Vanished Sisters The Lycan King's Slave Island novel Chapter 39

Chapter 39

Davelina’s POV

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The night stretched endlessly.

I sat on the cold stone floor beside Nathan’s cot, my back pressed against he rough wall, watching the shallow rise and fall of her chest. Lucy knelt on the other side, a bowl of water and clean rags in her lap, periodic ly dabbing at the blood that still seeped through the bandages.

The servants quarters were cramped and dark, lit only by a single oil lamp that cast flickering shadows across the walls. The other slaves had been ordered to clear out, leaving us alone with Nathan’s broken body.

Not Nathan. Natasha.

My little sister. My brave, stupid, reckless little sister.

I couldn’t stop looking at her face. So pale it was almost translucent. Her ps tinged blue from blood loss. The dark circles under her eyes like

bruises.

She’s dying. I can see it. She’s slipping away and there’s nothing I can do.

My hands clenched in my lap, nails digging into my palms hard enough to draw blood.

This is my fault. All of it. If I hadn’t been caught. If I’d fought harder. If I’d-

“You should rest,” Lucy said quietly, not looking up from her work. “You’ve been awake for almost two days.”

1 shook my head. “I can’t. Not while she’s-” My voice cracked. “Not while she’s like this.”

Lucy was silent for a moment, carefully wringing out a blood-soaked rag. he’s stronger than she looks,” she finally said. “If anyone can survive

this, it’s her.”

“How do you know?” The words came out more bitter than I’d intended. “You’ve seen what happened to her. You were there. No one survives that kind of- I couldn’t finish. Couldn’t put into words what had been done to my sister.

Lucy set down the bowl and finally looked at me. Her eyes were tired, haunted, but there was something else there too. Something almost

like… hope?

“Because she’s still breathing by now. She’s survived everything else they’ thrown at her,” Lucy said simply.

She gestured to Nathan’s unconscious form. “You see, someone who can endure all that… they don’t give up easily.”

I wanted to believe her. Desperately wanted to believe that Nathan would pen her eyes, would sit up, would be okay.

But I’d seen the blood. Seen the damage. Felt the unnatural heat radiating from her swollen stomach.

No one survives something like that.

“Why are you helping her?” The question slipped out before I could stop it “You could have run. Could have saved yourself. But you stayed. You dressed her. You’re helping us hide what she is.” I paused, searching Lucy’s face. “Why?”

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19:34 Mon, Feb 16 GWG.

Chapter 39

Lucy was quiet for so long I thought she wouldn’t answer.

Then she smiled-a small, sad thing that didn’t reach her eyes.

“Because someone should,” she said softly. “In this place… kindness is rare So when you have the chance to show it, you take it.”

‘But the risk, I pressed. “If they find out you helped hide a girl-if they discover what she really is-they’ll kill you. Or worse.”

“I know.” Lucy picked up another rag, dipping it in the water. “But some things are worth the risk.”

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I studied her face in the dim lamplight. She looked young-younger than me, maybe. Eighteen? Nineteen? But her eyes held a weariness that belonged to someone much older.

‘You already knew,” I said suddenly. “Didn’t you? You already knew she was a girl before… before tonight.”

Lucy’s hands stilled for just a moment. Then she nodded.

“How?” I demanded. “How did you know? Nathan-Natasha-she was so careful. The binding, the voice, the way she moved-”

“I saw her,” Lucy interrupted quietly. “A few nights ago. I was doing my rounds in the lower levels and I heard… sounds. Coming from one of the cages. Her cheeks flushed slightly. “I looked through the bars and saw her. She was-” Lucy cleared her throat. “She was touching herself.

Her heat had started.”

My stomach dropped.

Oh God. The Feral Heat. I’d almost forgotten.

*She was in pain,” Lucy continued, her voice barely above a whisper. “Desperate. And the scent-” She paused. “It wasn’t a male scent. It was distinctly female. And more than that…”

“What?”

Lucy met my eyes. “It was the scent of woman in heat. Only endurer will be in heat for no reason.”

The word hung in the air between us like a death sentence.

“What’s an endurer?”

“The girls who can survive the King. The ones whose bodies somehow adapt to accommodate his… his…”

I touched my own stomach unconsciously, remembering. The pain. The stretching. The impossible fullness.

And the fact that I’d walked away from it.

Alive.

“You survived too,” Lucy said, watching me. “You were sent to the King’s din. You spent the night with him. And now you’re here, walking and

talking and… She gestured at me. “Relatively intact. That means you’re probably an Endurer as well.”

I shook my head quickly. “I’m just a fisherman’s daughter. And I wasn’t in heat. There’s nothing special about me. I’m not-I can’t be=”

III

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