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.

so fucking

in his

His voice breaks. "You're not gonna

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

my face slightly, quick. I hope he didn't see it. But I know he did. I know he's always watching

voice comes out quieter than I intend. Fragile and false.

you again."

Lies, lies, lies.

last time. Finally, on his

real. Because if it

I pull away, his

one brief second, I think-maybe I should tell

should let him

should stop

Hands still gripping my waist as if the world

do. And I realize it's too late. We're

He needs his queen.

I can't

at me and I shiver. Every fucking part of me shivers

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Chapter 129

his cheeks and his lips brush over the pulse point

slow and deliberate

presses a kiss there, and it takes everything in me not to flinch. Not because I'm scared-okay, I am scared-but because part of

That he'll

But I know better.

to let go of my

on?" I whisper, voice small, almost sweet. I rest my palm on his cheek again, this time with less trembling. "It hurts my eyes. The dark, I mean. I've had it checked. One of the

fabricated,

Enoch fucking

course he does. Everything I say, he

flaring as if he smells the lie but can't quite put a name to it. He

told me that," he mutters, hand ghosting over my

a little smile. "I'm telling you

studies me, and something unspoken

Or maybe he's just pretending

where I'm honest and his and weak enough

He likes me like this, in the palm

back. Not far, just

the back of my neck and yanks me forward like a puppet on a string. Holy sh-His mouth crashes onto mine, brutal and bruising, teeth scraping,

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

me, his forehead resting

"I won't spare anyone."

don't mean to

to clench my

he says it-as though I'm his personal

on fire just to smell the smoke on

wobble as I

a breath.

without another word, steps echoing,

finality of

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Chapter 129

stare at that door as it's the fucking

This is it.

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I run.

fingers scrabbling along the wall until I

narrow, the metal door creaks, and my heart's

it between my teeth.

King with abandonment issues and claws

stop to

need shoes to

I just need distance.

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

Left. Then another left. A tunnel Seraphina's friend uses for deliveries- shitty lighting, worse smell. My lungs are burning, ribs pinching under my bra. I press a hand to my stomach to cradle it,

okay. I got you, baby. I swear

But then-

BOOM.

The ground fucking shakes.

through the cement under my feet

itself just snapped. A second later, a car alarm

distance as if someone flung

my

building I just left is glowing. Pulsing. As though it's alive