Lycan King's Royal Mate

Aeris’s pov I panted as I walked down the staircase with a bouquet in my hands, a veil over my head, and a pretty white dress that weighed more than me. Today was my wedding. Well, it was supposed to be my love marriage, but like how they had written the books, there was no fairytale in reality. An hour ago, I was running to my room to get dressed when I heard loud noises coming from my sister’s bedroom. Of course, she was having a good time with someone inside those walls and forgot to lock the doors. There was a slight smirk on my face as I turned my heels to walk away, but halted when I heard a familiar voice. “Ah… Arabella, you are so good. I feel connected when I am inside you.” That familiar masculine voice said. “Then why are you marrying her?” Arabella asked him in an annoyed tone. “To get my place in the Royal Kingdom and the throne for myself, to rule over this beautiful kingdom. Once I get what I want, I will declare my love for you.” The man said with a confidence surging through his dominating voice, and I felt burning in my eyes as hot tears welled in them. "Getting a place in the ministry is still possible if you choose to marry me instead of my pathetic sister." The venom Arabella had on her tongue made me realised I got raised among snakes. “She is your elder sister. That meant only her future husband would become the king of this kingdom. I always focused my eyes on the throne to hold that power.” There was a brief pause before the breaking of the silence. “Arabella, I love you, but I need to marry your sister to get that power she holds. I will wrap her around my finger and then break her when she is vulnerable.” The man with whom I fell in love had shown his true colors. My heart beat faster with every word from them resonating through my ears. “That sounds evil!! So, that means, I will be the future Queen, right?” Arabella was excited to hear, or assumed that she would be the Queen one day. “Of course, Darling!!” There was a hint of amusement in his voice and surety he gave me once. It was enough for me. They had crossed the limit of shamelessness, but I was stronger than I thought. I got inside the room, barfing through the door and they panicked at seeing me. It was priceless to see Izel running for his pants to hide his evidence of lovemaking for my sister. Arabella hid herself in the sheets. To watch them in that situation wasn’t only heartbreaking for me, but I felt shattered from the inside. “What a shame? You two lost it long ago. I will make sure that you will never be a part of this royal Kingdom, Izel! I heard everything from the outside. How could you do that to me? Oh, wait! You have already explained your plan to my sister.” I snapped at him and turned to glare at Arabella, who was hiding under the velvet sheets. “I never expected a betrayal from my blood, but I am delighted that I found it before the disaster happened.” “Aeris darling, your sister is evil. She seduced me to the bed and tried to make me look bad in your eyes.” He closed the distance to provide clarification. I raised my hand to stop him in his tracks. “Oh, please! Save your breath. I had already heard everything. No way I will marry you, not after witnessing this nuisance going under my nose.” I pointed my finger at him and glared at him. Izel’s expression changed from guilt to confidence. “And who will you marry then? You argued with your father to approve this marriage, and now you are turning your back against it. There is no substitute either. And if you don’t marry me today, your father’s reputation will get ruined and that poor old man might not take it lightly.” Izel knew my father was ill, and it was too hard to convince him of our marriage. I fought a battle to convince my father to approve this marriage. He would get disappointed, but marrying Izel would be like stabbing my father in the back. I will not marry a man who had cheated on me before marriage. I cannot trust him with the kingdom’s affairs. I would not marry him in any condition. “You are right! I should have considered the outcome of my stubbornness. I won’t let my father’s reputation be ruined, that’s why I am canceling this wedding.” I nodded my head in understatement and left the room because I was left with little time to think about a solution to the mess I had created. Without noticing the residents of the palace, I ran to my room and locked it. I cried hard in my room for a while to release the emotional breakdown and wiped my tears to show that nothing happened. I stood on my toes; I wore my dress, did my makeup and ran for the aisle down the hall. Just as I expected, Izel was ready to be the groom and showed his toothy grin at me when I walked towards the wedding ceremony. My father saw the sadness in my eyes, but I concealed it. Behind him stood Arabella, and I swore I wanted to rip that face off. That girl had the audacity to smile at me. My gaze turned back to Izel and I cannot marry him. Now that I know what his intentions were, I cannot put the kingdom at risk. “Today, I am going to marry for the sake of this kingdom. But let me clear something before this important ceremony begins.” I declared, and every eye was on me. “Izel, the supposed future prince of the kingdom, let me show you his current face. This man f****d my sister before the wedding and they both want to overthrow me to get their hands on the kingdom. My dear father, I apologize for being a brat to you. I argued with you about this marriage, which I am denying, but I am not denying the marriage. I just don’t want to marry Izel.” My tears fell like a river. Why does this truth have to be hard? There were loud gasps and whisperings lingering in the hall. My father looked at me with his eyes widened and I felt ashamed of putting him in such a condition. He was an old man and sick. “If you don’t want to marry, then who will you marry? There are no other substitutes… No princes from neighboring kingdoms. Not giving the people of our kingdom their new Prince would be cheating your people and that’s what you are doing. Your accusations prove nothing because there is no such thing between your sister and I. What proof do you have to show I cheated on you?” There was a sneaky snarl on his face, and I felt miserable because I didn’t have any proof against them. “You should be ashamed of yourself!!! Now, I don’t want to marry you either. I cannot live in a place where people will look at me as a cheating husband and an unworthy prince of the kingdom.” Izel started and stepped down from the stage. “Wait! My son, you are going to marry today, even if Aeris likes it or not. I shouldn’t have listened to her, but now we all stood in such a position, I had to take matters into my own hands.” My father rose from his seat and I tried to reason with him. “No, father! You have to believe me and my words.” “Don’t create a negative image here. Just marry him or leave this kingdom. I have given you your options.” My father stared at me with the disappointed look in his eyes. “I will not marry him.” I was sure that I wouldn’t marry this man. “Fine! If you are not marrying, then I am making Arabella marry him. I cannot let down my reputation as king.” My father was mad at me. “What?” I couldn’t believe what my father said. I got aware that he was under pressure, but making another mistake by continuing the wedding wouldn’t solve this issue. “Father!!! No!!! You are making a mistake.” “I can stop this mistake from happening if you marry.” He glared at me. “I will marry! I will marry, but not him…” I stated. “Then who will you marry?” Arabella came forward to taunt me. “I will marry her!!!” The voice sounded serious, but dangerous. When I turned my head to look at the man who interrupted the family quarrel, my eyes remained fixed on him. He stood tall and towering from the main entrance of the hall. I heard people gasping around me and there was a nasty smirk on Izel’s face that cannot be forgotten.