Ch. my mate gambled me away to the lycan King 4 my mate gambled me away to the lycan King 4

Chapter 4 

At 6:59 p.m., I stood outside the ballroom doors and listened to my mate tell two hundred wolves he would rather die than touch me. 

“If she waddles in, I’m leaving,” Kane laughed. “I’ll throw up in front of the King.” 

Bianca’s giggle followed. “Maybe she’s stuck in the elevator, babe. Weight limit.” 

The whole room roared. 

I smiled, lifted my hand to the door handle, and felt someone step out of the shadows beside me. 

The afternoon had been a battlefield. 

At noon, Kane posted a photo of a giant chair welded from steel. [Custom made for our guest of honor. The regular chairs aren’t rated for her.] 

Bianca followed with a cake shaped like a pig’s head, pink frosting and a candy apple jammed in its mouth. [Tonight’s dessert! Made with love, Lyra!] 

Tessa threw her phone across my hotel room. “I’m going to make them choke on that cake.” 

46 $ 

The glam team worked on me for three hours. They gave me a dark, smoky eye that made my gaze look lethal. Deep red lips. My hair fell in long, glossy waves down my bare back. 

The dress was midnight velvet, black with a slit up to my hip, cut low enough to show the tiny silver crescent birthmark on my left collarbone. The mark every Ashford woman is born with. 

At five o’clock, Tessa hacked into the security feed of the VIP lounge. 

Kane was in a tailored suit, a glass of whiskey in one hand and Bianca under his other arm. She wore blood red and a smile like she’d already been crowned. 

“Fifty grand, she bet,” Kane sneered. “When she rolls through that door, this pack will laugh her right out of 

Colorado.” 

“Don’t be too hard on her,” Bianca purred, tracing his tie. “She’s still the old Alpha’s daughter.” 

“She’s a dead end.” Kane’s eyes went flat and cold. “After midnight, Silver Creek is mine. All of it.” 

I shut the laptop. 

On the drive to the Thorne estate, where the Blood Moon Ball was held every year, my phone lit up. 

Alaric Thorne: [I’m sorry about the game. I should have flipped the table the second he 

11:28 Wed, Oct 21 

< Chapter 4 

said your name. If you change your mind, say the word. A car will take you anywhere you want.] 

I typed back: [I don’t want to go anywhere. Tonight is mine.] 

When I stepped out of the car in four-inch heels, the Lycan guards lining the stone steps froze. One of them actually dropped his radio. 

I didn’t look at them. 

Now, at the ballroom doors, the man from the shadows stopped beside me. 

He was taller than any wolf I had ever seen. Black suit. Black hair. A jaw like it was carved from granite and eyes the color of a storm. His power filled the hallway so completely that I could barely breathe. 

Alaric Thorne. 

“Lyra,” he said. Just my name. His voice was deep enough to feel in my bones. 

“Your Majesty.” 

His eyes moved over my face slowly, like he was memorizing it. Something flickered there, soft and dangerous at the same time. 

He held out his arm. 

The grandfather clock in the hall began to chime seven. 

“Mind if I go in first?” I asked. “I want to see their faces.” 

The corner of his mouth lifted. “After you.” 

His guards pulled the doors wide. 

The laughter inside died like someone had cut its throat. 

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11:28 Wed, Oct 21 

< Chapter 5