Chosen By The Cursed Alpha King Chapter 148

Adele's POV

Emilia went very still beside me.

The kind of stillness that comes right before a storm breaks.

Then she turned fully toward me, took both my hands in hers, and looked me dead into my eyes with that fierce, queenly fire I'd seen her use on men who thought they could intimidate her.

"Listen to me very carefully, Adele," she said, voice low and filled with certainty. "Lucien will not reject you. I would bet my crown on it. I would bet my life."

I tried to look away, but she wouldn't let me.

"But," she continued, softer now, "he is a proud, broken, terrified man who is currently losing the war with himself. And if we leave him alone in that war, he will keep punishing both of you to keep you 'safe' from whatever he's been running from his entire life."

She leaned in until our foreheads almost touched, and when she spoke again her voice dropped into that wicked, smoky register that always made my cheeks heat—even now.

"So we are not going to leave him alone in it anymore. We are going to fight dirty."

My breath caught. "Dirty?"

A slow, dangerous smile curved her lips.

"Very dirty. Because Lucien isn't a man you beg, darling. He's a man you conquer."

She pulled back just enough to study my face, eyes glittering.

"Here is what you're going to do tonight. And you are going to do every single step, or I will march in there and do it for you."

"But..." I started but she shook her head gesturing for me to be quiet.

She began counting on her fingers, voice dripping sin.

"One, you are going to bathe in the jasmine-and-vanilla oil I'm sending to your room. The one that makes every wolf within a mile lose the ability to speak."

I blinked, but the look in her eyes told me she wasn't done. So I kept quiet and listened.

"Two, you will wear the nightgown I'm having delivered. Black silk. So thin it's practically a suggestion. No robe. No slippers. Nothing else."

"I wore the red one you gave me and he rejected me last night...he doesn't want me."

"Tonight will be different...your mate is stubborn but he's still a man...a hot blooded werewolf man...he won't refuse you...not in that nightgown."

I sighed looking at my hands.

What if he did? I asked myself.

"You can't give up on your mate Adele, or do you want some other woman to take him away from you?"

"Of course not!" I said, the words coming out faster than I intended.

Emilia chuckled, squeezing my hand.

"You know what you'll do after you wear that sexy gown?"

"What?" I asked.

"You will walk slowly into his bedroom at exactly midnight. Do not knock. Do not ask permission. You are his mate. That room belongs to you as much as it does to him."

"You will crawl onto his bed like you own it. Straddle his hips before he can bolt. And then, little flower..."

She brushed a thumb across my lower lip, eyes gleaming. "You are going to lean down until your mouth is against his ear and say, in the softest, filthiest voice you have: '"I have waited four months for you to claim what is yours. Tonight I'm done waiting. You can take me, Lucien...or you can watch me take you.'"

My whole body flashed hot, then cold, then hot again.

"Emilia—"

She pressed a finger to my lips.

"And if he still tries to be noble—if he tries to push you away for your own good—you look him in the eye and you say: 'Rejecting me would hurt less than this slow death you're giving us both. So if you don't want me, say the words and set me free. But if you do...'"

She let her hand slide down my throat, resting over my racing pulse. "'...then stop pretending you're strong enough to keep saying no. Because we both know you're not.'"

She sat back, looking immensely pleased with herself.

"Then you kiss him like the world is burning down around you. You kiss him until the only word he remembers how to say is your name. And if he still fights it after that?" Her smile turned positively feral.

"You sink your pretty little teeth into his neck and you mark him yourself. Let him try to run from the bond when it's blazing on his skin for the rest of his life."

I couldn't breathe. My thighs were pressed together under my skirts and I was trembling—but not from fear anymore.

Emilia cupped my cheek, suddenly tender again.

"He wants you so violently it's killing him, Adele. Tonight you're going to make it impossible for him to keep pretending he doesn't."

She kissed my forehead, fierce and protective.

"Go break our beautiful, stupid wolf, darling. And when he's finally inside you, screaming your name—remember I expect every wicked detail tomorrow."

She stood, my eyes going to her small baby bump. The sight of it made my chest squeeze. Will Lucien want this with me?

I watched as Emilia smoothed her gown, and sauntered away like she hadn't just set my entire world on fire.

I sat there in the garden long after she left, heart hammering, skin tingling, a dark, hungry thing waking up low in my belly.

Tonight. Midnight. His bed.

I don't care that I was rejected last night. Lucien was mine and I was going to make him see it.

I was done waiting. Tonight, Lucien was going to discover exactly what happened when his mate decided to stop being patient... and started being ruthless.