The Lycan King's Substitute Wife

Chapter 9

HOPE

I felt like crying.

Why did Darius hate me so much? Why did he hate Light so much? It was like he had a personal vendetta against all humans but the one against the Vitalis' seemed doubled.

I sat on my bed, hugging my knees. I didn't know if I could last in such a place for so long. He said they hadn't found any traces of Light yet. Did that mean that I would have to be married to him for long? And worse, none of my parents had contacted me since the wedding.

How quick they were to just discard me to the den of monsters.

A stray tear streamed down my eyes as that train of thought crossed my head. I was quick to wipe it away but that didn't stop it from falling. Gods, I hated crying so why did I do it all the time?

Right on cue, the door to my room flew open, and that rude blond lycan stepped in. He vacuumed all the air his way with a small frown on his face. Suddenly feeling self-conscious, I wiped my tears away and stood up to my feet.

Thankfully, I was still wearing the attire from earlier so I didn't look inappropriate. The Lycan raked his eyes across me, from my head down to my toes in an unimpressed manner.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" I forced the question out of my mouth.

The side of his lips tugged up in irritation at the end of my words. "I don't think we've ever been formally introduced," he said, more to himself than me. I wanted to scoff bitterly.

The reason why we hadn't been formally introduced yet was because whenever the both of us were in a room together, the only thing he did was sneer and indirectly insult me. It was like a knee-jerk reaction that all the Lycans had towards me. They always had something horrible to say about me in not-so-hushed whispers.

"I am Orion Daggers, right hand of the king, husband to the commander of the Lycan army." He introduced himself with a hint of pride in his tone.

Wait a second… that meant he was married to the commander. So he was the husband she went on about the other day. Staring at him, it seemed so obvious that he and the commander were married.

They had such similar mannerisms. He also mentioned being the right hand of the king. That was also an impressive position.

If ever something sudden were to happen to the King resulting in the end of his life, Orion would be the next in line for the throne. Something told me that he had no care for that and only wanted to serve Darius for however long he could.

"Okay," I responded in a much more disappointed tone than he expected. Could a person blame me? I had no use for his titles.

All I had was a name I could put down to note whenever he did atrocious acts to me. Like he expected my reply, he scoffed bitterly.

"I have no idea what you did to Darius tonight but never do it again. Every second you spend in this palace is by his grace. The day his grace runs out on you, do not blame anyone for the circumstances you will be forced to endure."

With that, he turned on his heels and left the room, but not forgetting to lock my room door from the outside with a loud clang.

In his absence, I fell back down to the bed and huffed. He and the commander kept on saying things like that even though I found it hard to understand the message they were truly trying to relay.

What else did they expect from me? I married their king, I obeyed all his orders, and I kept away from the rest of the occupants of the palace. Where had I been gone wrong that they always had something negative to attach to me?