Chapter 3 YOU'RE TOUCHING MY WIFE

EMBER'S POV

The attendant's frantic knocks did nothing. Knox did not retreat.

In the span of a few breathless minutes against the cold porcelain, he dismantled every defence I had. He devoured and claimed me so completely that by the time he consumed my final, muffled gasp, the submissive wife I had been was gone forever.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

"Sir? Miss? I need you to open this door immediately!"

Knox finally pulled out and stepped back. The sudden loss of his heat left me shivering, my legs shaking so badly I had to grip the edge of the sink just to stay upright.

My thighs ached with a heavy, unfamiliar soreness.

He calmly adjusted his suit jacket and ran a hand through his dark hair, entirely unbothered, as if he hadn't just thoroughly ruined me. I, on the other hand, was a flushed, trembling mess.

He leaned down, his hand scooping up the torn scraps of my red lace from the floor.

Instead of handing my ruined underwear back to me, he slid the fabric into his suit pocket. A wicked smirk played on his lips.

"You won't be needing those for the rest of the flight," he murmured, his voice still rough. "I want you to remember exactly who just claimed you."

My face burned. This man had absolutely no shame.

Knox pulled open the door to face the mortified flight attendant.

The woman's eyes went wide the second she recognised him - everyone knew what the Lycan King looked like - and the colour drained completely from her face.

Knox slipped several crisp hundred-dollar bills into her trembling hand.

"For your discretion and excellent service," he said smoothly.

Then he walked back to his seat without a backward glance, leaving me standing in the bathroom doorway - breathless, entirely claimed, and acutely aware of the cool cabin air against my bare skin.

Oh, my Goddess. Oh, my Goddess. What did I just do?

This isn't happening. This can't be happening.

I just gave myself to the Lycan King. In an airplane bathroom. And now he was keeping my torn lace in his pocket like some kind of dark trophy.

I don't know how I made it back to my seat. My legs felt like lead as I collapsed into the leather upholstery.

The businessman in 3B was definitely smirking like he'd heard everything. The flight attendant wouldn't make eye contact, keeping her distance, her face flushed.

I refused to look across the aisle where Knox had returned to his seat. He was reading something on his phone, looking as composed as a CEO in a boardroom, while I was sitting here trying not to hyperventilate.

I had just broken my vows - even though my husband was literally tangled up with other men - with the most dangerous man in the werewolf world.

The Lycan King.

Gale's boss.

The man who could destroy both our packs with a single word.

I needed to process this. Needed to think. Needed to figure out what the hell I was going to do now.

My phone buzzed in my bag.

I pulled it out and saw an unknown number calling.

My finger hovered over the decline button, but a sick sense of intuition made me answer.

"Ember! Thank Goddess you picked up!"

Gale's voice made my entire body go rigid with rage. Sapphire snarled in my mind.

He was calling from someone else's phone since I had blocked him. Of course he was. Of course, he found a way around my boundaries.

"Don't hang up, please, just listen to me for one second-"

"I have nothing to say to you," I snapped, but he talked right over me like he always did.

"What you saw wasn't what you think!" His voice was high-pitched, hysterical, and manic. "I love you, Ember. I swear to the Goddess, I love you. Those men meant nothing. It was just stress relief; it doesn't count as cheating-"

Doesn't count as cheating?

DOESN'T COUNT AS CHEATING?

I could hear Logan Reeves coaching him in the background. "Tell her you'll go to therapy. Tell her you'll change. Women love that. Tell her it'll never happen again."

The audacity. The absolute audacity of both of them.

"You're calling me from Logan's phone?" I gasped, my grip on the device turning my knuckles white. "The same Logan who was tangled up with you two hours ago. Do you see the irony here, Gale? Do you?"

"Baby, please, you have to understand-"

"Don't. Call. Me. That."

"I was confused! I didn't know what I wanted! But I know now, I know I want you. I want our marriage-"

"What you want," I interrupted, my voice shaking with barely contained fury, "is for me to keep playing the perfect, obedient little omega wife while you do whatever you want behind my back. That's what you want."

"No! That's not - where are you right now? Just tell me where you are, and we can talk about this face-to-face. We can work through this together like adults-"

"Work through this? You want to work through the fact that I caught you utterly worshipping another man on our living room couch?"

"It wasn't - you're making it sound worse than it was-"

"How am I making it worse? They were laughing at me, Gale! Laughing about how pathetic I am!"

Gale's voice shifted. The panic bled out, replaced by a cold, calculating edge I knew all too well.

"Our marriage is a pact treaty, Ember. If you leave me, you destroy both our packs. Is that what you want? To be responsible for a war? Think about your parents. Think about everyone who depends on this alliance-"

"Oh, so now you're threatening me?"

"I'm not threatening you; I'm just being realistic. You can't just run away because you're upset. You have responsibilities. We both do. This is bigger than us-"

A large, warm hand wrapped around my wrist.

I startled and looked to my left. Knox had moved from his seat across the aisle and was now sitting in the empty seat right beside me.

His blue eyes were fixed on mine with an intensity that stole the air from my lungs.

When did he - how did I not notice him moving?

Before I could ask, before I could utter a single syllable of protest, Knox plucked the phone from my hand with the casual, terrifying dominance of a man who expected obedience without question.

My eyes went wide. "What are you-"

Knox put the call on speaker, holding the phone steady between us.

Gale's pathetic pleading filled the quiet space of our row.

"-I know I hurt you, but running away isn't the answer. Come home, and we'll figure this out. I promise I'll be better. I'll be the husband you deserve. I'll do whatever it takes-"

Then, Knox did something that made my brain completely short-circuit.

He slid his hand over my knee, his touch disappearing past the hem of my skirt to claim the most absolute, devastating leverage.

Right there.

In my seat.

With other passengers nearby.

With my husband on the phone.

I opened my mouth to protest, but only a strangled gasp came out. Knox's eyes met mine, wicked amusement swimming in that blue gaze as heat flared through my core.

"What the - are you okay, Ember? Why are you breathing like that?" Gale's voice sharpened with suspicion over the speaker. "Who's there with you? Is someone there?"

I couldn't answer. I couldn't form a single coherent word.

My nails dug into the leather armrest, my knuckles turning white as Knox drove me closer to the edge with a maddening, unhurried rhythm.

This was insane. This was absolutely insane.

I was furious - how dare he answer my phone, how dare he do this in public - but my body was melting into the seat, dangerously close to coming apart, and I couldn't find the breath to tell him to stop.

My hand gripped the armrest so hard it ached. I bit down on my lip until I tasted copper just to keep from making a sound.

Gale was still talking. "Ember, answer me! Who's breathing like that? Are you with someone? Tell me right now!"

Knox leaned down, his lips brushing my ear.

"Should I tell him? Should I tell your pathetic excuse for a husband exactly what I'm doing to you right now, and how desperately you want it?"

I shook my head frantically, eyes wide with panic and overwhelming heat.

Knox chuckled darkly and straightened up, his movements never faltering. Then he spoke into the phone, his voice cold and commanding.

"She heard you clearly, Gale. She's done."

Silence on the other end. Complete, dead silence.

Then-

"Who the hell is this?"

"The divorce papers are already being prepared by my legal team," Knox continued smoothly, as if discussing a minor business merger. "And I assure you, they're very thorough. Very expensive. You won't like the settlement terms."

My breath hitched, my free hand flying up to bite against my own fist.

Gale's breathing stuttered through the speaker. "Is that... no. No way. Is that King Knox Volkov?" He sounded like he was choking on the name. "What the hell is going on? Ember, what did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"What she did," Knox said, his voice dropping to a dark, possessive register, "is realise she deserves far better than a lying coward who doesn't even know how to satisfy his own mate."

Oh, my Goddess. He did not just say that.

"You son of a bitch! You think you can just swoop in and-"

"I don't think anything," Knox interrupted, baring his teeth. "I know. And here's what else I know: Ember will be far too busy screaming my name to take any more of your pathetic calls. Do not contact her again."

"You're touching her? You're touching my wife?! How long?!" Gale was screaming now. "I'll destroy you! I'll go to the Council! I'll-"

Knox ended the call and dropped the phone into my lap.

He didn't stop. The invisible pressure became firmer, more demanding. His dark eyes held mine, reading every reaction on my face as I fought a losing battle against the mounting tension.

I was right on the edge, trembling, trying desperately to stay quiet.

"Let go for me," Knox murmured, his voice a low, gravelly command. "While you think about how much better this feels than anything he ever gave you."

His words pushed me straight over.

I bit down hard on my fist, my entire body bowing against the seat as wave after wave of heat crashed through me. Knox held my gaze through every second of it, drawing it out until I was boneless and gasping.

Slowly, he withdrew his hand, cleaned it off, and straightened his cuffs with infuriating composure.

"Delicious," he said softly.

Then he returned to his seat across the aisle like he hadn't just unravelled me in the middle of a commercial flight.

I sat there trembling, unable to move, unable to think, my mind completely blank except for one repeating thought:

What the hell just happened?