Alpha King's Fake Mate Wants Out

In the living room of the palace, Nora nervously twisted her fingers.

Outside of the floor-to-ceiling window, Ethan stood next to his car. I could clearly see him take out his phone and start reading the message.

One second passed, then two.

His previously indifferent expression froze the moment he saw the screen. First came shock, then his pupils contracted violently.

He stared at the photo as if he could burn a hole through it, and a storm of suspicion began to brew in his eyes.

After that, his thin lips slowly curled into a dangerous, mocking smile. The veins in the back of his hand were bulging.

Even from this far away, I seemed to hear the sound of the expensive phone screen cracking.

A terrifying, palpable rage swept through the entire courtyard, so powerful that even the crows perched on the trees scattered in a panic.

He saw it!

Now, all he had to do was step inside. Once he saw Nora, that fury would transform into a blaze that incinerated his past love for his fated mate.

Just then, the door slammed open with a kick. Ethan stormed in, bringing a hellish chill with him.

"Fre…"

But the moment his eyes landed on Nora, the angry man froze, and his pupils shrank. A strange, sweet scent suddenly exploded in the air. It was the unmistakable signal of the fated bond activating.

His long-dormant instincts were screaming, pushing him to rush at Nora, mark her, and claim her.

Nora, clearly feeling it too, shyly stood up to greet him. "Hi, Ethan. Long time no see."

As I watched the scene unfold, my heart swelled with excitement. I nearly burst into applause right there.

This was it! The sheer, awkward tension! Love was in the air! This was exactly what it looked like when love began to bloom!

"Now that the real deal is here, I'll leave you two to catch up," I said, struggling to hold back a grin as I played the part of the considerate ex.

I grabbed my bag and tried to slip away.

Freedom, here I…

"Stop right there." A cold, deep voice, void of any warmth, froze me in my tracks.

I turned around, surprised.

Ethan was staring at me. In his bloodshot eyes, there wasn't a trace of the tenderness he should have felt for his mate.

They held only the lethal fury of a beast whose domain had been trespassed upon.

Cold sweat beaded on his forehead. That was a sign of the sheer willpower he was using to fight back his body's instinctive biological response.

"Ethan?" Terrified, Nora looked at him with a look of utter helplessness.

Ethan took a deep breath and averted his gaze before instructing his butler, Romeo Sparks, "Take Ms. Nora to the guest room in the West Tower. No one is to disturb her without my permission."

The West Tower?

That was the most isolated part of the palace and the furthest from the master bedroom.

"W-What?" I was dumbfounded. This wasn't how the script was supposed to go! "Ethan, she's Nora! She's your—"

"To the study. Now."

Ethan ignored my protests entirely. His hand clamped around me like an iron vice, and he dragged me straight toward the second-floor study.

With a loud bang, the door to the study slammed shut, and I was thrown onto the couch. My heart pounded in my chest.

I curled into the corner of the couch, rubbing my wrist. I tried to comfort myself, thinking that at least we were in the study and not the bedroom.

We would be discussing something important in the study, right? Like breaking our mate bond?

But before I could calm my thoughts, his towering figure loomed over me.

Ethan didn't head for his desk chair like he usually did. Instead, he dropped a knee onto the couch and forced his long leg between mine with overwhelming dominance.