Chapter 196 – Absent Luna of the Lycan King Novel (Ivy & Kyson)

Filed To Story: Absent Luna of the Lycan King Novel (Ivy & Kyson)

“But I’m not here for the girls,” I hear him tell them. It almost sounded as if he was pouting and they point their guns in his direction. I get to my hands and knees, waiting for the one I could see closest to the door to turn all the way. What the fuck was Liam doing?

“State your business, why are you here?” a gruff voice replies.

“For you of course,” Liam laughs when I see the man closest to the door suddenly fall, a knife embed ded in his throat and all hell breaks loose, despite that Liam cackled while I rushed at them crashing through the wall and tackling another one

“She’s upstairs, Dustin,” I call, punching the man as Dustin blurs past me as he jumped clean over me. Gripping the man’s head between my hands, I twist, snapping his neck before turning and pouncing on an other one.

Azalea POV

Kyson was stoking the fire while I looked over old maps. Kyson was trying to teach me about the King doms and what each represented. To me, it was gibberish, yet I was determined to learn.

He also explained everything about Ester and Trey and how Marrissa was my father’s mate, which ex plained why she never shifted, though I didn’t understand why she and Jordan wouldn’t try to save them selves. They could have taken down Alpha Dean’s Pack easily, being Lycan.

There were also holes to me that didn’t make sense. Walking back to me, Kyson sits behind me on the sofa, his finger fiddling with my hair as he twisted it into a braid. We had a good afternoon; Kyson almost seemed to have a lobotomy.

Whatever Damian had said to him had changed his entire demeanor. I shiver as his fingers brush the back of my neck, making me cringe a little at the ticklish feeling when I knew I was treading dangerously, but it had been playing on my mind all afternoon. So I needed to ask.

“Can I ask you something?” I ask him, leaning back and placing my head on his thigh. “Hmm,” he hums, tipping my head forward to finish braiding it. “You said you commanded Ester, right?” He hums in agreement again, and my brows furrowed. I could tell through the bond he didn’t like this line of questioning.

“How strongly did you command her?” “Fairly strongly. Enough to drop her if she lied. Why?” “Just some things don’t make sense to me,” I admit. “Like what?” “For one, why my mother…

I mean, Marrissa never shifted when Alpha Dean’s men attacked! If she was Lycan, she should have been easily able to kill them,” I tell him. He fell quiet for a second, and I could feel that he was thinking. “I wondered that too, but Garret died. It could have done something to her Lycan side.

Lycans weaken drastically after a mate dies. Most die, and if she was sired to you, it might have been the only thing keep ing her alive,” Kyson says, and I sigh. “Well, what about Ester not recognizing her?” “She did recognize her.

Marrissa threatened to tell us the truth about Peter if she snitched on her.” “But that is the thing that doesn’t make sense. Landeena’s have immunity. You would have been forced to protect Peter. Marrissa had to have known that; that hardly seems like much of a threat to me,” I tell him, and his fingers stop again.

“I thought that was a little odd too. Ester probably didn’t want Peter to become a target for hunters?” | shake my head. What safer place would there be then to be protected by the King’s guard? Then again, is that why Marrissa refused to fight to protect me? She did say as much, but if that were the case, she want ed to protect me.

Why not drop me on Kyson’s doorstep? Marrissa obviously knew he was searching for her and the council. “I think you’re looking too much into it. Ester was commanded. She can’t fight my command” “Unless she had drunk Landeena’s blood?” I offer, yet Kyson shakes his head.

“Peter hasn’t shifted yet. It doesn’t work like that. He has no Alpha aura either. His bloodline is watered down. His blood would have no effect on her against me,” Kyson says, and I nibble my lip. It was on the tip of my tongue. I just couldn’t think of it.

Something was amiss, and I could almost feel it in my bones. “I think it is stress making you overthink,” Kyson says, tipping my head back, yet one thing kept playing on my mind, and I was almost certain of it. “I think Marrissa was framed,”

I murmur, and Kyson tips my head back, forcing me to look up at him. “You are not defending that woman!” “What if I am? It feels wrong. I knew Marrissa, and she loved me. She would never have hurt me like that?” “She was sired to you.

Of course, she loved you. You kept her alive,” Kyson growls, dipping his face and nipping at my lips, but I turn my face before he can deepen it. Kyson sighs. “I don’t want to fight over this, Azzy. Please. We had a great afternoon.

Don’t ruin it,” he says, and I swallow. Despite that, my mind was made up. Marrissa didn’t do it, and now I had to find a way to prove it because Kyson refuses to believe he was wrong for all these years.

That they had it wrong, but how do I ex plain her killing all those children or his sister? “I get it. You want to see good in the woman who raised you, but …” “No, it’s not that

. The more I have thought about it, the little things keep popping up, and now I am kind of regretting not questioning her myself.” “You don’t trust what she said under my command?” Kyson asked incredulously. My brows furrow.

“And you are sure you commanded, and she couldn’t have resisted it? No doubt?” I ask him, and he falls quiet e “I am sure, Azzy. Please, no more talking about it. Let me have one night without drama in our lives, and enjoy the night,” Kyson sighs.

He gets up, muttering to himself, walking to his bar in the corner. “I hate when you drink,” I tell him, and he stops glancing at me over his shoulder. “I am only having one,” “It’s never one, and you know it. You think I didn’t see how much you drank after the-” | trail off, shak ing my head. Don’t go there.

Don’t go there, Azalea. I scolded myself. “It helps,” “Help get you drunk and turn into an asshat,” I tell him, turning back to the maps I couldn’t read but had a general understanding of by the mountains. When I looked up at him again, he was shaking his head, pouring himself a glass, and I clicked my tongue. “I won’t mention anything else tonight if you put the glass down,” I tell him, tilting my head to the side, watching him.

“And if I drink it?” he asks, turning with the glass in his hands. Yet I knew he was drinking because it numbed him but also helped him dampen his urges. Regardless, it wasn’t a permanent solution. Glancing around the room, my eyes fall on the bookshelf.

“Read to me?” “You want me to read?” he asks, wandering over to the bookcase. Yet he puts the glass down on the coffee table as he picks a book out. “Rapunzel?” I shake my head.

“Prince and the pauper?” | shrug, and he pulls it down before retrieving the glass, and I press my lips in a line. He moves to the bed, propping pillows up before sitting down before seeing me glaring at him. “It’s one glass!” He growls, patting his chest.

I raise an eyebrow at him, moving toward the bed and climbing into his lap. Though when he picked up the glass, I snatched it from him, downing the entire cup, fighting the urge to spit the burning liquid in his face.

It was like swallowing jet fuel and was disgusting when I realized it wasn’t his usual whiskey but something much more pungent. “Well, that is what you get for stealing my drink,” he says as I cough and sputter.

He deposits me be side him, getting up and taking the glass back to the bar. Jumping off the bed, I swipe the bottle before he can grab it. “Azalea, you can’t drink the whole thing! You will be on the floor after barely a quarter of that!” he growls angrily.

I tip the bottle to my lip, already cringing from the strong smell. “Go on then. I will grab it when you pass out,” he says, folding his arms across his chest. I suck in a deep breath, wondering if holding my breath will make it not burn or taste so bad.

I chugged some down, the fiery liquid making it feel like I was drinking lava, and my eyes watered be fore I gasped, sucking in a choking breath and coughing. Definitely could be used as some kind of fuel. Kyson reaches for the bottle, I snatch it away, and he growls at me, but I growl back at him.

“Nope! Every drink you drink, I drink then,” I tell him, and he snarls, his canines slipping out. “And according to my calculations, it will take your entire bar for me to catch up with what you’ve drunk in the last week,” I tell him. “Azalea Ivy-Rose Landeena, give me the damn bottle!” Kyson scolded me like I was a damn child. “Make me!” I tell him, swallowing more, only to find it didn’t burn this time.

Maybe I scorched my throat and tongue so badly that it killed the nerves? Nevertheless, the more I drank of it, the easier it went down the quarter mark as Kyson said, the room swayed a little. My belly felt queasy, and I felt ridiculously hot. Moving toward the window, I had to open it. The fire made me feel like I was overheating, Only the movement wasn’t in my best interest, as I stumbled, feeling like my body was weighed down by lead metal.

“What is this stuff?” I tried to ask, but even my words slurred. “Sunset Rum, and it is 85% alcohol. You usually mix it. You’re lucky to be standing still with how much you have drunk. If you weren’t Lycan, you would be on the floor,” Kyson growls at me, reaching for the bot tle.

I pulled it back. “Well, on the floor | go,” I tell him while drinking some more when he snatches it from me as I sway backward. I hadn’t even realized I was falling until he caught me around the waist. “No more!” he growls, nipping at my neck. “I don’t like it when you drink!” | slurred.

“And I don’t like you drinking!” he snaps back before sighing. “Fine, I won’t drink, but you don’t either. That was stupid,” he says, placing the bottle on the bar before scooping me up. I couldn’t feel my face or my tongue as I tried to feel it between my teeth.

“Azalea, you’ll bite your tongue off!” Kyson snaps, jamming his fingers in my mouth. “What?” I tried to speak around his finger invading my mouth, and he growled before he jumped

. Kyson hisses and sucks on his index finger that was bleeding, and I wondered what happened to him until I saw my teeth marks. “I did that?”  “Xena: Warrior Princess”: What’s The Cast Up To These Days? “You think,” he says, shaking his head before moving toward the bed.

He laid me down, and I felt so heavy. How could anyone like feeling like this? It was so off-putting. Kyson moves away. “Kyson,” I slurred, trying to roll my head, which felt like a bowling ball. “I’m chucking another log on fire,” I watched him, waiting for him to sneak to his bar.

Surprisingly, he doesn’t, instead climbs back in bed, and I retrieve the book. He drags my dead-weight body on top of him before opening it. “Don’t do that again,” he whispers, kissing my head.

My eyeballs felt heavy as I tried to stay awake while he read, but darkness swallowed me after a few minutes. The following morning, I was woken by the mind-link. Damian was trying to wake Kyson, and my head pounded.

Groggily sitting up, I find Kyson dead to the world when I hear a knock on the door. Dragging my self from bed, I answer the door.

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