Chapter 90

Julian

There was a white hot pain shooting through my head. Like someone had stuffed a poker into the fire and then stabbed me through the eyes with it.

I grimaced back and even the soft pillows under my head felt like a torture device.

Just how drunk had I been last night but the answer to that question was pounding away against my skull.

I had been drunk. Not tipsy, but fall down black out drunk. Which was amazing because normally it was impossible for me to get more than a slight buzz. My wolf metabolism just burnt away the alcohol too fast to take effect.

That meant I had must have drunk the bar at the charity event dry.

Cranking open my eyes a slit I cried out again as blinding white sunlight set fire to my retinas. Had I got into bed without even pulling the drapes over the window? That was a rookie mistake but in my defence I hadn't exactly been in this position before.

Screwing my eyes shut against the light I tried to quieten my mind and that's when I heard it. The sound of the shower being turned off in my bathroom.

The sudden silence was deafening and more painful then any headache. Someone was in there.

Just how wasted had I been.

Lifting the blankets up I peered down the length of my naked body. Being nude wasn't a shock. I always slept that way. The bright pink lipstick smudged across my hip was was though.

I'd been so drunk I had taken a random woman to bed? Even after I had promised myself I would never ever betray Cassie now I knew who she was to me.

"Good morning my love."

My head snapped up as Megan came to a stop in the doorway. Her freshly washed hair dripping water down her naked body. She hadn't even bothered to grab a towel she just stood there in all her naked glory and smiled at me.

"I thought you were never going to wake up. I did think about -" she cocked out a hip and licked her lips. "Waking you up nicely."

There was no denying what she meant and I felt sick. Tearing my eyes away from the perfect lines of her tight body I swung my legs out of the bed. The room around me span.

I felt sick.

Not because of the hangover but because of what I had done.

"Are you ok?" She asked sweetly and it just made it worse. I was such a fuck up.

"Let me look after you Julian."

I could hear her soft footsteps coming closer to me and jumped to my feet. What ever had happened between us last night could never happen again.

"Please Julian." She moaned as I sidestepped her outstretched hand. "Why are you acting like this now?"

Risking a glance at her face I watched as a tear slipped down her cheek. She looked genuinely hurt.

"I just don't feel the greatest." It wasn't a lie. It wasn't the whole truth but it wasn't an outright lie. "I'm just going to shower. You should probably get dressed. Don't you have work today?"

Not that she had gone to her job for weeks and even before then she wasn't dedicated. She had a job that was meant to be Cassies. Just like she was in Cassies place in my home.

Megan was acting more and more like my luna with every day that passed and I hated it. I just couldn't get out of it.

Just a few more weeks of pretence and I wouldn't ever have to see her smirking face ever again.

Unless.

My heart slammed into my rib cage. I had slept with her. For real this time. What if that lapse of judgement resulted in a pup? I would be trapped with her forever.

"Did we?" I swallowed hard. My Adam's apple bobbing. "Did we take precautions?"

Megan's eyebrows slammed down. "No, why would we? We both want to start a family don't we?" She searched my face with her eyes and they narrowed. "I can already feel our baby growing."

That was impossible and we both knew it.

"I am going to be a great mum."

Debatable but I kept the frown off my face as she continued to smile up at me.

"And you will make an amazing daddy."

Also debatable I had made so many mistakes in the last year and they were costing me everything. I hadn't acted like a man, and made decisions a boy would make.

Losing Cassie changed all of that.

I could see what was right in front of my face now or more specifically I could see who wasn't and she was the person I needed more than anyone else.

"We are going to be so happy Julian." She took another step towards me and my phone started to ring.

Saved by the bell.

Snatching it up, I lifted my hand to silence her, "hello?" I didn't even care who would be bothering me on a Sunday morning.

"Your highness? It's the King. He's taken a turn for the worse ." A deep breath almost like the man on the other end of the line was afraid to say the next words. "You have to come quickly."

"I'll come right away." I muttered and ended the call. But I didn't move towards the shower. It was like I frozen in place my mind whirling.

If the king died then it would all land on me. All of it. And suddenly I didn't want it. I had been trained my whole life to rule and I didn't want to,

The king needed to live.

"What's wrong Julian?" Megan asked, "you look like you have seen a ghost."

I didn't say anything I just moved around her and headed towards the bathroom. I hadn't seen a ghost I had seen the future and if the king died it looked bleak.

"Get dressed Megan." I called over my shoulder. "Looks like today is the day you meet the King."