EX-HUSBAND'S REGRET: DIVORCED AND CLAIMED BY THE LYCAN KING

Ottomir's POV

"Let's say your plan works, you can't easily rule over all packs in the city," Ashu said, his voice cutting through the silence.

He had that annoying tone of his.

Always trying to sound logical.

I gritted my teeth and felt an ache in my jaw from the tension.

My eyes were fixed on the heavy oak doors at the end of the hall, waiting for the moment they would swing open to reveal Rex and Ren bearing his head. I didn't turn to look at Ashu.

"I may not be able to rule them all immediately, Ashu," I replied, my voice low and threatening. "But I assure you that with him gone, everyone would begin to look for who to replace him when all the Alphas fail. And they will fail. Do you know why, Ashu?"

"No, I don't." Ashu replied with sarcasm.

I chuckled dryly, clasping my hands behind my back.

"You make me laugh, Ashu. But to answer your question, any Alpha who rises to the supreme leader position will fail. They don't know what it takes to lead an army of packs. Once they realize this, they will demand a fit leader and that is me. Everyone would easily believe and trust me to lead them better because I won't ask them to hide. I won't ask them to beg for scraps of acceptance from a race that would burn us alive if they had the courage."

I finally turned to face Ashu, the flickering firelight catching in my eyes. "And when I finally become King, with the powers the goddess has blessed me with, I'd show these pesky humans that we'll always be more superior than them. We are the apex, Ashu. Never the livestock."

Ashu swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing in his throat.

"They don't know we exist..." he started to say, but the words died in his throat when he saw the sheer rage blooming in my eyes.

He took a half-step back, shaking his head.

"They're not all bad..." he added wistfully, his gaze drifting toward the floor.

I scoffed with disgust. I stepped toward him, invading his personal space until he was forced to look at me. "Stop mingling with that human minx, Ashu. They're not all innocent. They are a plague, and you are infected with their emotions."

Ashu's cheeks flushed an angry red.

He stared down at the floor, unable to meet my gaze.

I knew about the female human he was flirting with at work even though it would never get past flirting because our kinds did not mix with humans.

I hated that Ashu looked at humans and saw something worth a second chance, just like the King.

It made me want to rip the throat out of every human.

"For five hundred years now," I continued, my voice heavy with bitterness. "Our existence has been nothing but camouflage. We have worn their clothes, spoken their languages, and followed their pathetic laws. We cannot be the creatures we're truly born to be. This is hell, Ashu. A cage is still a cage, no matter how pretty it is."

I withdrew from his personal space and paced the length of the living room. "And the King is too blinded by diplomacy to see it. He thinks existing among them and hiding our true nature will make them accept us? He thinks if we play nice for another thousand years, they'll continue to invite us to their dinner tables instead of their operating tables?"

"But that's the point," Ashu replied begrudgingly, his voice dropping as if the walls themselves might be listening. "So many of us died all those years ago because humans didn't understand us. The wars... they were efficient at killing us when they knew what we were. The King's strategy is why we're still alive till this day. Don't you understand?"

I stopped pacing and looked at him ruefully.

The memories of the war burned in my mind. I could still smell the burning fur and hear the screams of our kind as the humans' blades cut them deep.

"And that's why we should kill them all instead of blending in and hiding in the shadows, pretending to be one of them," I countered. "We don't need their understanding. We need their extinction. Or at the very least, their total subjugation. Besides, they made other humans slaves. We can do the same."

Ashu avoided my gaze as the atmosphere grew deadly silent.

He knew I was right. Any were or other in their right senses would know I am right. Humans deserved to be extinct. Their kind spread diseases and hatred wherever they go.

I turned back to face the door.

The King would be dead by now. Rex and Ren are one of the most skilled warriors in the Hikers' Pack.

"Do you really think they will do it?" Ashu's voice creeped up behind me.

"The king has never once treated us badly. You shouldn't do this to him, Otto."

I scoffed at Ashu's remark.

"Sometimes, Ashu, one has to cut off a finger to let the other fingers survive. Our King may be good to us, but he is not good for us. Not when we're behaving like humans."

Suddenly, a massive clap of thunder rocked the sky at my response.

Could the moon goddess agree with me?

At that exact moment, the heavy oak doors at the end of the hall swung open with a violent force.

The cool, wet storm air rushed inside, putting out the last embers in the hearth and sending a sudden chill through the room. I stood tall, my heart racing with anticipation.

Two figures emerged from the shadows, and my excitement quickly turned to disappointment.

Atticus stepped in first, looking drenched but perfectly alert.

Right behind him was the King, walking with a steady, powerful stride that seemed to defy the fact that the storms made him weak

He did not look like a man who had been attacked. If anything, he looked very agile and just as alert as Atticus.

When the light in the hallway hit his face, my blood turned to ice.

The King looked stronger than I had ever seen him on a normal day. His eyes were not dull and he didn't look like someone that wouldn't be able to catch the whiff of a jasmine scent from miles away.

Instead his eyes glowed with a predatory fire and then my eyes caught a limp figure in his arms and I almost faltered.