Chapter 279

Chapter 279:

Sapphire walks in, a steaming cup of doom in her hand. That smell hits me before she even speaks—another dose of that vile concoction Dr. Lee swears will bring Layla back.

“Ugh, seriously?” I groan, eyeing the cup like it’s poison. She doesn’t respond, just shoves it toward me.

I snatch it and down it in one gulp, gagging as the bitterness coats my tongue. “You’d think saving my life would taste a little less like dirt,” I mutter, wiping my mouth.

“The Alpha King requests your presence,” she says, her tone formal and clipped.

I freeze, narrowing my eyes. If Ryder wants to see me, why didn’t he just walk in like he usually does? We share a bed, for crying out loud. Is he playing hard to get now?

“We’re expecting important guests,” Sapphire adds, clearly reading my mind.

“Of course we are,” I mutter under my breath, setting the cup down. Whatever Ryder’s up to, it better be worth dragging me out of this mess of a morning.

I walk into the breakfast hall, dressed in the gown Sapphire insisted I wear. My eyes focus mainly on one man—the handsome fella sitting at the head of the table.

Ryder.

Sitting at the head of the table, calm, collected, and impossibly handsome—like he hadn’t shoved a dagger into Jason’s chest less than twenty-four hours ago. His face wore that innocent mask, the one that said, Who, me? Ruthless? Never. If I didn’t know him better, I’d buy it, too. But I knew better.

His eyes flicked up, locking onto mine. That dark, piercing gaze always seemed to unravel me, no matter how pissed off I was. My stomach twisted in a way I didn’t want to acknowledge, and my core clenched at the thought of those hands—the same ones that could hold me like I was the most fragile thing in the world or pin me against the wall and make me forget my own name.

Tell me about men with innocent faces, and I’ll tell you how ruthless they can be. I mean, it would take him just a minute to have me bent down, choking on my breath while he fucked the hell out of me, and yet his face would still look that innocent?

Speaking of choking me, my core clenched. Ryder hadn’t touched me since the incident, and I freaking wanted his hands on me. I was dying, craving his touch.

Lɒtєѕτ чhɒρτєrѕ ιn gɑl𝑛οvєlѕ.сo𝓂

By the goddess, I needed him to touch me. My skin burned with the craving. Every time he looked at me with that look, that damn look that made me feel unclad beneath the heat of his gaze, I wanted to scream. Just do it already! Mark me, claim me, ruin me—I didn’t care. I was past pride. I needed him like air, and he was withholding it, letting me suffocate.

I got closer to the table, and that’s when it dawned on me that he wasn’t alone. In fact, there were two couples with him.

Who were they? And why hadn’t I noticed them until now? The lady had the same hair as mine… and wait… her face looked almost familiar… His face too.

I’m not hallucinating, am I? No, I’m not. She was the woman from my dream. My supposed birth mother. And he… he was the Viper Prince—my father?

They were real?

I gasped, my face turning pale, and I couldn’t move.

One minute, I was staring, and the next, my legs wobbled. All I saw was Ryder’s frantic face as he jumped from his chair to where I stood, his hands wrapping around me as I fell into his arms. Everywhere went dark.

My birth parents were here? That was my last thought before I gave into oblivion.