King’s POV:
I hadn’t been the same since I met that girl. I had only met her once.
One encounter…one kiss. So why couldn’t I stop thinking about her? I sat on the edge of my bed, staring into nothing, when Ava entered the room. She wore white robes that made her look almost angelic. She smiled as she approached me.
“Like what you see?”
She walked toward me with that confident little smirk I had come to know. Ava was beautiful, everyone knew it.
She was my new Queen…and my wife. She was supposed to be the only woman occupying my thoughts. Yet the moment she came close, another face appeared in my mind.
Silver hair, violet eyes…a girl hiding behind an arched wall with me, that girl I had no right to want.
Ava leaned down and kissed me passionately, I kissed her back. But my mind betrayed me, I remembered Axia. The warmth of her body against mine…the way she had looked at me after that impossible kiss…the way my wolf had stirred the moment I touched her. I pulled back slightly.
Why her? Why did my wolf recognize her? And why did a part of me want to find her again?
Ava studied my face.
“Are you alright, my love?”
“Yes.” I forced a smile.
“There are just so many things I need to do tomorrow.” My brow furrowed.
Ava took my hand. “That is fine,” she whispered. “But you have a duty to me.” She guided my hand toward her.
“To be my husband, to love me…to give me an heir.” Her words should have felt natural. Instead, guilt twisted inside me. Because when I imagined touching my wife, I saw another woman. The realization made my stomach tighten. I pulled my hand back, Ava noticed.
“What is wrong?”
“Nothing.” I smiled, trying to dismiss it.
“I’m still young. An heir won’t be a problem. Trust me.” But my thoughts had already returned to her—Axia.
I shouldn’t have wanted to see her again, or remembered her kiss. I’m not a child, so why do I feel this way? I shouldn’t have wondered what it would feel like to kiss her again, but did. And that terrified me more than the curse ever had.
Suddenly, my wolf stirred, hard. Pain ripped through my body. I gasped. “No…” My vision blurred. And just before the curse consumed me, one word echoed inside my head.
Mate.
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When I came back to myself, the room was destroyed. Furniture lay overturned. Curtains had been ripped from their rods. Cracks ran across the walls, and Ava was gone. My heart stopped. “Where is the Queen?”
The guards rushed in.
“She is safe, Your Majesty.”
I closed my eyes in relief. At least she was safe. I collapsed into one of the damaged chairs and stared at the destruction around me. My wolf was becoming stronger, but the curse was getting worse.
But somehow I felt it had changed the moment I met Axia. And the worst part was I desperately wanted to see her again. My wolf had chosen her. I had to see her again, at least once, just to be sure.
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The next morning, I ordered someone to find her, I didn’t tell him why…I didn’t even want to know why. I only knew that I needed to see her again.
He returned not long after. “She’s in the Orange Garden, Your Majesty,” my faithful lieutenant said. I looked toward the skyline through the tall arched windows. The sun was just beginning to rise.
“Good.”
I turned toward him.
“Make sure no one is there when I arrive.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
I made my way to the Orange Garden. It was a place I had stopped visiting after my father died. Somehow, seeing it again brought back memories I had buried long ago.
Then I saw her—Axia.
She was standing beneath one of the orange trees, picking fresh fruit and placing them into a basket. She looked completely at peace. I hated how beautiful she looked, and that I noticed.
“We meet again,” I said. She startled and turned toward me.
Those violet eyes, and that strange pull. My wolf stirred beneath my skin.
I wanted to step closer, I shouldn’t have.
“The Queen insisted I pick fresh oranges for her drink,” she said, placing another orange into the basket. “I’m not here on some joyful morning spree.” She glanced at the sky.
“Besides, isn’t it a little early for you to be wandering around?”
I raised an eyebrow.
“You certainly have a mouth for someone standing before the Alpha King.”
“I have manners.”
She picked another orange.
“I just choose not to use them.”
She looked directly at me.
“Especially with arrogant Alpha Kings who think the entire world revolves around them.”
“Ouch.” I couldn’t help smiling.
Then I remembered who she was.
And who she belonged to.
“Why are you so cruel, Axia?”
The moment her name left my lips, she froze. Her lips parted slightly. She looked almost surprised that I remembered it—Of course I remembered…I remembered everything about her.
The fountain, the kiss…the impossible warmth between us. She lowered her gaze.I knew what she was doing—trying to make me leave. Trying to remind me of the line between us.
“You are my sister’s husband,” she said quietly. She looked up at me. Straight into my eyes. The words should have been enough to stop whatever this was. Instead, they made it worse.
“Then why,” I asked, stepping closer, “do I feel so drawn to you?”
She swallowed.
“Because men will always be men.”
She looked away.
“You’ll always want what you cannot have.”
I caught her wrist before she could walk away. She turned sharply.
I pulled her a little closer.
“Don’t tempt me, young lady.”
My voice came out lower than I intended.
“You tempt me more deeply than you know.” I stared into her eyes.
And for the first time since becoming King, I had no idea what I was supposed to do.
“I don’t understand it,” I admitted.
“My wolf doesn’t understand it either.”
I released her wrist slowly.
“But every time I see you…”
I took a breath.
“I forget that you’re not mine.”
“Then you must never see me again,” she whispered, a tear slipped down her cheek—it confused me—breaking something inside of me.
I reached for her without thinking…the moment my fingers touched her skin, that familiar warmth rushed through me again. The same feeling I had felt at the fountain. The same pull my wolf had been screaming about since the day I met her. I didn’t understand it…or her. And I certainly didn’t understand myself.
Somehow, my lips found hers again.
“Stop it,” she whispered against my lips.
But she didn’t pull away.
Instead, she moved closer, and the moment became something neither of us could take back. I knew who she was. She was my wife’s sister. She was forbidden and wrong.
Yet standing there beneath the orange trees, with her tears still warm against my skin, I couldn’t make myself let her go.
So I kissed her passionately as she kissed back, our breaths so hard against each other, like there was no time. I ripped her dress and laid her on the floor. I kissed her as I used another hand to go deep into her. She was as wet as the sea. I couldn’t help myself, I felt like a beast. I put myself slowly into her watching her perky breasts bounce as I went in and out. Her moans were so beautiful. She got up and held me with her thighs—her perky big breasts massaged my chest as slammed into her. She was so soft, tight and sweet. My morals, my common sense, my fears, all disappeared and all I could feel was her.
And that morning, in the quiet of the Orange Garden, I crossed a line I had sworn I never would.
I betrayed my wife and I made love to her sister.