63__Deceptive

“You’re dying?!”

She jerked out of his arms, eyes wide with alarm.

Raiden blinked, taken aback by her reaction. “What?”

“You’re dying?” Natalia repeated. “You said that you’re dying.”

“…When did I say I was dying, I said I was sick—”

“You’re an Alpha King, being sick and dying is the same thing, Raiden.” She shook her head slowly and he saw a grave expression darken her eyes. “Alpha Kings don’t just get… *sick*, do they? It’s always something fatal.”

That did it. Seconds later, Raiden saw the oncoming grief in her eyes, but it was too late to stop it.

Natalia covered her mouth with both hands, staring at him. “I can’t believe this… All this time, why didn’t you tell me? I came into your life and added more troubles without even knowing that you’re sick.”

“Oh, gods,” he murmured and shook his head. “Natalia, it’s not—”

“Does Cyrus know? Does he know he’s wasting time being cross with you when you could die at any second?”

“I will *not* die at any second—”

“I feel horrible!”

He caught her wrist. “First of all, calm down. Secondly, I’m not going to die.”

She released a grievous sigh and Raiden saw her eyes glimmer with tears. “But you’re sick. I feel…. I feel horrible.”

He paused, studying her face. This was a mistake. He shook his head. “I’m not. I’m not sick. It was… hypothetical.”

The grief in her eyes shriveled dry. “What?”

“It was hypothe—”

“Hypothetical? You… you nearly gave me a heart attack!”

She lunged for his neck and Raiden ducked out of the way. “Attacking me, right after nearly crying because you thought I was dying?”

Natalia glared at him as he moved out of harm’s way, silver eyes sparkling with something that had better not be humour. “That’s because I felt bad! But you were just softening me up with a cock and bull story?” She smiled. “You know what? To answer your question, yes. I’d leave you if you changed, hell, I’d leave even if you didn’t change, I’d leave you right now!”

He scoffed, tugging off his jacket as she told him off for his hypothetical sickness. “It is not that easy to leave your mate, Natalia. It would hurt you as much as it would hurt me.”

She pursed her lips and hopped onto a large wooden chest, crossing both arms and legs. “I happen to enjoy doing not easy things.”

Raiden reached for the hem of his shirt as he turned to face her. “What did you do tonight?”

She looked at him. “I got a j—” Halting, Natalia desperately tried to not stare at him. “Why… why are you undressing?”

Raiden paused. Raising a brow, he watched her cheeks go pink with embarrassment. “What? What are you thinking?”

She blinked as he carelessly tugged the t-shirt off and threw it over his shoulder.

“Dirty thoughts,” he accused with a smirk.

She gasped. “No! Y-you’re the one behaving like a stripper!”

He scoffed in disbelief and covered his laugh with one hand, slightly shocked at what she’d just said. “Excuse me?!”

With a softly muttered curse, Natalia watched him laugh. Alpha King Raiden was devastatingly sexy, heavens have mercy on her. How could his laugh alone give her butterflies?

“Put a shirt on,” she ordered, clearing her throat.

“Make me,” he countered darkly, prowling towards her.

Natalia watched him approach in all his glorious shirtlessness with mild panic. If he touched her, she’d cave. Thoughts of him had filled her mind endlessly every night for the past few days, if he touched her, she’d never be able to resist him.

She held up a hand, swallowing hard. “Woah… I came here to sleep, Raiden. *Sleep*, with no plans of misbehavio—”

His hands hooked under her knees and jerked her forward before he manually separated her legs so he could fit between them. Natalia was made speechless by the bold, unapologetically dominant action.

“Unfortunately” he muttered darkly, eyeing her mouth. “I don’t feel like doing much sleeping tonight.”

************

The big, white wolf stared silently at the moon, feeling a sense of peace come over him.

It was a rare thing for him to feel this way, there were always far too many things hindering his peace. Being a Beta was one thing, but being a Beta who had multiple mental and emotional problems was what truly robbed Cyrus of his peace.

A light huff blew vapour out of his mouth and he lay on the polished veranda floor, eyes still watching the moon.

Sadly, even tonight, his peace didn’t last. It was deceptive.

A pair of small hands stroked over his back suddenly, gently petting the thick fur.

“Having a rest?” Evelynn asked sweetly.

The wolf’s green eyes fell closed on a deep exhale. She was staying in his castle to keep an eye on him, Cyrus knew it.

With a sigh, Evelynn sat beside the wolf, looking tiny in comparison with his giant bulk. She reached over, stroking the top of his head with the gentle affection that Cyrus knew she only had when he did what she wanted.

“Don’t worry about a thing, Cyrus,” she whispered. “I know nothing has gone our way lately, but I’ll fix it. I’ll fix everything for you.”

She smiled gently and it was genuine, her heart filled with excitement when she thought about what she would soon do. It was all about to come to an end.

Maybe she was also doing it as much for herself as she was doing it for Cyrus.

She also deserved better. For so many years of her life, she’d deserved better.

Her smile shrivelled, gaze growing hard with the anger that had become much more difficult to control lately. Every time she thought of it, it pissed her off.

What? Mates?

After all these years… *Mates?*

Evelynn nodded. Okay. They could go ahead and be mates.

She’d give them her blessing.

Or rather… her curse.

****************

Sunlight peeked in between the window drapes.

Something was crushing her. A minute ago, Natalia had been content in the bundle of warmth she was wrapped up in, but very quickly, she started to realize that her bundle of warmth was crushing her.

Ridiculously, it felt glorious.

A sleepy smile curved her lips even as she struggled to draw air. The warm breath blowing gently on her neck ceased as the face snuggled deeply into the crook of her shoulder rose, letting cool air wash over her neck.

This was followed by a flow of oxygen entering her lungs as the bulk of weight on top of her lifted. Displeased, she squinted her eyes open against the morning light. “Hm? Who says stop crushing me?”

Raiden barely had his eyes open before he was hoarsely laughing. “What?”

“Crush me!” she complained drowsily.

“I’m *far* too heavy, darling, aren’t you already sore? I don’t want to hurt you further.”

Her eyes opened wider as he leaned over to press kisses to her forehead. When Raiden drew back from kissing her, he found her bright hazel eyes open and staring at him.

Meeting her gaze sent his wolf growling contentedly within him as a deep satisfaction curled inside his heart. Was it having her laying beneath him this way? Was it the way she looked at him with an adoration he’d never thought he’d see in her eyes? Perhaps it was the treasured memories of her pleading his name last night. Raiden didn’t know the exact reason why he felt ridiculously obsessed with Natalia at the moment, but he wanted to stay this way forever.

“Was this your devious plan?” she questioned in a sleepy murmur, rubbing her eye.

He leaned his chin on his palm, gazing down at her. “What plan?”

Scoffing, she tried to glare at him and failed. It wasn’t easy to recall her exceptional glaring abilities when her stupid brain kept repeating how he’d called her darling. *Darling?!* Oh! What an atrocious word to get giddy over! As for his blatant mentioning of her being sore—

“Your plan,” she tried again, adding a scowl for emphasis. “Your plan to get me in your bed.”

His mouth curved in a smirk so sexy, it made him look like the most tempting sin Natalia had ever seen. “How was it *my* plan? Who was the one wearing my clothes? Surely, you knew that it would drive me crazy to see you wearing my shirt.” His eyes darkened. “With nothing under.”

She bit her lip, tensing herself against the pull he had on her. “It was… my innocent curiosity…”

He laughed at her, so happy in this moment that he feared something would spoil his joy. Shaking his head, he sighed contentedly. “Let’s bathe.”

Natalia gaped at him. Bathe? Together? Oh, great heavens. She could only imagine. The two of them were insatiable. Raiden watching her rub bathing soap all over her skin wasn’t a good idea. She wouldn’t even get to wash a single limb, they would do nothing but make desperate love.

“No… we shouldn’t…”

He raised one dark brow and practically read her thoughts. He gave her a wolfish grin and insisted. “Yes, we should. Let me bathe you, Natalia… from head to toe.”

His hand boldly traced her skin and cupped one breast, drawing a gasp out of her. She clenched her thighs together and his smile widened as though he knew what she’d done.

“If you want me, say so,” Raiden teased.

She sealed her mouth shut, chiding her own body. Surely, they had things to do besides eat each other whole.

Like discuss important matters.

“Or…” Raiden continued before she could say anything. “You could tell me what went on yesterday?”

She blinked. What was this telepathy? She was just about to mention that. Slapping her desire under control, she tilted her head. “Yeah, did you really go there?”

He nodded. “Mm. What did you do?”

She released a breath and gave him a smile.

Raiden frowned. “Natalia?”

The warning in his voice made her want to cackle. “Oh, relax, I didn’t do anything too crazy. I got a job.”

“You *what—”*

“Not at the Heart of Hades!” she assured him quickly. “Elsewhere.”

“That doesn’t make it better,” he said incredulously. “You’re mated to the Alpha King of Zaire, darling, you cannot do meagre work.”

“It’s noble work!” she told him. “It’s working with children.”

He looked puzzled. “Children?”

“Yes, children. It’s work at a children’s home. An orphanage. Do you know a man called Devil?”

Raiden froze. Every single movement in his body stilled and he stared at her. Did she just say… *Devil?*

Before he could even ask her, there was a knock at the doors all the way across the room.

“Forgive me, Alpha King!” called one of his personal servants, shouting to be heard all the way inside.

Breaking himself out of his shock, Raiden looked over his shoulder to frown at the door. “What is it?”

“It’s an urgent message, Alpha King!” he shouted. “A message has arrived from King Kendrick of Gadon! He is requesting a visit from Alpha King Raiden as well as his daughter, Princess Natalia.”