Crowned in His Claws

Vera chose the crown. She ended what she had with Cassian, married his father instead, and had Cassian thrown into the beast pit and left there. He was half beast and everyone assumed the pit would finish him. He comes back from it, kills his father, and takes the throne with a great deal of blood spilled in the court. Vera, now the former queen, is the first person he goes for. He takes her into his own bed and keeps her there as his prisoner, and he swears that Lucian, the son she bore the dead king, will not live. Lucian is the legitimate royal heir and by every account a rival with no claim to Cassian's nature. Then Cassian gets close enough to learn what runs in Lucian's veins. The boy carries the same rare purebred beast blood he does, which the dead king could not have passed on. Vera has been keeping the truth about where Lucian came from to herself, and Cassian starts pulling at it.