I Bought A Male Escort, Turns Out He's The Lycan King (by lg savage) novel Chapter 238

Chapter 238

HUNTER

I came back to consciousness slowly, and the pain hit me first.

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It wasn’t sharp, but it was deep and constant, settling into my bones as if it had always been there. My chest felt tight, and my limbs were heavy. For a moment, I didn’t move. I just lay there, letting my breathing even out as the memory of the park forced its way back into my head.

Kitty.

My eyes snapped open.

The ceiling above me was unfamiliar for a split second before recognition settled in. Malcolm Leighton’s cabin. I’d passed out outside Rivers’ lodge. How the hell had I ended up all the way up in the mountains? How long had I been out?

The wards brushed faintly against my senses, but they were unfamiliar now. They were stronger and deeper. They’d been reinforced. The last time I’d been there, Malcolm had been preparing for the Bureau to attack.

I turned my head, and my tension eased. She was there, right next to me, her heartbeat steady. She was wrapped in so many blankets that they looked like a cocoon. Her pale, bruised face peeked out from the layers, while she lay completely still.

My relief didn’t last. Something was wrong.

The bond, as fragile as it was, should have surged the moment I woke up. It should have snapped back, even if she was unconscious, even if she was hurt. It was a true mate bond, forged without a bite, even if I had cemented it with one. There was nothing in this world that could break it now.

But there was nothing. Just silence and emptiness, and a distance I could not understand. It felt like reaching for something that was still there, but just out of reach, blurred and distorted in a way that made it impossible to grasp.

I pushed myself upright too quickly, and pain flared through my body. My vision blurred, and my head felt like someone had split it open.

“Easy.”

Rivers’ voice came from somewhere to my left. I hadn’t even sensed him there, and that alone told me how bad things were.

“You’re in no state to move,” he continued, stepping into my view. His expression was tight, but I could see the strain in the set of his jaw. “You’ve been out cold for a whole day. You barely made it back to the lodge, but we had to get you two back here. It’s safer.”

Was it? Something told me those witches could get through any wards.

I forced my feet to the wooden floor anyway and looked back at the woman still out cold next to me.

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Chapter 238

“What did they do to her?”

Rivers didn’t answer immediately. It was enough to set my instincts on edge.

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“I don’t know,” he said finally. “But whatever they did to her-what they did to both of you-didn’t wear off.”

I knew that much. Even through the pain wracking my body, I knew something had changed. That half-shift had been on a different level.

But why wasn’t Kitty healing?

It looked like the life in her had dimmed instead of returning. And the bond-

I reached for it again, and this time something responded. It was faint and unsteady, and didn’t feel like the threads of the old bond I’d once grasped for dear life.

A flicker of awareness brushed against mine before slipping away again, too fast for me to process and hold

onto.

“We felt it when you crossed the wards at the lodge,” Rivers continued. “Your magic isn’t behaving the way should.”

A quiet sound came from outside the door before it opened slowly. April peeked through the crack.

it

“It’s okay, April,” Rivers said. His voice softened slightly, and his eyes flickered. I didn’t scent any emotions in

the air.

I froze. I hadn’t sensed Rivers in the room or April outside. And I couldn’t catch any scent in the air.

A chill rolled down my spine, and my limbs weakened as April walked into the room. After such a grand half- shift, I hadn’t expected this kind of drop. How would I protect Kitty if all my primal instincts were gone?

April stopped beside Rivers, keeping her head lowered. Her bruises were gone, but I couldn’t tell if the wolfsbane was out of her system.

“She hasn’t woken up properly,” April said. “Not once.”

“What do you mean by ‘properly’?” I asked.

April stepped back at my tone, and I didn’t miss the way Rivers shifted slightly in front of her.

“She opened her eyes,” he said. “For a few seconds, after we settled her in bed. But there was nothing there.”

The chill spread to my bones. I was already familiar with that look.

“She looked straight at me,” he said, “and I don’t think she recognised who she was looking at.”

The awareness flickered again, and this time it hurt. Not because of what I felt, but because of what I didn’t. I turned back to her fully, ignoring the way my body protested the movement. My hand hovered above her cheek for a long time before I let myself make contact. The moment my fingers brushed against her, the fraying bond reacted again, like something inside it had been disturbed.

19:44 Mon, Apr 27

Chapter 238

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Her body tensed, and every instinct in me snapped to attention.

“Your Majesty, you should stay back-” Rivers started.

It was too late. Her eyes snapped open, and this time, she didn’t look through me. She looked straight at me with those blue eyes, drained of any warmth. There was no anger, no pain, nothing. Just the same empty, calculating stillness I’d seen before.

Only this time, it felt much worse. It felt permanent.

“Kitty,” I said again, quieter this time, pouring everything I had into that one word.

But her gaze didn’t soften. The bond stirred faintly, and whatever threads were still holding it together frayed

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