Betrayed and Claimed by the Lycan King Chapter 297

Ezra's POV

"Lillian..." I began, then paused, my jaw tightening.

"Yes?" she responded immediately, leaning forward slightly.

"Before we continue, I need you to tell me some things." The words came out more abruptly than I'd intended.

Her head tilted, curiosity replacing some of that dangerous excitement. "What do you want me to tell you?"

*This feels rushed,* I thought, running a hand through my hair. *But for my relationship with Isolde, for my own peace of mind, I have to know the truth.* Prime stirred restlessly in my chest, equally eager for answers.

I leaned forward, reaching for her hands. "Lillian, I know I agreed to wait until you were ready to talk about your experiences over the past few years, but I don't think I can do that anymore." Her hands were smaller than I remembered, delicate. "I want to know. I need to know what happened to you, so I can deal with this once and for all and give myself peace. Please, tell me."

The change in her was instant and devastating. That bright excitement vanished from her eyes like someone had flipped a switch, and that familiar gloom settled back into their depths. She pulled her hands from mine slowly, deliberately, her gaze shifting away from my face to the floor-to-ceiling windows across the suite.

I hated this. Hated forcing her when I could see this was clearly a sensitive topic for her. But I had no choice. I needed to confirm my suspicions, needed to understand what had really happened during those five missing years.

"What happened exactly?" I pressed, my voice gentler but insistent. "Why did you have so many wounds when you appeared? And why—"

"I was kidnapped!" The words burst out of her immediately.

She spun to face me directly, and the look in her eyes—that fierce, angry determination—made me actually take a step back.

"After that ambush, he faked my death and then took me," she continued, her voice gaining strength and conviction. "He kept me imprisoned in an underground safe house, torturing me almost every night before bed."

My heart felt like it was about to burst from my chest. Every bone in my body seemed to be melting as I watched tears start to glisten in her eyes.

"He wouldn't let me leave for any reason. That cell became my home—everything I needed was delivered there, but I was completely cut off from the outside world."

"You're saying you were locked in a basement for five years with no contact with the outside world?" The words came out strangled, disbelieving.

She nodded, and a tear finally spilled over, rolling down her cheek.

"Who was 'he'?" I demanded. "Does he have a name? What did he look like? Which pack was he from?"

"I don't know." She shook her head violently, her fingers curling into tight fists. "He never told me his name. He never let me see his face. Every time he came to interrogate me, I was either blindfolded or he wore a mask, and he only spoke a few words. He left no identifying clues—even his scent was masked by some kind of drug."

"Damn it!" The curse exploded from me, and I felt my eyes blaze even brighter gold.

"Why did he do it?" I pressed. "Did he ever tell you?"

"No, he never said explicitly what his purpose was."

I let out another frustrated sigh. Looking at her face, wet with fresh tears, her voice hoarse and broken—she looked so incredibly hurt. I hated making her relive this nightmare.

"How... how did you manage to escape?" I forced myself to ask.

"I studied his patterns," she said, her voice gaining a strange sort of strength. "I noticed he always carried this specialized dagger with him when he came to interrogate me. And because the drugs always made me appear very weak and helpless, he never thought twice about walking right into my cell."

She paused, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand.

"On the day that decided everything, when he came to check on me, I pretended the drug reaction had knocked me unconscious. So when he walked into the cell to examine my condition, I quickly grabbed his dagger and slit his throat."

"I didn't even look back to see what I'd done—I just ran. I found my way out of the underground facility and ran as hard as I could. I used the last of my strength to track your scent all the way to Silver Moon Group headquarters before I collapsed."

By this point, she was almost drowning in her own tears, crying so hard I could barely make out her words.

I felt terrible for her, and yet so many details in her explanation only made me more curious.

"Lillian, I'm so sorry you went through all of that," I said, meaning it. "As your Alpha, I should have protected you better."

She gave a watery laugh. "It's okay. The important thing is that I'm back now. What's past is past."

"Yes, it's past," I nodded.

"You mentioned there were things I should know but don't," Lillian said, wiping away her tears and trying to regain her composure.

I cleared my throat, adjusting my position on the bed. *I should have told her about Isolde from the beginning. That was a mistake.*

"There are many things..." I began slowly. "But the most important is that during your absence, the Moon Goddess gave me a second chance mate. Her name is Isolde Blackwood, from an elite family in Emerald Valley District. I... I fell in love with her."

All the blood drained from her face as her brain processed my words. She stopped, stunned, for several seconds before snapping back to awareness. In less than a few seconds, she had gone completely pale, looking like a ghost.

Those hollow, sunken eyes were back, staring at me as if I'd become a complete stranger. Her mouth opened as if to speak, but no sound came out. She closed it again, swallowing hard.

I could hear her heart hammering against her ribcage, could smell the mixture of pain and shock radiating from her skin.

*Fuck, I just completely destroyed her,* I thought, guilt crashing over me like a wave.

"Oh..." she finally managed, the shock expression never leaving her face. "That's... that's good. I, um..." She scratched the back of her head with trembling fingers. "You're the Lycan King—you can't be without a mate. It makes sense that the Moon Goddess would send someone to replace me. That's good."

"Lillian, I'm sorry," I said, hating myself. "I never expected this to happen."

She laughed, but it was filled with defeat and frustration. "Sorry? You have nothing to be sorry for, Alpha Ezra. You did nothing wrong. I completely understand. I was gone too long—I needed to be replaced. Silver Moon Group needs stability. It's fine."

But her face and her trembling voice completely betrayed her words.

My heart felt like it had been thrown into a paper shredder.