The Lycan King's Defiant Surrogate

Chapter

62

The next few days, I mostly spend pacing back and forth in my room, worrying about my pack while healing from the rest. of my injuries,

Bethany works on the sewing machine as she watches me. She's made it a habit of personalizing my dresses when she has not other work duties to attend to. I'm happy for it. Many of my standard dresses now have a unique flair.

It makes me feel special in a way I haven't since I was a kid before my disgrace, when my parents still cared about me and my appearance, in how good I could make the pack look as its Luna. That was before I was condemned to the attic, when my wardrobe was lessened to servants" handoffs.

I should sit still. To fully heal, I need to relax. But I can't calm down when my pack is in danger. Something could be happening to Samuel. I will never know peace again until I know he is safe. Around midday one afternoon, Caleb enters my rooms unannounced. He ignores Bethany entirely at her sewing machine and walks straight to me.

"Your pack is safe," he says

exhale heavily. "Thank the gods," I whisper.

"To the hells with the gods. Thank me, Caleb growls.

Yes, of course. Caleb is the one who ultimately decided to help, though I find some resentment that his motives were more to save potential soldiers rather than to save the lives of my family and friends. "Thank you," I say.

He frowns at me, obviously dissatisfied with the lack of sincerity in my reply.

If he wouldn't have withheld the support from them in the start, then he wouldn't have needed to make this hard decision/

now.

Biting my tongue, I glance down and away.

I can still sense the displeasure in Caleb in the way his body builds and holds tension.

"The Alpha ceremony went through," Caleb continues. "Samuel is now the Alpha of his pack."

"Good," I say, nodding. Samuel, my love, is safe. That's all that matters.

"Leah is now his Luna," Caleb continues.

In surprise, I look back at him. He's watching me closely, his eyes narrow with suspicion, his lips curved down in a heavy frown.

"They are bound?" I ask.

"Yes," Caleb says, emotionless.

I place my hand to my chest, feeling my heart crack cleanly in half.

I've known it's always been bound to happen. When I was in the coliseum, I'd even accepted it

But I'm not dying anymore. I'm here in the harem. Someday Caleb could grow sick of me and finally let me go. Before there wasn't hope, but now there is! 1/3

15.09 Wed, Nov 201

Chapter 02

Or, at least, there was

Samuel has well and truly moved on from me then, and with my sister

My shoulders drooping. I curl in on myself.

"Why do you look unhappy?" Caleb growls. "Did I not bring to you news worth celebrating?"

"You did. I say at once, but my heart. Oh, how it aches. "But, 11 look away from him again, unable to meet his gaze knowing my heart breaks for another.

"You love that insignificant worm," Calch growls

I shake my head, unable to deny it, but unwilling for Caleb to know the full truth. He's paranoid and possessive. He could take out his frustrations on Samuel at any time.

I have to keep pretending, to save Samuel. My own heart means nothing so long as he is safe and well.

"You called his name, in the arena, as you were dying." Caleb says, voice low and dangerous. "That Samuel is this Samuel. And he's forsaken you by taking another."

I shake my head more forcefully, but the tears on the ends of my eyelashes start to fall, giving me away.

I accept Caleb to grab me and shake me. Perhaps even to demand I belong to him and then prove it by thrusting inside of me. He does none of those things.

Instead, he scoffs a harsh breath. "Where is my

thanks

With that, he storms out of the room, slamming the door behind him closed so hard that it echoes.

Once he's gone, I collapse down onto the floor. I'm ashamed of my tears. I've long known this day would arrive. So I cover my face with my hands.

1 don't notice Bethany moving until she comes to sit beside me.

She doesn't say anything at first, just offers her own familiar presence as comfort. When the worst of my sobs ceases, however, she asks, "Would you tell me about him? Your Samuel?"

So I do, starting with how we were childhood friends who did everything together, continuing through to our engagement. It hurts to talk about, but it feels good too. Like visiting the grave of an old friend.

When I reach the night of my disgrace, Bethany's face hardens

"You told him you thought you were drugged and he still dismissed you?" Bethany asks, outraged on my behalf.

I must not be telling the story correctly. Samuel was a victim too. An Alpha is expected to take a pure wornan as his Luna After that incident, I was far from pure.

When I tell her Samuel then decided to become to my sister instead, Bethany slaps her hands down flat on the floor. startling me out of the memory.

"Bethany?"

"That man is not worth it, Harper! He threw you aside like used-up trash, all because a drug made you go into heat? And he didn't believe you?" She shakes her head. "Find someone who would believe you Like the King"

I doubted severely that Caleb would have acted differently in Saguel's place. "The King would have just had me killed."

"You are so furious at him that you can't see the way he treats you so differently than literally everyone else," Bethany says.

I

2/3

Chapter 62

"You should be kinder to him."

"Kinder? To him?" I scoff. "He is a tyrant, Bethany. He does not value kindness."

"Maybe not from anyone else, but he seems to like it from you."

I wave my hand at her, hoping to move past this entire conversation. We are still talking about this, aren't we? This same conversation from before.

Bethany and the other handmaidens believe that the King treats me so differently than he does the rest of the harem.

I find that so incredibly difficult to believe.

"He doesn't want or need my kindness," I tell her. "He only wants to know the location of our non-existent child. When he finally realizes that I'm telling the truth about that, he will tire of me and move on. Even now, I bet he's gone to the arms of some other consort to fuck his way into feeling better"

I say the words more bitterly than I meant to. For some reason the thought of Caleb in other women's beds sits uncomfortably with me.

"What do I care? A man with a harem that size likely can't wait to pick and choose. I bet he has a different one planned out for

ry day of the week.

Yeah, he might have spent many of the previous days with me, but I'm not fool. I know he just moves onto someone else when I don't give him every little thing that he wants. Bethany gives me a strange expression, that gives me pause.

"What?" Task her.

"Harper," she says slowly. "King Caleb hasn't visited any other consort since you first joined the harem.

END GIFT