A Dangerous Obsession
Chapter 44 - 43

Chapter 44: Chapter 43

Lost in a daze I wasn’t sure how I got back to my bedchamber.

I felt disconnected to reality.

My mind whirling with different kind of thoughts. It was like I was handed some sort of life sentence—something inevitable, something I couldn’t escape. The Lycan King’s interest was dangerous. If Sabastine’s warning was any indication, it was more than that.

But what was I supposed to do? Be... boring? Ignorable? So he would not have a reason to keep me around? I felt a pang of bitterness at the thought—after all, hadn’t I been precisely that? I had practically faded into the background these past weeks, keeping to my chamber, skirting around the others, even ignoring the barbed whispers that reached me, the sudden indifference that had crept into the servants’ eyes when they looked at me. None of it had made a difference. Yet, the Lycan King... Well, he hadn’t forgotten about me. And now, Sabastine’s words lingered like a dark omen: This is only the second time His Majesty has shown interest in a female. The last time didn’t exactly end well.

Lovely. Just lovely.

I didn’t have much time to dwell on Sabastine’s warning, though, because I barely had a chance to breathe before another knock sounded at my door. It was softer, lighter this time, as if the person on the other side were uncertain. Still, the timing felt suspicious, and I half expected Sabastine to have returned, to deliver some other darkly veiled threat.

But it wasn’t him.

The door creaked open, revealing the new maid. She lingered awkwardly on the threshold, clutching a small tray with a pot of tea and a single flower in a tiny porcelain vase. A white lily. It felt almost mocking, after everything. As if someone was playing a twisted joke, trying to remind me of James’s small gestures, back when the world felt a little less hostile.

"My lady," she began hesitantly, and I could tell she was trying to gauge my mood. There was a stiffness to her smile, the kind of forced politeness that came when someone wasn’t entirely sure where they stood with you. "I brought some tea... I thought you might like it."

I didn’t feel like drinking a drop of tea after what happened with Sabastine but I nodded, motioning for her to come in. "Thank you." I forced a polite smile, even though I could feel exhaustion tugging at me, making my limbs heavy. "Just leave it on the table."

She placed the tray down, glancing up at me with a wary sort of curiosity. And judging by the way her eyes darted around the room, like she was afraid to linger too long, I could tell she wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.

For a moment, I almost pitied her. She wasn’t unkind—she was just cautious, wary. It wasn’t her fault that she didn’t know how to act around me, that she hadn’t found her place in this twisted hierarchy yet.

But I was in no mood to make small talk. Not after Sabastine’s words, not with the weight of everything pressing down on me. So I kept my voice as neutral as possible. "You can go. I won’t need anything else."

She nodded quickly, clearly relieved, and backed out of the room without another word. The door clicked shut, and once again, I was left alone.

Alone, except for that damned lily staring up at me from the table, a mockery of the days when James had actually cared enough to leave flowers, of the days when I wasn’t drowning in all this... uncertainty.

I didn’t want to think about him—about any of them. But the more I tried to push it all away, the more it crept back in, little fragments of memories, bits and pieces that gnawed at me until I couldn’t ignore them.

The room felt stifling, the air too thick to breathe, and before I knew it, I was pacing, each step echoing in the silence, my thoughts churning with a mix of anger, frustration, and... something else.

And then, just as I was beginning to feel like I might crawl out of my own skin from the sheer weight of it all, the door swung open again. This time, there was no knock, no hesitant pause. Just the sudden, jarring intrusion of the Lycan King himself.

"Pardon my intrusion," he said, with a tone that somehow didn’t sound apologetic at all. His gaze swept the room in one slow, deliberate pass before finally landing on me, his signature smirk already tugging at the corners of his mouth.

My heart hammered as he closed the door behind him. I hadn’t expected to see him again so soon—certainly not twice in one day. The King wasn’t exactly fond of summoning me with any regularity, let alone making personal visits to my chambers. And the last time he had been here, well... things hadn’t exactly ended on a platonic note.

A sudden heat rose to my cheeks as I remembered that kiss—raw, unfiltered, leaving me both breathless and infuriated. The memory of his mouth on mine, the way his hands had gripped my shoulders as if he owned me... it was a kiss I hadn’t been able to shake from my mind, no matter how hard I tried.

You have to behave Layla! Behave!

But I forced myself to appear calm, meeting his gaze with as much composure as I could muster. "Your Majesty," I said, keeping my voice steady, though my stomach was doing nervous flips. "Twice in one day—should I be flattered or concerned?"

His smirk deepened, as if he could see right through my attempt at nonchalance. "Ah, flattery was never my strong suit." He took a few more steps into the room, his gaze never wavering from mine. "But you do raise a fair question." He tilted his head slightly, his eyes narrowing with that familiar, predatory glint. "Should you... be concerned?"