The Lycan King's Defiant Surrogate | Night Vow Books

CHAPTER ONE

Accident

My sister stole my fiancé. She’s about to become the Luna of our pack and gloats over me. But everyone thinks I deserve it.

My sister stole my fiancé. She’s about to become the Luna of our pack and gloats over me. But everyone thinks I deserve it.

My father is the Beta of the Riverwood pack. Samuel was my childhood sweetheart, my fiancé, and the future Alpha of the Pack. There has always been a tradition of marriage between the Alpha and Beta families. When our Alpha asked Samuel who he wanted as his Luna, he firmly chose me.

Until that night three years ago changed everything…

Three years ago, a mysterious man took my virginity, and then he disappeared, leaving behind nothing but a blank check. When I woke up in the hotel that morning, naked, my family had somehow already found me. They stood around my bedside, glaring at me.

“Harper, you shameless whore!” Mom picked up that blank check and threw it in my face. “How dare you sell your innocence for money? How could you do this to your family, your pack?!”

“To Samuel,” my sister Leah said snidely. “Do you even remember your engagement?”

My mind was a mess. I hadn’t been trying to hook up with any guys. I just came to find Leah. After Samuel chose me to be his intended, Leah would run away from home now and then. If I didn’t rush to find her, Mom would blame me for everything.

“Please hear me out,” I said, desperate. “Do you really think I would betray Samuel for money?”

“Who says you wouldn't?” Leah said coldly. “Mom and I found these in your room when we went looking for you last night. You conniving little thief, you want more money.”

She handed over her cell phone and the pictures were full of Leah's things, designer bags, extravagant watches and gems. They were lying all over the floor of my room.

“I didn't do it…” I said breathlessly. ”I'm marrying Samuel. I would never do something stupid like that for money. I… think I'm in heat. I don't know why.”

Leah was my biological sister. I don’t understand it, but I was the unappreciated one in the family. She had things that I never did. I could only look at her lavish and magnificent possessions from a distance; they never belonged to me.

Samuel was the only person who always stood behind me.

Leah curled her upper lip in disgust. “Anything to get out of accepting responsibility for your own actions.”

Suddenly, a jolt went through my thoughts and everything connected. I realized I knew who was behind all this.

“You know full well I was only going out to find you!” I countered Leah. “You know this place isn't under any pack jurisdiction, so it's a mess. I went to the club to get you. I held your drink, and hell knows what I drank...”

Leah covered her face, and started making audible sobs. “Are you implying that I drugged you? I fell out of love, so I wanted to find a new place to stay. I don't know anything about what happened to you.” Her shoulders shook.

Here we go again. Time for her crying attack. But I was sure my parents would support me when it came to my innocence.

My mother looked a little hesitant. Her eyes traveled between the two of us.

That's when I turned to my father and tried to beg for his support.

“Father…” I started.

Crack.

He slapped me cleanly across the face. My cheek stung so badly, I went into shock for a moment.

This couldn’t be happening.

“No one needed to drug you.” His voice was a growl. “You gave up your dignity for money. You're jealous of your sister, and for that reason, you steal from her and try to put your blame on her. You're no longer my daughter, and you're even less qualified to be the future Luna.”

“Whore,” Mother said again, under her breath.

My sister peeked at me from between her fingers. There was no trace of tears in her eyes now.

___

I shake my head, snapping out of my memories. Today is a big day, and I have to entertain the royal messenger for my family. Though no longer as a daughter of this household, but as a slave.

My fiancé Samuel? Now he belongs to Leah. As Samuel is next in line to become our Alpha, that makes Leah next to become our Luna.

A title she has already started calling herself during Samuel’s long disappearances conquering disputed territories. His frequent absences have delayed their mating ceremony, but Leah doesn’t seem to mind. She still walks around pack land like she’s already a queen.

Yet inside of me, a small fire burns. I still believe that through drugs, my heat was forced, which directly led to my undoing.

No one listens anymore.

Not even Samuel, who turned his back on me when I returned from that nightmare three years ago. I tried to tell him the truth, but he ignored me. He has not spoken to me again since.

Even with him in the same room as me now, he refuses to look at me.

At his first arrival, our eyes met for a half-second and I was transported to what felt like a different lifetime, when Samuel had been my fiancé and he would visit to spend time with me.

Quickly, he looked away and I remembered my new lowly place.

The royal messenger, a man in black with a violet sash over his arm, now sits in a chair opposite of Samuel and my sister who claim the couch. My mother and father stand nearby.

As per my duties as a household slave, I slowly deliver the tea set, lowering it down onto the coffee table. I try not to make eye contact with anyone in the room, but I am admittedly curious by the royal messenger’s arrival.

His visit was announced rather suddenly, causing me and the other household slaves to scramble to clean and make ready for his arrival, and that of Samuel, who escorted him.

A royal messenger is incredibly unusual.

The King doesn’t often have business with our small pack. What could he possibly want with us now?

Leah glares at me impatiently as I serve her first.

"This is awful." Leah prides herself on spitting out her tea in disgust. "You are trying to poison our honored guest."

“No, I –”

Before I can even straighten, Leah turns to me. “Harper. Kneel here beside me.” She gestures to the empty space beside her, the bare spot on the hardwood floor that the carpet does not cover.

I have no desire to press my knees to that hard surface, but I know the pain that will follow if I disobey, especially in front of an honored guest. The beating could last until dawn.

I fall to my knees where she directed.

“Hold out your arm,” she says.

Swallowing hard, I do as she commands.

Unhooking her arm with Samuel, Leah reaches forward and snatches the teapot off the table.

Samuel glances at Leah, at the teapot, and then at my arm. His lip twitches like he might say something to stop her, but he doesn’t. My heart breaks all over again.

I brace myself for what will surely be scalding hot water searing my skin.

A wild look in her eye, Leah starts to tilt the teapot.

“Stop,” the royal messenger says.

Leah stills, even as her eyes harden with fury. “I am allowed to keep my sister in her place, when she dreams above her station.”

“No you aren’t,” the messenger says. “Not anymore. This woman is now the property of the Lycan King, and only he can decide her punishments.”

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CHAPTER TWO

Run Away Together

The room goes very still and quiet.

For a moment, I think I might have misheard. Was the royal messenger talking about me? But why would the Lycan King want me?

Each year, every pack in his kingdom would select their most beautiful woman and send her to the capital. From among them, the Lycan King would select the ones that interest him most, who would then become part of his harem.

It’s a great honor to be selected, although somewhat precarious. Rumors are whispered in the dark, speaking of the Lycan King’s ruthlessness, as well as his insatiable appetites…

Though, oddly, there’s never been any talk of children. Those favorable to the King vow it’s because he is waiting to find his fated mate, and that she would be the one to bear his child.

I am neither the most beautiful woman in the pack nor anyone important. So I continue to wonder, why would the Lycan King want me as his property?

Unless he needs some kind of servant?

“That’s impossible,” Leah says, speaking the words I’m unable to say aloud. “There must be some mistake.”

“There is no mistake,” the royal messenger replies. “Our King Caleb has been searching for women with this one’s exact characteristics. Seeing her as I have, I can confirm she meets those traits and am honor-bound to bring her to our King.”

I don’t recall him looking at me for more than a moment. Perhaps that was all he needed.

“She’s not even a virgin!” Leah shouts. In her rage, she drops the teapot. I’m quick to retract my arm, but as the teapot hits the floor, it shatters. Hot water splatters outward, covering the hem of my skirts.

The royal messenger jumps to his feet. His face is twisted with annoyance.

“No Alpha would want her, especially the King!” Leah continues, seemingly unaware of the way the royal messenger is looking at her. Mother sees though, and starts to step closer to her favorite child. “Offering the King a whore like her would be an insult! She’s –”

A loud crack fills the room as the royal messenger slaps Leah cleanly across the face.

Leah, stunned, has turned her entire face with the slap. Tears well in her eyes. Her cheek quickly reddens.

She’s never been hit like that in her life, even when she so dearly deserved it. I was ever the punching bag; Leah, ever the perfect child.

The royal messenger speaks clearly and crisply, with obvious distain. “Who are you to question the will of our King Caleb? It’s wholly within my rights to see you hang for such treachery.”

Mother moves at once, stepping into the space between Leah and the messenger.

“Forgive my foolish child, good sir!” Mother says. “She did not mean the words she speaks. If anyone is to be punished, please punish me instead. As the woman who raised her, it is my duty as a mother to take responsibility for her.”

Meanwhile, my knees are beginning to hurt, sitting so stiffly on the floor. Looking over, I see Mother draping herself over my sister, desperate to protect her.

No one is protecting me.

Exhaling in frustration, the royal messenger slips his attention to me. “Gather your things, Miss…”

“Harper,” I provide my name.

He does not repeat it, nor even nod in acknowledgement. “You are allowed one bag. Pack wisely. We will leave in five minutes.”

Five minutes does not give me much time.

Pushing myself up to my feet, I ignore the creak in my knees, as well as the sniveling of my mother still trying to protect my terrible sister and walk toward the door.

I have no bag of my own, so I slip into my parents’ room to snatch one from them. The bag that I take is one that used to belong to me before my disgrace. It feels less like stealing to take it back now, and more like returning my own stolen property.

Bag in hand, I start for the stairs.

Three years ago, I was removed from my lavish bedroom and hidden away in the attic. It’s cold up there, without as much insulation as the rest of the house, and leaks sometimes when there’s a hard rain or too much snow. Yet I’ve still managed to make it my home, placing the few things I own around my cot bed.

In my mind, I’m making a list of the things I can’t live without. It’s not a very long list, as most of my possessions have already been stripped from me.

Dragging the bag, I climb the ladder up to my attic space. When I reach it, I startle.

A familiar figure stands in the space near my bed. In the dim light of the nearby slatted window, he turns to me.

“Samuel,” I say.

What could he possibly be doing here? We haven’t spoken since that horrible day three years prior. I’d tried to explain everything, but he wouldn’t listen. He cast me away like everyone else.

“Gather only what you can’t live without,” Samuel says. “We’ll need to travel fast and light if we are to have any chance of escape.”

I froze, not understanding. This is the most he’s talked to me since my disgrace. “What are you talking about?”

“Hurry, Harper,” Samuel pleads. Stepping forward, he takes the bag from my hands and starts to throw my things into it. I have no dresser, just a hamper of clothes tucked into the corner. He grabs blindly, packing for me.

“But… why?” I ask.

Not looking at me, he explains. “I don’t want to marry Leah. I never did. I’ve done all I can to delay this wedding. For three long, terrible years, I’ve succeeded. Two more weeks is all I need, and I will become Alpha. Once I’m Alpha, I can make my own decisions, like who I want as my Luna.”

I understand the words he’s saying, though it’s a shock. For any of this to be true means that he’s faked his compliance for years, convincing everyone he wants Leah, just to change everything once he’s deemed Alpha.

What I don’t understand is how any of this affects me.

Looking back, Samuel must see the uncertainty in my eyes. He drops my bag and walks the few steps it takes to cross the space to stand before me.

“I wanted to wait until I was Alpha,” he continues. This close, even in the dim light, I can see the burning determination in his eyes. His intensity and sincerity melds me to the spot, staring at him, listening. “But I can’t wait if they plan on giving you away. We have to leave. We can elope along the way, then no one can stop us.”

“Elope? Samuel, you haven’t even talked to me in three years…”

“Haven’t you been listening?” Samuel says. “It was all a ruse. You are the one I love, Harper. The only one I’ve ever loved. There’s no time. Run away with me now, and become my wife.”

“Your wife?!” comes a shriek from the ladder. Just then, Leah pushes her way into my space. “You are insane! You’ll be hunted forever. The Lycan King won’t be denied. He’ll chase you for the rest of your lives. No one defies him.”

Panicked, I take a step backwards. How long has she been listening?