The Lycan King and his Dark Temptation (Valeria) novel Chapter 441

BEOF

I wandered through the garden, bored, waiting for that shitty meeting to end—it wouldn’t solve a damn thing.

One look at the disgust on that Regent’s face was enough to know we weren’t welcome here.

And the main reason King Aldric had sent me wasn’t being fulfilled either.

Women still fled from me like I carried some contagious plague—worse here than even among supernatural females.

I mean, their elemental men looked like dwarves next to me. Of course they’d run away in fear. I huffed, annoyed, those absurd feelings of self-pity creeping into my chest.

Like always, I shoved them down without mercy. So what if I never find my mate? Better that way.

It would be the final blow to my pride—to be rejected by my own fated partner.

"Money is the one thing I have too much of," I muttered bitterly.

My wolf, Soul, remained as indifferent as ever—we disagreed on too many things.

But I knew there was no other choice. I’d keep paying for sex with she-wolves whenever the need to fuck became unbearable.

It was more about reputation than anything else. That I was huge everywhere, including my massive cock? Yeah, it was true.

In fact, I thought it would be an advantage with the females, but apparently, big wasn’t the same as too much.

That some of them had left injured, and that I usually needed more than one woman at a time to be satisfied—I couldn’t deny that either.

But those rumors that I had killed countless women, left them bled dry in my bed? Complete and utter bullshit.

I was about to go find Quinn and ask how things were going, how much longer this mess would take.

Soul was restless—he wanted me to shift and run free. I even considered leaving ahead of schedule, but then something stopped me.

My wolf’s ears perked up, his nose catching a scent carried by the breeze. Odd. Very odd.

"We need to check this out—it’s a female. I don’t know why, but something about her… I like it."

Confused, I quickened my pace, heading toward a secluded part of the massive palace garden.

I arrived just in time—to see her being assaulted by two men while another barked at her like a rabid dog, screaming that she had used magic, that she had murdered someone.

I didn’t even think.

In less than a second, I burst from the hedges, my leg muscles exploding as I leaped into action, intercepting the bullet before it could reach her.

Soul roared within me—we could not let her die. He was furious, pushing for the shift, but I held him back.

That bastard elemental… I didn’t need to be a mind reader to know he was lying. His irrational hatred toward the female was purely because she was a mage.

I had saved her from danger and cautiously approached—I needed to make sure she was alright.

I didn’t want to scare her, but when she lifted her head and looked at me, I saw the shock and discomfort in her expressive eyes.

And then, her scent—now that I was close, I caught something beneath it. A warning—a raw, unmistakable mark left by another lycan male.

This sorceress already belonged to someone else. And I—like a fucking idiot—for a fleeting second had thought…

I thought she might be my mate. The same mate I claimed I didn’t want to find, because I knew she would break me.

But it was the worst lie of all. I ached for my mate. I craved her with every fiber of my being.

"Let’s go, Soul. I don’t know what you sensed, but it’s obvious—she has a mate. We helped her. That’s enough. Let’s not get ourselves into trouble in this realm."

I turned to leave.

"Wait—she’s fainting!"

No more. If he wouldn’t listen the easy way, he’d have to learn the hard way.

I roared, pressing one knee to the grass, my canines elongating, my veins pulsing with power.

White fur began to spread over my back, the seams of my clothes snapping under the rapid expansion of muscle.

And then, I saw his intent—he was going to attack while I was shifting, when I was most vulnerable.

He charged on all fours like a raging beast, dead set on killing me.

I had to admit—he was a damn good warrior.

"ENOUGH, VORATH, STOP!"

Before he could strike, a presence threw itself between us. A small frame, trembling arms outstretched.

Was she protecting me from her mate’s attack? But I realized immediately—it wasn’t for my sake.

She was protecting both of them. More people were coming. The pompous figures of this realm—the Regent himself.

"Beof! What the hell is happening?!" Quinn’s worried voice rang through my mind—he was approaching quickly.

"I have no fucking clue—I just defended a sorceress."

I answered, pushing myself up, pressing a hand against my bleeding shoulder, barely holding my beast back.

At least I hadn’t shifted fully and ended up naked in front of these strangers.

"Maxwell! What happened here?!"

The bastard Baltazar picked up his sniveling son—who looked seconds away from pissing himself.