Defying the Lycan King

Chapter 243: Premium Quality

Valerie sat elegantly on the velvet sofa in her brightly lit living room, casually flipping through the glossy pages of a fashion magazine, when the front door burst open. Alicia walked in, her face twisted into a pout.

Valerie looked up from her magazine, her eyebrows knitting together as a deep frown settled over her features. She glanced at the wall clock. "What are you doing back from the packhouse so early? You’ve only just left."

Alicia let out a dramatic whine, folding her arms tightly across her chest as she walked further into the room. "Kai’s girlfriend is in the packhouse."

Valerie sat up sharply, tossing the magazine onto the coffee table. "What do you mean, Kai’s girlfriend? Aren’t you supposed to be his only girlfriend?"

Alicia looked at her mother, letting out a very long, exhausted sigh, before slumping heavily down into a nearby armchair. "Kai has a werewolf girlfriend, Mum, and you know it. It’s that ginger girl, Jessica. Everyone in the packhouse is treating her like royalty."

She tossed her head back against the cushion, looking completely defeated. "Honestly, now that the Lycans are making peace with the werewolves, I don’t even see the point of fighting for him anymore. It is a total waste of my energy. He doesn’t even see me when I walk into a room."

"Spit that nonsense out right now," Valerie snapped, rising to her feet. "What is that rubbish you’ve just said? Do you have any idea how hard I’ve worked to position you in that Alpha’s family? Since I couldn’t get in there myself, you were my way in, and now you want to ruin everything with this defeatist nonsense?"

She jabbed a finger at her daughter. "Let me remind you, child. The Mondragons aren’t merely our Alpha family. They’re directly related to the royal family itself. Kai alone has wealth that doesn’t even come from the family business. He’s young, talented, and every woman’s dream. You are not giving up on this. I won’t allow it."

She snatched up Alicia’s handbag. "Now get up. We’re going to that packhouse together. Right now."

Alicia stared at her. "But Mum, one of the maids told me they’re having an intimate family dinner tonight. We can’t just barge in on that."

Valerie stared right back, entirely unmoved.

"That is all the more reason we should be there, you silly girl. Stand up, fix your makeup, and come with me right now."

***

Jessica carried the ceramic casserole dishes toward the formal dining room, where the maids were already busy smoothing out the linen cloths and setting the cutlery for the evening meal.

She had volunteered to cook for the whole family tonight, a welcome-home meal for Angelica, who had just returned from her visit to Nana in Dravengard.

Soon, Angelica walked in, looking a bit weary from her travels but smiling warmly, followed closely by Alpha Tan, Kai, Tan’s Beta, and his Head Gamma.

They were all chattering casually among themselves as they took their respective seats around the long table, and the maids began to dish out the steaming food.

Jessica slid into her seat beside Kai, her heart doing a nervous little flutter as she beamed across the table at his mother. "Welcome back from Dravengard, Aunt Angelica. I made a special meal, just for you."

Angelica’s face warmed, and a wicked twinkle came into her eye. "How lovely. I only hope you didn’t mistake sugar for salt."

Jessica chuckled. "You’ll just have to see for yourself, won’t you?"

Kai and Jessica exchanged a glance, and under the table, his hand found hers and squeezed it slowly.

When the maids finished serving, everyone around the table waited, watching, as Angelica lifted her spoon and took the first taste.

She chewed and closed her eyes for a brief second, savouring the rich flavours in her mouth, taking her time about it, drawing out the suspense like a seasoned performer, while Jessica held her breath. Then, her eyes snapped open to look directly at Jessica.

"Wow. This is absolutely perfect!" She gave Jessica a hearty thumbs up. "Congratulations, my dear. You have officially passed the mother-in-law cooking test with flying colours!"

Jessica cheered, throwing both hands in the air, and the whole table erupted into laughter and applause.

"Everyone, dig in!" Angelica declared.

They all fell upon the food, and the compliments came rolling in from every side. The soup was delicious and thick. The meat was tender.

Kai beamed with pride and excitement as he watched his family and warriors thoroughly devour the food. He leaned back in his chair, a smug smirk on his face as he looked at his brother.

"See? I told you lot," he announced, "I always go strictly for premium quality."

Just as the dinner was reaching its peak of casual happiness, footsteps approached from the hall, along with voices. And soon, Valerie and Alicia appeared in the doorway, both dressed up to the nines.

"Well!" Valerie sang out. "It seems we’ve chanced upon a very good time."

She greeted the table, and the family greeted her back with varying degrees of warmth.

"We were just returning from an outing, my baby girl and I," Valerie went on breezily, "and I thought, why not drop in and greet my dear friend Angelica?"

She produced a bottle of expensive wine and presented it with a flourish. "But oh dear, it truly seems we are interrupting a very private, intimate family moment."

Angelica smiled. And in that smile was a woman who had just spotted a golden opportunity to introduce Jessica properly and tell her friend off in the politest way imaginable, all in one stroke.

"Thank you, my dear friend. I do appreciate the gesture," she said graciously. "Well, since you’re already here, why not join us for dinner?"

"It would be a pleasure," Valerie beamed.

She gestured for Alicia to sit, and the girl settled into a chair while a maid quietly began serving them.

Angelica cleared her throat, catching Valerie’s attention across the table, and gestured toward the ginger-haired girl sitting right next to her younger son. "My dear Valerie, since you are here, you must formally meet Jessica Ashfang." A perfectly weighted pause. "Kai’s special woman."

Kai beamed and squeezed Jessica’s hand openly this time, and the two of them looked at each other and laughed.

Alicia rolled her eyes and reached for a glass of juice.

Valerie’s smile stayed nailed in place, but her tone sharpened underneath it. "She’s beautiful indeed," she said. "But aren’t you at all worried, Kai dear, that your true soulbond might show up at the coming Red Moon Festival? It would be such a terrible shame to get attached to a girl only for fate to intervene."

Kai chuckled. "You needn’t worry yourself, Aunt Valerie. This woman sitting right here is my soulbond. The goddess has already spoken."

Valerie suddenly coughed violently into her palm, as she choked on her own spit, her eyes bulging as though Kai had just calmly informed her that the sky was no longer up.

A gamma reached over and handed her a glass of water, which she gulped down with as much dignity as she could salvage.

Kai, thoroughly enjoying himself, carried on. "In fact, we’re planning to marry during the Red Moon Festival."

Alicia’s fork clattered against her plate. "Didn’t you tell me you were too young to get married?"

Kai smirked. "That was because I hadn’t found the one yet. Now every ticking second we’re not officially bound feels like a waste of both our time."

Angelica developed a very sudden and very intense interest in her own meal, studying her soup as though it contained the secrets of the universe, while Valerie’s eyes swung toward her.

"My dear friend," Valerie said, her voice tight. "Have you approved of this?"

Angelica looked up from her plate, brows raised in mild surprise. "Who am I," she asked serenely, "to disapprove of what the goddess herself has approved?"

"But Alpha Tan here is still single," Valerie protested, changing tack with the desperation of a drowning woman. "Isn’t it a little strange for the younger brother to marry before the elder?"

Tan cleared his throat. "You needn’t worry yourself about that either, Aunt Valerie. My brother and I agreed long ago that we’d each wait for our soulbonds. We grew up watching the love between our parents, and neither of us would settle for less."

He shrugged easily. "It doesn’t matter in the slightest who finds his first. I’m not bothered by it, and I certainly won’t take a wife simply because society thinks I should marry first."

Angelica nodded along. "I completely support both of my boys in this. I would want nothing less than for them to experience exactly what the true, magical soul bond feels like."

Valerie sat there, her fork frozen over her untouched plate, feeling thoroughly, comprehensively betrayed. She had marched in here tonight with a whole strategy. Dismantle the little werewolf girl with the long, sweet history of Kai and Alicia. Remind everyone of childhood promises and family wishes. Plant her seeds and watch them grow.

What she had not bargained for, not in her wildest calculations, was the girl turning out to be his soulbond.

A soulbond!

How on earth does one compete against that?!