Surrogate for the Alpha Prince in a Coma novel Chapter 263

Chapter 263

Lillian’s POV

“I want to respect your choice to stay away,” Grayson said to Ophelia. “But if there is any chance you might change your mind, I have to ask you to consider it. Your word about what happened would be invaluable testimony.”

“You assume I’d even be allowed to speak. The minute Odette and others find out where I am, I’d be dead for real. I am only safe because they think there is a high possibility that I had been killed,” Ophelia said.

Grayson and I both paused. I spoke up before Grayson could, “…Others? What others?”

“You can’t possibly believe that Odette is the true mastermind behind all this?” Ophelia asked. “She is a manipulator and she makes her plans, sure. But this goes far beyond her. Someone with power well beyond Odette’s is pulling the strings.”

“There aren’t many with power greater than Odette’s in court or elsewhere,” Grayson said.

“Then you know what I am saying,” Ophelia said. “If the King himself isn’t behind this, then it’s someone near him pulling the strings.”

“That’s a weighty accusation,” Grayson said.

“I wouldn’t make it if I wasn’t sure,” Ophelia said. “Nothing else makes sense. No one else would be able to do what has been done. They simply wouldn’t have the authority.”

“It can’t be the King,” I said. “Not with how he is at present.” I doubted the King was presently making any decisions on his own. “Could it be the council?”

Grayson fell silent, a pensive look on his face.

“I don’t know who exactly,” Ophelia said. “But my guess is someone from the King’s inner circle.”

I looked at Grayson, expecting him to chime in with his ideas, but he remained silent. In that moment, I wondered if he knew more than he was saying. Or perhaps he wasn’t ready to voice his darkest suspicion aloud, in case it turned out to be wrong.

That worried me. Who did he think could be responsible that he wasn’t willing to say?

It had to be someone of high importance. If that was true, then the danger I had anticipated ran even deeper than I had initially suspected when I had fled from the palace five years before.

A lingering fear resurfaced inside of me, and the desire to protect my children burned in my heart. Their lives had already been attempted against. They had been saved this time, thanks to Ophelia, but who knew what other dangers could be lurking around the corner?

Was I wrong to continue this mission? Perhaps I should just return to the Lycan kingdom, where I knew the kids would be safer. At least, they would be far away from the mysterious, powerful forces that could want to harm them. Reginald and his family and the whole of the palace adored Madison and Alex. They would be safe there.

But what would the abandonment of my mission mean for the war effort?

Would my children really be safe in the Lycan Kingdom without Teacher’s help to reinforce the border? The bear shifters would overrun the Lycan Kingdom first, if the war was lost. Though, in that case, nowhere would truly be

safe.

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+15 8cnus

“I can’t convince you?” Grayson said, finally speaking again. “There’s truly no way you will return?”

There’s no way,” Ophelia said. “I’m sorry.” She looked at me. “I will pass word onto the rogues that you are searching for Lone Archer, though to my understanding, no one has heard from him in nearly five years. But that is the most I will do.”

“Thank you,” I said, feeling I needed to at least thank her for that. The rogues likely would have the best

knowledge of where Teacher might have gone, though it truly seemed like he just up and disappeared into thin air. “Any lead would be helpful.”

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