Betrayed Heiress: My Second Chance Mate is A Lycan King

Aira’s POV

“You do know you have indirectly declared a war, right?”

Alex smirks, gathering some arrows and placing them in the bag strapped around his torso. It was just yesterday that we left the council meeting after my declaration. It was clear that none of the alphas were okay with our rather rude exit.

I barely slept properly last night. I kept getting this feeling that something terrible was about to happen. I have been getting that feeling ever since Ana died, and I was always right. Something bad always happened.

I am sure the alphas won’t let our defiance slide. I know Louis acted so cool last night, but I knew that the wheels in his head were turning. And they were turning super-fast.

“I am well aware, which is why we are going to train today.” He says it casually, and my eyebrows crease in confusion.

“Train?” I ask, and he nods. He takes my hand and leads me deeper into the woods, just right behind the palace. We come to a stop, and my eyes fall on a bunny a few feet away from us. The poor creature has not yet noticed; it was too busy nibbling on some leaves.Original from NôvelDrama.Org.

“Yes, we are going to train. You need to learn to control your powers; once you have full control, no one can ever make you do what you don’t want to,” he says, and my eyelids narrow. I sense a double meaning in his words.

“You mean I won’t be easily manipulated again?” I rephrase, and his shoulders slouch tiredly.

“No, Aira. If someone wants to truly manipulate you, then it won’t matter if you have full control over your powers or not. But like you said, last night might as well have been a silent declaration of war. We need to be ready, and we need all the assets we can get,” he finishes, and I pull my wrist free from his grasp.

His eyebrows crease, but it does not take him another minute to realize his mistake. Instantly, he tries to take my hand, but I take a step away from him before he can.

“An asset? That is what I am to you.” I ask him, and his expression falls flat.

“You and I both know that is not all you are to me. I am not going to lie to you. Yes, it is pretty cool that I get the mate with supernatural powers, but that is not all you are to me. I have loved you long before we even knew you possessed such abilities. I just want you to train so that you don’t lose control,” he explains, and my shoulders slouch.

I shut my eyes and inhaled deeply. “Fine, let us just get this done and dusted off already.” I say, and he plasters a boyish smile on his face. He was very cute when he did that; it was hard to believe that he was the very same man who promised a painful death to alphas equally as powerful as him last night.

“Good,” he says, taking out an arrow from his sac and placing it on the bow.

“What are you doing?” I ask, wondering if playing archery was part of my training. He pulls back the bow, and my eyes widen when I realize what he is about to do. He offers me an evil smirk.

“Training.”

A scream leaves my lips when the arrow cuts the air and pins the bunny down to the nearest tree, killing it in an instant. Tears well up in my eyes as my hands come up to cover my agape mouth.

Alex walks up to the dead creature casually and pulls his bloody arrow out of it. He picks up the creature and walks back to me. A screech leaves my lips when he brings the poor creature to me, and I take a step back.

Alex chuckles, his eyes brimming with humor. “You have been near countless dead bodies, and you are getting emotional over a damn rabbit.”

I place my hand over my chest, a tear slipping past my eye as I swallow the bile that has risen within my throat. “That poor creature was innocent. It was just trying to enjoy its meal, and you killed it.”

Alex sighs tiredly, almost as though what I was saying was rubbish and I was overreacting. “It will continue to enjoy its meal if you bring it back to life.”

My eyes widen, and they snap up to his. “What did you just say?” I ask, wanting to believe that I had heard wrongly.

Alex nods in silent confirmation. “You heard me. You feel bad for the poor creature, right? then bring it back to life,” he says cruelly, placing the dead creature at my feet. He takes out another arrow, and what he says next causes a tornado of emotions to swirl within me. “Bring it back to life, or I am going to kill every creature in these woods until you do.”

“Please do not do this,” I plead, feeling internal turmoil.

“You have ten minutes until I bring you another dead one,” Alex says. Finally, every trace of love in his voice completely vanished, and it was like I was speaking to a stranger. He walks over to a tree and leans on it with his arms crossed over his chest.

Crouching down before the bunny’s corpse, I place my hand gently above its wound and shut my eyes, trying to concentrate. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was doing. My mind travels back to the day I watched Alex die in my arms. I tried to recall those emotions I felt on that day; I tried to remember the process, but I just couldn’t.

I couldn’t find any of those feelings inside of me right now.

“Alright, time is up,” Alex says, marching into the woods to kill more innocent animals.

“No, wait! Look, I have only brought one person back, and that was you. Perhaps it is only you I can bring back because you are my mate. Or maybe I was only given one shot at it; all I know is that it isn’t working anymore,” I tell him, and Alex stares blankly at me.

A moment of silence passes between us; neither one of us says a word. He walks up to me and crouches before me.

“You and I both know that isn’t true. You have so much power; I always knew you did, ever since that night I found you in that graveyard.” Alex speaks slowly, then rises to his feet. He takes out another arrow and aims at something behind me. and then he lets go.

My heart plummets to the pit of my stomach when I hear a thud. I shut my eyes, unable to look behind me. Who knows what poor creature he has killed now?

Guilt plagues my heart, and I bow my head.

“Keep trying. I know you can bring them all back.”

And that is what I do; I keep trying. For hours, I stayed crouched before this one little bunny, trying desperately to bring it back while Alex went on a killing spree.

At this point, I am surrounded by hoards of animal corpses, and the scent of their blood pissed me off.

“Come on, Aira. I am running out of animals here. Do you want me to go to the zoo?”

And that is when I snap.

I shoot to my feet, and my eyes lock with his. He takes a step back.

“Do you think I am not trying? You think I am enjoying watching you kill all these poor creatures, or you think I like the fact that I am a useless vessel unable to control her powers while others seek to take advantage of me?” I snap, my voice sounding terribly far from what it usually sounds like.

Alex’s eyebrows crease and hurt whirls within his eyes. “That is not what I want.”

“What you what?!” I cut him off. My eyelid twitches, and I want nothing more than to explode right now. “You have no idea how much pressure I have been under these past few days, and I expected you as my mate to be the one to calm me down and be my solace. Yet here you are, making things even worse for me!”

Alex takes a look around, and it is only then that I realize that the weather has changed drastically. It was almost like it had gone from spring to the dry season in seconds. The greens around us turned black, the trees began to shed their leaves, and the wind that blew was terribly dry.

“Aira please-”

“No!” I yell, not wanting to hear anything from anyone else. “When I said I didn’t want anyone to pressure me concerning my powers, I meant that for you as well. I will figure this all out on my own.”

And with that said, I spin on my heel and leave.

As I storm back into the palace, I pass by more dead animals than I could count. They weren’t part of Alex’s kill.

Deep down, I knew they were mine.

Once again, I had lost control.