Rejected By My Mate; Claimed By Lycan Quadruplets Chapter 199

Bryan's POV

I leaned back in the car seat, my fingers drumming against the armrest as I watched the pack’s gates from the tinted window. My thoughts were all over the place, but I forced myself to keep still. Henry sat beside me, fiddling with his wristwatch like he always did when he was nervous.

“She’s taking too long,” he muttered, glancing at the gates again. “What if Enzo changes his mind at the last minute? What if he doesn’t let her leave?”

I turned my head slowly, giving him that look that had shut up many warriors before. But Henry was my beta, my closest ally, the only one I trusted enough to speak plainly. He raised his brows at me, waiting.

“She’ll come,” I said with certainty. My voice was low, steady, though my chest was tight. “Enzo has no choice but to let her. He needs her just as badly as I do.”

Henry exhaled sharply and leaned back. But after a beat, his curiosity won. “Bryan,” he said quietly, “what happens afterward? Once we get her in our car, in our territory. Do you really plan to let her go back once Baron is healed?”

I smirked, turning my gaze back to the gates. I didn’t need to think twice. “No.”

Henry blinked. “No?”

I tilted my head at him, amused by his attempt to sound surprised. “Don’t act like you didn’t already know. Lisa isn’t leaving my pack again. Not after everything. Not after the plague, not after the shame, not after the years we let her slip through our fingers. Once she steps into my territory again, it’s final. She belongs to us.”

“To you,” Henry corrected carefully, his tone dry.

“To us,” I replied with a dark chuckle. “To the pack, Henry. Don’t twist it.”

He gave me that skeptical look he always gave when he thought I was lying to myself. And maybe I was. Maybe this wasn’t about the pack at all. Maybe it was about me—my pride, my guilt, my hunger for redemption, my need to reclaim what had once been ours.

Henry let out a long sigh. “And if she refuses?”

“She won’t.”

“You sound so sure.”

“Because I know her,” I said firmly. “She might glare, she might spit fire, she might curse me with every breath in her lungs, but deep down, she knows she owes this pack. And she knows her place is with us, not Enzo.”

Henry leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Careful, Bryan. You’ve been blinded by your obsession before. Don’t let it cloud your judgment again. Lisa isn’t the same fragile girl we used to push around. You saw her on the battlefield—she’s something else now. She won’t bend as easily as you think.”

I clenched my jaw, remembering the sight of her glowing hands pressed to the wounds of fallen soldiers, the way her body trembled with exhaustion, how blood slipped from her lips while she still refused to stop healing. Fragile? No. She was stronger than half the warriors combined. Stronger than me in ways I couldn’t admit aloud.

“She’ll bend,” I muttered. “If not to me, then to the truth of her duty. That’s what will chain her down again.”

Henry opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, the pack gates finally creaked open. My eyes sharpened instantly.

And there she was.

Lisa stepped out, her hair damp, her face pale but composed, her aura steady despite the exhaustion she tried to hide. She had changed into simple traveling clothes, but nothing about her looked ordinary. Even in that state, she carried herself like a queen.

Henry muttered under his breath, “And so the storm walks to us.”

I smirked faintly. “Get ready.”

The driver opened the back door, and Lisa slid in, sitting as far away from me as possible, pressed against the other window. She didn’t even glance in my direction at first, just folded her arms across her chest and stared out like I wasn’t there.

I let the silence stretch a moment before speaking. “Lisa.”

Her head snapped toward me, her eyes sharp. “Don’t talk to me.”

I raised my brows, feigning surprise. “Already hostile? I haven’t even said anything yet.”

“You don’t need to,” she shot back. “Your presence is enough.”

Henry choked on a laugh beside me but covered it with a cough. I ignored him and focused on her.

“Still as fiery as ever,” I said softly. “I see Enzo hasn managed to bring out the fire out that tongue of yours.”

Her glare intensified. “I don’t belong to Enzo, and I will never belong to you.”

The words pricked me like thorns, but I masked it with a slow smile. “That’s not what your actions say. You agreed to come with me, didn’t you? You chose to step into my car. That tells me everything I need to know.”

Her jaw clenched. “Don’t flatter yourself. I came because Baron is sick, and I won’t let the plague consume another life if I can help it. I didn’t come for you. I didn’t come for your pack. I came because it’s my duty as a healer.”

“Ah, duty,” I repeated with a smirk. “The same word I used, the same word you can’t escape. You see, Lisa? No matter how much you claim to hate us, your sense of responsibility always drags you back. That’s why I know—you’ll never truly leave us.”

Her hands tightened into fists in her lap. “You’re delusional.”

I leaned a little closer, lowering my voice. “Am I?”

She turned her face away, refusing to meet my eyes, and for a moment the car was filled with her silence. A silence that tasted like defiance, but also like fear.

Henry cleared his throat, breaking the tension. “We should move. The longer we sit here, the more suspicious this looks.”

The driver started the car, and the gates closed behind us.

As the vehicle rolled forward, I glanced at Lisa again, studying her profile. She looked tired, fragile even, but there was steel beneath that surface. A steel that both enraged and fascinated me.

I decided then—I wouldn’t let her hide behind that steel. Not on this journey.

“So,” I began casually, “how are the children?”

Her head snapped toward me, shock flashing across her face before it twisted into rage. “Don’t you dare bring them into this.”

I raised my hands in mock surrender. “Relax. I was only asking. I care about them, too, you know.”

“You care about no one but yourself,” she spat. “Don’t act like you have a right to even say their names.”

Henry muttered under his breath, “Told you this wouldn’t be easy.”

Lisa whipped toward him. “And you—don’t think I’ve forgotten your part in all of this. Trailing after Bryan like his shadow, enabling all his schemes. You’re just as guilty.”

Henry blinked, taken aback. “I haven’t even said anything—”

“You don’t have to,” she cut in coldly.

I chuckled lowly, despite the tension. “You really haven’t changed, Lisa. Always quick with that tongue, always quick to draw blood with words.”

She met my gaze directly, her eyes burning. “And you haven’t changed either. Always manipulative. Always scheming. Always treating people like pawns for your games.”

I leaned in closer, close enough to see the pulse flicker at her throat. “Maybe so. But pawns don’t get to ride in the same car as kings. Think about that.”

Her palm twitched, and for a moment I thought she might actually slap me. But instead, she turned back to the window, biting down whatever words she wanted to hurl.

The ride stretched on, filled with her icy silence and my simmering satisfaction.

She thought she could resist me. She thought her hatred was enough to shield her. But I knew better. I had time, patience, and the strength of a whole pack behind me.

One way or another, Lisa was never leaving my side again.