Claimed by the Mad Lycan King

"No, I don’t want to go," Seara said. She shut down Neriah’s attempt to convince her to go. "I don’t want to go."

"Seara, this will be fun," Neriah said enthusiastically. "You need to socialize more. It will be good for you."

"Do you know her?" Olivia caught up with the way Neriah talked. "Have you been friends for long?"

This time, Neriah shifted her attention to Olivia. "Yes. We have been friends ever since we were little. We came from Blackthorne City."

Olivia was human, so she couldn’t use the shifter term to explain their situation.

"Really?" Olivia’s eyes glittered with curiosity. She looked at Neriah with new interest, and her eyes shone brightly.

"Yes," Neriah said cheerfully as she got Olivia’s attention. "She was an adopted daughter from a prominent family in Blackthorne City."

"Blackthorne City? I have never heard of that place." Olivia furrowed her brows; she leaned over to show her investment in this conversation.

"That’s a small city three hours’ drive away from here."

"So, an adoptive daughter, huh?" Olivia’s eyes lit up, as if she just found an Easter egg. "How could the two of them meet?"

Meanwhile, Seara felt betrayed by the way Neriah was so casually talking about the past. Indeed, she had never asked her not to talk about the past, but given what she had gone through, Neriah should have known better than to bring it up in casual conversation.

.

She didn’t like this feeling of being helpless. She felt sick when she looked at Neriah, and Neriah looked surprised when she noticed that Seara stood up and glared at her sharply.

Who was this woman?

"Seara? I am sorry, did I say something wrong?" Neriah stood up too, but it was Jeremy who stopped her.

"I will take her back; you stay there," Jeremy said as he took Seara’s hand and walked away from the table. "What’s wrong with your friend?" he asked Seara when they were out of their earshot. "Is she always talking a lot like that?"

"I don’t know." Seara let Jeremy take her back to Zade.

"You need a better friend," Jeremy said in an annoyed voice. He was upset for Seara because even he knew Neriah had overshared the thing that she shouldn’t have mentioned in the first place. That girl must have lost her marbles if she thought she was important enough to mingle with them.

If it were not for Seara, who wanted Neriah to be here, she wouldn’t have set foot in this kind of place.

"I don’t have a friend," Seara replied bitterly. It hurt her as well to see Neriah’s behavior and how she tried to put her down while trying to get close to Olivia.

"It’s better that way. It is better to be alone than having bad company." Jeremy looked around for Zade, but he seemed not to be in the room.

He tried to mind-link the warriors to find out where the Lycan was, but they said he left ten minutes ago. It seemed that something urgent had happened, and he told Jeremy that he had to keep his eyes on Seara.

"Ugh." Jeremy scratched his head.

"What happened?" Seara asked. She was looking for Zade too. She wanted to go home.

"Something urgent seems to have come up, and Zade left for a while. I will stay with you until he comes." Jeremy took her to the table, but Seara saw Jane was not too far from them and she was alone.

"I want to be with Jane; you can go back to your friends." Seara smiled when Jane caught sight of her and waved her hand to invite her over.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I want to be with Jane," Seara reassured Jeremy and then walked toward Jane. She realized that there were a few people who wanted to talk to her, but they stopped in their tracks when they saw Seara didn’t even glance their way.

"Something upset you?" Jane asked. She handed Seara a glass of drink as she sat next to her.

"Maybe I am overreacting," Seara said. She accepted the drink and started telling Jane about what Neriah had done.

"You are not overreacting," Jane reassured her. "She crossed the line, and it is good for you to show her that you don’t like it. Maybe later, you can explain to her why her behavior was unacceptable."

Seara nodded. She stared at the performance on the platform and then glanced at Jeremy’s table. It seemed there was a heated argument there.

Neriah met her eyes, and she looked sad, but Seara had turned her attention back to the performance.

"Where is Zade?" Seara asked Jane after some time.

"He had... an emergency." Jane took Seara’s hand and squeezed it. "He will be back."

Seara wondered what kind of emergency Zade had; she felt there was something off, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

And suddenly, the fire alarm blared against the music in the hall. Everyone stood up, and they were on alert as they looked for an emergency exit.

"What’s going on?" Jane stood up; she took Seara’s hand with her. Her first instinct was not to let her out of her sight.

But it didn’t take long before three warriors came to them, and Jeremy also joined them to get out of there immediately.

"There is fire from the kitchen," one of the warriors replied.

"Where are my parents?" Jeremy asked him.

"They have been escorted out; don’t worry, Beta Ace and Gamma Zephyr are with them," the warriors replied.

"And who is with Zade?" Seara thought Zade was with Ace and Zephyr.

"The king went alone," the same warrior replied to Seara’s question.

"Do you know where he is?" Jane asked this time.

It was so crowded, but thankfully, they were not panicked, as they followed the emergency evacuation procedure in an orderly manner.

"No, Ms. Jane. The king went with the alphas from the three packs."