Babysitting The Amnesiac Lycan King

CHAPTER 110

Bushes shift behind us and I immediately clench Enoch's arm, putting my finger on my lips to shut him up. Enoch freezes too as he smells the air. It's them. The Imperial Guards.

"They're close." Enoch mutters under his breath and I nod in response. Silence thickened between us but it didn't take long when the bushes opened up like peekaboo. "Your Majesty!" A loud voice burts out of the leaves and I immediately jumped.

Holy crap.

"Run!" I yelled at Enoch and we immediately bolted off again. Shit's the sky's grey. We can't keep running like this.

The first drop hits my shoulder like a slap.

Then the sky opens up and dumps all of heaven's disappointment on us. It's freaking raining.

shriek, slipping on the wet cobblestones like a damn cartoon character, and Enoch just laughs actually laughs-before dragging me under the wooden awning of some abandoned vendor stall. The canopy above us rattles, water hitting it so hard it sounds like war drums.

"Why in the world do they have to sneak up on us like that?" I grumble, genuinely annoyed at the shock earlier.

"This is not how I imagined today ending," I mutter, pushing soaked strands of hair off my face. "Fuck. My boots are ruined."

"You wear boots to a market in storm season?" Enoch arches a brow, his tone smug, as if he's the one who dressed me this morning. He's annoyed at the cardigan and

jeans and now the boots? I'm gonna smack his face.

"You wear black-on-black every day like it's a funeral, so maybe shut the fuck up." I elbow him, but he only grins wider.

His dimples are out. That's dangerous. Definitely dangerous.

We'd snuck away to that hidden alley-the one with the old bricks and that busted- down swing hanging from a chain like it belonged to a ghost child-and now here we are. Laughing. Drenched. And too close.

We steal snacks from the vendor cart beside us. Not really steal, okay? There's no one around, and I left coins in the tray, I'm not a total menace. I rip open the paper and hand Enoch a fried dumpling.

"Eat," I say. "It'll shut you up."

He bites into it, eyes fluttering closed. "Gods, that's good. Almost as good as that time

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CHAPTER 110

you cooked for me when I was dying in the infirmary."

"I made you oatmeal and burned the hell out of it."

"Exactly. So much love went into killing me slowly."

I snort. "You're unbelievable." The sky has now turned almost black and the

pouring doesn't look like it's gonna stop any time soon. I clench my teeth as a wiff

of cold breeze sweeps into the canopy. That's fucking cold.

a flu out of

"Maybe we should-"

to Enoch and then

gone, but

He shifts.

me. Fur exploding over skin. That terrifyingly beautiful shift that I've seen a thousand times but never like this. I stare,

I whisper, stepping forward.

lowers its head, nuzzling under

freezing. Me shifting for the first time, not to fight, not to run-but to save him. Curling around his unconscious body in the

blink up at him,

nod. But a slow, understanding

open. Right here, in the middle of this storm, this memory-drenched street,

believe

He's fully naked but doesn't even give a shit-he just grabs his cloak

respectfully refuse

leans into my ear, voice low. "That night's burned into

My spine stiffens.

Because so is mine,

I wasn't just about to start crying over his fucking wolf form. "There's a better spot to wait

way nothing else has been lately. We sit shoulder to shoulder. I wrap

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CHAPTER 110

he owns

us, comfortable and

slowly, "when Kallias found us

like he'd just stepped on a landmine and it exploded in his

you were gonna murder him."

make his little fantasies

my own breath.

all teeth and

an animal," I

"You like that."

I'm afraid he's maybe

but I'm laughing, and he

world drowns outside but in here-it's still. Just

Riverstone Pack?"

I think everyone's still scared I'll burn

since the... kidnapping. Kallias too. We don't

but

might visit soon. You know.

annoyed

like that. It's just-it's where I grew up. Where

need to stand there again. As

for a long time, then

before blurting,

Silence.