Page 26 of Lycan Prey (Little Secrets Duet #1)

· King Soren ·

The grandeur of the castle feels more oppressive than usual today.

I’ve done nothing but argue with council members when all I want to do is join Max and Bree for lunch.

However, I have responsibilities to attend to.

Responsibilities that weigh heavily on me, as does the guilt of leaving Max with his nanny all day long.

Not that Bree isn’t capable. She has shown she is more than qualified for the job.

She’s the first nanny Max hasn’t tried to escape.

Moving toward the window, the scent of freshly cut grass and blooming flowers wafts in through the open window.

I peer down at the courtyard. Bree’s hair is tied back in a neat rainbow ponytail today, and she is wearing a sundress as she stands by the swings with Max.

Max’s face splits into a wide grin each time he swings higher, his small frame nearly flying through the air while screaming for her to push him higher.

At this moment, the weight of fatherhood feels heavier than the castle’s stone walls.

But as I gaze down at Bree and Max, their laughter and joy lift some of that weight, I suddenly miss my wife.

She passed away during labor with our daughter, I lost both of them that day.

It’s the only time Lycan women are vulnerable.

Childbirth, their bodies unable to heal quickly, and breastfeeding all take a toll on Lycan women too.

She was only just getting back to herself after having Max when she fell pregnant again, Lycan women are weakened while pregnant, and up to a year after the child is born.

We tried to keep the news of her second pregnancy quiet, but news travels fast; that is why they chose that day.

As soon as word got out she was in labor, they attacked.

I was hours away and didn’t get back in time, though I never did find out which pack tipped them off.

None of my staff would have, but I was in a pack meeting at the city when I got the call to head home.

Max was two; she died protecting him, while everyone fought to get to her.

Blair was never the same afterward and aged beyond her years.

She was bonded to my wife—blood bonded. With her gone, she will die, though that can take years, decades even.

They lose their immortality, and begin aging like werewolves do.

Blair would have given her life for her had my wife not told her to run with Max.

They hid in a cave beneath the waterfalls.

My wife in labor stood no chance. Still, she took half of the rogues with her when they attacked.

We lost over a hundred people that day, they lost more by the time she was done slaughtering them, though Blair said she knew.

She knew Amelia had given up when she was shot in the stomach with a concoction of wolfsbane and liquid silver.

She knew our daughter Amaya was gone; it was then that she ordered Blair to take Max and run. I returned home to a bloodbath.

A week later I buried my wife and daughter.

Had I marked her, she may have survived, except we would be without a daughter.

After having Max, Amelia wanted to wait until our wedding day for me to mark her.

I loved my wife but she was vain; she insisted on losing the baby weight from Max before marrying.

She fell pregnant on our wedding night with our daughter, making marking her dangerous.

Max I know still feels her loss even if he hardly remembers her now.

Seeing Max now happy for once, a smile slips onto my face as I watch them.

Bree would be a good mother. She is excellent with him, a natural.

My eyes roam over her in her summer dress, hair pulled back in a ponytail high on her head.

She is gorgeous, but that makes me all the more curious.

She hasn’t budged on revealing anything about her past. Although I know she’s not dangerous, it makes me a bit nervous.

Not to mention my guards—well, Damian—incessantly mentions I shouldn’t be leaving her alone with Max without knowing who she is.

Max has enough of an aura that he would be able to command her while she is in this form at least if need be.

Lycans are the dominant species while werewolves are the mutt version of us; not that Bree is a mutt.

We are the wolf, born with our instincts.

We learn to control them. Werewolves, however, have an altered side of them; the wolf side of them has no control under a full moon.

It’s believed to be a punishment from the moon goddess, that she cursed werewolves to become savages on a full moon, a punishment to their creation which is caused by Lycan’s bedding humans.

Bree’s last full moon was a week after I brought her here.

She insisted on going home to her grandfather’s cellar.

I think she was homesick. I’m fully equipped to have her handled here, yet I let her go, letting her have that piece of privacy.

Though with the next full moon coming up in a couple weeks, I hope I can convince her to stay here.

Max was distressed with her gone, worried another werewolf would get her.

He kept me up all night worried about her.

Hearing a knock on my office door, I call out over my shoulder, “Come in,” slightly annoyed at being interrupted. The door creaks open, I don’t turn to see which of my staff members it is before I hear her voice.

“So this is how you greet us? I drove hours to get here.” Her voice is sharp and commanding, like a whip cracking in the air.

My entire body tenses, and I turn slowly.

My mother stands in the doorway, her silver hair pulled back in an elegant bun and her posture exuding grace and power.

Even looking like she is in her sixties, she is still a force to be reckoned with and the look on her face tells me I offended her by my lack of proper greeting.

As she steps into my office, her expensive silk dress rustles with each movement.

I force myself to relax my shoulders and give her a small smile while my mind is racing. What the fuck is she doing here? With all the drama going on lately I forgot about the small lie I told her and now she is here!

“Mother,” I try to hide my panic. The sound of her heels tapping against the floor echoes in my office, mingling with the sound of my racing heartbeat and the rush of thoughts in my mind.

“What brings you here?” I ask, trying to keep my tone neutral. My gaze darts down to Brielle out the window, and I pray she doesn’t come up here until I can convince them to leave.

She gives me a disapproving look and crosses her arms over her chest. “Is that any way to greet your mother?” she snaps and my entire body tenses impossibly more as I look slowly to see my brother Damian with a smirk on his face behind her.

“A heads up was too much to ask for?” I growl through the mindlink as my father steps into my office a few steps behind her carrying—oh for frig sake, is that luggage! My mother dumps her handbag on my desk, quickly making her way over to me, a huge grin on her face.

“Mother wanted it to be a surprise,” Damian tells me with a huge shit eating grin on his face. This is his doing; I am going to kill him.

“You’re so married! I am marrying you off, you little weasel!” I tell him through the mindlink. His smile drops. Oh he will pay for this; I know my mother would have told him my lie, they speak almost everyday—or more like my mother speaks and he is forced to listen to her gossiping.

“Soren, dear, I’m so happy to see you!” my mother exclaims as she wraps me in a tight hug.

I struggle for a moment before giving in and returning the hug half-heartedly.

My father clears his throat and I turn to face him, my expression guarded.

He gives me a small smile before dumping my mother’s luggage on the floor.

“I have maids and butlers for a reason father,” I tell him, eyeing the luggage.

“You know your mother is always paranoid that she will see her underwear in the next news tabloid,” he mutters. I give my mother a look.

“What, you never know, there is a first time for everything,” she tells me. Gosh, she can be unreasonable.

“None of my staff are interested in your panties, Mother,” I tell her.

“We came to discuss the upcoming wedding plans,” my father says, falling into a seat on the couch.

“Your mother wants to help, she can’t wait.” He shoots her a look telling me this is all her plan. “You know a royal wedding is a big deal.”

I think it’s more that she annoyed him until he gave in and traveled here to get her off his back! Instead he is trying to palm her off to me!

Shit! This unexpected visit from my parents sends a surge of panic through me, their purpose clear as they eagerly await to meet my ‘fiancé’. My stupid lie is about to unravel and my brother is loving every second of this. I wanna punch his smug face.

“I can’t wait to meet the woman who captured your heart, Soren,” my mother beams, her eyes shining with anticipation. Then her eyes brim with tears. Damian snorts and I glare at him; he quickly excuses himself.

“Mother, Father,” he nods. “I must go, I have to sort out patrols,” he gives as an excuse.

He may not be my father’s son, but my father has never treated him like anything but.

My mother came from a poor family and was initially married to my father’s best friend.

My father always fancied her. Unfortunately my mother’s ex husband was abusive and once my father learned that he took it upon himself to get her out.

He killed his best friend for her, then took her and their son in.

My father raised him as his own son, and it wasn’t until Damian was a teen that he was told about his true father.

Damian quickly gives my mother a peck on her cheek, and she smiles fondly at him before my father gives him a nod. “We’ll catch up later, son.”