Betrayed and Claimed by the Lycan King Chapter 272

Ezra's POV

Damn it! How was that even possible?

I carefully shifted Lillian away from me, creating distance while plastering on what I hoped looked like a reassuring smile. My hands moved with deliberate gentleness, but every instinct screamed at me to put space between us.

"I'm sorry," Lillian whispered, her voice so broken it made my chest tighten with guilt. "I shouldn't have... I shouldn't have thrown myself at you like that. I don't have the right to—"

"No, no," I cut her off quickly, forcing my voice to remain steady and warm. "Don't worry about it. You don't need to apologize for anything."

She pulled back completely then, settling onto the hospital bed by herself, and I watched as her hands immediately found each other, fingers twisting and wringing in a nervous dance. The sight of her anxiety should have triggered my protective instincts. Should have. But all I felt was a desperate need to escape this room, this situation, this fucking nightmare that had just exploded my carefully ordered world.

Every muscle in my body felt coiled tight, ready to bolt. I needed air. I needed space. I needed to think about what the hell this meant for Isolde and me.

"I just realized," I said, latching onto the first plausible excuse that came to mind, "you haven't eaten anything since you got here. You must be hungry, right?"

Lillian looked up at me with those wide, wounded eyes and nodded slowly. "I am a little hungry."

Relief flooded through me so fast I nearly sagged. "I'll... I'll go get you something to eat. I'll be right back."

I was already moving toward the door when her voice stopped me cold.

"Please don't go."

Her hand shot out, fingers wrapping around my wrist with surprising strength. When I turned back, I saw tears gathering in her eyes, making them shine under the harsh hospital lighting. The guilt hit me like a physical blow—here she was, traumatized and alone, and I was lying to her face just to get away.

"I want to stay with you," she continued, her voice barely above a whisper. "I'm scared."

I forced myself to look calm, to be the Alpha she needed me to be, even as my wolf Prime growled restlessly in the back of my mind. "You don't have anything to be afraid of," I said, "There are security guards right outside your door. You're safe. I'll be back in just a few minutes. I promise. Okay?"

She hesitated, studying my face like she could read the lie written there. Finally, she nodded and released my wrist. "Okay."

I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile and walked out of that room as fast as I could without actually running. The door clicked shut behind me, and I immediately felt like I could breathe again.

But even as relief washed over me, one truth echoed in my mind: I had just made a promise I had no intention of keeping. And I had no fucking idea when—or if—I'd be coming back.

Orion was waiting right outside the door, his massive frame somehow managing to look both alert and exhausted. The moment he saw me, he straightened.

"How is she?" he asked.

"Fucked up," I said bluntly, running a hand through my hair. "PTSD, triggers everywhere, the whole nine yards. It's a mess."

I paused, pulling myself together enough to give him instructions. "Get someone to bring her food. If she asks about me, tell her I had an emergency meeting."

Orion stepped into my path as I tried to move past him, his eyebrows drawn together in concern. "Why do you look so rattled?"

I let out a harsh laugh. "In this situation, you think it's weird that I look rattled?" I shook my head, feeling the walls of the hospital corridor closing in around me. "I need some fresh air. I need to take a walk and clear my head, or I'm going to lose my fucking mind!"

He studied my face for another moment, then stepped aside, letting me pass.

I headed straight for the private elevator, my steps echoing off the sterile walls. The ride down to the underground parking garage felt like it took forever, but finally the doors opened to reveal my security team standing at attention beside a black SUV, the rear door already open and waiting.

I slid into the back seat, and the door closed with a soft thud that felt like a temporary reprieve from the chaos upstairs. For a moment, I just sat there in the leather-scented darkness, trying to process what the hell had just happened.

Then I reached out to the one consciousness that might have answers.

"What do you think, Prime?"

My wolf's response came immediately, his mental voice carrying a dismissive edge. "I don't feel anything for her. Haven't since the moment she showed up. I can't even sense her wolf." He paused, and I could feel his frustration bleeding through our connection. "Forget about her. Focus on winning Isolde back."

"We can't just abandon Lillian," I shot back, my hands clenching into fists in my lap. "She's our first mate, Prime. Our first bond. We have responsibilities to her—to protect her, to care for her, to love her. She was ours first, remember?"

Prime's growl of displeasure vibrated through my consciousness.

"So what are you saying?" he demanded. "Just because she was first, you're going to choose Lillian over Isolde?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but Prime wasn't finished.

"Think about it," he continued, his mental voice taking on a more reasoned tone. "If the Moon Goddess really wanted us with Lillian, she never would have let Isolde walk into our lives. She would have kept us mateless for all these years, waiting for this exact moment when Lillian came back to us."

The logic hit me like a punch to the gut, but I wasn't ready to concede. "Then why did she let Lillian live all these years?"

Prime went silent, and that silence was almost worse than his arguments.

The whole situation filled me with a rage so pure and bright it felt like it might consume me from the inside out.

"I don't know the answer to that," Prime finally admitted. "But what I do know is that Isolde is the one we really want."

"I want Isolde too," I said, my voice rough with emotion. "But we can't just make a hasty decision here. We have to be careful about this, or we'll make some fatal mistake that destroys everything!"

Prime's mental laughter was bitter and humorless. "Like we're not already heading for destruction."

I couldn't argue with that. He was right, and we both knew it.

"Fuck," I muttered, letting my head fall back against the headrest. "In the entire history of our kind, no Lycan or Werewolf has ever had two mates at the same time."

"We're truly fucked," I whispered into the darkness of the car.