Tempted By my Evil Lycan Stepbrother novel Chapter 100

Chapter 4: Double Kill

Riley’s POV

For a few seconds after Leon’s body went still, neither of us moved.

Ezra was the first to reach me.

He pulled me into his arms so hard that I almost crushed into me, and I clung to him just as fiercely

My whole body was still shaking. I wasn’t afraid. It’s just…I couldn’t control my body anymore when I was in his arms

Ezra buried his face against my hair and held me tighter. 1

“… He died too easily. I’m going to chop his body into pieces,” he said hoarsely. “Then I’ll feed him to the fucking dogs

I let out a weak, breathless sound that might have been a laugh.

Then I lifted both hands to his face and made him look at me.

“He’s dead. It’s over. Let it go,” I said.

He didn’t say anything. He just stared at me with that dark gaze. And I could feel his wolf pacing and growling restlessly.

“What’s the matter?” I asked quietly with a frown. His anger didn’t disappear. It grew stronger.

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His eyes were still burning. His chest was rising too fast. There was blood on his skin-Leon’s blood-and a wildness in him I had never seen this close before.

He closed his eyes for one second and took a deep breath, like he was forcing himself back under control just for me.

“Because this never had to happen,” he said, gritting his teeth.

I understood what he meant instantly.

“I let it happen. I was pissed at you so I kept playing the games. I let that mother and son get close to you because I thought I still had time.” His jaw tightened. “And while I was busy being a jealous asshole, they put their hands on you.” 1

I bit my lip and lapsed into silence.

He was right. And he wasn’t the only one to blame. I was just as stupid.

Leon and Yilia were monsters all on their own. But Ezra and I had been making everything worse too. We were so busy hurting each other, punishing each other, refusing to back down, that we had left space for those people to trap re.

I held his hand tighter.

There was something pounding in my chest, something I had been trying not to name for too long.

But I knew I just had to put it out there and stop worrying about the consequence. Because I had almost lost the chance to say it at all.

I swallowed and said, “Fzra… there’s something I need to say…About us.”

He looked at me intensely.

I could feel myself trembling again, but this time it wasn’t from tear.

“I mean maybe we can’t keep going like this,” I said. “Maybe we should stop pretending this is just —”

Ezra’s entire body went rigid.

His head snapped toward the balcony.

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“Why’s there?” he harked.

The sudden force in his voice out my words in half.

He caught my hand and pulled me with him toward the balcony doors. The night air rushed in, cool against my skin, and moonlight spilled across the floorboards.

At first I didn’t see anything except the dark stone outside.

Then something pale caught my eye near the railing.

It’s a shawl. It had fallen half off the low balcony wall, snagged on one corner.

My stomach dropped. Because I knew that shawl.

“It’s Yilia’s,” I whispered. “She was here…She was here while his son tried to rape me!”

The disgust hit so fast I almost gagged.

I put a hand over my mouth for a second, my skin crawling so badly I wanted to peel it off. Ezra held me tightly. His grip was so strong that it almost hurt my bone.

“I’m gonna kill that woman,” he said darkly.

Suddenly I realized something and looked over at him. “If she was here, then she had heard everything!”

He looked back at me, and suddenly we were both thinking the same thing.

She had heard US. Knew the relationship between Ezra and I. And a woman like Yilia would never go down quietly with a secret

like that now that her son was dead.

“She was going back to the palace,” I said fast and breathless.

Ezra’s face went cold.

“She’s going to tell them,” I gritted. “Leon is dead. So she’s going to blow everything up before we get there!”

I spun toward the room and grabbed the nearest thing I could use to cover myself. “We need to stop her. Can you get us a car?”

Ezra caught my wrist. “There’s no time for car.”

Then, before I could ask what he meant, he pulled me close and stepped out onto the balcony ledge with me in his arms.

My heart jumped into my throat and I screamed.

“Ezra-”

Then he leapt.

The world dropped out from under us.

Midair, his body shifted.

The change was violent and beautiful and terrifying all at once. Bone, muscle, fur, heat — one heartbeat he was a man, and the next I was clinging to the back of a massive black wolf racing through the night.

The wind tore at my hair and stung my face.

I wrapped both arms around his neck and buried myself low against him as he tore through the grounds, faster than any car

could have taken us.

Trees became streaks. Stone paths flashed by under moonlight. The whole world blurred into speed and cold air and the violent

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pounding of my pulse.

Ezra didn’t slow once.

By the time the palace came into view, all iit windows and pale towers against the night sky, I could barely feel my fingers

He leapt the last stretch.

The Alpha suite sat high above the rest of the palace, its long windows glowing gold in the dark.

The next second, the glass exploded inward.

Ezra crashed through it in a storm of shards, landing in the middle of the room with fee still on fris back.

Everyone inside turned at once. King Soren was there. And my mother too. So was Yilia.

For one second, everything froze. Then King Soren surged to his feet, fury crashing over his face.

“Have you lost your mind?” he roared. “Ezra! What the hell are you doing?”

Yilia saw us and instantly understood that we were here to kill her.

She instantly turned on her heels and ran for my mother, half laughing and half screaming, her face twisted with horror and madness.

“He’s here to kill me!” she shrieked. “Ezra! Because I found out his secret. He hooked up with—”

She never got to finish.

Ezra got to her before the words were fully out. His jaws closed around her throat when she was still clutching at my mother’s sleeve. 1

It happened so fast.

A wet sound split the room. Then blood sprayed.

It splashed right across the white silk of my mother’s dress. Yilia’s body convulsed once, then collapsed at my mother’s feet.

For two or three seconds, nobody made a sound. Even King Soren had gone still.

Then my mother looked down at the blood soaking her clothes, at the corpse on the floor, and let out an earsplitting scream.

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Chapter 1: I Love You

Riley’s POV

My mother’s scream still rang through the room.

She stumbled backward, both hands flying to the blood splashed across her dress, her whole face twisted with horror

“Oh my…Oh my god!” she cried. “Why would you do that? Ezra, why! Have you lost your mind? This is Vilia! Riley’s future mother-in-law and you just-you just killed her?!”

Her voice cracked on the last word. Her eyes were filled with horror and anger as she looked at him. But this time I stepped in before Ezra could answer.

“Ezra saved me,” I said, clenching my fists. “Before he tells you why he killed that wornan, why don’t you talk about why you handed me to a goddamn rapist first?”

The room went still.

My mother turned toward me, her eyes wide and wet. For a second I saw shock there, then fear, then that familiar, desperate instinct to twist the truth.

“Riley-”

“Don’t. Even. Try.” My voice came out loud and sharp. “Don’t give me that old speech about how you think he’s a good person and will make a good husband. He’s a fucking monster! All he wanted was my title and a richer lie to wear in public. You knew that and you still let him take me! He was going to rape me, mom! Don’t you give a shit about that?!”

I was basically screaming toward the end. Her lips trembled. And she started sobbing.

“I’m sorry, Riley. He lied to all of us. I didn’t know he was such a

I laughed, interrupting her.

“Really? You really don’t know?” I stared at her, my voice full of sarcasm. “Think twice before you say that. I’ve heard everything, remember? I know your secret now.”

The color left her face completely.

That got King Soren’s attention instantly. He was glaring at Ezra a moment before, but now he shifted his attention to pay mom, narrowing his eyes.

My mother stared at me, breathing unevenly, and for the first time since I had entered that suite, she looked truly cornered

So that’s what it took to get her. She would never want King Soren to find out how much debt she was drowning in

And now that Yilia was dead, her secret was safe with me. As long as she didn’t push me any further

After a few seconds of silence, she did the smart thing and stopped arguing with me. She shut her mouth and looked away from

King Soren looked from me to her, his brows drawn together. “What secret are you talking about?”

I turned to him and smiled faintly.

“Nothing,” I said. “I was just joking with my mother.”

His eyes stayed on me for another second, searching my face. Then he looked at Ezra and the suspicion in him shifted back into

anger.

“Have you completely lost your mind?” he snapped. “If you wanted Yilia dead or arrested for some crime, you could have let the guards do it! Which was what my son – the prince – would do! Did you really need to smash through my windows like a

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goddamn afiftiral?”

Ezra, back iñ hunian form now and standing a New feet away with blood still drying on his skin, gave a slight shrug

“There wasn’t enough time.”

King Soren’s face hardened. “Time for what?”

Then his eyes suddenly sharpened, and I saw the moment the pieces started moving in his head.

“Yilia said she knew your secret,” Soren said slowly. “She said you were sleeping with sofreone, and that was why you balled her.” His voice dropped lower, more dangerous. “Who?”

My whole body went rigid. My heart was beating so fast that I felt it might burst out of my chest the next second

Beside me, Ezra stood perfectly still as well.

He just looked at his father with that same cold expression, and the silence betweef, them began to thickea into something that made the room feel smaller.

King Soren took a step forward.

“Well? Are you going to answer your father or not?”

Ezra still said nothing. King Soren’s rage was burning in his eyes now.

“You cannot possibly be sleeping with some low-born woman! A girl with no title or royal bloodline? A fucking commoner? A werewolf?” he snarled. “Don’t tell me you are fooling around with a prostitute!”

“She’s not a prostitute,” Ezra said impatiently.

“Then who is she?!”

Ezra went back to silence again, his brows tightly together. My palms were sticky with cold sweat now.

King Soren let out a sharp breath and added, “And what about Viola? You do have a girlfriend, don’t you? A good girl. A girl we all like. Why would you humiliate her for some disgraceful women?”

Ezra’s mouth tightened. “It’s none of your business.”

“The hell it isn’t,” King Soren snapped. “I will not allow you to tie yoursel to some woman I do not approve of. If you make a mess of your future over this, I will strip you of your inheritance!”

My heart sunk.

There it was. My biggest nightmare. If King Soren discovered that Ezra’s girlfriend wasn’t someone he liked, he would use the inheritance to threaten Ezra.