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!"

door to a side chamber when I grab

fucking listen to

he roughly yanks

not angry. It's

this revenge?" he asks, his voice flat but wild beneath. "Is this

but nothing comes out at first. Then-"No. No, it's not

The kind of sound that

the ballroom. "Again. In front of the very people waiting for me

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

in," he says. "And now everyone sees what you

knees hit the floor before

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

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." I look up at him as tears began to slid out of my eyes. "Isn't that

a

lips are pressed into a line so tight it's white. He looks like he's two seconds

"Not anymore."

that leaves me isn't

it rip from my chest, raw and hoarse,

And leaves.

pause. No

my knees on cold marble, a ballroom full of jackals,

just

And this time?

might not come

***

heels click too loud against the marble floor as I walk, or stumble-fuck if I know anymore. My breath is hitching, shaky, uneven. I press my fingers

He

Like none of it meant shit. The Maldives. The cave. Every

Or maybe someone was.

Brooke told me.

but my chest burns like someone

a match. iSo this is what she meant. She succeeded

uses it this late. It's quiet, abandoned, with nothing but long windows and statues too ancient to feel real.

a fucking second

I don't

rustle. A shift of

My whole body jerks.

"What the-?"

Then it happens.

CHAPTER 117

sharp, slicing zing-steel against air-and the flash of silver catches

from the shadows

move. Instinct, panic, training

defend myself in this goddamn kingdom. My arm comes up, but not fast

slices across

"Ah!" I

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

stumbling back, one hand clutching the gash, the other

or groin, I don't care.

knees hit

tiles meet

staining the satin of my

And the faint,

into my nose.

video. The

They all fucking know

what that video said, they know I'm the way to get to

wound the King.

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

like iron and

bond still means anything-if he

He has to.

step worse than the last.

blurs. My palm slips off

room-our room-spins

dress sticking to my skin.

I land on it as I stare up

A hollow, cracked sound.

held his

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

it holds nothing

trembles that won't stop, no

blankets. I wait.

his voice to

help me bandage it

hours and hours and hours ticked and