The Curse Of An Alpha *MATURE*

33; Last One to Play Checkmate

Alice couldn't find the words to express her thoughts. Lucien had a mate. Had. And she was dead. The rumours from the months that she had spent with the wolves came rushing back, one in particular the most prominent; was there a chance that Lucien had killed her? Killed Leila, the one thing that was supposedly made for him? Would he be capable of that? 

"How...how did she die?" 

"I killed her," Lucien stated matter of factly, staring off into the distance. 

Her blood ran cold at his words and the way he said them, as if he had no qualms or guilt. "Why?" 

Lucien's eyes shifted towards her, ice cold and swirling with such a deep and protruding hatred that it caught her breath. But she realised for a very frightening moment, that the hatred wasn't directed at her for asking about such a topic. The hatred was aimed at himself. Alice refused to let herself feel pity for him, even a shred of it, but she couldn't help and pity of what he could have been; Lucien could have been a good and strong king, he could have been kind and loving, deserving of a mate that loved him back, he could have been everything that he wasn't. Sometimes that was worse than thinking about the things that he was; cold, calculating and psychotic.

"Because I was the way I am now. Because I was too much of a monster for her to bear. Even when I had attempted to love her in my own way, the only way that I knew how. She hated me."

"How did you kill her?" Her question was barely a whisper, yet he heard her all the same.

At that Lucien smiled, a cold and haunting smile that shook her very core, "she threw herself off a balcony on the night of our mating ceremony."

Alice held her breath, her mind whirling with the shred of information that he had given her. It wasn't enough to use as leverage but perhaps...she licked her dry lips, eyes cast towards the stars. Why was he telling her this? And why now? Most importantly, "if you had a mate, why do you want me?"

Lucien's eyes snapped towards hers, his lips curled back to reveal his pearly white teeth. She held her breath in anticipation of his attack yet still, he didn't move from his spot. It was vulnerability that she was seeing and that was enough to make her giddy on the inside; Lucien had a weakness, after all, even if it was cold and twisted. She realised as the seconds ticked by that he was lonely. The one person who was meant to love him couldn't, how big of a blow was that to him? Especially when he had everything that he could want, well almost; he had the money, the power, the looks. But not love. And that was his weakness and thus, her biggest weapon.

"You and I are more alike than you think," he finally said. Alice stilled at his words. "You are as much of a monster as I am, granted you have a better reign over yours."

"That's not true," Alice's throat felt clogged, dry as if she hadn't just drank three flutes of champagne.

Lucien's lips twitched into a mocking smile, "you are not a normal wolf, my little demoness. You have darkness lurking inside of you that blends you into the shadows. Do you know why, my sweet princess?" He stepped closer, pressing her into the railing, "you are part of the monsters that lurk in the dark, preying on the innocent beneath their cloaks, wearing masks that make them who their victims want them to be. Enough to trap them."

"You're lying," Alice's breath shuddered.

A humourless laugh escaped Lucien's mouth, his finger trailing down her cheek and over her neck. "You think that I am a fool because you bat your eyelashes and wear pretty gowns. You think that I don't know about the beast that you stifle beneath your skin." 

Panic clogged her throat. She itched to take a step back, to breath air that was not his, to be in a space that he wouldn't occupy. Alice blinked back her tears of fear and rage. Where was Hades now? But she was alone with the big bad wolf. It was laughable now that she thought Colden had been the villain so many months ago. He had nothing on Lucien. Not even then.