Alpha King's Fake Mate Wants Out

---- Chapter 10 Ethan continued, "I'm the strongest Alpha King, but in front of you, T'm nothing more than a coward starving for a love I can't have and too afraid to ever bring that love into the light." 'Those were the most searingly honest words I had ever heard. My heart felt like it had been scorched. Otherwise, why would it ache with such sharp, bitter pain? So... what I had mistaken for indifference and coldness was actually his way of protecting himself while harboring a desperate love?

"| know you're mad at me." Ethan began to undo the buttons of my collar and pressed a warm kiss over the steady beat of my heart. "When the chandelier fell at the gala, my instinct was indeed to save Nora, but I stopped. In that split second, my logic overrode my instinct. I was worried you'd cry if I saved her. "Maybe that's it. My instinct chose Nora, but my soul and all of me wanted to choose you, so | intentionally stopped. Even if the whole world misunderstood me, 1 didn't want you to see me holding another woman. But you still misunderstood.

You even think I'm disgusting..." At the word "disgusting", his body racked with even more violent tremors. He buried his face in my chest again. His tears quickly soaked through my clothes. "Your secret lover said you'd rather die than be with me. Is it true? Freya, am I really that terrible? Please... don't leave me. I don't even ask for your affection. I'll even accept you seeing someone else during the day. Just... don't stop coming home. Don't abandon me." Ethan's hands shook as he tried to undress me further.

He wanted to confirm I was still there in the most primal way, just as he always did. ---- But his movements were so slow and hesitant. With every button he opened, he paused to kiss the exposed skin, as if checking to see if 1 was still real. I lay in his arms, listening to this raw, bleeding confession. Tears slipped from the corners of my eyes, silently soaking into the pillow. So... this was the truth. Tt wasn't that he didn't love me. He loved me so deeply that he had fought his werewolf instincts just for my sake. And all this time, I thought I was just a stand-in.

Ethan was such an idiot. If he loved me this much, why didn't he just tell me? I couldn't pretend to be asleep anymore. I couldn't let the wolf who deserved my love the most stay trapped in his dark, hopeless despair. Just as he leaned in to kiss me, I snapped my eyes open. I reached up and cupped his tear-stained, shocked face in my hands. "You idiot." I sniffled and whispered, "If you love me, why didn't you say it to my face?" The air in the room froze. Ethan's pupils blew wide with shock. The sheer panic of being caught in such a vulnerable state made him look like he wanted to vanish.

He instinctively tried to wipe his tears and scramble off the bed. "No ... Freya, I was just-" "Don't you dare hide!" I gripped his face firmly, forcing him to meet my eyes. "You just called yourself a coward. You said you loved me. I ---- heard every word." Ethan stiffened, his ears turning a bright, visible red. "You... weren't unconscious?' "How could I hear such a beautiful confession if I were knocked out?" 1 looked at him, my eyes burning. "Ethan, did you really think I was that heartless? I wanted to believe every sweet thing you whispered to me in bed over these past three years.

"But I was too scared to do so. I was afraid it was just talk fueled by lust. I was afraid I was just Nora's stand-in. 1 didn't dare love a wolf who belonged to someone else, so I forced myself to lock my heart away. But now..." 1 leaned in and gently kissed the tears from the corners of his eyes. " Since you love me, I'm done pretending too. Ethan, I love you too." 'Those were likely the most beautiful words Ethan had heard in his, entire life.

A wave of pure ecstasy instantly drowned out the panic in his eyes, He lunged forward and pulled me into a crushing embrace, holding meas if he were terrified I'd disappear. "Are you serious? Freya, you're not lying? You love me? You're not just saying that to calm me down?" "love you! I love you more than life itself!" 1 gasped, nearly squeezed breathless. Ethan finally loosened his grip, though his gaze remained glued to mine. "Then... what about the other man?" He gritted his teeth, his tone turning heartbreakingly humble. "Since you love me, can you... break up with him?

I can tolerate his presence as long as you aren't intimate with him anymore."