The Betrayed Princess Rising (Lylah and Ezra) novel Chapter 180

Chapter 180

3rd Person’s POV

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Ezra came down like a falling god-his massive wolf form crashing onto the roof of the sleek Blackfang Maybach. Metal shrieked beneath his weight, the luxury car caving in with a violent dent as if it were nothing more than paper.

Rowan froze.

Slowly, instinctively, he rose to his feet, Lylah still cradled in his arms.

But the moment his eyes met the monstrous beast before him-silver eyes burning, fur bristling with raw, ancient power-his body betrayed him.

He stepped back.

Then again.

A low growl rumbled from Ezra as he descended fully, each step deliberate.

Rowan took a third step and stilled.

Hot breath ghosted against the back of his neck. Another presence.

Damon.

Ezra’s Beta had already circled behind him, cutting off his escape.

Rowan’s jaw tightened, his hold on Lylah instinctively tightening

“You assume I would surrender her?” Rowan snarled. “You overestimate your power. I do not yield what is mine. She is my Luna.”

‘She isn’t. The voice didn’t come from Ezra’s mouth.

It slammed directly into Rowan’s mind-deep, resonant, threaded with a dominance only the strongest Alphas possessed.

Rowan’s breath hitched.

“Theft has always been your specialty, hasn’t it?’

“Theft?!” Rowan’s voice broke into a snarl. “You’re the one who took her from me, twisted her mind, drove her out of my pack! Before you ever set foot into her life, she was mine. She swore she would stand by my side, no matter what!”

His grip tightened possessively around Lylah’s body.

“I love her,” Rowan howled, raw and desperate. “And she loves me!”

Ezra did not answer.

11:27 am M

Chapter 180

140

+5 Pearls

For a long moment, he simply stood there-vast, unmoving, terrifying in his stillness.

Because his attention… was no longer on Rowan.

It was on her.

Unconscious. Pale. Too still.

And in the space of a heartbeat, the present fractured-Replaced by a memory carved in blood.

Another night.

Another life.

His mate… lying broken, crimson staining her skin.

The silence turned suffocating.

‘Those are the very same lies you dared to spit back then. Ezra’s voice slid straight into Rowan’s mind again, laced with something far more dangerous than anger. You claimed it was love.”

A pause.

‘Tell me, Rowan… what manner of ‘love’ drives a man to poison his woman’s people? What kind of love compels you to turn her subordinates against her, and then stand idle as they tear her apart with their own

hands?’

Rowan went still.

Completely still.

‘What you felt was never love. It was possession. Obsession. An illusion you clung to because you could not bear to be denied. You never deserved Lysara.’

A beat.

And you don’t deserve Lylah. Not in your past life. Not now. Not even in whatever hell waits for you after this.’

Something in Rowan shattered.

His body locked in place as if the words had rooted him to the earth itself. It didn’t feel like another Alpha speaking to him, It felt like judgment. Like truth.

Like fate.

And then the visions came. Flashes of a past he had never seen-yet somehow knew. A woman struggling. Voices raised in betrayal.

Blood.

So much blood.

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Chapter 180

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+5 Pearls

“No…” Rowan staggered back, his grip faltering. “No, that’s not-“The images burned through him, too real to deny, too vivid to escape.

His arms went slack.

Lylah slipped from his hold and hit the ground.

“AAARGH!!” Rowan’s scream tore through the night as his body convulsed, bones snapping and reshaping with brutal violence. The shift ripped through him like punishment itself-far more painful than anything he had ever endured.

‘I didn’t finish you back then. Ezra’s voice followed him into the agony, relentless. “You ran and hid. Died somewhere far from my reach like a coward.

Fur burst through Rowan’s skin. Claws tore into the ground as his wolf forced its way out, ragged and unsteady.

‘But this time…’ Ezra advanced, each step heavy with promise-of ruin, of vengeance long overdue. ‘I will tear your body and your soul apart until not even the air remembers you ever existed.”

Rowan’s transformation was completed at last.

But what stood in his place was pitiful.

A shadow before Ezra’s towering, ancient beast.

On the ground, Lylah stirred.

A faint breath slipped past her lips.

“…Ezra…”

The sound was barely there. But it was enough.

Rowan’s ears twitched.

And for a fleeting second-fear eclipsed everything else. Instinct took over.

Without another thought, he ran.

He fled into the darkness, abandoning pride, abandoning the fight, choosing survival over certain destruction.

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The Betrayed Princess Rising