Ava’s POV
Meeting the king again was something I knew was bound to happen. The last time we had met each other, he had refused me because I was a human and mated to his sons. A human mated to the soon-to-be Lycan king. His attitude toward me made me question his authority and asked him to bow before him. Because of our first encounter that had gone wrong, he had despised me. After knowing I was a Lycan, I had thought he would accept me, but I was wrong. He still refused to acknowledge me. I had hoped he would forgive me and accept me as his daughter-in-law.
After the king dismissed us, it was time for us to leave the palace.
“Baby, I need to go home with my father,” I announced.
“We’re going to miss you, honey,” Ethan said as he hugged me.
“Me too. I will miss you guys as well,” I replied. My father was full of smiles, and he was getting impatient.
He announced, “Darling, we need to be on our way.”
“We will come every day to check on you,” they both said.
“Okay!!! Bye.”
After they let go of me, I said goodbye to them. My father helped me with my bags before driving us home.
“Home Sweet Home, darling,” he grumbled, parking the car. The maids helped me with my bags. My father and I both walked inside.
“I will ask the maids to prepare some delicious meals for you,” he muttered. But first, you need to take a shower.
“Okay, Dad,” I replied. I headed for my room. It was still beautifully decorated. It had been well-cleaned. I guessed my father had asked the maids to clean up my room.
I stripped off my clothes and walked to the bathroom to take a warm shower.
“This feels good,” I moaned.
Minutes later, I was done showering. I picked up my favorite clothes to put them on. I walked down the stairs only to meet my father serving the food.
“Father, what are you doing?” I asked.
“You are here, my beautiful daughter, Anne. I’m serving your food,” he answered.
I smiled and said, “You don’t need to do that. I can serve myself, Father.”
“Never, I will be the one to serve my darling daughter,” he said. “Here, take your seat.”
I took my seat, and my father kept feeding and feeding me until I could no longer stand up.
“Father, I’m okay. I can’t eat any longer,” I told him.
“Why? I want you to eat well. You look so skinny, Anne,” he murmured.
“Father, I’m already full. I can’t eat anymore. I’m sorry,” I confessed.
“Okay. You don’t need to be sorry, darling,” he asserted. “I’m sorry for forcing you to eat so much. How are you, Anne, and how’s your mate treating you?”
“Father, I told you they were so good to me. They were kind and treated me with respect,” I said. “I’m so blessed to have them as mine.”
“Okay! I feel relaxed now. With your father here, no one is going to treat you badly!” he said. “I forgot to tell you that your sister is coming home with her mate to visit.”
“Really? I can’t wait to see her.”
After chatting with my father for so long, I excused myself to rest in my room. Just as I was about to sleep, my phone rang.
“Oh, my God! Who the hell is this?” I mumbled under my breath. I picked up my phone to check who the caller was. It was my mate, Ethan.
I picked up, “Hello!!”
“Hi, baby,” Ethan’s voice whistled. “I just called to check on you. How are you?”
I replied, “Thank you for calling me. I’m fine, and you?”
“I’m fine as well, just that I fucking miss you a lot,” he replied.
“You miss me?” I asked. “But we just parted our ways not quite long.”
“I miss you every minute that passes,” he uttered. “I miss you, dear mate.”
“I miss you too. How’s Aiden?”
“Aiden, he’s with our father,” he said. “Do you want to talk to him?”
“Yes, tell him to call me when he’s back.”
“Okay, I will do that. We’ll talk later,” Ethan murmured and ended the call.
Aiden is with the Lycan king. I know well that the king feels hostility toward me.
Will he convince them to reject me?
Aiden’s POV
“Are you sure she’s the right one for you?” my father inquired.
After saying goodbye to our mate and her father, my father’s mind linked me to meet him in his office. I knew it was probably not a good thing he wanted to discuss with me. I knew he was against her because she questioned him. We thought he was going to accept and forgive her because she’s the daughter of his friend, but we were wrong. He only pretended to forgive her just because of her father, Chris. He still held grudges against her.
“Yes, she’s the right one, father. We already accepted her, and our Lycans have recognized her as their mate and queen,” I said. She’s carrying our mark.
“I don’t think she’s fit to be the Lycan Queen,” he declared. “She lacks manners, and her behavior says contrarily.”
“Father, we chose her, and I apologize on her behalf,” I said. “I know you are still angry because she disrespected you. She’s sorry.”
My father sighed, “I think you have already made up your mind about her. My words won’t count or change your mind. You can introduce her as your mate and your soon-to-be queen to other members of the pack.”
My face shone with joy. I was so happy my father finally accepted her.
“Thank you, Father,” I said. “Thank you for accepting her.”
My father raised his eyebrows. He was unhappy.
“Don’t get me wrong, boy. I only let her be because you are already determined to make her your mate and queen. I never told you I accepted her as my son’s wife. She’s not fit to be my daughter-in-law, and I will never allow her to call me father.”
“What!!!” Father, this is unfair. Why would you do that to us? She’s our mate. Anne is also your daughter.”
“Look here, Mr. Man, I only have one daughter. Her name is Isabella. Anne is your mate and Chris’s daughter. She’s not my daughter,” he seethed. “I don’t want to talk about this. You should be happy I didn’t ask you to make her your mistress. You are dismissed, son.”
Our father is so wicked. How can he be so mean to us and our mate? If he doesn’t acknowledge her as his daughter-in-law, how can the members of the pack accept her as their queen? No one is going to respect her. How can she call him king when he’s her father-in-law? This is pure evil. I’m unhappy about his decision.
“Hey, brother, guess who I just called!” Ethan asserted.
Who else could he call if not our mate?
“What’s wrong, brother? Ethan asks. Don’t tell me father is trying to stir up problems for us again. Don’t tell me he’s asking us to reject our mate. If yes, I will denounce myself as the prince of this kingdom. I’m going to turn rogue and take my mate with me.”
“What are you saying, Ethan? He never told me to reject our mate.”
“Then why are you so unhappy? It’s all written on your face,” he said.
“He asks us to introduce her to the pack members,” I replied.
Ethan’s face shone with happiness. He was very happy.
“This is good news, brother,” he said. “Father has finally come to his senses and forgives her. He already acknowledges her, so why are you feeling unhappy?”
I sighed before replying to him, “He only asks us to introduce her and make her our queen, but she is not allowed to call him father. He said she is not fit to be his daughter-in-law.”
“What!!!” He screamed. “What’s he thinking? Is our mate’s father, not his childhood friend? Why is he doing this? Why is he so bitter toward his friend’s daughter? His ego and pride will send him to hell one day. He’s going to regret this one day. How will our mate be able to face the pack members when it’s going to be obvious to them that our father didn’t accept her? I fucking hate him for doing this to us.”
“Take it easy, Ethan. Everything is gonna be fine.”
Ethan was burning with rage. He was unhappy and mad at our father. His Lycan wolf was on the surface.
“If I were you, I would keep my wolf at bay. “You don’t want to wake up a sleeping demon by provoking him,” I advised him. “What if he asks us to accept and keep her as our mistress? What are you going to do about that? Tell me. We should be thinking of what to do to make him accept her. Our mother had no problem with her.”
“You are right, brother,” he said, calming down. “I think we need to come up with a plan for him to accept her. I know it’s not going to be easy to conceive him, but we’re going to give it a try.”
“Yes, we will try our best for him to accept her. So tell me, who did you call?” I inquired.
“I called her. I called our mate, and she wants to talk to you,” he said. “I guess she’s missing us as we do.”
“Really? She misses us!” I exclaimed. My worries disappeared as soon as I heard this. “Please call her; I need to talk to her right away.”
Ethan dialed her number, but it was not reachable. He kept calling her but to no avail.
“Something is wrong!” he said. “We need to go check on her.”
“I agreed.”
We stepped out of the palace before changing into our wolves and running towards her home.
We changed into the clothes we brought along with us. We pressed the bell, and the maid opened the door for us.
“My princes,” she said, bowing her head.
“Where is she?” we asked her. “Where’s our mate?”
“She is home, my princes. She’s sleeping in her room,” she responded.
We quickly rushed to her room, following her scent. We opened the door and found her sleeping peacefully on her bed.
I spotted a soft kiss on her cheeks. She stirred, and her eyes went wide when she saw us.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, trying to sit.
“We were worried. Ethan kept trying your number, but it was not going through. We got worried, thinking something might have happened to you,” I explained.
“Is that why you rushed down here from the palace?” she asked.
“Yes, you were more important than our lives,” Ethan said. “We are your mate, and we have to protect you, darling.”
“This is so sweet of you guys, but as you can see, I’m alright. Thank you for rushing here just to check on me,” she smiled sweetly.
“We missed you, darling,” I announced.
She replied softly, “I missed you too.”