Babysitting The Amnesiac Lycan King

CHAPTER 117

Silence.

Fucking silence.

The kind that doesn't ring in your ears, no-that'd be merciful. This is the kind that weighs, presses, crawls up your skin like mold and shame and exposure. The kind that tells you you've just made a god bleed in front of his kingdom.

And I didn't even touch him.

The projector flickers once and then it goes black. No final credits. No music. It's just that goddamn hum in the air and all those wolfish, hungry murmurs slithering up from the crowd.

"He's weak."

"She has control over him."

"Is this who we follow? Someone who dies with a woman?"

A tight breath lodges itself in my ribs and doesn't leave. I feel like I'm breathing

through a straw jammed down my throat. The murmurs grow teeth.

"He's a liability."

"The Lycan King is ruled by a woman's tears."

"Kill him now while he's soft."

I glance at Enoch before I try to step forward, maybe say something, scream, tackle the fucking screen, anything-

"That wasn't the video I-"

He doesn't even flinch.

Enoch stands on the dais as though he's carved out of glacier rock. No twitch, no eye shift, no indication that the walls are cracking behind his eyes. Not even a flicker of acknowledgment.

He's gone cold. My mate has gone cold.

His jaw ticks once. His hands are fisted at his sides, but the rest of him is still. Unreadable. Unreachable. Untouchable.

Then he turns.

I wish he hadn't.

Because when he turns to face me-those forest-green eyes, eyes that used to soften when they found mine, even in the dark, even when he forgot my name- are nothing now. It's just... empty. As if I was a dream he forced himself to wake up from.

He doesn't yell. That would've been easier to take.

No. He speaks. One word.

"Twice."

It slices through me and I immediately try to step forward.

"Enoch, I-" My voice cracks like glass. "I swear, that wasn't-"

"Twice now," he says, stepping forward, "you've fed them pieces of me."

The ballroom stretches and sways, too bright, too sharp. I feel it closing in. All the eyes, all the whispers. None of them matter. Just him. Just his voice-quiet, but heavier than any scream.

"It wasn't intentional-"

"Does it matter?" he says, and this time it's not a question. It's a sentence. A fucking death sentence. "The result is the

same."

I try to move. My legs are moving-I think. But he's already stepping off the dais,

the sound of his steps trailing behind him like a funeral shroud.

He's leaving.

He's leaving as if I'm nothing but smoke he's done breathing in. "Enoch, wait-"

Successfully unlocked!

I shove past a group of nobles, ignoring the way the people sinks as though they are already composing the article in her head: 'Lycan King Brought to His Knees by Omega Whore.'

I follow him. Into the side corridor off the ballroom. I don't even know where I'm going, I just chase the scent of him-warm pine and ash and destruction.

1/5

CHAPTER 117

"Enoch!"

halfway through the door to a side

listen to me-" I

turns before he roughly yanks

It's worse.

this revenge?" he asks, his voice flat but wild beneath. "Is this what I deserve for not

No, it's not

The kind of sound

me a fool," he says, gesturing toward the ballroom. "Again. In front of the very people waiting for me to

step closer. "That file is not mine this time. I was going to show them the truth- about how much I love you and-and everything we went through. The Maldives, the fight, the cave, your fucking

says. "And now everyone sees what

knees hit the floor before I

the thin fabric of my dress, but I don't care. My palms press into it as if I can

whisper to the ground, hoping he would hear my desperation. "I don't know what the fuck I'm doing, or who's behind that video, but I love you. Please, baby."

a

it's white. He looks like he's two seconds from shattering or setting the whole kingdom on fire. Then, he

"Not anymore."

leaves me

from my chest,

And leaves.

no pause. No backward

marble, a ballroom full of jackals, and

just lost him.

And this time?

might not

***

as I walk, or stumble-fuck if I know anymore. My breath is hitching, shaky, uneven. I press my fingers

left. He fucking

was a smear under his boot. Like none of it meant

Or maybe someone was.

was what Brooke told me. It wasn't

body's cold, but my chest burns like someone dumped gasoline in

a match. iSo this is what she meant.

nothing but long windows and statues too ancient to feel real. The silence presses down as a weight I didn't ask to

a fucking second to

don't get

rustle. A shift of shadow just up

My whole body jerks.

"What the-?"

Then it happens.

CHAPTER 117

air-and the

lunges from the shadows towards me. Holy

scream. I fucking move. Instinct,

defend myself in this goddamn kingdom. My arm

blade slices across

"Ah!" I

blooming beneath my ribs. It's not a nick-it's deep, raw,

I gasp, stumbling back, one hand clutching

lands hard-somewhere near their gut or groin, I don't care. They grunt, stagger, and then they're gone, slinking into

knees hit the

meet my

satin of my dress, and all

ragged breathing. And the

into my nose.

video. The ballroom. His

all fucking

know I'm the way to get

wound the King.

to my side, clenching my teeth. "Enoch..."

iron and shame and

the bond still means anything-if he feels it like

He has to.

down the hall, each step worse than the last. The world sways.

blurs. My palm slips off

room-our room-spins into

onto the bed, face-first, dress sticking to my skin.

stare up

A hollow, cracked sound.

held his

arms. His weight when he kissed me as if I was

holds nothing

that won't stop, no matter

blankets. I wait.

open. For his voice to snarl my

help me bandage it

hours and hours