Babysitting The Amnesiac Lycan King novel Chapter 110

CHAPTER 110

Bushes shift behind us and I immediately clench Enoch’s arm, putting my finger on my lips to shut him up. Enoch freezes too as he smells the air. It’s them. The Imperial Guards.

“They’re close.” Enoch mutters under his breath and I nod in response. Silence thickened between us but it didn’t take long when the bushes opened up like peekaboo. “Your Majesty!” A loud voice burts out of the leaves and I immediately jumped.

Holy crap.

“Run!” I yelled at Enoch and we immediately bolted off again. Shit’s the sky’s grey. We can’t keep running like this.

The first drop hits my shoulder like a slap.

Then the sky opens up and dumps all of heaven’s disappointment on us. It’s freaking raining.

shriek, slipping on the wet cobblestones like a damn cartoon character, and Enoch just laughs actually laughs–before dragging me under the wooden awning of some abandoned vendor stall. The canopy above us rattles, water hitting it so hard it sounds like war drums.

“Why in the world do they have to sneak up on us like that?” I grumble, genuinely annoyed at the shock earlier.

“This is not how I imagined today ending,” I mutter, pushing soaked strands of hair off my face. “Fuck. My boots are ruined.”

“You wear boots to a market in storm season?” Enoch arches a brow, his tone smug, as if he’s the one who dressed me this morning. He’s annoyed at the cardigan and

jeans and now the boots? I’m gonna smack his face.

“You wear black–on–black every day like it’s a funeral, so maybe shut the fuck up.” I elbow him, but he only grins wider.

His dimples are out. That’s dangerous. Definitely dangerous.

We’d snuck away to that hidden alley–the one with the old bricks and that busted- down swing hanging from a chain like it belonged to a ghost child–and now here we are. Laughing. Drenched. And too close.

We steal snacks from the vendor cart beside us. Not really steal, okay? There’s no one around, and I left coins in the tray, I’m not a total menace. I rip open the paper and hand Enoch a fried dumpling.

“Eat,” I say. “It’ll shut you up.”

He bites into it, eyes fluttering closed. “Gods, that’s good. Almost as good as that time

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CHAPTER 110

you cooked for me when I was dying in the infirmary.”

“I made you oatmeal and burned the hell out of it.”

“Exactly. So much love went into killing me slowly.”

I snort. “You’re unbelievable.” The sky has now turned almost black and the pouring doesn’t look like it’s gonna stop any time soon. I clench my teeth as a wiff of cold breeze sweeps into the canopy. That’s fucking cold.

I think I’m gonna have a flu out of this trip.

“Maybe we should-”

I turn to Enoch and then I blink, and he’s–gone.

Well, not gone, but not Enoch anymore.

He shifts.

Right in front of me. Fur exploding over skin. That terrifyingly beautiful shift that I’ve seen a thousand times but never like this. I stare, too shocked to speak. His massive black wolf form towers over me, dark as night, those red eyes locked on mine.

“Enoch?” I whisper, stepping forward. “Why?”

His wolf lowers its head, nuzzling under my chin.

Memories crash in. The blizzard. My bones freezing. Me shifting for the first time, not to fight, not to run–but to save him. Curling around his unconscious body in the middle of the night, desperate to keep him alive back then in the cave.

I blink up at him, my throat clogged. “You remember.”

The wolf nods. Not a human nod. But a slow, understanding tilt of his massive head.

It splits me open. Right here, in the middle of this storm, this memory–drenched street, my chest caves in.

“I can’t believe you remember,”

He shifts back fast, seamless, like he’s done it all his life. He’s fully naked but doesn’t even give a shit–he just grabs his cloak from the ground and throws it around himself.

I turn around because I respectfully refuse to drool in public.

He leans into my ear, voice low. “That night’s burned into me.”

My spine stiffens.

Because so is mine,

“Come on,” I say, clearing my throat like I wasn’t just about to start crying over his fucking wolf form. “There’s a better spot to wait this storm out.”

We find it not far–a canopy nestled between two stone buildings, barely wide enough for two people but perfect in the way nothing else has been lately. We sit shoulder to shoulder. I wrap my arms around my knees. He crosses his long legs and leans back

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CHAPTER 110

like he owns the world.

Silence settles between us, comfortable and thick with history.

“Do you remember,” I say slowly, “when Kallias found us in that cave?”

Enoch snorts. “Oh yeah. He looked like he’d just stepped on a landmine and it exploded in his face.”

“I thought you were gonna murder him.” I chuckle.

“I wanted to fuck you in front of him, make his little fantasies true just to watch him combust.”

I choke on my own breath. “What?!”

He smirks, all teeth and danger. “That was the plan.”

“You’re an animal,” I say, face burning.

“You like that.”

Unfortunately, I’m afraid he’s maybe right.

I smack his arm but I’m laughing, and he grabs my hand before I can pull away. Our eyes meet. The world drowns outside but in here–it’s still. Just us.

“How are things back in Riverstone Pack?” he asks, almost too casually.

Jexhale. “Good. Weird. I think everyone’s still scared I’ll burn the place down.”

“Seraphina?”

“Quiet. I haven’t heard from her since the… kidnapping. Kallias too. We don’t talk, but

I might visit soon. You know. For closure.”

…

His jaw ticks and he looks annoyed as he turns to me, “Closure?”

I flick his forehead. “Relax. Not like that. It’s just–it’s where I grew up. Where my

brother died. I need to stand there again. As me. Not someone they broke.”

He studies me for a long time, then nods. “Yeah. Okay.”

shift my weight, hesitating before blurting, “I’m taking my father’s name.”

Silence.