TRADING MY CHEATING HUSBAND FOR THE LYCAN KING novel Chapter 102

CHAPTER 69: GOAT ISLAND–1

EMBER’S POV

The mattress dips sometime after three in the morning.

I’ve been lying here for hours, staring at the ceiling, my mind running circles around the photo of Queenie still burning a hole in my phone.

Sleep feels impossible. Every time I close my eyes, I see Rayana bleeding on the marble. See Nathaniel’s face going white when I asked what Logan was looking for.

See the threads multiplying faster than I can hold them.

Knox’s arm slides around my waist and pulls me back against his Chest. He’s warm and solid and he smells like exhaustion and underneath it all, that scent that makes my wolf perk up even when the rest of me is falling apart.

I keep my breathing even. Keep my body still. Maybe if he thinks I’m asleep, he’ll just hold me and we won’t have to talk about everything that’s wrong.

His lips brush the back of my neck.

“I know you’re awake,” he murmurs against my skin.

Damn it.

“How?” I whisper.

“You hold your breath differently when you’re actually sleeping. Little catches every few seconds, like your body forgets it needs air and then remembers.” His arm tightens around me, pulling me closer until there’s

no space left between us. “Right now you’re breathing too perfectly. Like you’re trying to convince me of

something.”

The observation sends butterflies scattering through my chest despite everything.

He knows how I breathe when I sleep. He’s been paying attention to something that small, that intimate, that irrelevant to anyone who isn’t completely wrapped up in another person.

“That’s creepy,” I say, but there’s no heat in it.

“I like observant.” I can hear the ghost of a smile in his voice. “I’m certain there is a difference.”

“Is there?”

“Creepy implies I’m watching you without your knowledge. Observant implies I’m learning you because I can’t help myself.” His thumb traces slow circles on my stomach through the thin fabric of my shirt. “I prefer the second interpretation.”

I turn in his arms so I’m facing him.

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The room is dark but my wolf eyes adjust quickly, picking out the sharp lines of his jaw, the shadows under his eyes, the tension he’s carrying in his shoulders even now.

“You look exhausted,” I say

“Pot, kettle.”

“I thought you’d be in that office until sunrise.”

“Nathaniel’s still working. I needed…” He trails off, pulling me closer instead of finishing the sentence. Logan’s car was caught on camera leaving the resort in a rush. One of the perimeter feeds picked it up.”

My heart stutters. “Logan?”

“One of his company SUVs, at least. Nathaniel is trying to trace where it went, but the footage cuts out

once it hits the main road.”

I think about the license plate sitting in my memory.

I should tell him. I should open my mouth and explain everything. The break–in. Nathaniel’s desperate plea for twenty–four hours.

But Nathaniel’s voice echoes in my head.

‘If

you care about Knox at all, give me this time.‘

Whatever secret he’s protecting, it’s bad enough to make him beg. Bad enough that he looked genuinely terrified when I pushed.

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