Page 3 of Pregnant, Rejected and Exiled By the Lycan King (Forbidden Alpha Kings #45)

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Rhea

The assault on my senses nearly dropped me to my knees the second we crossed the threshold. Three layers of suppressants, applied with shaking hands in the car, might as well have been water for all the good they did.

Crystal chandeliers scattered light like broken glass across the crowd.

I counted the pack colors automatically, a nervous habit from years of these events.

Twelve territories at least. The kind of gathering that happened maybe once a decade.

Everyone who mattered had come to see Damon Kildare officially recognized as the Lycan King.

The parking structure had been a preview of what awaited inside.

My father’s modest Toyota looked like a toy between the Lamborghinis and limited edition McLarens.

I’d spotted a Bugatti that probably cost more than Alpha Carter’s entire estate, its owner’s territory insignia gleaming on custom plates.

“I’ll find you later,” my mother murmured, already moving toward her battlefield, the mate’s auxiliary committee where real alliances were forged over champagne and carefully worded invitations.

My father headed the opposite direction, toward the omega section where his twenty years of careful relationship building would either pay off or crumble tonight.

I aimed for neutral ground. The bar stretched along the far wall, staffed by humans who wouldn’t notice or care that my skin felt too tight, that every breath brought new waves of that strange ache.

The emerald dress had seemed like armor in my bedroom.

Now it felt like a target, drawing glances I couldn’t afford.

Not tonight. Not with whatever was happening to my body.

My heels clicked against marble floors polished to mirror perfection. Each step required concentration when my muscles wanted to tremble. Just get to the bar. Order something strong. Find a corner to disappear into until this passes.

“Rhea Thornback, stealing breath as always.”

The voice at my elbow made me freeze. Laziel Kildare materialized from the crowd like smoke, all easy smiles and calculated charm. The younger Kildare brother had perfected the art of appearing harmless. It was a lie, of course. No Kildare was harmless.

“Laziel, you’re too kind.” The response came automatically while my mind raced. His scent hit differently tonight, where it usually just made me want to step back, now it made me want to lean in, and that terrified me more than any political maneuvering.

“Kindness has nothing to do with it.” He signaled the bartender without asking what I wanted.

Whiskey appeared in crystal tumblers, his fingers brushing mine as he handed me the glass.

“You look beautiful. Though I have to say, you seem a little flushed. Not nervous about my brother’s big night, are you? ”

I sipped the whiskey to buy time, letting it burn down my throat. “Change always makes people nervous.”

“Does it?” He moved closer, casual to any observer but calculated to put him between me and the easy exit route. “I find change exciting. New possibilities. New opportunities.”

The heat that had been building all day suddenly spiked. Not just warmth but actual fire racing under my skin. The whiskey glass trembled in my grip. Every alpha in the vicinity suddenly smelled sharper, more distinct. More appealing in ways that made zero sense.

“Speaking of my brother,” Laziel continued, oblivious to my internal crisis, “he’s been asking about your father. Something about the quarterly reports. You know how Damon is about his numbers.”

I didn’t know how Damon was about anything. He had spoken maybe ten words to me in as many years. He looked through me at pack events, focused on whatever political chess game occupied his mind. Which was fine. Perfect, actually. Being invisible to the Lycan King-elect was a survival strategy.

Sweat gathered at my hairline despite the aggressive air conditioning. My thighs pressed together involuntarily, trying to ease an ache that had nothing to do with standing in heels.

“I… excuse me. I need to use the powder room.” The words came out steadier than expected. I set the barely touched whiskey on a passing server’s tray and stepped away from Laziel before he could object.

“Of course. I’ll be here when you get back.” His smile promised he would be. That he’d wait all night if necessary. The predator patience of his bloodline wrapped in a prettier package than his brother’s, but predator nonetheless.

I didn’t run. Running would draw attention. Instead, I walked with measured steps toward the hallway that led to the restrooms, to the exit, to anywhere that wasn’t here. The ballroom’s sensory chaos faded as I entered the corridor. Cooler air hit my overheated skin like a blessing.

Ten feet. That’s how far I made it before a hand closed around my wrist.

The spin happened too fast to resist. One second I was fleeing toward freedom, the next I was pressed into a shadowed alcove, my back against cold marble. Damon Kildare filled the space completely, six feet four plus of controlled power in a perfectly tailored suit.

“Going somewhere?”

His voice had always been deep. Now it dropped to registers that bypassed my ears and went straight to parts of my body that had no business responding. This close, his scent overwhelmed everything else, rain on cedar, dark coffee, something uniquely alpha that made my knees threaten to buckle.

His nostrils flared. Once. Twice. His entire body went rigid as what his wolf already knew reached his human brain.

“You’re in heat.”

Not a question. A statement delivered with the kind of stunned disbelief usually reserved for natural disasters. Which, I supposed, this was. An unmated omega in heat at the new Lycan King’s recognition ceremony? Disaster didn’t begin to cover it.

“This is impossible. You can’t be in heat here.” His grip on my wrist tightened, not painful but inescapable. Like he couldn’t decide whether to push me away or pull me closer.

“I took suppressants. I need to leave.” The words tumbled out, high and desperate. Too close. He was too close and I couldn’t think with his scent filling my lungs, with his body radiating heat that called to whatever was happening inside me.

“Suppressants.” He said it like a curse. “You think suppressants matter when you smell like...” His nostrils flared again, eyes darkening as he took another deep inhale. His other hand came up to brace against the wall beside my head, caging me in. “Fuck.”

“Let me go.” I tried to pull back but he followed, closing the distance I desperately needed.

“Do you have any idea what you’re doing to me? To every unmated alpha in that room?” His voice had gone rough, accusatory. “Walking in here, smelling like pure sex and availability?”

“I didn’t know!” My back pressed harder against the cold marble, trying to escape the heat rolling off him.

“Didn’t know?” He laughed, but there was no humor in it. “You didn’t notice every alpha’s head turning when you walked by? Didn’t feel their eyes tracking you?” His grip shifted on my wrist, thumb pressing against my racing pulse. “Or maybe you did. Maybe that’s exactly what you wanted.”

“That’s not... I would never...”

“No?” He leaned closer, close enough that his breath fanned across my face. “Then why aren’t you on suppressants that actually work? Why come to my ceremony smelling like you need to be bent over and-”

“Don’t touch me!” I wrenched my wrist free with strength born of pure adrenaline and shoved past him. He let me go, probably too shocked by my audacity to stop me.

I didn’t look back. Couldn’t look back. Not when I could feel his gaze burning into me as I fled toward the ballroom. Not when my traitorous body wanted nothing more than to turn around and let him finish that sentence.

Wrenching free from his grip required more strength than it should have. Not because he held tight, he’d already released me. But because some insane part of me wanted to stay in that alcove. Wanted to see what he’d do if I called his bluff.

The ballroom’s chaos felt like salvation after the intensity of the hallway. Witnesses. Crowds. Safety in numbers even if every unmated alpha suddenly seemed to track my movement with disturbing focus. I needed distance. I needed a shield.

Carter Chen saved me without knowing it.

I nearly collided with the Southern Lycan King as I wove between bodies, desperate to put space between myself and that alcove. His hand steadied me automatically, the touch of a mated alpha blessedly neutral.

“Miss Thornback, you look unwell.” Genuine concern colored his words. Chen was older, established, secure enough in his position that he didn’t need to play the dominance games younger alphas favored.

“The heat, I mean, the heating. It’s a bit much with this crowd.”

If he noticed my slip, he was too polite to mention it. “Perhaps I should escort you somewhere cooler?”

“That’s very kind.” The words cut off as every hair on my body stood on end. I didn’t need to turn around to know Damon had returned to the ballroom. His presence hit like a physical force, making my skin prickle with awareness.

Chen was still talking, something about the new trade agreements, providing normal conversations while my body waged war with itself. He guided me toward a quieter corner, his hand barely touching my back in a gesture meant to steady rather than claim.

It was the touch that did it.

Even from across the room, I felt Damon’s attention snap to us like a searchlight.

The careful control he’d maintained in the hallway evaporated as he took in the scene, me, clearly in distress, being touched by another alpha.

It didn’t matter that Chen was mated, that his touch meant nothing beyond courtesy.

Damon’s wolf didn’t care about logic.

I watched him start pushing through the crowd, not bothering with politeness. Alphas twice his age stepped aside rather than challenge the thundercloud bearing down on us. Chen kept talking, oblivious to the incoming storm.

Damon’s coming. Run. RUN NOW.

But there was nowhere to run. Not anymore.

He reached us just as Chen’s hand shifted on my back, an innocent adjustment that looked like something else entirely from Damon’s perspective.

The growl that emerged from the Lycan King made every wolf in vicinity freeze in primitive fear.