Page 22 of A Silent Prodigy for the Lycan Princess

I can feel his relief that I didn’t give in to Coralie’s seduction, and he is all too eager to lend me his senses, our eyesight sharpening. That’s the plus side of having a lycan who is almost deaf; all his other senses are enhanced.

With his sharpened vision, I scan the room again; the shelves in particular. That’s when I see it. I truly can never switch off my mind. I can’t. How much easier would my life be if I could? I grab Coralie’s waist, taking a lungful of her scent like I did when we were dancing. She almost succeeded in making me switch off any reasoning, though. I have to give her that. She almost outsmarted me. I noticed it wasn’t her real scent but thought it would be a perfume. If I have to take a guess now, I’d say she had her scent enhanced with something that would be alluring to me.

My heart breaks, but I don’t want her to know it did. It’s not that I loved her, but I liked her. I trusted her. I grab her by her waist and pull her off me. Ignoring her disgruntled complaints, I walk to the part of the shelf where the books are in disarray.

“Arden,” Coralie mutters, jumping up and hurrying towards me. She grabs my arm, but I shake her off.

“Leave,” I tell her.

“It’s not how it looks,” she hurries to explain. “You know how I feel about you.”

“That I do,” I say cooly, trying to harden my heart.

I trusted her. We weren’t mates, but we could have been friends. Now it makes sense why Eric looked at her the way he did. He thought something was off about her. Vander was right as well. She was too beautiful, too hot to be interested in me.

Coralie’s eyes fill with tears. “Please, Arden,” she begs.

“Why?” I ask her. “Why did you do it? Did someone threaten you to do it?”

She looks away from me, a hint of shame in her eyes. “No,” she says.

“Then why?”

“I thought I could use it later,” she admits.

Yeah, to blackmail me, I guess.

“Come on, Arden. We can give each other so much,” she says. “We get along. I could be your luna, and I wouldn’t mind giving myself to you. You are broken. You have an impairment. Your mate might not want you.”

Even my lycan seems shocked at her words. I can feel his sensations. He is sorry… for me. After all, he never wanted Coralie. Only I did. Fuck around and find out, I guess.

“It’s a win-win,” she says. “You get sex, and I get a rank. I—”

“Coralie,” I say firmly. “Shut up.”

“What?” she blinks.

“I asked you to shut up,” I say. “Did you really think I have no dignity?”

Does she think I have no feelings?

I am pathetic, so pathetic, for having fallen for her scheme.

I open the book and take out the camera, handing it back to her. “Here, take this and leave. I might have an impairment, but I’m still an alpha by blood. Don’t cross my path again.”

Chapter eight

Hello, Paris!

*AURELIA*

Our Christmas celebration is always small and relaxed, just with the family around. It’s probably one of the last chances we have to celebrate all together. All my brothers are attending and their mates. Nox is invited, too, as he doesn’t have a family of his own. Dad has always included him in our family life so he wouldn’t feel lonely.

Together with Nox, Dario, and Felix, I set up the tree. Dad and Beta Vincent brought it from the forest—we always have an actual tree. None of us are fans of the plastic trees that have gotten popular in some areas. Vincent himself won’t celebrate with us this year even though, as my dad’s beta, he is part of the family and always invited. But this year he is celebrating with his mate. They have tickets for a ballet and then want to havea fancy dinner. It’s funny because Vincent is a huge, bulky guy with tattoos all over, but he has always enjoyed watching theater pieces and, now apparently, ballet.

“So, what’s the plan for this year?” Nox asks me.

It’s always been the four of us decorating the tree, a yearly tradition. When we were smaller, Mom or Dad made sure to help us, but once we were old enough, decorating the tree was completely on us. Needless to say, we went completely crazy at times. One year, we had one completely in pink. Another year, it was yellow. Marius claimed it looked like someone had peed on it.