The Betrayed Princess Rising (Lylah and Ezra) novel Chapter 284

Chapter 284

Cora’s POV

Finished

Whatever touched Blackfang’s reputation would touch mine. That was simply the arithmetic of becoming Luna-the pack’s image and my own were already beginning to fuse at the edges, whether the crown sat on my head yet or not.

So when Rowan returned from the business venture barely able to stand, reeking of wine and something dangerously close to despair, the fury that moved through me was cold and immediate.

I had spent months clearing the path beneath his feet, smoothing every stone, removing every obstacle with my connections. And he dared come home like this.

“It’s hot,” he slurred, leaning his weight into me as I steered him toward his chamber.

“Sit down,” I said briskly, already working the buttons of his velvet coat. “I’ll help you take it off.”

Then his hand found my wrist.

“You’re so beautiful.” His voice was thick, dragged low by the wine, his gaze heavy-lidded and unfocused in a way that made me study his face. “Come here.”

“Rowan-”

He pulled me down before I could finish.

My back met the silk sheets. The rest followed too quickly-his hands impatient, his movements carrying none of the ceremony or care that a mate deserved. There was no question asked. No pause.

But I had counted the nights since Rowan last touched me, and the number had grown humiliating. My wolf had been restless with the wanting of it-that bone-deep, mating-bond hunger that no amount of pride could entirely silence. So I said nothing. I let the night take the shape it was taking.

It was rough. Rowan had never been gentle. But tonight there was something else beneath it. Something almost punishing in the way he moved, and the pain bled past the pleasure until there was very little left of the latter. My claws tore clean through the satin sheets. A deep soreness settled into my hips.

“Lylah, my little moon.” The word left him on a breathless exhale, low and reverent and completely devastating. “You’re so beautiful tonight. You said you’d be my nightmare. My ruin.” A sound that was almost a laugh, broken at the edges. “Good. I’d walk into it willingly.”

Everything in me went very still.

“Rowan.” My voice came out strange. I pressed my hands flat against his chest. “I’m not Lylah. Look at me. I’m not her!”

“Shhh.” He didn’t stop. “Lylah. I know you missed this too.” His forehead dropped, his voice dissolving into something broken and private, something I was never meant to hear. “I haven’t slept in so many nights without you by my side. But tonight, I think I finally can.”

When it was over, I didn’t sleep.

12:54 pm

Chapter 284

Finished

Not a single hour of it.

I lay still while the dark shifted slowly toward dawn, my eyes fixed on the ceiling. Bruises bloomed across my skin, scattered like a constellation of red stars across pale canvas.

The one small comfort I had carried into that room-the threadbare hope that tonight, at least, he had wanted me-was gone.

He had not seen me at all.

He had seen her.

That stray my parents had raised and discarded and could not, it seemed, stop haunting the spaces she had vacated.

Rowan stirred as the morning light crept beneath the curtains. He turned, took in the sight of me, and I watched the sequence of it move across his face. “Cora?”

“Moon above. What did I-” He stopped, dragging a hand down his face. “I’m sorry. I don’t remember. We need to get you to a healer.”

I smiled. It didn’t reach anything deeper than my mouth.

“Goddess.” He was already moving, already putting distance between himself and what he’d done, the guilt rolling off him in waves I could scent even through the haze of last night’s wine. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. Not to my future Luna. I’m sorry, Cora.”

Future Luna.

At least he still acknowledged it. Though his fire burned elsewhere-for her, for that wretched stray who had stolen fifteen years that should have been mine.

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