Bedside table for her cell and had to close his eyes as the thoughts of what hewanted to do with her crowded his mind, driving out the rest of his rationality.“Brayden?” he heard her surprised voice and his heart sunk as he sat on the bed,watching her.

Jealousy was not new to him anymore.

Every time he thought ofher husband, all he wanted was to rip his head off and be done with it.

Only thathe had no right to.

The Alpha hadn’t offended him in any way, he played by therules.

If he killed him now, the uprising would have their martyr to put on posters.Especially if he took his wife afterwards.No, he had to do this right.

Too many people depended on him.And Riannon...

He wasn’t sure that she would appreciate him doing things byforce.

Some she-wolves were into this.

But she didn’t look like the kind.He had to repeat to himself again and again that her wolf would be backsoon.And then she would know.

And even if the wolf wouldn’t return, he would dowhatever it took to get her out of her marriage and make her fall in love with him.Riannon was annoyed.

It was 2 am at night and he had the audacity to call her.

Ifhe cared, he could do that during the day.

But he didn’t.

He just threw a tantrumprior and that was it.“What are you doing?” he asked, sounding impatient.

“I am sleeping,” shemuttered, “What else could I be doing at this hour?!”“I...” He was not saying anything and then it suddenly occurred to her.

Could hesense what she was actually doing with Gideon right now? She bit her lipinstinctively.That was it.“I missed you, Ri,” he said all of a sudden and she noticed how the lycan king’seyes flashed gold.Yet he hadn’t made a sound.

He just sat there, clenching hisfists and watching her every move.magic

“That’s very nice of you,” she replied calmly, “But I am tired, and I want to goback to sleep.

Can we talk tomorrow?”“How are the lycans?” he ignored her words completely, “Do they treat you well?”“Well enough.

You have nothing to worry about.” Her response was dry and shecould sense her husband not being happy about it.

“Anyway, I’ll tell youeverything when I get back.

Right now all I want is sleep.”“Not yet, Ri,” he growled at her, “I want to talk to my wife more.” hurt herselfagain and blame it on someone else without any consequences?”There was silence at the other end of the line, and she hoped that he would endthe conversation first.

But, of course, he didn’t.“Ri, I understand that the situation is not easy.

I promise I will handle it.

Roxy willbehave.“ Brayden assured her.“Oh, Goddess,” she covered her eyes with her free hand, “How lucky!”“RI,” he tried to appease her, “When you come back, we are going to take a fewdays off just for us.It’s going to be great, and we will talk about everything.”“Sounds amazing,” she lied, “I am exhausted.

I need to go now.”“Ri,” he stopped her yet again,“Just...

don’t do anything stupid there.

And ifanyone tries to force you into anything, call me.

I will always come to yourrescue.

No one will hurt my girl.”Her lips parted in shock.

What was in that man’s brain? It was like she neverknew him in the first place.

Just this morning his precious mate tried to hurt herand he hadn’t been there for her.“I’ll keep that in mind,” she sighed, ready to finally hang up.

“Ri, I really miss you,” he said in that husky voice of his he always used when hewanted to seduce her.

She used to go crazy about it.

But now it had no effect onher.

She was cured.“Sweet dreams, Brayden!” she said firmly and swiped her finger to end the call,sighing.Only now she remembered that the lycan king was watching her the whole timeand she stayed like that for a while, trying to gain back her composure.Just when she was about to turn, a sound of a text message beeped, and shelooked at her phone again.Ri, just remember that you are mine forever.She stared at this message for a while before slowly putting the phone back.What was that right now? In her past life he wasn’t that possessive of her sincethe moment he met Roxanne.

And the text didn’t have any sweet vibes to it.

Shedid not like it.

She did not like it at all.A bad feeling stirred up in her chest.

She was careless.

He probably felt what shewasdoing and it could go wrong in so many ways from here.

Husbands had morepower in this world.

Her best card was him not suspecting a thing.

If she lost thatsurprise element...

It could end badly for so many people.

Herself includedabruptly, almost hitting his chest with her face when he caught her in his arms.And she flinched...It hurt him on a physical level to see this reaction after she just talked to herhusband.Did she still have feelings towards him? Or was it something else? Theatmosphere in the room changed.“It’s fine,” he said caressing her cheek, “You can tell me.

I...”

“We can’t do anything,” she bit her lips as she said it and it made him growlmenacingly.

He hated her husband enough already before that moment.

Now heabsolutely despised him.“Do you still love him?” he asked and she shook her head.“No,” Riannon replied bluntly, “I don’t.

But I need him to be unaware of that until Iam free.

Right now...”“He felt how good you felt with me?” he chuckled, slightly relieved.And when shenodded with a soft blush on her cheeks, he lifted her up and placed her back tothe bed.She was about to protest when he hopped over her to the other half of the bedand lay down there.“What...” she was about to ask him what he was doing when she saw a smile onhis face.“If we can’t do anything, then we are going to sleep,” he said simply, “I am notleaving you alone, though.

He may feel me kissing you but he cannot sense mein the same room as you.”“Alright,” she mumbled under her breath, secretly happy that he did not leave.She wanted him close.“And just so that you know, as soon as that divorce is finalized, I am taking youstraight here,” the lycan added, making blood rush to her cheeks.They lay likethis for a while.“Did he hurt you?” Gideon found himself asking and the pause that followedseemed like a torture.“Not physically,” she let out a heavy sigh, “It’s hard to explain.”

“You said that you don’t love him anymore, but from what I know, he only broughthis mate to your week a few days ago.

Is it that bad?” He did not know why hecouldn’t shut up.

The possibility of him not liking her answer was huge.“It’s complicated,” Riad admitted, “He turned out to be not what I thought he was.And as I already tried to explain you before, it’s not only about me.

There areother people that I need toSomething wasn’t adding up to him there.

Why was she so sure that somethingwould happen to those people? According to his research about her, that Alphaand her were always a good team and he was more or less fair to hissubordinates.“Why are you worried about your pack like that?” he decided to find that out.“Because of the woman who would be the next Luna,” Riannon turned to lookhim in the eye, “She is not a good person.

And I am not saying that because I amoffended by her.

Just this morning...”She suddenly stopped talking, but he placed his large palm onto her tiny handand squeezed it.“Just tell me what she did.

What they did.” He hoped that she would be able toopen up to him a little bit.

And when she sighed, he almost thought that shewould ask him to leave.But instead she told him what happened.

And he was so angry that he wanted toburn that pack to the ground the same night.

He started asking her question andshe told him everything that happened since the day her husband brought thatmate of his to their house.

His blood was boiling, his wolf demanded blood.

Andin his fury he was amazed how calm Riannon was talking about all that.

As is...as if it wasn’t the worst thing that happened to her.He decided to find out everything there was to find out about that omegaRoxanne.

A part of him was happy for her being Brayden’s mate, but no one

could touch his and walk out unscathed.

He was going to deal with all this oneway or another.She fell asleep in the middle of their conversation and he allowed himself tobrush her cheek briefly.

He scent coated him and just seeing her so close to him,sleeping peacefully, made him happy.Riannon woke up in the morning feeling refreshed and full of strength.

A smilecurled on her lips as she turned to find Gideon next to her...

only that the Lycanking was already gone.She pushed the feeling of disappointment to the far corner of her mind and wentto take ashower and clean up herself properly.

She wanted to look good since she knewthat she would be meeting him soon again.A maid brought her breakfast to her room and in about an hour after, Riaprepared all the papers that she needed to discuss with the king.

She wentstraight to his office and found him there with Reid.“Morning,” the both greeted her warmly and the Beta went for the exit, winking ashe passed her.

making it sound as if she was the Luna of his pack.

But Riannonignored that as her eyes met with Gideons.“Have a seat,” he politely motioned for her to take a chair in front of his desk andshe did just that.“Thank you,” she smiled but he averted her gaze and it startled her.

After whathappened at night, this wasn’t what she expected.“Are those the files you prepared?” he stretched his hand and she handed himthe folders.He was looking through them thoroughly, asking questions and making somelittle amendments.

And absolutely avoiding looking at her.

She knew that she told him herself that they couldn’t...

do anything.

But was thatit? He wasn’t interested anymore?She tried to call Onyx in the minutes that he was busy with reading to distractherself from gloomy thoughts.

But it again felt as if she wasn’t even there.“So, all this looks good now,” he cleared his throat, “Well done.

Now just work onthe changes and we can present this to other Alphas.”Their eyes finally locked and she felt the urgent need to break the ice somehow.However, his Gamma walked in with some important matters and Gideon lookedat her apologetically.“I’ll see you later at the party,” he gave her a weak smile and she stood up withher head held high.“As you wish, your majesty,” she said unemotionally and slowly walked out of theroom.Behind the door she stood for a moment, trying to understand what washappening and why she felt so angry.

So, they kissed yesterday.

It wasn’t likethey were betrothed now.And yet she was fuming inside.She did not meet anyone on her way upstairs as everyone seemed too busy withthe party preparations.

She saw Savannah in the window of her room, but theprincess seemed in the middle of a heated argument with one of her helpers.Riannon tried pacing around the room but it did not calm her nerves.See you at the party, he said...She went into the walk-in closet, where all the white dresses were still waiting fortheir hour