Filed to story: The Lycan King's Treasured Luna (Narine & Sargis) Book PDF Free
And so did I, mirroring her as worry bloomed in my gut.
Did I say something wrong?
Did I push her too far?
She was retreating again from whatever memory had clawed its way back into her mind. I could see it. The walls she’d just begun to lower, rebuilding themselves, brick by brick.
She looked around, wild-eyed. Her chest heaved with shallow, erratic breaths. Her fingers curled at her sides like she was trying to anchor herself.
No, no, please…Not after all the progress.
“Hey,” I said gently, raising my hands to show I wasn’t going to touch her. “Are you okay?”
She didn’t answer.
She kept walking backward, closer to the fountain.
I stopped moving. I didn’t want to scare her further.
But when her heel clipped the base and she wobbled, a jolt of panic surged through me.
Shit.
I closed the distance in two long strides, catching her around the waist just as she tilted backward. If I’d been even half a second late, she would’ve cracked her skull on the marble edge.
I pulled her against me, gripping her tightly. Her body trembled in my arms.
Her scent, slightly sweet from the candy, filled my lungs as I tucked my face instinctively against the crook of her neck. I wasn’t even thinking, just acting, holding her like I needed to keep her safe from everything. Even her own thoughts.
But she wriggled slightly in my grasp and I loosened my hold a bit.
She tilted her face up.
Mine angled down.
And our lips accidentally met.
My heart stopped.
Her breath hitched against me. Her lips were small, soft, and tentative. Every fiber of my being screamed to not ruin this. Even though I knew it was a mistake. Even though I knew she hadn’t meant it. Even though I knew touching her without permission, like this was a breach.
I should pull back immediately and apologize but I couldn’t move.
I was rooted in place, afraid that even breathing too hard would shatter the moment.
Her eyes blinked up at me slowly, like she didn’t understand what was happening… and then they widened, and it was like a door inside her mind slammed shut.
That’s when it started, the shake in her hands, the way her pupils dilated, and her breath caught in her throat like she was choking on it.
She shoved me hard enough that I stumbled back a step, tearing her lips from mine as if I’d branded her.
She whimpered shakily and wrapped her arms around herself tightly, trembling, and began scrubbing at her lips with a ferocity that made my chest seize.
“Narine,” I whispered, “stop, please, don’t…”
Her eyes flicked up to mine, and then she dropped to her knees.
“Please,” she croaked, her voice sounded cracked and broken like it had been rusted shut for years and only now torn open. “Please, Joe, I’m begging you. It hurts.”
It was the first time I’d heard her voice in months. Four months, to be exact. And while I’d dreamed of hearing it, countless times, imagined it in laughter, anger, and shy amusement, I never expected to hear it like this, saturated in grief, laced with terror, and begging for mercy.
“Please, please, please, please…” she kept muttering, curling in on herself.
I crouched, trying to close the distance.
But she flinched violently.
Her arm swung out in panic, and her palm cracked across my cheek. The impact didn’t even register.
She shuffled backward, curling into the ground like she was trying to disappear into the earth, and wrapped herself tighter, with her knees to her chest. Her body shook so violently I thought she might snap her own bones.
“Please,” she whispered again, smaller now.
I didn’t dare move closer. I just knelt there, as tears fell freely down my face.
And cried.
Until the rhythm of her breath slowed and her muttering softened to nothing.
I wiped my face with trembling fingers and sat there a moment longer, making sure she was truly under. Her breathing evened out, and her lashes rested delicately on her bruised cheeks. There were faint red marks on her lips from where she’d scrubbed too hard.
I gathered her gently into my arms.
Her head fell softly against my chest. It reminded me of the first time she collapsed in my arms and I’d held her like a fragile bird I didn’t know how to mend. As I carried her out of the garden, Felipe stood at attention by the car. His face paled when he saw her.
Without a word, he opened the door.
I slid into the backseat slowly, careful not to jostle her, and wrapped her securely in my arms. Her head fit perfectly beneath my chin. And I settled my jaw gently on her hair.
The car began to move.
But I didn’t look out the window. I didn’t care for the scenery.
All I could think of was her. Of how desperately I wished I could take her place. How much I wished the universe had chosen me to carry that pain, instead of her. How much I hated myself for being too late. For not finding her sooner. For not shielding her from a world that had tried to crush her, and how badly I wanted to fix this.
But I couldn’t.
No matter how strong I was, no matter how many armies bowed before me, I couldn’t take her pain away.
Joe.
That name, just three letters, burned like acid against the inside of my skull.
She had said it. And that was all the confirmation I needed.
He was the monster in her nightmares. The shadow that hovered behind her eyes when she flinched. The reason her body trembled at the slightest touch. And tonight… tonight I was going to pay the fucker a visit.
My eyes darkened with the weight of the thoughts swirling in my head. Thoughts so vicious even hell would pause. I would break him. Slowly and systematically. And when I was done, I would hand his head to her on a silver fucking platter.
Because no one hurts my mate and walks away breathing.
Even if she weren’t my mate… Even if she were a stranger bleeding on the streets, I would’ve intervened. There are laws, protocols, and processes. A mere werewolf alpha had no authority to imprison or torture anyone, let alone another species.
He bypassed the entire judicial process. And worse, he did it without fear of consequence for three fucking years.
But I am the consequence.
And now, he’d know what it felt like to be a prey.
The limo pulled up to the palace’s main entrance. Felipe stepped out and opened the door without a word. I cradled her close and stepped into the quiet night.
Eyes turned toward us the second we entered. Guards, nobles, and servants. Their gazes flickered between me and the delicate form in my arms, and I pulled her tighter, angling her face into my chest so only I could see her.
