Ch. my mate gambled me away to the lycan King 8 my mate gambled me away to the lycan King 8

< Chapter 8 

Chapter 8 

“Fifteen! Fourteen! Thirteen!” 

:0 

The whole ballroom counted along, louder with every number. 

C 

46 

Alaric held me against his chest, perfectly steady, like he’d been born to carry me. His heartbeat was fast. 

Faster than mine. 

“Give her back!” Kane lunged. 

Alaric turned his shoulder, shielding me with his body. Kane hit his back like a fly hitting a wall. 

“She’s mine!” Kane screamed. “She’s been mine for THREE YEARS!” 

“Three years,” Alaric said, his voice cold enough to frost glass, “and you put her on a poker table. That’s what three years was worth to you?” 

Kane went silent, his face slack. 

“THREE! TWO! ONE!” 

Fifteen seconds. Not one second less. 

Alaric set me down gently, his hands lingering on my waist a heartbeat longer than they needed to. Then he grabbed a glass of ice water from a passing tray and drained it in one swallow. I watched his throat work. 

My cheeks burned. 

Every phone in the room buzzed at once. 

[BET SETTLED. Congratulations, Lyra Ashford! Payout: $150,000.] 

A gasp swept the room. 

I smiled sweetly at Kane. “Thanks for the scholarship, babe. Turns out you’re good for something.” 

The room cracked up. Kane looked like he’d been slapped. 

Then all the rage drained out of him, and something worse took its place. Panic. He shoved Bianca away and stumbled toward me, hands out. 

“Lyra, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I said stupid things, I was drunk, I was angry. But you can’t throw away three years. You can’t. You love me.” 

“Love?” 

11:28 Wed, Oct 21 

< Chapter 8 

346 – 

46 

I opened my clutch and took out a silver pendant: a wolf’s head with two crossed moons, the Ashford crest. My father gave it to me before he died. I gave it to Kane the night our bond clicked into place, as a 

promise. 

Tessa found it last month. Shoved under the leg of his desk to keep it from wobbling. 

I held it up so everyone could see. 

Then I threw it on the marble floor as hard as I could. 

The silver cracked clean in two. 

The room went dead silent. 

“No.” Kane’s voice broke. He grabbed my wrist, his fingers digging into my bones. “You’re my mate. Moon law says nobody can take another wolf’s mate! Not even the King!” 

I looked down at his hand on my skin. 

Then I looked at the windows. Through the glass, the Blood Moon was rising, red and enormous. 

The clock began to strike midnight. 

I had turned twenty-one. 

“You’re right, Kane,” I said softly. “Moon law is very clear.” 

I pulled my wrist free. Something old and powerful rose in my chest, and my voice rang through the 

ballroom like a bell. 

“I, Lyra Ashford, daughter of Alpha Thomas Ashford, reject you, Kane Mercer, as my mate.” 

Kane laughed, wild and ugly. “You think that hurts me? You’re wolfless! The rejection is going to break you 

He stopped. 

Because my eyes had started to glow silver. 

And for the first time in my life, my wolf stepped forward and howled. 

11:28 Wed, Oct 21