Tempted By my Evil Lycan Stepbrother novel Chapter 83

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Chapter 83: The Happiest Bride

Riley’s POV

Ezra froze.

For one second, even the chaos around us seemed to fall away. The shouting crowd, Leon’s ragged breathing, the teachers pretending they hadn’t seen anything-all of it blurred at the edges.

All I could really see was Ezra’s face.

He looked like he couldn’t believe what he had just heard. And the world had slammed into him so hard his body had forgotten

how to move.

Good, I told myself that, clenching my fists.

That was what I wanted, wasn’t it? To hurt him back. To make him feel even a fastion of what I had felt standing there while he let his friends tear me apart, while he kissed another girl in front of me like I had meant nothing.

I turned from him and bent to help Leon up.

He winced when I touched his arm, but he straightened anyway, still breathing hard from the beating Ezra had given him. There was blood at the corner of his mouth and dirt on his shirt, but when he looked at me, there were sparkies in his eyes.

“Are you serious?” he asked me, breathing fast. “What you just said…about getting married?”

I took in a deep breath and told myself to steel up.

“Come on,” I said.

Leon blinked. “What?”

“We’re going to the palace.” My own voice sounded strange to me-too calm and even as if someone else were speaking through my mouth. “We’re going to tell my mother and the king right now.”

That seemed to shock him even more.

Then excitement flashed across his entire face.

“Yes!” he said at once, his eyes bright with thrill. “Oh my god yes-let’s do it!”

He reached for my hand. I let him take it.

Behind us, nobody in the crowd moved. It was like they were all still waiting for Ezra to do something. But he didn’t. He just stood there, staring at me with a look I couldn’t bear to understand too clearly.

Leon hurried me to his car and opened the passenger door for me with shaking hands. He was clearly running on adrenaline and hope and probably a little disbelief himself. By the time he got behind the wheel and started the engine, his whole face looked brighter than I’d ever seen it.

I turned once before we pulled away and saw Ezra one last time in the rearview mirror.

He was still standing by the school gate. His whole body was rigid. The image struck me in the chest so sharply my heart ached

For one second I almost told Leon to stop the car.

But then I remembered everything he did to me. Anger burned through my body all over again

Maybe this was madness. But I had spent so long feeling trapped by that bond If there was even the slightest chance that marrying someone else would break that hold on me, shouldn’t I take it?

At least that was what I told myself as Leon drove us to the palace.

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He kept talking the whole way there, his voice bright, almost breathless. He spoke about doing this properly, about how he had fallen for me the second he saw me, about how he had known the moment I stepped in front of Ezra for him that something real had changed between us.

I barely answered.

Mostly I stared out the window and watched the city slide by in streaks of gold and shadow.

By the time we arrived at the palace, the decision felt too large to take back.

Leon was out of the car before the guards even finished opening the gate. He came around to my side, helped me out, and caught my hand again.

He led me through the front halls almost at a run.

We found my mother and King Soren in the garden.

The two of them were seated beneath a white canopy while a servant poured tea. My mother was in one of frer pale silk dresses, looking soft and expensive and perfectly at ease in the life she had clawed for. King Sorer, sat beside her with one leg crossed over the other.

Leon didn’t hesitate.

He strode right up to them, still holding my hand, and said in a loud, excited voice:

“Your Majesties, we have great news!”

My mother blinked once. King Soren looked up from his cup.

Leon smiled, turning slightly toward me, and continued, “Riley has agreed to marry me.”

My mother actually jumped to her feet.

Delight burst across her face. She clapped both hands together like a little girl being handed her favorite toy and hurried straight

toward me.

“Oh, Riley!”

Before I could step back, she pulled me into a hug.

I stiffened instantly.

Her arms were warm. The whole embrace was meant to look loving and maternal and triumphant.

But it only made my skin crawl.

She pulled away just enough to cup my face with both hands, smiling so hard her eyes almost shone. “I knew you’d come to your senses. I knew it!”

King Soren rose more slowly, but he was smiling too.

It was almost worse seeing that smile than the earlier coldness. At least his anger felt honest.

“Well,” he said smoothly, “this is excellent news. I’m so happy for you.”

Leon laughed. But I didn’t say anything. Was this really happening? Or was I in a dream? Suddenly I felt like I had somehow stepped outside my own life.

“You’ll have the wedding of the century,” King Soren said, already sounding like this had been settled for months rather than minutes. “We should begin planning everything at once. There’s no reason to delay.”

My mother laughed brightly. “Tomorrow. We should start tomorrow. The planner, the flowers, the guest list-oh, and the

Chapter 38-

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dress! Riley, we’ll meet the designer tomorrow morning’

“And I’ll invite my parents over right away. I know they’!l both be thrilled to meet Riley,” Leon grinned.

Their voices kept coming, but I stopped hearing most of it after a while. I just stood there in the garden sunlight while the future was arranged around me so casually.

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