The Lycan King’s Mark (Nevara) by Tiffanie L. Campbell novel Chapter 68

Chapter 68 – Patience Is a Weapon

Tobias

She slept exactly how I needed her to.

Curled on her side. Breathing slow. Too heavy to wake easily. The tea had done its job–again.

I stood in the doorway for a long moment, watching the rise and fall of her chest beneath the blank The firelight painted her skin gold, softening the sharp edges she’d grown into over the past year. T version of Nevara–quiet, pliant, unaware–felt like a gift handed directly to me by fate.

Lucky didn’t begin to cover it.

Three days. That’s all it had taken.

Three days of carefully measured wolfsbane, steeped low enough not to kill her, not even enough to suspicion–just enough to keep her wolf muted, unreachable. Just enough to slow her healing. Just enough to make her doubt herself.

The head injury had done the rest.

I’d almost laughed when she woke up and didn’t remember.

Not out loud. Never out loud. But inside? Relief flooded me so fast it nearly dropped me to my knees.

Amnesia.

Clean. Simple. Temporary enough to be believable. Long enough to reshape everything.

She remembered me. That was the important part.

Remembered our marriage. Remembered my title. Remembered belonging.

The rest I could rebuild.

I moved quietly through the cabin, rinsing my mug, setting the kettle back on the stove. Every motion wa

deliberate. Familiar. I wanted her to wake up tomorrow and feel like she’d always been here Like this place was home.

She’d questioned the bath. Not much–but enough to note.

That meant her instincts weren’t gone.

Good.

A completely broken Nevara would be useless. She’d fight eventually Rage. Spiral. Try to escape. I didn’t

want that.

I wanted consent.

Or something close enough to it that she’d never know the difference.

<Chapter 68 – Patience Is a Weapon

Seeing her in the bath had nearly tested my restraint.

Wet skin. Bare shoulders. The way she flinched when my hand brushed too close, even without know

why.

Her body remembered what her mind didn’t.

That was fine. Bodies were honest. Minds could be taught.

I’d wanted to touch her. Take advantage of the confusion. Claim what was mine while she was too we

to resist.

But I wasn’t stupid.

Force would only wake the part of her I’d worked so hard to silence. Panic would call to her wolf, and

drugged, that was a risk I wouldn’t take.

Patience had always been my strength.

She’d begged once before.

On our actual anniversary. She came to me. Wanted me. But what she found was me jacking off to fuc!

Vanessa. What the fuck was I even thinking? I cringe thinking back on it.

I spent way too long being hung up on Vanessa and her beauty and being jealous of Nickolai for finding

her first. I was blinded by what was right in front of me the whole time.

I screwed up so bad but now I have a second chance. A do–over. An opportunity to right all my wrongs

with Nevara.

I checked the dosage I’d prepped for the morning–lighter than today. Just enough to maintain control

without dulling her too much. I needed her present. Responsive. Believing this was recovery, not captivity

Thoren would be tearing the woods apart by now. I had no doubt.

But he wouldn’t find her.

Not here. Not without a trail. Wolfsbane erased scent as cleanly as fire, and this cabin? Off every known

route. Built years ago for contingency. For privacy.

For her–even if she’d never known it until now.

I glanced back toward the bed.

She shifted slightly in her sleep, brow furrowing, as if something deep inside her was stirring.

Good.

Let it.

Confusion would make her cling tighter to the only certainty she had left.

Me.

< Chapter 68 – Patience Is a Weapon

I closed my eyes and let my hand drift down, wrapping around the thick pulse of need that hadn’t eas

day.

I shouldn’t.

But I had to.

The pressure had been building since this morning–hell, since I first carried her into the cabin, limp ar bleeding, and realized she was mine again. Really mine. No Thoren. No Elders. No pack.

Just us.

My fist stroked slow at first, breath catching in my throat. I leaned into the tile, water scalding down m chest as I imagined her in the tub again–this time looking up at me with wide, wet eyes. Not confused

Not hesitant.

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