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 fucking much,

in his voice shatters

"You're

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

But I know he did. I

I intend. Fragile and false.

you again."

Lies, lies, lies.

kiss him for the last time. Finally, on his

I force myself not to fall into it. Not to let it turn real. Because if it does, I won't

his eyes are still

I think-maybe I

let him know I'm carrying

I should stop

he exhales, ragged. Hands still gripping my waist as if

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

He needs his queen.

I can't give

Every

Thu, 22 May

Chapter 129

and

wrist, slow and deliberate like he's memorizing

he 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 me still wants to believe this moment

he'll stay this soft, this

But I know better.

let go of

my palm on his cheek again, this time with less trembling. "It hurts my eyes. The dark, I mean. I've had it

Complete fabricated,

fucking

he does. Everything I

flaring as if he smells the lie but can't quite put a name to it. He stares at me, trying to pin me to the moment, to make sure I

me that," he mutters, hand

matter." I force a little smile. "I'm telling

something

Or maybe he's just pretending not to.

him that way-this little illusion where I'm

likes me like this, in the palm of his obsessive

steps back. Not far, just enough to breathe.

sh-His mouth crashes onto mine, brutal and bruising, teeth scraping, tongue forcing a whimper from my

again," he breathes into my mouth, "I'll burn everything in my fucking path

against me, his forehead resting against mine,

"I won't spare anyone."

don't mean to

don't mean to clench my

the way he says it-as though I'm his personal apocalypse. That

on fire just to smell the smoke on

My knees wobble as I whimper, "Yes...

a breath. Just

echoing, the door clicking shut

the finality of a

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Chapter 129

at that door

This is it.

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I run.

emotionally-physically. I bolt through the dark hallway, fingers scrabbling along the wall until I find the emergency exit Seraphina mapped out for me

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

it between my teeth.

think. Thinking is for people who aren't being hunted by a goddamn Lycan King with abandonment issues and claws that could rip steel. I

to put

don't need

I just need distance.

as I hit the alley behind the building.

My lungs are burning, ribs

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

But then-

BOOM.

The ground fucking shakes.

the cement under my

earth itself just snapped. A second later, a car alarm

if someone flung a body through

my

left is glowing.