The Betrayed Princess Rising (Lylah and Ezra) novel Chapter 353

Chapter 353

3rd Person’s POV

Finished

Relief flickered across Lylah’s face. “So I didn’t embarrass us?” she asked, her voice lighter now. Then, after a brief pause, something more uncertain slipped in. “Ezra… if I truly had forgotten that tonight was the First Night of Spring, would it have hurt you?”

“A little,” Ezra admitted, his tone calm but honest. “But I wouldn’t blame you.” His gaze softened, though something deeper stirred beneath it. “Still… to make up for it, I would ask for something in return. A gift.”

Lylah’s brows arched.

A gift? What could she possibly offer a man who seemed to possess everything?

“Like what?” she asked cautiously.

Ezra leaned in, his lips brushing close to her ear as he whispered his answer.

Heat surged through her instantly, flooding her face as realization struck. She smacked his arm, mortified. “They can hear!”

Her thoughts betrayed her, dragging her back to that fevered night at the Moonclaw estate-when restraint had shattered, when instinct had ruled. The aftermath alone had been overwhelming. Ezra even caught a fever!

And now he was suggesting the same?

“You never learn,” she muttered under her breath, though her voice lacked true bite.

Ezra’s eyes darkened, his wolf rising just beneath the surface. “That night, we weren’t prepared. This time, I am.”

High above them, within the glass-walled greenhouse, the engagement carried on–but the soul of it had long since fractured.

Cora could feel that the air no longer belonged to her.

What should have been a night steeped in triumph now tasted sour-tainted by distraction, by whispers, by the lingering echo of something far more compelling that had unfolded below.

Orion’s voice, still laced with awe as he spoke of Lylah’s spectacle, grated against her senses like claws against bone.

Cora’s gaze smoldered as it swept across the guests, those very same wolves who had abandoned her moments ago, now indulging freely at her banquet as though nothing had happened.

“I know Lylah did that on purpose, Mother,” Cora whispered, venom coiled beneath each word. “She must have known about tonight. That’s why she chose this place, this exact moment. To steal it from me.” Her fingers curled into the silk of her gown. “How could someone be so vile?”

“Shh, darling.” Daia’s voice flowed like silk over steel as she dabbed gently at Cora’s scraped knee, her other

10:29 am PPP

Chapter 353

Finished

hand fanning her daughter with practiced grace. “Don’t give her so much credit. Desperate females cling to spectacle when they have nothing else. Lylah needs stunts like that to keep feeding off her mate’s wealth. There’s no devotion in that bond, only transaction.”

Cora’s gaze sharpened, drifting toward Orion, who still lingered near the glass, watching the aftermath below with far too much interest.

“He said he saw Archer West down there,” she added, her voice lowering. “A key figure from Lunaris Research Center. Lylah invited those influential wolves-of course, she did. She planned every detail to draw attention. To overshadow me, mother.”

Her nails pressed into her palm. “I won’t forget this.”

Time dragged on.

One hour. Then two. Then three.

The celebration dulled into something hollow.

Laughter turned sloppy, the air thick with the scent of spilled wine and overindulgent wolves. Even the moonlight filtering through the glass seemed dimmer now, as though the night itself had lost interest.

Cora remained seated, her expression composed. But beneath it, her wolf paced restlessly-fur bristling, teeth bared, fury simmering just beneath her skin.

All she wanted was to leave.

To escape this ruined night.

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