The Lycan King’s Mark (Nevara) by Tiffanie L. Campbell novel Chapter 93

Chapter 93 Secrets at the Doorstep

Nevara

Michelle and I exchanged a glance before hurrying down the hall. My pulse was already picking up, some dark part of me bracing for impact. The kind that hits before you even know what’s coming.

I didn’t like it. Something about it was… off. Not dangerous exactly. But loaded. Like a locked box rattling from the inside.

When we reached the foyer, Sabrina was waiting by the doors, arms crossed but polite.

“She’s still outside,” she said, jerking her chin toward the massive double doors. “Refused to step inside without him present. Said she didn’t want to be accused of anything.”

“Accused of what?” Michelle asked.

“She wouldn’t say.” Sabrina shrugged. “But she’s not hostile. Just… firm.”

I pushed open one of the doors and stepped out into the courtyard.

The woman stood at the edge of the stone steps, her posture stiff but composed. She had her arms around a small child, maybe three or four years old, with tousled dark curls and pale golden skin. His thumb was tucked into his mouth, but his eyes-bright, honey-brown and unusually serious-tracked everything.

Her gaze snapped to mine immediately.

“I’m Nevara,” I said as Michelle stepped beside me. “Thoren’s fiancée.”

Her expression barely flickered. “I know who you are.”

“I was told you wouldn’t say what your visit was about.’

“That’s right,” she said calmly. “I’m here to speak to Thoren. Not anyone else.”

Michelle stepped forward, ever the poised diplomat. “We’re happy to relay a message or offer

a space to wait. But without a little more context, it’s difficult to-”

“My name is Bethany,” the woman said suddenly. “This is my son, Jonas.”

Michelle blinked, “Bethany…?”

“I was a personal steward to King Cedric,” she said, lifting her chin. “I lived here. I worked here. I know this place better than most.”

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Michelle’s brows drew together. “But I thought you-”

“I left,” she cut in. “After certain… complications made it impossible to stay.”

+25 Points

I looked down at the boy clinging to her leg, my stomach tightening. His little hands fisted in the hem of her coat, and I couldn’t shake the way he stared at me-like he knew something I didn’t.

“You said your son’s name is Jonas?” I asked, my voice careful.

She nodded once.

“Bethany,” I said slowly, “I’m asking you directly-as the woman Thoren is going to marry- what is this about?”

She hesitated. For the first time, something vulnerable flickered across her features.

Then she looked down at her son and ran a hand through his curls. “He has a right to know,” she murmured. “Thoren deserves to hear it from me. Not secondhand. Not in whispers.”

Michelle stepped closer, her tone still even but sharper now. “Are you saying Thoren is the father?”

Bethany didn’t answer right away.

She looked up at me.

Then at Michelle.

Then back at the child.

“Yes,” she said finally. “Jonas is Thoren’s son.”

The world went quiet. Like someone had yanked the sound out of it.

I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.

The boy turned and looked up at me again-those honey-brown eyes filled with questions. Eyes that suddenly felt too familiar,

“He was conceived before Thoren became king,” Bethany added. “And I never asked anything from him. But now… things have changed.”

I swallowed, the air catching painfully in my throat.

Michelle’s hand brushed mine, grounding me.

I barely felt it.

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Chapter 93- Secrets at the Doorstep.

“Why now?” I asked hoarsely. “Why show up now, after all this time?”

+25 Points

Bethany met my eyes, unwavering. “Because he’s about to marry you. And before he binds his life to yours, I think he should know what he left behind.”

My voice cracked as I forced the words out.

“I’m his fated mate.”

Bethany’s jaw tightened.

“We found each other four years ago,” I continued, barely hearing myself. “And he’s never

been with anyone else. He told me he showed me-that he was waiting. That he saved himself for his mate.”

Bethany didn’t blink.

Her expression didn’t shift. But I saw it in her eyes-that sharp flash of pity that landed like a slap.

“It was before you,” she said simply. “Before the two of you found each other.”

I shook my

head. “No. You don’t understand. Even after the bond was formed-after he

rejected it he still didn’t take anyone else. He told me.”

“And maybe he meant it,” she said softly. “But the truth is… once he realized who you were, he wouldn’t see me anymore. He wouldn’t even look at me. I was cast aside. Silenced. Like I’d

never existed at all.”

Her voice trembled, but her spine stayed straight. The little boy, Jonas, clung to her leg, peeking up at me with wide, curious eyes.

“I left because I couldn’t take it,” she went on. “I had nothing here. No future. No voice. And I was pregnant. I didn’t tell a soul. I just… vanished.”

Michelle stepped closer, her brows furrowed, glancing between us.

Bethany took a deep breath. “I gave birth to a son. And that child is Thoren’s. That makes him the rightful heir to the throne, Ahead of any children you two may have.”

The courtyard spun.

It was too much. Too fast, My heart thundered behind my ribs, all reason bleeding into noise. A bastard child? An heir?

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think,

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The doors behind us opened, and I heard footsteps-measured, steady, familiar.

A hand slid along my lower back, warm and grounding.

+25 Points

“Is everything all right over here?” Thoren asked, his voice low and casual. “You all look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Bethany stared at him. Her eyes flared wide, like she’d been slapped. “Are you seriously going to act like you don’t know me?”

Thoren’s brows pulled together.

He looked her over-head to toe-then down at the boy.

And I felt it, the exact second the confusion hardened into something colder.

His hand didn’t leave my back, but his tone shifted. “I’m not acting.”

He met her gaze directly, calm but unflinching. “I don’t know who you are.”

Bethany flinched.

For a heartbeat, none of us moved.

The little boy tugged on her coat and whispered something I couldn’t hear. Bethany bent, scooping him up without looking away from Thoren.

“You don’t remember me?” she said, her voice sharp now. “You really don’t?”

“No,” Thoren said again. And this time it wasn’t just confusion. It was deliberate. Absolute.

“I’m Bethany,” she hissed. “I lived here. I served your father.”

Thoren’s face didn’t change. But I felt it in the tension of his body behind me.

Michelle stepped forward, suddenly the voice of reason in the chaos. “Maybe we should all take this inside. There’s a child here. Clearly there’s been some… confusion.”

Bethany’s laugh was bitter. “Confusion? You mean convenient amnesia?”

Thoren stepped forward, hand dropping from my back as he moved in front of me. “You say he’s mine?”

Bethany nodded tightly. “You used to visit the east wing where the stewards lived. Where I lived.”

“I’ve never touched a steward in my life,” he said coldly.

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I felt sick.

Bethany’s mouth flattened. “Well, I didn’t make him alone.”

“And you’re just now coming forward? After three years?”

+25 Points

“Because I didn’t want anything from you!” she snapped. “I didn’t want to be dismissed again. But now? Now the woman you rejected is your mate. And if you’re going to make her queen… then the truth has to come out. Jonas is your son.”

Thoren didn’t speak.

He just stared at her. At the child. And for the first time since he’d stepped outside, I saw something flicker behind his eyes.

But it wasn’t recognition.

It was fury.

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