All Chapters of TRADING MY CHEATING HUSBAND FOR THE LYCAN KING: Chapter 301 - Chapter 310

EMBER’S POVHundreds of soft, gold candles climb the walls in little glass holders. Overhead, string lights are looped through the vines like something pulled straight from a dream.In the centre of the space sits a low table set for two, decorated with actual flowers. Peonies. My favourite. A detail I mentioned exactly once, in passing, on a plane.Soft music plays from somewhere out of sight. A bottle of something is chilling in a bucket. A plush blanket is spread across the floor like the world’s most decadent picnic.The whole room glows with a warm, intimate beauty.I stand there, completely frozen, staring at the single least dangerous room I have ever been shoved into in my life.And standing around the edges of it, beaming at me, are Marjorie and Hale.And they are laughing.Marjorie has both hands pressed over her mouth and tears in her eyes from how hard she’s laughing.Hale is clapping, actually clapping, delighted as a child at a birthday party.And Knox — I turn around, a

EMBER’S POVHe takes my entire weight, sinking to the floor with me until we are tangled together on the thick blanket, right in the centre of that warm, golden pool of candlelight.He pulls me across his thighs, shifting his massive frame until I am completely caged in his lap.He is overwhelmingly large, a man built for violence, handling me like I am made of spun glass.One of his heavy, warm hands slides under my hair, his long fingers cupping the sensitive nape of my neck to tuck my head under his chin.His other arm bands tight around my waist, pressing me flush against the solid wall of his chest.He buries his face in the curve of my neck, inhaling deeply as if my scent were oxygen, holding me securely.I grip his shirt, utterly enveloped by his blinding heat and the grounding, intoxicating scent of him.His thumb traces slow, devastatingly gentle circles against my spine, anchoring me to the floor, to the room, to him.Under my ear, his heartbeat is a steady, enormous drum, a

EMBER’S POV“Ember—”“And it hurt. Because all this while, I’ve tried so hard to be that one thing. To prove everyone wrong about what they think I am. I’ve tried to be worthy, Knox.” And here it comes, the real thing, the bottom of it, and the tears are back. “Worthy. Just—worthy. Of being loved properly, for once. Of being a mother someday, a good one, not like mine. Of being someone who rose above all of it, the eight years with Gale and all of it, someone who mattered. I’ve spent my whole life clawing toward worthy. And this—this thing inside me, this ancient, powerful thing that’s supposed to be the answer to everything—looked at me and called me nothing.” I press my hand to my chest, to the place where she lives, quiet now, probably smug too. “Why give me this if I’m useless? Why put something that enormous inside someone too small to hold it? What is the point of me?”Knox is quiet for a long moment.And when he speaks, his voice is low, even, and absolutely certain.He bypasse

EMBER’S POV“You’re insane,” I manage, wiping my eyes.“For you. Comprehensively.” He pulls me back in against his chest, and I go, easy this time, no bracing left in me. “I love you. I should have said it before the candles and the heart attack. I love you, Ember. More than my own life. More than my own sense, clearly.”“I love you too.” I tuck my face into his neck. Then, because I can’t help it: “A little less than you love me, though.”He goes still. “Excuse me?”“It’s just math. You said more than your own life. I love you a normal, healthy amount. Possibly slightly above average.”“Slightly above—” He pulls back, genuinely affronted, and it’s so funny on his terrifying face that I start laughing again. “I orchestrated a heart attack and a hundred candles and got Marjorie to lie to your face, and you love me a slightly above average amount?”“The candles were nice,” I concede. “I’ll bump it to moderately above average.”“Moderately.”“Don’t push it or I’ll go back to slightly.”H

EMBER’S POVI sit with that. It’s enormous. It’s too big to hold all at once, so I do the thing I always do with things too big to hold — I set it down, gently, and reach for the thing I can do.“Then I should start reading,” I say. “Now. Today. While we wait for Friday.” I look up at him. “And while I’m in there, I might find something for Rayana. Something to buy her time. That’s worth a hundred dead birds, Knox. That’s a thing I can do with my hands and a book, not with the wolf. Let me try.”Something in his face softens, the worry losing to the part of him that, despite everything, can’t help but be a little proud of me.“Go read your terrifying books,” he says. “But two things.” He holds up a finger. “Avoid Hale. I’m going to look into the Celeste’s-room business properly, but until I do, you stay clear of her.”“Hale is unavoidable,” I point out. “She’s everywhere. She was outside my door yesterday morning with her precious muffins.”“Fair.” He concedes it with a tilt of his he