Betrayed Heiress: My Second Chance Mate is A Lycan King

Aira’s POV

“Carla, please talk to me.”

My plea falls on deaf ears. Carla has refused to utter a word to me all day, and my guess is she is pissed at me for attempting to run away last night. Speaking about last night…

After Alexander and I’s little kiss, I almost started to think that he was worried about me…

Until he blatantly told me to leave his room. I do not know why I was shocked. Alexander always pushes me away at any slight opportunity to bring us closer.

It was almost like he was scared.

As I returned to the maid’s chambers, I received several ugly looks, and I mean a lot more than usual. I suppose news had gotten around that I had made a run for it. Well, what did they expect? It’s not like they have exactly been the best or most accommodating people in the world.

I did not care much about the nasty looks I got. I think I am pretty much used to it right now. But the one thing that I am afraid I am not quite used to is Carla’s silence. I have never seen her this way; she can’t even look at me.

I have never seen her this way before.

She has been washing a bunch of dirty dishes rather furiously, with a scowl on her face. It is quite odd; she has always had such a beautiful smile on her face. I almost did not recognize her.

“You are mad at me for running away, right? Look, I know I should have told you, but I was only doing what I thought was best for me and my child,” I explained, but now that I say it out loud, it does sound kind of lame. I noticed that there was an odd addition to her uniform this morning. She has a black scarf wrapped around her neck.

“What’s with the scarf? Are you feeling sick? The weather is like eighty degrees.” I joke and release a small laugh, but she does not seem to find the joke quite funny. “Carla…”

She sighs and drops the dishes rather loudly. It makes a loud clattering sound that makes me flinch a bit. She turns to me, and now all I see is disappointment in her eyes.

“I understand; you have been threatened and undergone things here you never have in your entire life. But for God’s sake, I thought you would at least have been smarter. You could have gotten killed!”

My heart clenches at the memory of what had happened the previous night. If Alexander hadn’t made it in time, I am not sure what I would have done.

“I know and I am sorry,” I say, but she ignores me and proceeds to put some of the dishes into the cupboard. “Carla wait-” I attempt to grab her arm but end up getting ahold of her scarf instead. It falls off her neck, and she freezes. “I am sorry, I didn’t-”

My words freeze in my throat when I see the big purple bruise around her neck. It is a hand print. My eyes widen with horror, and I rush to inspect it.

“Oh my God, what happened to you?” I ask her, and she doesn’t answer right away. Instead, she takes the scarf from my hands and uses it to conceal her neck.

“I am fine; do not worry,” she says, but there is no way in hell I would ever believe that.

“Like hell you are! Tell me who did that to you,” I demand, and she sighs.

“Well, when the alpha found out about your little run, he blamed me for it,” she explains. I take a step back as I stare at her with disbelief.

“Oh my God, Carla I am so sorry,” I say, my voice breaking.

“I am fine; it’s nothing I have not experienced before,” she says rather coldly, and her words break my heart.

“This isn’t right. Alexander had no right to do that to you! My actions are my own; none of it is your fault,” I snap, feeling my anger rise as the thought of what the alpha did registers in my mind. How long will he continue to make Carla suffer for my mistakes?

“He ordered me to take care of you and never let you out of my sight. I am the one who is responsible for you, and I failed,” she says, and I shake my head in refusal to your words.

“No, you did not know any of this would happen. It wasn’t your fault; you didn’t deserve this,” I say, and she does not appear to believe me.

“I am just glad he found you on time; if he was even a minute late, then…” She trails off as tears brim her eyes. The sight tears me to pieces, and I instantly wrap my arms around her.

I hold her tight as I whisper, “I am so sorry.”

“I thought he was going to kill me,” she says in between sobs, and I feel my own eyes brim with tears. Damn that Alexander to hell.

“He wouldn’t dare, because he knows he has me to deal with,” I say as we pull away. I help her wipe her tears as she shakes her head in disbelief.

“I am just glad nothing happened to you. Aside from what Alpha Alexander would have done to me, I do not think I would have been able to live with myself if anything happened to you,” she admits, and her words warm my heart.

“It’s a good thing nothing happened then,” I laugh, and she chuckles lightly.

“Yeah, you are one hell of a lucky woman. But please do not do anything like that again; I do not think you can get that lucky twice,” she warns, and I nod. “I have some work to do in one of the lounges on the second floor. Please try to keep yourself out of trouble until I get back.”

I do a little salute, then say, “I promise.”

She smiles before leaving the room. When I am left alone, my countenance falls. That woman has been a lot, and it is all because of me. I need to do something in order to express my appreciation.

Maybe I could bake her a cake. Even if it’s as little as a bento, it’s not like I have anything better to do. Thankfully, I remember the procedure in order to bake one from a YouTube tutorial I watched a few months ago.

I am mixing the dough when I feel an all-too-familiar presence.

Releasing a sigh, I ask, “What do you want?”

“Well, that isn’t a nice way to address the man who saved your life last night, is it?”

I spin on my heel to come face-to-face with Alexander himself. He is barely an inch away from me, and it does not help that his top half is bare. But I suppose that is due to the wound he sustained the previous night.

But still, I hate to admit that it makes me a little jealous to know that he has been walking around the palace with just trousers on. I am sure those nasty maids have gotten an eyeful. Anyway, why should I care?

If not for the fact that I sensed him, I would have been terrified by his presence. The man’s footsteps are hardly heard indoors. “Much less your alpha.”

“Forgive me,” I say with a rather tight smile. “How may I help you, Alpha?”

A ghost of a smirk appears on his lips as he tilts his head to the side. “You are going to help me by satisfying my curiosity,” he starts. He paces the kitchen with an inquisitive look in his eyes. “Before I got to you last night, I picked up a bit of your conversation with your attackers. You knew them,” he pauses, then locks my gaze with his. All forms of playfulness completely vanished when he asked, “Who were they?”

My eyes shift down, and I say, “You nearly killed Carla last night; why?”

He smirks at me, and I hate to admit how devilishly handsome he looks when he does that. He even has dimples!

“Turning the tables now, are we?” he asks, closing the distance between us. “I hate incompetence. Whenever I see someone incapable of performing their duties, I remove them. But she is quite lucky, because my removals are usually permanent.”

The look in his eyes is so devious, so evil. It makes me gulp.

“Don’t hurt her again. If I go against you then I should be held accountable,” I say, trying my best to sound strong even though my knees are trembling right now.

“You don’t get to tell me what I should and shouldn’t do.” He captures my chin with his fingers and asks, “Now, don’t try to change the subject again, or I will get angry. Who were you running from?”

My mouth goes dry as my brain thinks of some lies. What can I possibly say? Alexander is a master at detecting lies I can tell. Those demonic eyes of his can see right through anyone’s soul.

Thankfully, we are interrupted when a bunch of maids walk right in. They freeze as their eyes jump from Alexander to me. And boy, is there so much hate in their eyes? Don’t these women get tired? It’s not like I have done anything to them to fuel their rage so much.

Alexander releases my chin and takes a step away from me. “We shall continue this conversation later,” he says briskly before walking out of the kitchen, leaving me alone with the vultures.

I continue my little baking as they continue to whisper amongst themselves. These girls really need to learn how to whisper; they suck at it, to be very honest. Plus, I think I would be pretty much at ease if I did not know what they were talking about most of the time.

“I can’t believe the alpha is still letting her walk around freely after what she did.”

“He was so livid last night; it was like he was going to kill everyone that even looked at him the wrong way. Yet here he is laughing and playing with her.”

“She must really mean something special to him; I think he might actually like her.”

“Oh, please, we all know she is a witch and has cast some sort of demonic spell on our precious alpha.”

I am about to shut them up because I have had enough!

My lips part to give them a piece of my mind, but what comes out instead is a scream.

Pain like never before erupts across my chest and spreads through my body. For a moment, I almost believed that I had been poisoned again. But the pain I feel is far worse than the one I felt the other day at the cafeteria.

This time, it feels as though my blood has been set ablaze. My wolf howls out in pain; she is hurt. She is begging for our mate; he is doing something he isn’t supposed to be doing with someone else, and it does not take me another second to realize just what it is.

He is marking someone.

Jace is marking Ana.