Tempted By my Evil Lycan Stepbrother novel Chapter 43

Chapter 43: Bad Influence

Riley’s POV

“You’re not even that sorry, are you?” I said with a hint of disgust. “Throwing my toothbrush in the toilet, seriously?”

“Why should I be sorry? You deserve it!” Layla paused, glanced nervously at Ezra, then found the courage to continue. “Ever since you arrived at this school, it’s been nothing but chaos! And you’re just a lowborn werewolf-”

I let out a scoff. “You mean I’m just a commoner with no power. If I were a highborn noble, you would never do this to me.”

Layla pressed her lips together and didn’t respond, but the look on her face confirmed my guess. The vice principal rubbed his hands together and smiled at me. “Riley, since Layla has already denied any involvement in the whole thing, why don’t you accept her apology and let her go?”

“She didn’t even apologize. And what about the part where she deliberately stomped on my foot after I asked her for help? Am I supposed to just let that slide?”

“I’m sure Layla didn’t mean it,” the vice principal said. “Look, Riley, Layla is one of our rnost valued students. Her father serves on the King’s cabinet-”

“You mean she can bully me all she wants just because she has a powerful father,” I said icily.

“I’m just saying you shouldn’t be so quick to hold grudges,” the vice principal said with a smile.

Hold grudges?

I’m the one got hurt and I’m the bad person?

Nobody here took what I’d been through seriously. Sure, I lived in the palace, but the King was only my stepfather. My mother and I had less influence here than a housekeeper.

Anger rose in my chest. But if I lashed out now, they’d only think I was being unreasonable.

“So if it were up to you, she wouldn’t even be punished,” Ezra said flatly to the vice principal.

He swallowed nervously. “Layla already said she didn’t do it. And her father-”

Ezra raised a hand to silence him. “Very well. If you won’t act fairly, I will.”

He turned to his soldiers.

“Chop off her legs,” Ezra said.

He said it so casually, like he was ordering someone to kill a fly.

Everyone’s eyes went wide in disbelief.

T

“W–What?” the vice principal stammered. “You want Layla’s legs to be… No, that can’t be possible…”

“An eye for an eye. Very fair,” Ezra signaled his soldiers to move.

The soldiers pushed past the school staff without hesitation and yanked Layla up. One of them reached into his gear and pulled out a dagger.

Layla was frozen in terror. When she saw the blade, she suddenly let out a bloodcurdling scream:

“No–NO! You can’t chop off my legs! My father is on the King’s cabinet! You can’t do this to me!”

Ezra leaned down to look at her. Her terrified, tear–streaked face reflected in his cold green eyes.

“Your mother could be the Moon Goddess herself, and I’d still chop your fucking legs off,” he said crudely. “Do it.”

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Chapter 12 difluence

The soldiers didn’t hesitate for a single second. They laid her flat on the table and grabbed her legs.

“Wait–Wait! STOP!” Tears and snot streamed down her face. She struggled frantically. “I didn’t put the needle -I swear I didn’t do it!!!”

Several school staff members fainted on the spot. The vice principal stammered a few pleas for mercy, but his voice was drowned out by Layla’s ear–piercing screams.

Ezra remained expressionless throughout. The soldier raised his knife high–

“Stop it,” I snapped.

Normally, Ezra’s soldiers didn’t take orders from anyone but him. Not even the King.

But this time, the knife froze mid–air, and the soldier looked over at me.

“Don’t hurt her. Put your weapon away,” I said with a frown.

Ezra narrowed his eyes. “I didn’t know you were the type to go easy on people who humiliate you, Riley.”

“I’m not. But if she didn’t put that silver needle in my shoe, then she really doesn’t deserve this punishment,” I said quietly. ” And hey, they already hate me enough. I don’t need to give them another reason to see me as a target.”

Ezra shrugged and gestured for his soldier to release Layla. “You hear that? Riley pleaded for you, so you get to keep your leg. You should thank her.”

Layla sat dumbly on the floor, looking completely traumatized.

“Expel her. The Royal Academy doesn’t need a student like her,” Ezra said flatly.

The vice principal flinched. He looked like he wanted to argue, but wisely kept his mouth shut.

“I’ve said this a few times now, but nobody seems to believe it. So I’ll say it again,” Ezra’s cold gaze swept across the room. ” Riley is my sister, the King’s stepdaughter, and the current Queen’s daughter. How I choose to treat her is my own fucking business, but that doesn’t mean other people get to bully her. I want the whole school to understand that.”

The room went dead silent. Everyone looked at Ezra, then at me, with fear in their eyes.

“So besides Layla, no one else suspicious got into her room?” Ezra asked.

“No, sir.”

“Keep digging. How’s her wound?” he turned to the nurse and doctor.

The doctor looked incredibly nervous. “Injuries caused by silver are indeed tricky. I’d recommend transferring her to the Healer’s Association and letting her seek help from a professional healer.”

Ezra nodded. “Then let’s do that. Keep the campus locked down for the investigation.”

“Yes, sir!”

And at that moment, my heart skipped a beat.

-I was being taken to the Healer’s Association!

Truth be told, I wasn’t really worried about the silver wound. What truly worried me was the claw mark Ezra had left on me.

I’d been stressing about how to get the medicine to heal that wound. But if I was going to the Healer’s Association now, maybe I

could kill two birds with one stone.

“What are you thinking? You look worried,” Ezra asked as they wheeled me out of the clinic. He grabbed my hand. “Don’t worry, we’ll find whoever did this.”

Chapter 18 8 influence

I was thinking about how to hide my identity and my connection to the rogues.

Of course, I wasn’t going to tell him that.

“I’m thinking what a huge hypocrite you are. Did you forget that when I first came to this school, you were the one who got everyone to isolate me? And now you’re trying to play the good guy?”

His face darkened instantly. “Sp, not going to thank me at all?”

My cheeks felt a little warm.

Truth was, when he burst into my dorm and carried me out, when he ordered the school locked down, when he stood up for me despite everyone’s objections, and even earlier, when he always showed up whenever I was in danger…

I did feel things.

But I couldn’t let those feelings affect me.

I had to constantly remind myself that he was toxic. He was dangerous. And he was not for me.

“Don’t waste your energy on me,” I said quietly.

He stared at me with an intensity that scared me. But then, the next second, he suddenly leaned down toward me.

“I know you’re falling for me, Riley,” he whispered in my ear, his voice husky.

My heart started racing again. “No, I’m not-”

“Don’t bother denying it. And don’t think you can ever escape me.”

He squeezed my hand hard, let go and strode ahead.

We didn’t speak on the way to the Healer’s Association.

The Healer’s Association was the largest hospital we had. All the most talented healers gathered here.

As a healer myself, this should have been my dream destination. But because of some past history between my grandmother and this place, I didn’t have much fondness for the institution.

I was taken to a VIP ward, and there was already a room full of healers waiting for me. I recognized some of the faces. People who’d appeared alongside me on the worldwide top healer rankings.

But they had no idea that the girl they were about to treat was the Veilwalker herself.

They examined me together. Then one of the healers said to Ezra, “We can heal this wound. It‘ take about 2 months

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