Alpha's Regret: Marked By The Lycan King

Estelle’s POV

“Finally!” Asher’s voice cracked with relief through the phone. “Estelle, how long were you planning on giving me the cold shoulder?”

I walked further away from Benedict, ensuring our conversation remained private. His desperate tone almost made me roll my eyes. I already regretted answering his call.

“I can’t believe you finally picked up,” Asher continued breathlessly. “I thought you were going to ignore me forever.”

“If you don’t have anything worthwhile to say, I’m hanging up,” I said flatly.

“Wait! Don’t hang up, please.” His voice took on that familiar pleading quality that used to make me feel guilty. Now it just annoyed me. “Estelle, I’ve missed you so much. We all have. Finn keeps asking when you’re coming home.”

I let out a cold laugh. “Finn has never missed me a day in his life, Asher. Don’t use him as an excuse.”

This man truly knew no shame.

His son hated me. Even though I dedicated my life to caring for the child as my own flesh and blood, Finn had never warmed up to me. To be fair, he saw me as the monster who replaced what should’ve been his mother’s position. Children didn’t understand pack politics the way adults did.

However, that also wasn’t an excuse for how rude and awful his behavior always was. For a time, I simply closed an eye to his unruliness because I thought he needed time, love, and care to open his heart to his adoptive mother.

It was only after I watched him interact with Hazel that I realized that Finn would never open his heart to me. He merely saw me as a villain. Asher’s attitude didn’t help either.

“That’s not true,” he protested. “And the pack is struggling without you. Moonveil needs you. I need you. When are you coming back?”

I scoffed. Asher had incidentally made his true intentions very clear. He didn’t want me back because he truly missed my company. He missed having a free maid to clean up after him at home, a full-time nanny to take care of his son, and an assistant who could make business decisions for him. Without me around, Asher had to do all those things himself, and more.

“I already told you my conditions,” I replied icily. “I want to be named as the official Luna of the Moonveil Pack. Those are my terms.”

Silence stretched between us. I could practically hear him scrambling for excuses.

“Estelle, you know it’s not that simple,” he finally said. “I’ve already announced that Moonveil has an acting-Luna, and—”

“Luna and acting-Luna aren’t the same thing,” I cut him off sharply.

“I don’t have the authority to—”

I laughed, the sound harsh and bitter. “You don’t have the authority? You’ve been going around introducing yourself as Alpha Asher for some time now. As the Alpha, who has the authority to name a Luna for the pack, if not you?”

“Well, yes, but—” 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

“I don’t have the time to play games with you, Asher, so let’s just be honest,” I said, pinching the skin between my eyebrows. “The only reason why you’re hesitant is that you’ve already promised the position of Luna to someone else, haven’t you?” My voice turned deadly calm. “I know you’ve been cheating on me with Hazel.”

His sharp intake of breath was audible through the phone.

“T-That’s not true!” he protested immediately. “Estelle, I would never—”

I rolled my eyes as he continued to search for an excuse.

“Is this because I made Hazel my Beta?” he asked. “As I’ve explained to you, it was only meant to be a temporary decision, Estelle. I only made Hazel the acting Beta because the pack needed one,” he rushed to explain. “There’s nothing between us. Estelle, you’re the only woman I love.”

“Nigel was a good choice for Beta,” I said coolly. “In fact, I heard he’s been handling all the Beta duties recently. Even some of the Luna while I’m gone. There was never a need to make Hazel the Beta in the first place.”

Asher remained silent.

“Unless, of course, you needed an excuse to invite her into the pack house and keep her close,” I continued. “I find it interesting that even I, your proper mate, don’t stay in the pack house, and yet some other woman does. With you, no less.”

“Estelle, please,” his voice cracked. “I can never replace you. You’re the only woman I love and want. You have to believe me.”

I laughed coldly. “If you really think that way, then you have to prove it.”

The truth was, I had no intention of returning to Moonveil. But if I was officially named Luna, with the way Asher was mismanaging everything, there was a high chance I could eventually gain control of the entire pack. It would also make it easier to transfer Moonveil’s valuable members to Blackmoon when the time came.

Even if none of that worked out, I wouldn’t be at a loss.

“Estelle,” Asher’s voice turned suspicious. “Is the reason you’re being so difficult because you found someone new?”

I frowned. “What?” I had expected him to find all sorts of excuses, but to flip the script on me wasn’t something I immediately thought of.

“Be honest with me,” he pressed. “Is it because of that man?”

“What man?” I asked, genuinely confused.

“That man!” His voice rose with anger and jealousy. “The one who answered your phone the other night! Are you unwilling to come back because of him?”