The Lycan King's Forbidden Craving - Chapter 82: Chapter 82

TORAN
"Screwed doesn't define what we are now. We are beyond doomed. Why in the motherfucking world did Ser Morgan use a witch to deceive the King of an entire people? And how did the King even find out?"
Toran sat across from Pericles, who was pacing the room and rambling.
"Why in the world did he really get drunk at such an important ceremony, leading him to say those things to the King?!" Pericles continued, his fingers raking his hair. "Why is everything just ruined in the blink of an eye?!"
"A trial for the Elites?" Pericles barked out a laugh. "You've got to be fucking kidding me."
The restlessness was clear on Pericles' face, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
However, Toran's head rang only with the King's voice, and the scene at the hall replayed in his mind like a broken record.
His chest heaves, face paled.
His sister-who was supposed to be the crowned Luna-had helplessly knelt on the floor before all the Elites, dethroned and banished.
His father, a man who rarely made mistakes, composed and careful with his strategies, was stripped bare before everyone-humiliated and even forced to eat his severed tongue when the King threatened to gouge out his eyes if he caused any more delay.
Right before everyone, the Venis family faced a cruel humiliation.
One that destroyed their reputation.
It felt like a nightmare.
Valkyrie was already being escorted out of the Citadel. Toran hadn't even gone to check on her-he couldn't.
This wouldn't had happened if she wasn't daft.
If she had just killed the damn slave, then the King wouldn't have focused on them long enough to discover they had used magic to create a pull.
And as for his father, Magnus-he was locked in a room, left to suffer the intense pain from the poison-coated dagger the King had used.
No healer was permitted to attend to Magnus.
Getting no reply, Pericles snapped, "Aren't you going to say anything, Toran?!..."
THUD!!
Pericles didn't see the attack coming. One moment he was pacing the room, and the next, he was pinned and shoved hard against the wall by Toran.
"Can you just shut the fuck up?!" Toran roared at his face, his deep crimson eyes blazing with fury. His Alpha will slammed into Pericles nerves, provoking his wolf. "You think I don't fucking know what happened? You think I don't know how it's banging in my head right now?!"
Toran's voice dropped colder. "The more you remind me, the more I want to spill blood-ruin everything in my path. And I don't mind starting with you, Pericles, if you don't keep your goddamn mouth shut!"
Pericles choked, feeling the air in his lungs being forced out. His wolf roared beneath the surface, but starting a fight with Toran right now was completely out of the question.
"Relax, Toran," he managed to say through gritted teeth. "We... are on the same page."
Toran glared at him a moment longer before releasing him. Pericles gasped for air, holding onto the wall for support.
"I think the slave is alive," Toran muttered, reaching for the glass of wine on his table.
"What?" Pericles gave him a questioning look.
"The King knew about the assassins, and on the night of the Moonlit Ceremony, he was suddenly not in the mountain. From my perspective, that was the time he took to save the slave," Toran said, lifting the glass to his lips.
"Save the slave? But... how could he..." Pericles blinked in confusion.
After finishing the glass, Toran poured himself more wine. "I thought I was only insinuating, but... it seems the King can feel when she's in danger."
Pericles scoffed. "That's quite impossible, Alpha Toran. Only mates can feel if their partners are in danger. The dumb Alpha Kael was the slave's rejected mate-and Kael is still alive-so how is that possible? How could you be so sure?"
"Because it happened once already-on the night of the full moon," Toran replied, his voice low as he stared into his wine. "That night, I made Atlas take the slave into the woods and do whatever he wished. He was to rape and kill her. But... the King went there and slaughtered them all in a gruesome way while she survived."
Toran's brows were furrowed as he lazily swirled his glass of wine, his gaze distant yet sharp as a blade.
"Then... is she the mate the King has been waiting for?" Skepticism laced Pericles' voice. Toran remained quiet, seemingly contemplating something.
"If she might not be the King's mate, then how is she bound to King Duncan?" Pericles muttered.
"That's what I don't truly understand, Pericles. It bothers me too. No one can have a second-chance mate without their previous mate dying. Besides, second chances are like finding a needle in a haystack. Completely rare," he muttered, turning to face Pericles.
Toran's gaze sharpened. "However, there are so many things that baffle me deep in my bones. First-she was the only one able to handle the King's rut, even asking for more, despite not having her wolf to support or protect her. She went in vulnerable-weak as a human-and even with that, she craved more? Not once, but twice."
Toran met Pericles' gaze, his voice thick with curiosity, eyes trying to piece it all together. He now regretted not forcing Valkyrie to tell him everything that happened while the King was with the slave.
"She was the first slave claimed by the King. The first to sleep in the King's chambers..." Toran paused, his eyes narrowing as a question struck him.
What if Arianna wasn't just a werewolf?
"How could I not have thought of that?" Toran muttered, and Pericles raised a brow.
"You found something?"
Toran barely registered the question as Kael's words from the banquet echoed in his mind.
'She is a bastard.'
"I have to go." Toran set his glass of wine on the table and started heading for the door.
Stepping out, he turned to his guard. "I want my slave in my room. Naked. All fours. Before I get back."
With that, he left his section to find someone.