Stolen by the Beastly Lycan King-Chapter 22: The Alpha Male Indeed

In an instant, Lorelai felt as if she was falling; as if the earth crumbled beneath her feet.

Without even realizing it, she clenched her fists behind the flowing skirt of her dress so tightly that her nails left deep marks on the skin of her palms. Lorelai could not understand what was happening and more importantly, she could not find it in her to face Rhaegar.

'This cannot be happening... The Gypsy man I spent the night with is actually the Lycan King?' Even if someone were to pinch her cheek and tell her all that was a dream, she would not believe them. Something as outrageous as that was just entirely impossible.

The princess struggled to remain calm; a mad fit of hysteria was about to split her body in half. Even the ridiculous and absurd theatrical plays the commoners liked to watch could never come up with a plot twist like this. It was ludicrous.

An even more ridiculous thought flashed inside Lorelai's head for a second––what if King Rhaegar approached her on purpose that night?

'No, why would he do that? I am being beyond stupid now.'

However, a strong nervous feeling enveloped her entire body the moment she let go of that thought.

Why wouldn't he approach her? While Lorelai used Rhaegar to execute her little plan of rebelling against her family, this man now knew it all. The royal princess went to the Gypsy tribe to buy poison and then slept with a complete stranger who turned out to be the king of the Beast Kingdom.

But whom the humans will believe if the truth came out? This could turn into a huge political scandal. This could even lead to war.

Now, she was truly filled with fright.

Lorelai bit her lower lip in an attempt to remain calm. She was in public with all the important people watching her every move. She could not let her real emotions show. It was, however, incredibly difficult with a peculiar pair of dark amber eyes scanning her face with the flicker of beastly glow in them.

His eyes were latched on the princess alone. He had been staring at her since he first entered the hall, and had only pulled his gaze when greeting the Duke.

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Unfortunately, his curious and intense gaze that was glued to a single person succeeded in attracting the attention of the rest of the crowd.

Murmurs slowly spread throughout the throne room. People exchanged glances with each other in a peculiar way, jerking their chins in the direction of the royal family and their special guest.

'The gossip will be out on the streets tomorrow. The struggling princess of the royal family, soon to be married to the powerful Duke Kalder, and the gorgeous king of the beasts, his biggest opponent. A match made god knows where.'

Many eyes were now directed to Vincent Kalder. How would he react seeing that the notorious King Rhaegar is ogling his fiancee?

For some reason, Lorelai was curious too.

The duke's face turned red, he was puffing at his fat, oily cheeks like an annoyed child. Of course, someone else liked his doll, how could it just go past him?

Perhaps he would have even said something obnoxious and ruined the whole thing but Althea's words stopped him from making that foolish mistake.

"… Well."

Instantly, everyone's attention was shifted to the queen, and Lorelai was finally freed from the suffocating glares of the noblemen. She turned her face sideways and let out a long sigh of relief.

Rhaegar, too, moved his shining eyes toward Althea and curled his lips into a somewhat sly smile. He could tell that the woman was displeased with the lack of interest he expressed in her persona but the lycan king could not care less.

As he smiled, the air inside the throne room seemed to have drastically changed. Sure, the high society still thought of his kind as nothing but somewhat civilized animals but no one could deny that his aura of authority was almost visible.

The alpha male indeed.

Althea cleared her throat with an awkward cough and finally added to her previous remark, "Welcome, Your Majesty, it is a pleasure to finally meet you."

To everybody's surprise, Rhaegar's reply was just as polite, "Thank you for the warm welcome."

Althea's face slightly softened. Lorelai offered her stepmother a bewildered look, silently cursing her for believing his deceitful demeanor.

'No, he is definitely an animal,' she thought to herself, 'a sly fox. Yes, he cannot be a lycan, he must be of a fox pack. A cheat!'

She couldn't help but feel that his arrival meant nothing but trouble. For her, for Duke Kalder, for the entire Capital, and, perhaps, even for the kingdom itself.

'I can't let it get to me. I have enough issues to worry about already. Why should I care? As long as he doesn't interfere with my plans, he might as well just burn the whole Erelith to the ground.'

Lorelai tried to mimic an indifferent expression and watched as Rhaegar moved to talk to the duke himself.

Their conversation on probing one another seemed to progress in an extremely polite manner. The lycan held himself perfectly––he showed just enough emotion to appear friendly, but he still managed to assert his dominance by throwing in a few stinging remarks to show his extensive knowledge of the kingdom's political imperfections.

If he were to participate in a public debate, he would be undefeatable.

After wrapping up the conversation with the duke, Rhaegar moved to greet the rest of the nobility.

Finally, his attention was directed back to Lorelai.

The sparkling eyes of the onlookers made the young woman straighten her posture, her body so tense she was about to snap. Offering the man a fake smile of hospitality, she said in a dense voice.

"Princess Lorelai Erelith. Nice to meet you... Your Majesty."

Calm and poised, she extended her gloved hand to the head of the lycan king. But unlike her composed exterior, the tips of her fingers visibly shook, revealing her anxiety.

The whole world seemed to have stopped as Rhaegar took her tiny hand in his and fixed his burning gaze on it. Then, he leaned forward, bringing his face closer to her hand, slid his thumb under the thin lace of the princess' gloves, pulled the fabric down to expose her porcelain skin, and planted a light kiss that barely brushed the back of her hand.

It was a gesture she had not expected at all, and the hot sensation left on her cold skin by his soft lips made Lorelai's insides tingle once again.

One had to be a fool to not see why he chose to do it.

Pressing his mouth against her hand, the king parted his lips, and locked his eyes with Lorelai's, making sure that she saw that he was grinning.

The correct way to pronounce Rhaegar's name is "Rey-gar"