Chapter 65: Chapter 65

LENORE

“The King has summoned you.”

That had not been on the list of things I expected Fabien to say, so it took me longer than it should have to process his words, and when it finally dawned on me that I wasn’t hearing things, I took a step back, my eyes widening while my heart slammed against my chest. No… Nonononono. I shook my head at him, hoping this was all some big joke, but no punchline came and the discomfort written all over his face only intensified.

“I— Killian is asleep,” I repeated, tightening my hold on the doorknob. It was the only thing that made sense to me right now, after all.

Why would the King summon me? I hadn’t done anything. According to him, I wasn’t even considered a pack representative anymore, so there was absolutely no reason why this should be happening.

Fabien glanced to the left again while my hands began to feel clammy, and it dawned on me that he was probably staring at guards who were here to escort me to the King. Fuck no. I quickly turned on my heel and rushed over to the bed, intending to shake Killian awake, but just as I grabbed his arm, Fabien grabbed mine. I had no idea if he’d been right on my heels when I turned or if he’d dashed in.

“Don’t!” he said, his eyes wide and his voice urgent. “It’s not safe.”

I furrowed my brows, my heart still pounding away in my chest. “What?”

“He’s not exactly sleeping,” he answered, glancing at Killian with a small frown.

“What? I repeated, not knowing if he wasn’t making sense or if my mind was just too muddled by the fucking summon to understand him.

“He has to wake up when he wants to<” he explained and I furrowed my brows even more. “Forcing it would be dangerous.”

What—

“Courtesy requires one not to dally when they receive a summons from the KIng!” a man announced outside and I jolted before Fabien ran a hand down his face.

“Shit,” he muttered under his breath and I shook my head at him again as fear clogged my throat, making my breaths come out shallow.

I didn’t want to go. I did not want to go.

Apart from gifting me to Killian when Killian was practically a danger to me in order to teach my father a lesson, the King hadn’t actually done anything to me. He’d stared at me for longer than a normal person would have during the dinner the pack representatives had with him my first night in the city, but he hadn’t  threatened or attacked me.

The dread pulsing through my veins right now didn’t care about that though.

Fabien shot me a sympathetic look and he let go of my arm before placing his hands on my shoulders, making me face him. “Calm down, Lenore. It’s going to be okay—”

“Do we need to come in there?!” the man outside called out and Fabien clenched his jaw. Then his gaze shifted from me to Killian and back to me.

“Get dressed and come out,” he said and I sucked in a breath, rapidly blinking at him.

Oh God.

“Don’t let them know Killian’s asleep,” he added, and I absent-mindedly registered that they might already know since I already said he was twice after I opened the door. “The King might try to kill him if he knows, Lenore.”

That yanked me out of the vortex of panic that had formed in my mind, and my brows snapped together. “What?” I blurted out and he gave me a nod before I glanced at Killian. Everything I’d learned about his relationship with his father flooded my mind, and I gritted my teeth, my hands tightening into fists. “I—I’ll get dressed,” I said, swallowing, and Fabien nodded again before walking out of the room.

I’d hoped Killian would wake before I was done dressing up, but he hadn’t, so now I was currently being escorted to the King by four guards, some guy who had introduced himself as captain of the guards—he had been the one yelling when Fabien and I were in the room—and Fabien. The guards standing at the suite’s door weren’t following me—the captain of the guards dude had told them to stay put—and I had been worried about leaving Killian to just the two of them, but Fabien had subtly let me know Aurel and Aurora were in the study.

That had put me a bit at ease regarding his safety, but my heart was still racing at the thought of what the King wanted with me.

Virginia had called me four times before dawn and had sent me a couple of messages—I’d seen the notifications when I grabbed my phone before leaving the suite—but I hadn’t read them yet. There were also messages from Aimee and Wayne, and that told me something was probably happening back in the pack, and I hoped it was nothing serious.

After several minutes of listening to the guards’ boots echo behind me and avoiding the gaze of anyone we passed, we got to where the King was and my stomach churned violently as I walked into the room’s short hallway. I felt like I was going to throw up.

When I got to the end of the hallway, my eyes instantly zeroed in on the King who was sitting on a long crimson velvet settee and sipping from a teacup. He didn’t look up, but the corner of his mouth turned up the moment I came to a stop, and I swallowed, averting my gaze before he could catch it. There were two other men in the room—one was the man who had escorted me to my room in the main palace when I arrived in Eyrosa, but I couldn’t see the face of the other one because he was sitting across from the King.

Then my gaze landed on the huge painting of Killian’s mother which dominated the right end of the room.

“Here she is, Your Majesty,” came the captain of the guards’ voice from behind me, and I tightened my hands into fists just before the man sitting across from the King glanced over his shoulder.

My breath caught.

It was my father.