry over a photograph. You have a purpose here, and it isn't grief.

I turned to the file cabinet beside the desk, hands trembling as I pulled open the nearest drawer, and found a report bearing the royal seal — my parents' names typed clearly beneath a stamp of approval. Gabriel and Isabel Montenegro. The date on the file was fourteen years old. Signed by the previous king himself, in handwriting so neat it looked almost gentle.

They'd been searching for my parents. For years before they finally killed them — not some spontaneous act of violence, but a hunt, patient and deliberate, tracked and documented like prey worth cataloguing.

My hands started shaking harder, rage boiling up faster than I could contain it, faster than any training had ever taught me to control. They hunted them like animals for years, and then they still kept records afterward — like paperwork could ever excuse murder. Like filing it away made it something other than what it was.

I reached for another file, desperate to understand what my parents could have possibly done to deserve a hunt that lasted years, what crime could justify the destruction of an entire family—

The air shifted behind me.

A chill crawled down my spine, sudden and absolute, the kind of cold that has nothing to do with temperature.

Someone was standing there. Close. Far too close for anyone to have approached without me hearing them — and I heard everything.

A voice, barely above a whisper, brushed against my ear like it had always been there, waiting.

"You shouldn't be reading that."

The file slipped from my trembling hands and hit the floor before I could even think to scream.

AUTHORS NOTE

THANK you all for reading my book ,I'm hoping to see your comments, your likes and also follow. and i also hope that you drop your diamonds