Prologue:
Lorraine's pov...
"smack, smack.."
The sound of me rubbing my lips together to ensure my lip gloss had done its job made me smile wryly at my image in the mirror.
My belly groaned in protest at my time-wasting. Snow, my Lycan, sighed in frustration.
She knew trying to make me hurry up my morning ritual was useless.
But the delicious aroma of blueberry pancakes did the job. I hurried out of my room to the small dining area in my suite and settled for breakfast.
I missed dinner last night; I was too busy working.
I was scuffing down some blueberry pancakes at the breakfast table when I suddenly felt like I was going to be sick.
I took off, like a bullet on a mission to the toilet, and violently threw up; it was mostly my breakfast and bile, lots of bile. This feeling has become a regular occurrence.
I sighed regretabbly, because when my mate cheats, I feel sick, so sick that my stomach is suddenly plunged into a tsunami. It's not pleasant, but I have lived with this for months now. I know he's very handsome, eye-catching, stupidly sexy. But he shouldn't be doing this. Especially when he knows what it does to me. We both didn't have a choice, but I have more on the line... No, scratch that, I have everything on the line.
Everything that I am, my entire bloodline is riding on our bond.
A bond that has nothing to do with love.
I clean up and drag myself back to the table. But my eyes suddenly feel hot—I mean really hot. Usually, the sick feeling doesn't last longer than ten to twenty minutes, so it's no surprise that it's gone.
But my eyes are getting hotter and hotter by the second, as if someone is burning them up from within. My palms feel clammy, and the tsunami is back, worse than before. I open my mouth to speak, but I can't say anything; my vocal cords just won't work.
"What the Heck is this? What's going on, Snow?" I ask my Lycan
"Raine, I am not sure, I can't pinpoint exactly what it is, but I know it's got to do with the Alpha." My Lycan never refers to him as our mate.
He isn't my goddess's chosen mate; he was a means to an end. He is my chosen mate. Snow has not accepted him, and she insists she will never accept him. That's why I have been unable to mark him in return.
Kenzo is not exactly a saint, not even close. He'd tried to woo Snow, but one week was all it took for him to quickly realize she wouldn't budge, so he revealed his true self instead.
I have a hate list, and Kenzo is at the top. Handsome or not, cute or not. That man is the worst candidate for the position he was chosen for.
King Alpha! I spat out bitterly in my head.
He doesn't deserve the gains of his birthright and most certainly hasn't earned it. He was chosen because he is a strong warrior from a high-ranking family.
"Lorraine! Luna! you're burning up." My head of staff, Frances, screeched out in a shocked, alarmed tone as she walked into the suite.
"Tell me about it," I muttered weakly with a weak humph, at the end.
"We need to find him fast; whatever he is doing is affecting us way too much." Snow said in a worried tone, and I snorted at her in my head.
This isn't a Joke, Raine; look at your palms." Snow ordered in a seriously alarmed tone.
I turned my hands and stared at my palms. I felt the skin on my forehead crease as I stared at my absurdly white palms with a blackish, jagged-edged circle in the middle that had vein-like lines going into my fingers.
The lines were more greenish than black. It was like I had an infected injury under my palms.
A thousand thoughts were racing through my head. Of course, I can't be sick; our beasts won't let us unless we have been made ill on purpose.
I felt my forehead crease in worry but was instantly distracted by Frances's sharp intake of breath.
"Lunaaaa!!! You're bleeding," she exclaimed in complete hysteria.
The words NO died on my lips as a drop of blood appeared on the paper napkin. “What the heck is that? “ I asked stupidly in shock.
My vision was blurry, and I let out a low groan as Snow forcefully took control.
I felt myself get to my feet unsteadily, but Snow didn't have time to wait for my body to catch up.
She pushed on, and we left my suite and headed for the dark hallway leading to Kenzo’s suite of rooms.
Snow was moving slowly, but that still felt like we were on a roller coaster.
My head was spinning, and my vision was red hot and blurry. I could hear the soft sound of my blood dropping on the carpet as she dragged us by share force of will to the Alpha's quarters.
My claws marked the walls as we made progress toward our intended destination. "Ssssnnoowwww waaiitt... " I managed to call out just before I threw up all over the hallway. Frances held my hair back.
"Common, we don't have much time. We don't have time to be soft or sick or have a pity party. We need to be who we were born to be. Right now, we need to be ruthless." Snow ordered, her anger pushing hard against the pain we were both feeling.
The sound of moans soon began to reach me through my haze of pain and anger.
Kenzo cheating on me and causing me pain night and day isn't new, but this level of pain is like no other I have ever felt.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, the door to his bedroom was open. It took three failed attempts from me before Frances flung the door open, it flew off its hinges.
The sight of Kenzo inside another woman isn't so damming or forbidden. I know that he likes to get his d*ck wet.
But this time he had gone too far!!!
There he was, my mate, balls deep inside a woman, offering his neck to her to be marked.
The woman's neck bore the telltale redness and blood stains of a fresh mark.
My breath stopped for a minute as I took in the scene. The woman's eyes locked in on mine as she sunk her teeth into his neck, marking him, making him hers forever.In that moment, she seemed victorious, like she'd just taken her prize, her prized mule.
Now I understood why I was so sick, why it felt like I was dying, Kenzo had marked her without rejecting me first.Our bond was ripped straight out of my soul; that is why Snow was weak as well.
This man is far worse than I thought. Wicked Bastard!!
I swore at him in my head.
It's too late to say the words now; the bond is gone, and the pain is just starting to reach every part of me.
The only reason he isn't feeling what I am feeling is because the woman, whoever she is, is his true mate.
That's the only reason he'll feel nothing but bliss and ecstasy.
Fuck the council, f**k Kenzo, f**k his mate, and fuucc...
A different kind of crippling pain, with all the force of my blinding rage, violently ripped through me; I expected to scream; I even felt my lips part to let the scream out, but no sound came out. Instead, darkness engulfed me, and I was grateful for it. For it seemed like an escape from the thundering, torturous pain.