Marriage Alliance With The Lycan Monarch
Chapter 29: Surplus Gifts

Chapter 29: Surplus Gifts

Drevon’s madness didn’t end there. Gifts followed with every meal that came into my bedchambers. The tulips too. The tulips!

My frustration knew no bounds because this wasn’t just chivalry; he was trying to make a statement.

What exactly? Maybe I’ll find out when I meet him.

I huffed. Was that his plan then? I walked out on him a few days ago, so he was possibly trying to lure me back. Maybe he knew how much his surplus gift would get under my skin. I hate to admit that it was working.

I took a hard bite from the carrot while biding my next move. This will surely go on if I don’t do something, but I don’t want to see him. I shivered at the image of me waking up in the same bed with him.

That moment still torments me. Everything torments me. Even my dreams become nightmares of it. The embarrassing words I said to him made me coil in humiliation, and I shuddered occasionally as I recalled every detail.

I placed my forehead on the table. This just keeps getting worse!

"I think it best you go to the monarch. He knows if he comes here, you won’t accept to see him, which is why he’s using this method to lure you out."

"That is exactly what he wants, and I’m not playing his game!" I grumbled. "I must stay strong."

But sadly, I am not, and my brain was becoming dull with all this chaos.

"You were not as rebellious as this before. What really happened with the Dowager?"

I raised my head, placing my elbow on the table and my hand on my cheek with a sober expression. "I discovered my future wasn’t just bleak. It’s so many things I cannot put into words."

Talia raised an eyebrow in question.

"The monarch is betrothed," I said, taking another bite from the carrot. "He has a lover."

Talia didn’t seem too surprised, just nodding in understanding. I can’t believe I was the only one who thought the monarch only had eyes for me. So stupid of me!

"I’m caught in a web of beasts. How long do you think before the Dowager takes my head? I may have said the monarch and I’ve consummated our marriage, but I’m a cockroach she cannot wait to squash with her fine shoes."

"I should’ve taken up your offer when you wanted to relieve me of my duties."

I pointed my carrot at her. "You were not wise, and now your neck is on the line too. Let us bask in terror every day while hiding out in our rooms like cowards."

"Better here than out there with a castle filled with Lycans."

We both nodded in agreement.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. We both turned our heads in alarm. No one has ever knocked, even when castlekeepers brought my meals and the gifts, they announced their presence.

"Who is that?" I whispered discreetly, ready to shrink under my table. I have dealt with enough Lycans, and I was yet to recover.

"I don’t know," Talia whispered back.

I got more restless, my heart slamming against my ribcage. "Go check, Talia."

She shot me a look. "You go check."

I gasped. "You’re my handmaid and I order you to do so!"

"I’d rather take the short end of the stick. Behead me if you must!"

"Ugh!" I growled, pushing myself to my feet and walking to the door, but I halted my steps. I cleared my throat and asked. "W-Who’s there?"

"Your Grace."

Only one person called me by that title, and it was Garrick. However, that voice was not his. He had a masculine voice like Drevon’s, but this person spoke lightly.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Lucan Tareth, the monarch’s Gamma."

Gamma? His second aide? What did I read about him again? Oh, I remember, he was part of the ones I didn’t get much information on.

Great, another anomaly. How worse can this one be?

I gulped. "Why are you here?"

"I’ve come to offer my assistance."

I blinked, and before I could think twice, I grabbed the doorknob and pried it open. Lucan had ash-brown hair and sea-green eyes. He was dressed in uniform, neat and smooth, but there was a roughness to it; he had his collar open and the buttons down.

Lucan gave me a dashing smile and bowed his head slightly.

"Your Grace, I’m pleased to serve you."

"Whatever do you mean?" I asked, baffled.

He peered at me. "From this moment on, I shall remain by your side until the end of your short life. No, that doesn’t sound correct...for as long as you live? no for—"

"And why, Sir Lucan, will you do that?" I cut him off through clenched teeth. "Do you not have far more important matters to attend to?"

"I’m here to serve you."

"Why are you here to serve me?"

"Because I should."

"Why should you?"

"Because I have to?"

My face twisted into another level of irritation. "This is his doing, isn’t it?"

"Who, if I might ask?" he asked innocently.

I slammed the door in his face.

"Wow, he went out of his way, didn’t he?" Talia commented with a clap of her hand. "The monarch has showered you with dozens of gifts, and now his very own Gamma of high rank is serving you. He sets the bar high."

I lightly knocked my forehead on the door, having no words to utter except trying to wake myself from this nightmare.

Releasing a sharp exhale, I opened the door, and Lucan began laughing at nothing in particular.

I eyed him like he had lost it. "Whatever is so funny?"

"Hahahaha! When Garrick told me about you, I thought he might be joking!"

"Pardon?"

"Oh, is that food?" he breezed past me.

Talia shifted away in caution, but Lucan was only after the dressing on the table. He grabbed several pastries and shoved them in his mouth as if he hadn’t had anything for days.

"Hmmm! This is so good! I really miss having a proper meal; living off the flesh of snow-bloods was a tragic situation."