Babysitting The Amnesiac Lycan King

Chapter 129

His hands are rough. Not cruel. Not gentle. Just... desperate.

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Fingers digging into the backs of my thighs, Enoch hauls me up like I weigh nothing. "Ah!" My breath catches as my knees hook instinctively around his waist, heat flaring between us-between my legs, between our chests, between what the fuck we are and what we've turned into.

We crash against the edge of a wooden table, and the clatter makes me flinch. Old paint peels under my fingertips as I grip the edge behind me. The wood groans under our weight. Enoch stands between my legs, his chest heaving like he's been fighting ghosts.

Maybe he has.

Maybe I'm one of them.

His pupils are blown wide, green barely visible now. His jaw ticks, his throat bobs, and his fingers flex around my thighs like he's scared I'll vanish if he lets go. Like I haven't already been disappearing, piece by piece.

I reach for his face. My left hand lands first, the good one. My right is slower, trembling, bloody from earlier. I press the pads of my fingers to his cheekbone, and he flinches-not from pain. From restraint.

He's burning. I feel it under his skin, in the way his body vibrates with tension, his lips trembling slightly. He's definitely seconds away from losing control. He could snap my neck like a fucking twig and part of me thinks he knows it. Maybe that's why he's breathing so hard.

As though he's trying to hold back the monster

"You're coming back with me." He growls. It

A threat.

God, I almost laugh.

everyone swears isn't real.

question. Not really. But not a command either. It's...a tantrum. A plea.

The Lycan King, reduced to begging like a boy who doesn't know what to do with

a woman who keeps slipping through his fingers. The same fingers now tightening slightly on my waist though he's trying to imprint me into his skin.

"I am," I lie.

I fucking lie through my teeth and I hate how easy it is.

"I'm coming with you." I murmur with assurance dripping in my tone.

He nods once, jerky. His forehead drops into my palm as though gravity dragged it there. Like I'm some kind of anchor in this storm he hasn't named. He takes my bloody hand and presses his much larger one over it, sealing it there against his face.

My skin burns where he touches.

Everything burns.

I try to ignore the way my lower back throbs from being pressed into the sharp edge of the table. I try not to react to the heat blooming between us again, how my stupid, hormonal body reacts to the smell of him-earth and spice and war.

He's shaking. Barely. But I feel it. In his breath. In his grip. In the way his words tremble when he says, "You'll be my queen after this, right? I'll put you on the throne. They'll kneel. They'll all fucking kneel."

His voice cracks around the fantasy. Like he can already taste it.

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Chapter 129

He's already trying to believe that it's real. His queen? A woman that would rule beside him? Me?

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My stomach tightens-not just from nerves, but from the tiny life hiding inside me that he still doesn't know about. The secret I'm cradling under all this goddamn lying.

I nod as I lie through my teeth again. "Yes, baby. I'll be your queen" I murmur and his eyes close as I press my lips to his forehead.

One kiss. One trap.

Like we always do even back then and now.

Forehead.

Nose.

Mouth.

That's the ritual. That's how I soothe the beast. The routine that makes him calm enough to believe I'm still his.

He leans in again, nose brushing mine. His lips don't move for a while. I think he's scared to speak. And when he does, it's barely louder than a whisper.

love you so

his

voice breaks. "You're not gonna

clenches. And it happens without permission-one fucking tear slips free. It betrays me. It betrays

But I know he

out quieter than I intend.

you again."

Lies, lies, lies.

him for the last time. Finally, on his

real. Because if it does, I won't run.

I pull away, his

brief second, I think-maybe I should tell

him know I'm carrying

should stop

gripping my waist as if the world

it's

He needs his queen.

can't give him

Every fucking part of me shivers

Thu, 22 May

Chapter 129

and his lips brush over the pulse point

wrist, slow and deliberate

takes everything in me not to flinch.

he'll stay this

But I know better.

need to let go of my

palm on his cheek again, this time with less trembling. "It hurts

Complete fabricated, manipulated

Enoch fucking

course he does. Everything I say,

the lie but can't quite put a name to it. He stares at me, trying to pin me to the moment, to make

told me that," he mutters, hand ghosting

a little smile.

studies me, and something

he knows I'm lying. Or maybe he's just pretending not to.

I'm honest and his and weak

like this, in the palm

steps back. Not far, just enough

neck and yanks me forward like a puppet on a string. Holy sh-His mouth crashes onto mine,

you run from me again," he breathes into my mouth, "I'll burn everything

me, his forehead resting against mine,

"I won't spare anyone."

don't mean to

to

says it-as though I'm his personal apocalypse.

to smell the

nod, swallowing. My knees wobble

a breath. Just

word, steps echoing, the door clicking shut behind

finality

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Chapter 129

stare at that door

This is it.

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I run.

wall until I find the emergency exit Seraphina mapped out for me

the metal door creaks, and my heart's pounding so

it between my teeth.

Thinking is for people who aren't being hunted by a goddamn Lycan King with abandonment issues and claws that

don't even stop to put on

don't need

I just need distance.

air slaps me in the face as I hit the alley behind the building.

lungs are burning, ribs pinching under my bra. I press a hand to my stomach to cradle it, to

voice breaking. "We're okay. I got you, baby. I swear I got

But then-

BOOM.

The ground fucking shakes.

under my feet and echoes off the

snapped. A second later,

distance as if someone

my head

left is glowing. Pulsing. As though it's alive and