The Lycan King’s Second Chance Mate by Sumi

ASHANTI'S POV.

Eerie, pin-dropping silence has been the state of this office ever since Rhea, Conrad and I walked in and greeted the Beta of the Lunar Crescent Pack.

Everyone is well-behaved, including my stepmom who never knows when to shut up. Even my father doesn't have the right to say a word unless permitted by the Lycan Beta. Everyone acts respectfully in the presence of him and the other Lycan soldiers he came along with.

The tension in this room is suffocating.

"Alpha Anderson." The Beta's thunderous voice sounds throughout the room and everyone looks at him. My heart starts beating fast.

"Yes, Beta Ronald." Father bows to him and I cringe.

It feels weird to see my father acting like a subordinate and not a leader to a Beta.

"Is everyone who's supposed to be part of this meeting, present?" His voice is calm, but carries so much power and authority.

If the Lycan Beta makes me tremble as such, I'm surely going to faint the day I'll meet face to face with their Alpha.

I hope that day never comes.

"Yes, Beta. We are all present." Father replies humbly.

"Good. I'm going to go straight into introducing the purpose of my visit." He looks around with searching eyes. I keep making sure my eyes never meet with his. "I am here to enforce the Concordat Ritual." He announces and my mind goes into a frenzy.

The Concordat Ritual.

heard of that from other older members of our pack who said that in the past, every few years, Lycans would go to various packs to pick out girls for their Harem, but that ritual stopped when their previous Alpha,

for the ritual." I glance at Rhea and she looks as horrified as

does he mean by

stepmom suddenly speaks up, startling me "we will be willing to offer you our eldest daughter, Ashanti. She will be the perfect candidate because she is an intellectual and a very brave fighter. What I mean is, she always has very high grades in school and takes first position

in awe, completely amazed by her ability to lie through

is an amazing

She was basically telling the

telling the truth already hurts my poor little sister. They had been ignoring my achievements all the time. My stepmom always tried to prove Rhea is

me look perfect in the eyes of the Lycan Beta so he can

are too afraid to admit it. When a girl is picked from a pack, the pack receives a fortune and protection from Rogues and other enemies from the Lycans. However, the chosen girl will be serving the men in Lunar Crescent Pack and we all know what that means. Any girl who refuses to go with the Lycans will bring

The Beta demands and my step mother quickly stretches her index finger in

nearly fall over when the Beta makes eye contact with me. I feel like my organs are

murmurs quickly and I release my breath when he looks away from me. His eyes stop

Rhea's direction. All the color

My stepmother stutters nervously. She turns to look at my father, but he kept his eyes

found my mate already." Rhea blurts out and my eyes widen in shock. I snap my head to look in her direction and the serious look she's wearing ignites

not mated to

Yet!

an intense look and she calmly nods

"His name is Conrad and he's my mate." The office is filled with

daring things before, but this

Lycan Beta. That is an offense punishable

travels over to Conrad and for a millisecond, I see a flicker of nervousness in his eyes. The expression on my stepmother turns from worried to relieved,