Betrayed By My Mate, Claimed By His Lycan King Uncle
Chapter 99: I don’t want your protection, your highness!

Chapter 99: I don’t want your protection, your highness!

And that silence was more dangerous than any words.

"Pearl?" Lupien called softly, his voice laced with an affection so intense it made Sorayah’s stomach churn with disgust. His eyes, warm and longing, searched her face as if trying to resurrect someone long gone.

"I’m not Pearl, Your Highness," Sorayah said firmly, swallowing hard as she placed her frail hands against his chest in an attempt to push him away. He didn’t budge...his weight, both physical and emotional, pinning her down like a nightmare. "Get off me."

"Where do you think you’re going?" Lupien asked, his breath ragged, as though he had just run a marathon. His voice trembled with desperation. "I told you not to leave me. Are you really going to disobey me? Break my orders?"

"You told me to read you a bedtime story," Sorayah said, her tone sharper now, brimming with restrained fury. "I did. You told me I could leave once you fell asleep and I did. But now, just when I’m trying to walk away, you pin me down like a prisoner. So tell me, Your Highness, are you going back on your orders?"

Her eyes, glistening with unshed tears, locked with his. They were filled not just with hatred, but with a depth of pain that only loss could carve. "I’m not Pearl. I’m Sorayah. And I’m different from my sister, the one you claim to have loved... or perhaps just pretended to love."

"I loved her!" Lupien barked, the sudden outburst making Sorayah flinch. His warm breath fanned across her face, so close she instinctively turned her head and shielded herself with her hand. "I always loved her. But I never get to keep anything I love. Everything I’ve ever cherished has been stolen from me....everything but the throne. That was the only thing I ever achieved on my own... and I had to spill blood to get it."

"Please get off me, Your Highness," Sorayah said again, her voice quieter but no less firm. She swallowed against the growing lump in her throat. "Let me go. You should rest. Go to bed."

Lupien didn’t move. His gaze lingered on her delicate face with a haunted intensity. "Earlier, I asked if you hated me. Is it because... I destroyed your kingdom? Because your sister and family died as a result? I’ll make it up to you, Sorayah. I swear I will."

"Make up for it?" Sorayah suddenly shouted, her fury finally erupting like a volcano. Her voice echoed through the chamber like a battle cry. "You think you can make up for that? Are you going to bring my family back to life? Rebuild the ashes of my kingdom with a flick of your hand? Return to me the innocent girl I once was before your armies burned my home to the ground?"

Her voice cracked as her rage spilled into sorrow. "Can you do all that, your highness? Can you?!"

Lupien opened his mouth to speak, but no words came. His jaw clenched, and he bit his lip, the weight of guilt finally silencing him.

"You asked if I hate you," Sorayah said, her voice trembling with barely restrained emotion. Tears now streamed down her cheeks, but her gaze never wavered. "I hate you more than you can possibly imagine. I want to kill you. Every part of me screams to do it. But I can’t....not because I forgive you, but because I’m weak. Because people like you...powerful people...trample the weak beneath their feet and expect them to be grateful for the attention."

She took a shaky breath, her shoulders trembling as she continued. "You can’t give me anything, Your Highness. You can never make up for what you took from me. Nothing you do...no crown, no apology, no gesture of kindness will ever change that."

"You can’t kill me because you’re weak, is that it?" Lupien said, tilting his head with a slow, dangerous smile. His voice lowered, laced with something dark and compelling. "Then what if I made you powerful instead? Raised you so high that no one could ever trample over you again? What if I gave you the strength to destroy your enemies one by one? Would you accept that, Sorayah?" His eyes burned with conviction, his voice etched with seriousness.

He leaned even closer, as if daring her to say yes.

"I always believed that gaining the throne would make me a happy man," he went on, his voice softening but thick with pain. "But guess what? I’ve never felt more hollow than I do now. There’s blood on my hands, so much blood and there will be more. That’s what power costs. I killed to claim the throne, and I’ll keep killing until the day I die."

His gaze bore into her, unflinching.

"Can you imagine that kind of burden? The agony of sacrificing everyone you ever loved? The unbearable truth that you couldn’t protect them... even as you fought for everything. So if I were to die by your hands, Sorayah then I’ll accept it. I’ll accept that Pearl....through you....killed me."

Sorayah’s breath hitched.

"You can’t give me anything, Your Highness," she finally whispered, her voice trembling but fierce. "Not power. Not comfort. Not redemption. I don’t need anything from you."

And as though a divine force surged through her, she pushed him back with a strength she didn’t know she had. Lupien stumbled, falling to the ground with a thud. Sorayah stood tall, her chest rising and falling rapidly, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.

"Stop trying to make peace with me by invoking my dead family," she snapped. "Stop haunting me with your guilt." Her voice cracked, raw with pain. "You’ll never mend what you’ve shattered. You’ll never heal the girl who lost everything the night you brought ruin upon us."

Lupien rose to his feet, his expression twisted with something between rage and desperation.

"Then how do you plan to kill me, Sorayah?" he roared. "As a common maid? Someone who can be disposed of without question? Do you even know where you are? This palace is riddled with secrets...secrets that devour the curious." He stepped forward, eyes locked on hers. "Only I can protect you. Only I can keep you alive."

"I don’t want your protection, Your Highness," she replied, voice steel beneath the tears. "I’m not my sister. Stop confusing me with her. I’m not Pearl, and I will never be her. I’m Sorayah."

She paused, her throat tight.

"Yes, I’m weak. Yes, I am unable to avenge my people now. But I’ll never dishonor my family by clinging to the man who slaughtered them. I’d rather die a slave and face judgment in the next life than live in your bed as a concubine bought by guilt and crowned in blood."