The Lycan Villainess

6. The Bad News

Shutting the door behind herself, Celeste heaved a sigh of relief.

“Did it go okay?”

Celeste nearly jumped out of her skin. In front of the door waiting for her was her brother, Gamma William Redfang.

“William, you scared me!” she exclaimed.

William frowned. “Les, why do you keep calling me by my full name? You always call me Will, or worse. In fact, it’s your fault everyone called me little Willy growing up. It took me forever to ditch that one. What gives? Did I do something wrong?” His brows knit together in consternation.

Celeste paled. She’d slipped up. It hadn’t even occurred to her that his sister wouldn’t refer to him formally. After all, they had never interacted in the book, since he was dead before her character was really introduced, and the female lead always called him William.

She decided to make a joke to smooth over her mistake and changed the topic. “Of course not little Willy. Sorry, I’m just a bit flustered after meeting with King Goldclaw.” To distract him, Celeste tucked her arm into William’s and began steering him toward the palace exit. Taking a gamble she added, “He agreed to let me train as a warrior starting in two days.”

“What? Why?” William was clearly trying to hide his shock.

“Because I asked him, I suppose. Truth be told, I don’t think becoming queen is in the cards for me, and so I’ve decided to apply myself elsewhere.” Celeste smirked. What a way to put it lightly. After meeting the king personally, she knew there was never a chance in hell for her to become queen. He loathed her. The original Celeste must’ve been completely delusional.

“What do you mean? Of course you’ll become queen. Mom and dad have been going on about it since forever. That’s how becoming engaged to the king works after all.” Celeste only sighed in response, and so he continued, “Is this because he was too busy to visit you while you were recovering? And so now you’re calling him by his title and giving up? I know he’s not always the most attentive Les, but he’ll come around. You’re a talented politician and fighter, not to mention the most beautiful girl in the kingdom. Besides, he wouldn’t have agreed to the engagement in the first place if he didn’t want to marry you.”

Celeste only raised an eyebrow at him. Why did the one male lead who was actually nice have to be her brother? He actually thought the king would grow to love her. It was sweet really. But delusional. Just like she was supposed to be.

“Maybe you’re right,” she conceded, “but either way, it couldn’t hurt to apply myself in another field. Who knows, maybe it will suit me better than all these politics. You like it better, don’t you?”

“I suppose so.”

“Great!” She exclaimed, “then I’m sure I can count on you to explain why my joining training is a good thing to our parents.”

“Wait, what?” At that moment the pair exited the front doors of the palace.

“Last one to the car is a rotten egg!” Celeste screamed and took off running towards the valet parking.

“Hey, not fair,” William complained, chasing after her. But his smile gave away that he wasn’t really annoyed at her childish antics. In fact, he thought it was refreshing that after so many years growing up together, fighting and bickering, the two always remained close. He took a mental note that he’d have to keep an eye out for his sister at training. In truth, he was growing resentful at how his alpha treated her and was glad that he’d be there to stand up for her.

***

Back in his office, Zarek was still reeling from his meeting with Celeste.

After hearing she wanted to meet with him two days ago he’d spent the past two nights trying to come up with ways to end their engagement. But despite the many fantasies he’d had about framing her as a criminal and throwing her in the castle dungeon, he couldn’t come up with anything that was actually viable. Not while maintaining the Redfang family’s political support anyway.

So instead he’d planned to cut the meeting short as soon as he could find an opening. Even if he couldn’t avoid marrying her, that didn’t mean he had to spend any more time with her than was absolutely necessary. He’d only accepted the meeting in the first place to pacify his gamma.

But then, after he had stewed about it for so long, she waltzed into his office and proposed the perfect solution. It was impossible.

This was the woman who had been tormenting him for years. She and her parents had turned the entire royal court against him lobbying for their engagement, until he finally agreed fearing they’d take it too far and try to depose him. As if at the age of 26 there was no time left for him to find his mate and father pups. It was ridiculous. He knew 26 was old not to be married in their culture, but for goddess’s sake, he wasn’t knocking on death’s door!

So maybe he’d been uncaring towards her, but with good reason. And he’d hardly thought it was enough for her to give up. She’d gone to such lengths to get his attention that he’d never even considered the possibility.

Of course, Zarek had to accept her terms. They were too good to be true. Her becoming a warrior would barely inconvenience him. The deal was impossible to turn down, but he felt certain he’d eventually uncover a catch. He only hoped that when he did it wouldn’t be damaging enough to make him regret his decision.

At that moment he heard another knock on his door. Did Celeste forget something? Their meeting had ended early, it still wasn’t time for his council appointment yet.

“Come in.”

To the king’s surprise, his beta, Lucien Black, burst into the room. Why was he here?

In the year since Zarek had been crowned king and appointed Lucien as his beta, the lycan warrior had spent the majority of his time on patrol missions around their vast territories. He returned every couple of months, but he had left for the most recent mission only two weeks prior. It wasn’t anywhere near time for him to return yet, which could only mean one thing.

“I have bad news,” Beta Black stated grimly.

“So do I,” replied his king, “but I have a feeling yours is worse.”