The Betrayed Princess Rising (Lylah and Ezra) novel Chapter 409

Chapter 409

3rd Person’s POV

For several long seconds, Damon said nothing.

The silence inside the bedroom stretched taut between them, heavy with confusion and the low, restless agitation of his wolf.

Then, slowly, he frowned.

“You… don’t want it?” The question slipped out before he could stop it.

His sharp eyes stayed fixed on her back, trying-and failing-to make sense of her.

This was the same woman who had never hidden the fact that she loved money. The same woman who had once asked him for compensation when she talked about getting rid of the pup. So why now?

Why refuse wealth when it was finally being handed to her willingly?

“I thought money was what mattered most to you,” Damon admitted bluntly. “You never hesitated to ask me for it before. So why reject it now?”

He wasn’t mocking her.

For once, he was genuinely trying to understand.

But the second the words left his mouth, he saw it.

The flash of hurt in Tiara’s green eyes.

Gone almost immediately.

Yet his wolf caught it anyway.

Tiara let out a quiet laugh that sounded far too brittle. “So that’s how you see me?”

Damon stilled.

“That I’d still choose money for myself over my family?”

Something inside his chest twisted unpleasantly.

Her scent changed too-sadness bleeding beneath the soft traces of warm jasmine that always clung to her skin. His wolf shifted restlessly beneath his flesh, increasingly unsettled by emotions it didn’t know how to

handle.

Damon frowned deeper. “But what exactly is your family dealing with?” he asked carefully this time. “What happened that makes you react like this?” His voice lowered awkwardly. “I’m asking because I’m curious, not because I’m trying to offend you.”

The room fell silent again.

3

Chapter 409

Ford

Then Tiara abruptly turned away from him.

Damon blinked. “Tiara,” He reached toward her instinctively, intending to touch her shoulder, but she slapped his hand away before he could make contact.

The rejection hit harder than it should have.

“You don’t need to know,” she said quietly.

Her voice lacked anger now. That somehow sounded worse.

“You grew up in Moonclaw, Damon. Someone like you would never understand struggles like ours.” She curled tighter beneath the blanket, shutting him out completely. “And even if I explained it, you probably still wouldn’t believe me. Just forget it. Think whatever you want about me.”

Then she reached toward the bedside lamp.

Darkness swallowed the room instantly.

“Good night.”

Damon remained seated on the edge of the bed long after the light disappeared.

Confusion churned violently inside him, tangled together with something far more unfamiliar.

Guilt.

And for the first time in a very long while…

Damon felt the sudden, irrational urge to punch himself for saying the wrong thing.

Morning arrived beneath a pale rosy sky.

Far away in Lunaris, Lylah sat curled comfortably across a velvet sofa.

The moment Tiara answered the video call, Lylah brightened instantly.

‘Yesterday should be the day Damon’s parents visited your family, right?” she asked eagerly. “How did everything go?”

Tiara leaned back against her pillows with a tired sigh.

‘It went fine, I guess.” Her voice sounded strangely subdued. “Nana forced Damon to stay overnight.”

Lylah’s eyes widened immediately. “In your room?”

“Hm.”

Despite Tiara’s obvious gloom, excitement lit across Lylah’s face almost instantly.

Behind her, Ezra slowly lifted a brow from where he stood. A flicker of amusement crossed the Alpha’s expression.

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