Babysitting The Amnesiac Lycan King

Chapter 88

Chapter 88

I should have left the fucking office when I had the chance.

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Instead, I'm sitting on the floor, my back pressed against Liam's desk, my heartbeat thudding against my ribs as if it's trying to break free. The file is in my lap, its weight far heavier than paper and ink should ever be. My fingers twitch as I flip it

open.

The first page stares back at me. My name. My birthday. My blood status- Omega.

Basic shit.

I scan further, flipping through old reports and documents though I'm peeling back layers of my own existence. Foster records. Riverstone adoption papers. Thirteen years old, found near the pack borders, malnourished but unharmed. No immediate family traced.

Bullshit.

I keep reading. My fingers tighten around the pages, my breath coming quicker. The more I search, the more I realize what's missing. My mother's name is listed- Mary Lancaster. My father-Edward Lancaster. No known cause of death. Just... deceased. No details, no reports, no explanations.

I press my palm against my forehead, willing myself to stay calm. This was supposed to give me answers. Instead, it's feeding me the same half-truths I've been living with for years.

This isn't enough.

Liam has more. He has the damn flash drive. The one he dangled in front of me like a fucking bone. "You want the truth?" he'd said. "Give me the file, and I'll give you the drive."

Yeah. Right.

My eyes flick up to the desk. Maybe he left it. Maybe he didn't trust himself to keep it with him.

It's a long shot, but I've done dumber shit before.

I get on my knees, ignoring the way my pulse skitters, and pull open the top drawer. Nothing but pens and a half-empty bottle of whiskey. Next drawer-stacks of folders, invoices, memos.

My breath hitches when I spot the bottom drawer. Locked.

That's it.

I grab the handles and yank, but it doesn't budge. My fingers search the desk frantically, rifling through loose papers and files, knocking over a stapler and a goddamn coffee mug before-keys.

Tucked under a stack of notes.

I snatch them up, hands shaking, and jam one into the lock. It doesn't fit. Neither does the second.

Come on. Come on.

The third clicks.

My entire body stills for half a second before I yank the drawer open. My breath catches.

There it is.

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12:42 Fri, 4 Apr

Chapter 88

The flash drive sits in the corner, small and unassuming, but I swear it might as well be glowing. I grab it, shove it into my pocket, and pull out my laptop, my fingers working on autopilot as I jam the drive into the port.

The screen lights up. A single folder appears.

1 click. My name is the first file. Taryn Sinclair's Origin.

No. Not Sinclair. Not even Riverstone.

Shit, I'm not even who I thought I was.

"Taryn Lancaster." I let the name roll off my tongue. That sounds so... fucking royal. Holy shit.

My stomach twists. My fingers hover over the trackpad as I double-click the file.

A document unfolds, line by line, word by word.

Taryn Lancaster.

Daughter of Edward Lancaster, deceased.

Former Imperial Beta of the Lycan Kingdom.

No way...

stutters. I

That... that can't

could only be one, wasn't just some pack official. He was second only to the Alpha King. The King's right- hand. Enoch's father's

And he... my father?

it might fucking disintegrate in my

burn into my

brother: Jesse Lancaster,

Mother: Mary Lancaster, deceased.

death: Imperial Pack

slithers down my

I don't breathe.

I don't blink.

I just read.

second in line on the

first Alpha King, or no

Alpha

same man Enoch killed

me as a goddamn wrecking

out in the same war that

Enoch. His uncle

4

Chapter 88

took Enoch's

And I never knew.

knock echoes

voice calls.

My stomach lurches.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

the glass wall, casting a faint glow through the frosted surface. My pulse hammers as I hold

me.

pauses. A slow,

Then-click.

door locks from the

eyes shut. Fucking

I'm locked in.

Not when the truth is still staring at

itself into my brain.

breathe, my hands curling into

my family. The war that tore his world apart?

too.

this is all

his steps began to

I can't breathe.

again, my brother's voice-Jesse's echoes in

did this. They

weight of those words crashes down on me, dragging

with both hands, trying to smother the scream clawing

The Prince Royal. That bastard.

just responsible for my father's death. He tried to kill Enoch, too. If he had succeeded, if Enoch had

alone is so violently repulsive

Enoch killed

it still feel as if I'm

then another, and another, until I'm breaking. Crying like I'm bleeding from the inside out, my shoulders

Chapter 88

long I stay like this-collapsed,

fucking child. It could be

hours.

is that when the tears finally slow, I feel empty. Though

been hollowed

My parents are dead.

Jesse is

is what I came in

To know the truth.

the Imperial family. To the

a bloodline that turned against itself? For a kingdom that

I can do. There's no one left to punish. The bastard responsible is already dead, rotting

should be relieved, although if I had clawed

I would

Brooke, his head hanged on the palace

be as brutal

like I'm standing in the aftermath of a war I never even got to fight

And I lost everything.

still shuddering when I force myself to move. My fingers,

swipe at my laptop's trackpad, pulling up the last folder

yet.

connection with

My breath catches.