I Gave The Prince To My Sister And Found My True Mate Chapter 05
Later, King Cedric died of illness, and Lucian inherited the throne.
As his only registered wife and publicly acknowledged mate, I was installed as the kingdom’s only Luna Queen.
But before I had even settled into the position, I discovered Lucian’s affair with Rosalie.
Elias had died suddenly, leaving no children behind.
Using her failure to produce an heir as an excuse, the Lakeshore Pack revoked her residency and protection, sending her back to Cedar Valley.
My mother wept and begged Lucian to take care of her.
“Rosalie has nothing now. The Crown is all she has to rely on.”
Lucian agreed.
And he cared for her with painstaking devotion.
One day he sent medicine exclusive to the royal medical wing. The next, he gave her a villa in the capital. The day after that, he canceled a Council meeting to go see her in person.
Again and again, I told myself he only pitied a woman who had lost her mate and then been cast out by her husband’s Pack.
Until that night.
The hangover remedy I’d prepared for Lucian had long gone cold, and he still hadn’t returned to the Royal Castle.
His security tracker was off, and the guards on duty wouldn’t dare reveal the King’s private itinerary.
I drove to the villa where Rosalie was staying myself.
The door at the end of the hall was ajar.
Through the crack, I saw them embracing, kissing. I saw Lucian pin Rosalie against the window.
The scent of them tangled together made my wolf cry out in pain.
I stood there as if I’d been drenched in ice water.
That night, I completely lost control.
It reminded me of when I was seven.
I had only recently been brought back to Cedar Valley when Mother took away my favorite little hound and gave it to Rosalie. During the years I was wandering outside the territory, that dog had been the only creature to keep me company.
For the first time in the Alpha’s residence, I cried and screamed, accusing them of favoritism.
Mother slapped me and said my jealousy had hurt Rosalie, whose health was so fragile.
Father ordered the guards to take the dog away. When it struggled, it bit someone, and Father had it put down on the spot.
This time, I overturned Rosalie’s easel and smashed the crystal wineglasses Lucian had given her.
I grabbed her by the collar and screamed, asking why she had to do this to me again, why she always had to take the person I loved most.
Rosalie only cried.
She cried so delicately, so innocently, as if she weren’t the one who had betrayed me.
Lucian seized my arm and shoved me away.
“Audrey! What the hell is wrong with you?”
My lower back slammed into the coffee table, and the pain nearly buckled my knees.
I sat on the floor, my vision blurred with tears.
“Why?” I asked. “What gives you the right to treat me like this?”
Lucian stood over me, the pressure of an Alpha King making the air so heavy I could barely breathe.
There wasn’t a shred of warmth in his eyes.
“Because Rosalie is the one I love.”
In one sentence, he pushed me back into being the girl who deserved nothing.
So the embraces, the gifts, the festival of lights, the puppet shows—they had all been a fiction he staged for me after he was forced to accept reality.
His compromise had never been love.