THE ALPHA KING THOUGHT HE’D PICK AN “UGLY DUCKLING” AT THE MATING AUCTION — BUT WHEN HE FINALLY SAW HER FACE, HE NEARLY DIED 👑🐺

Spring broke across Artoria, melting the snow from the mountain peaks and flooding the valleys with green life. But inside the royal palace, the atmosphere remained heavy with an unspoken, suffocating tension.

Claire avoided Elian for days after his confession, terrified of the lethal physics of his curse. Every time he entered a room, her heart twisted with a agonizing paradox: she wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around him and melt the ice in his veins, yet knowing that loving him was signing his death warrant.

Then, the physical reality of their union caught up with them.

It began with a wave of dizziness during breakfast. By the following week, Claire could keep no food down, and the royal physician was summoned in strict secrecy.

When the elderly wolf-shifter bowed low, a trembling smile on his wrinkled face, and announced that the queen was carrying an heir, the room seemed to spin.

Word reached Elian within the hour.

The king burst into Claire’s private chambers, his chest heaving, his face deathly pale. For a terrifying second, Claire thought he would be angry—that this new development would trap them deeper into a nightmare where loving him meant destroying him.

“Is it true?” Elian asked, his voice barely a breath as he crossed the room in two strides, dropping to his knees beside her chair.

Claire nodded slowly, her throat tight. “The physician confirmed it this morning. We are… we are going to have a child.”

Elian stared at her abdomen, his large, trembling hands hovering over her stomach as if he were afraid a single touch would shatter her. A tear broke free from his lashes, sliding down his cheek and dripping onto her lap.

“An heir,” he choked out, a ragged sound of pure, overwhelming relief mixed with raw terror. “You’re safe. The crown is secure.”

“And what about us, Elian?” Claire asked, her voice cracking as she looked down at him. “Now that there is a child… do you want me to leave? Do you want to return to our arrangement?”

Elian’s head snapped up. His gray eyes burned with a sudden, fierce intensity that defied the ice in his blood.

“Leave?” he growled, gripping her hands tightly. “I would burn this entire kingdom to ash before I ever let you walk out of my life, Claire. I tried to distance myself. I tried to obey the curse. But every day you sat by my hearth, every time you challenged my mind, every breath you took in this palace… I was already lost.”

“Elian, no—stop!” Claire cried out, pressing her hands against his chest. “Remember the curse! If you say it—if you love me—”

“I don't care about the curse anymore!” Elian shouted, the barriers of a lifetime shattering in a single, magnificent moment. He gripped her face in his hands, staring directly into her eyes with absolute, unwavering devotion. “I love you, Claire. From the moment I pulled back your hood in that wretched hall, I have loved you with every drop of my blood and every beat of my frozen heart.”