The Lycan King's Second Chance Mate: Rise of the Traitor's Daughter
Chapter 240: The Reason

Chapter 240: The Reason

Natalie~

My breath hitched, sharp and hollow.

So this was it.

This was the twisted root behind all the pain I had dragged myself through?

I stared at Darius, my voice low, almost calm — too calm. "This was the reason you killed my parents?"

He flinched like I’d struck him across the face. Good. He should feel it. Every word.

"You murdered them," I said, louder now, my voice cutting through the silence dungeon. "Because my father got in your way? Because you thought killing him would make me yours? And my mother? Was she just collateral damage? Same as my friend and his family?"

For years, the question had lived in my mind like a ghost — always lingering, always whispering when I was alone. Why? Why would Darius, my father’s closest friend, betray him like that? The man he trusted more than anyone?

My father never wanted glory. He wasn’t chasing power or position. All he ever wanted was to bring her back — my mother. His mate. She was everything to him. The story I believed for so many years was that rogues took her — stolen away under the cover of darkness while I was helpless to fight them and my father was buried in the chaos of preparing for a royal visit. A visit he believed would change everything. A visit Darius had no intention of letting him be part of.

Now, after seeing the truth through Darius’s own memories, it all made sense — in the most horrifying way. And no matter how much I wished I could, I couldn’t unsee it. The truth didn’t just sting. It was venom, burning slow and deep, twisting everything I thought I knew into something unrecognizable.

He staged it.

He pulled the strings behind it all — the kidnapping, the destruction, the carefully crafted storm that tore through everything I knew. Every move, every lie, every scream in the dark... it was all part of his design. A calculated plan to rip me away from the people I loved.

Why?

Jealousy.

Obsession.

A desperate craving for something that was never his to claim.

Me.

It was never about love. Not need. Not even revenge for my father claiming the woman he wanted but could never have.

No — what he wanted was control. Ownership.

He didn’t see me as a person. I was a prize. A possession.

And in his twisted mind, the only way to make me his...

was to shatter my family, and by so doing, shatter me.

Darius’s mouth fell open, and the color drained from his face like spilled paint swirling down a drain. Empty. Pale. Caught.

"How could you be so utterly pathetic?" I hissed, the words sharp with contempt.

"You’re... inside my head," he breathed, eyes wide, as if he’d just woken up inside a nightmare he couldn’t claw his way out of.

I leaned in, slowly, until my breath skimmed the edge of his skin, cold and electric.

His eyes didn’t dare blink.

"Now you believe me."

Jasmine hissed, barely able to contain herself.

"Please, Mara. Let me maim him. Just one toe. That’s all I ask."

I didn’t answer her. I didn’t have to.

Instead, I whispered, cold as the grave,

"You haven’t even begun to feel what you deserve. You think this cell is punishment?"

I let a soft chuckle roll from my lips. It was colder than any scream. "Oh no, Darius. This isn’t the punishment. This—"

I stepped closer, meeting his terrified gaze.

"—this is just the invitation."

I stepped closer again, until my lips were beside his ear. I whispered the sentence like a promise wrapped in silk.

"You will be publicly tortured," I said, voice steady as steel. "Branded like cattle. Paraded through the streets while the entire kingdom watches you crumble. Your name? Your pack? Reduced to ash and memory. And then—only then—will I decide if death is even a mercy you deserve."

Darius trembled. His lips parted—maybe to speak, maybe to beg.

I didn’t let him get that far.

In a blink, I was gone.

One heartbeat I stood before him, and in the next, I was at Zane’s side—my fingers gripping his arm like it was the only thing tethering me to the earth.

The silence that followed hit like a cannon blast.

Griffin’s eyes widened. He looked at me like I’d grown wings. Or a third leg.

Michael looked pale, his expression twisted like he was trying hard not to throw up.

Even Zane... Zane looked at me with something raw in his gaze. Awe, fear, maybe something deeper. Like he didn’t know if he should hold me close or step away.

"Natalie," Griffin finally breathed. "What the actual hell are you?"

I tilted my head, smiling like a sunbeam dipped in blood. "The girl you rejected, remember?"

Michael choked on his own breath.

Zane’s jaw locked, his voice so small I almost didn’t catch it. "What did you see?"

My smile slipped, just a little. "Too much," I murmured.

In his arms, Alex stirred, blinking down at me through heavy lashes. "Mommy Natalie okay?"

My heart caught. I leaned down and kissed his forehead, grounding myself in that tiny moment of softness.

"Yeah, sweetheart. Mommy’s okay."

But when I turned away from Alex, I was already shifting into something else again—something colder, sharper.

I turned to Griffin, my voice sugar-sweet and dipped in mockery.

"We should get moving, darling. I still owe you a cure for that messy little Shadow dilemma of yours, don’t I?"

He blinked, stunned. "Right. Uh... yeah. Sure. Absolutely."

I still needed answers. Real ones. What had Shadow offered Griffin—what promise, what twisted deal—was enough to make him bring something as foul, as damned, as a Soul Sucker into my home?

Into my home.

The betrayal burned at the edges of my thoughts like acid.

Because no one plays me for a fool.

Not anymore.

Not ever again.

I reached out and grabbed Zane’s hand.

"Hold on," I said.

He stared at me, eyes unreadable—like he was seeing someone entirely new. Then, slowly, he wrapped his fingers around mine. Firm. Certain.

Griffin and Michael stood frozen behind us, like statues in the middle of a battlefield. I didn’t wait for permission. I didn’t need it.

I closed my eyes, inhaled deeply—and let the energy rise. It rolled through me, ancient and wild, drawn straight from the marrow of my bones.

In the back of my mind, Jasmine howled.

"We will get them all, Mara. Every last person who hurt you."

The light erupted around us like a second sunrise.

And just like that—

The dungeon disappeared.

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