The Betrayed Princess Rising (Lylah and Ezra) novel Chapter 272

Chapter 272

3rd Person’s POV

VPH

94

Finished

The enforcer’s grip closed around Lylah’s wrist and guided her toward the patrol vehicle with quiet force. The taxi driver lingered in stunned confusion, glancing between them and the unconscious Tiara slumped in the back seat.

Muttering under his breath, he followed, trailing behind them toward the treatment center.

At the treatment center, time seemed to crawl-each second stretching thin, heavy with tension.

An hour passed before a ward assistant finally approached Lylah. “You may see him now. He’s been treated.”

Her lips pressed into a thin line.

Outside, Lunaris gleamed beneath Selene’s blessing. Yet inside here, Rowan had found a way to drag her back into his chaos, staining everything with his presence.

Lylah stepped into the room.

But she barely made it a pace inside before her body was yanked backward. An arm locked around her waist, another braced near her throat, pinning her hard against the wall.

The scent hit her first.

Blood. Mixed with his suffocating pheromone.

Rowan stood before her-far too steady for a wolf who had just crawled out of a wreck. A crooked grin carved across his bruised face.

“Don’t comment on why I’m standing already, little moon,” he murmured, voice low, roughened but laced with something darkly amused. “I wouldn’t want you worrying about me.”

Her eyes flashed. “Don’t mistake my presence here for concern. If not for that idiotic enforcer and your deranged little stunt, I wouldn’t be anywhere near you.”

“Lylah…” His voice dragged over her name, thick, almost indulgent. “You really wound me.”

Rowan lifted a finger, brushing along her jawline as if he still had that right.

“I know you felt it,” Rowan went on. “Earlier, when you saw me bleeding out in that wreck, unmoving, you froze. I could smell it on you. Your wolf woke up for me, didn’t it? It broke you seeing me like that.”

173

10:11 Fri, Apr 10

Chapter 272

:

VPH

94

Finished

Lylah let out a sharp, humorless laugh.

“My wolf?” She tilted her head, eyes cold. “Don’t flatter yourself. It reacts to danger, not to you.”

Her gaze dragged over him. Disgust unmasked.

“You were bleeding out like a stray mutt on the road, Rowan Blackfang. Of course I paused. Anyone would. Don’t twist instinct into something pathetic just to feed your delusion.”

Still, he hovered close.

“You can deny it all you want. But I could stay like this, if that’s what it takes to keep you close within my reach, little Moon.” Rowan murmured.

“I don’t want to be close to you.” Her voice cut sharp as a blade. “How many times do I have to say it? Whatever bond we had is over.” Her chest rose with restrained fury. “I have a mate, Rowan. Someone I chose. Someone I love.”

The words struck.

Hard.

“And I don’t even remember the life you keep clinging to!”

Something inside him snapped.

Rowan’s wolf surged just beneath his skin-restless, wounded, and feral. It pressed forward, baring its teeth through him as his eyes ignited into molten gold.

“But you were mine longer,” Rowan growled. “I was the one who dragged you into my pack when your so-called parents spat you out like filth. Me. I was the one who sheltered you, who took care of you-long before him.”

His hands flexed at his sides, claws threatening beneath flesh.

“And then one day, you suddenly chose him.”

His gaze darkened, something raw bleeding through. “Why, Lylah? Because he’s stronger in your eyes? Because his bloodline stands unbroken, while mine had to crawl its way up? Because you never saw him ruined-crippled and helpless-never had to carry him, clean him, hold him together when he couldn’t even stand on his own?”

He stepped closer, desperation and fury twisting tight beneath his skin.

“Was that fleeting, flawless image enough to erase everything we bled through together?!”

2/3

10:11 Fri, Apr 10

Chapter 272

Lylah stilled.

So he remembered those days when she had cared for him at his lowest.

And still he had betrayed her.

VPN

Tainting every sacrifice she had made, and choosing to share his bed with her own sister.

Finished

“I swear to you,” Rowan rasped, voice turning lethal, “I will rise higher than him! I will tear that blind Moonclaw bastard down! I will crush Ezra beneath my feet-”

The crack of the slap cut through the sterile ward room.

Lylah’s hand struck his face with brutal force-directly across his already broken nose.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify