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Chapter 78
Chapter 78
My phone rings.
Loud. Obnoxious. The kind of shrill tone that jerks you out of sleep with the subtlety of a gunshot.
I don’t open my eyes yet. I don’t want to.
Because the moment I do, reality will hit me. And I’m not ready for that.
Not yet.
I groan, pressing my face deeper into the pillow, refusing to acknowledge the assault on my eardrums. Whoever it is can fuck off. It’s too early for this.
The ringing stops.
Blissful silence.
Then it starts again.
“Ugh…”
I crack one eye open, my vision hazy with sleep. My phone vibrates violently on the nightstand, the screen lighting up the dark room with each call. The name flashing across it makes my stomach sink.
Zoe.
Persistent little shit.
I roll onto my back with a sigh, staring up at the ceiling as I let it ring. My body feels warm, the sheets tangled around me. My muscles ache in the best way, exhaustion settled deep in my bones from last night’s emotional rollercoaster.
And then I feel it–the steady rise and fall of breathing beside me.
My head turns.
Enoch.
He’s on his stomach, his face half–buried in the pillow, strands of dark hair falling over his forehead. His arm is thrown over mine as though he forgot how to sleep without touching me. The broad expanse of his bare back rises and falls with each deep breath, the ink on his skin stretching over muscle.
The tattoo.
I don’t touch it, but my fingers twitch with the urge to. Instead, I let my gaze trace over the sharp cut of his jaw, the rough stubble there, the thick slant of his brows. He looks younger like this. His features are all sharp angles–cutthroat, dangerous -but in sleep, they soften just enough. Just enough for me to trace my fingers along his jawline, to memorize the shape of him the way I used to back in Riverstone.
Back when he was just a man with no name, no memories. Just Enoch.
Back when I was just a girl who had no idea who she really was.
A familiar ache blooms in my chest.
I used to wake up to this sight every morning back in the Riverstone Pack. Him on the floor, curled in the corner of my tiny room because the pack barely considered me worthy of a bed, and him–the future King–choosing to be beside me
Chapter 78
anyway
Now, everything is different.
He’s him again. The Alpha King. The untouchable Lycan ruler,
And me?
Still the same nobody, except now the world knows my name.
I brush my fingers over the thick line of his brows, down the bridge of his nose, hovering over the lips that kissed me last night–kissed me like I was the only thing that had ever mattered to him.
I could stay like this forever.
But of course, my phone has other fucking plans.
I groan, wrenching myself from the moment. My fingers wrap around the device, and I answer it without looking, my voice hoarse from sleep.
“This better be life or death, Zoe.”
“It is!” she screeches, and I have to pull the phone away from my ear before I go deaf. “Oh my GOD, Taryn, wake up and check your socials right now before I rush over there and do it for you!”
I frown, rubbing my temples. “Jesus, good morning to you too-”
“NOW, TARYN. HOLY SHIT.”
“What are you even-”
“JUST CHECK IT!”
Then she hangs up.
What the fuck.
My stomach twists at her tone.
Zoe is a lot of things–dramatic, over–excitable, prone to making a big deal out of absolutely nothing. But this? This is different.
Something’s wrong.
Frowning I sit up, pulling the sheet with me, and click on my notifications. The first thing I see is the number of alerts— hundreds of them, all from different platforms. My fingers go cold as I tap the first link.
Breaking News: Cinderella Unmasked–Meet the Journalist Who Stole the King’s Attention!
My stomach drops.
The next notification is worse.
OMEGA JOURNALIST EXPOSED: DID SHE FORCE HERSELF ON OUR KING?
The floor tilts under me.
A strangled sound escapes my throat–part disbelief, part rage, part sheer fucking horror.
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Chapter 78
Force myself on him?
My lungs seize.
My thumb scrolls before my brain can catch up.
Who is she?-A deep dive into Taryn Sinclair, the mystery woman caught in the King’s arms.
From Nobody to Scandal–The Omega at the Center of the Royal Controversy.
She kissed him. Was it mutual? The Kingdom demands answers.
A harsh, breathless laugh leaves me. It sounds wrong. Like someone else’s.
This isn’t happening.
I can’t breathe. My chest feels too tight, my hands clammy as I scroll through the pictures–grainy images of me at the fight, my face barely visible behind my mask. And then another photo–one from last night.
Me and Enoch.
His hands in my hair. His lips on mine.
The caption beneath it makes my stomach plummet.
“The King’s Mysterious Woman: Is This an Obsession Gone Too Far?”
Blood rushes in my ears.
No. No, no, no.
I scroll, my vision blurring, my fingers trembling as I click another.
I shoot to my feet so fast the world spins. My knee knocks against the nightstand, and I stumble back, barely catching myself before my heel crashes into something.
I step back. The floor tilts beneath me, the air thinning in my lungs. My body feels detached, weightless. Not real. This isn’t real.
My heel knocks into something. A sharp crash splits the silence as the vase behind me topples, shattering on the floor.
Glass shatters.
The vase.
It hits the floor with a sharp, echoing crack, and Enoch stirs beside me.
Shit.
Fuck.
His eyes flutter open, heavy with sleep. Dark. Lethal. It takes him a second to focus on me, then on the broken shards scattered across the floor. His voice is thick, gruff from disuse.
I slap a hand over my mouth, panic clawing at my throat as his eyes flutter open.
And just like that, I’m frozen.
Because everything I’ve been trying to avoid, everything I’ve been pretending isn’t real, is now staring me in the face.
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Chapter 78
“What are you doing, baby?”
I can’t answer.
I can’t move.
His gaze sharpens, following the way my hands tremble, how my chest heaves like I just ran for my life. He is up, hés movements slow, calculating. “Taryn?”
I force my mouth to open, but no words come out.
Everything is ruined.
The plan, my anonymity, my investigation–everything.
My past is out in the open for the whole Kingdom to rip apart. My reputation is already splintering before I can salvage it.
And I know exactly who did it.
The last time I saw Celeste, she had been crying. Humiliated, scolded by her father. And then the mysterious woman–ber handler, her puppeteer–had said she’d take care of it.
“I’ll handle it.”
This–this is how she’s handling it.
By putting a fucking target on my back.
Celeste just signed my fucking death warrant.
I’m still staring at my phone, my brain short–circuiting, when warmth engulfs me from behind. A strong arm snakes around my waist, the scent of pine and something darker, rawer, filling my nose. Enoch got up.
His chin comes down near my ear, breath brushing over my skin with worry. “What are you looking at?” His voice is thick with sleep. But the moment his gaze lands on my screen, his entire body locks up.
A beat.
Then another.
Then my phone is ripped from my numb fingers.
Crack.
He crushes it in his bare hand, like it’s made of fucking paper. Plastic and glass shatter, pieces raining down onto the floor. I just watch, disconnected, the world feeling too quiet. Too small.
“Enoch,” I start, but my voice barely comes out. I can’t even hear myself.
His breathing turns sharp, ragged. His grip on me tightens as his other hand flexes open and closed, like he’s holding himself together by a thread. When I glance up, I see it–the shift. His usually forest–green eyes bleed into red, his wolf clawing its way to the surface.
A muscle jumps in his jaw. “I’m going to fucking kill someone.”
I just stand there. Silent.
Because this isn’t just bad.
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Chapter 78
This is my last straw.
Zoe’s frantic voice is still ringing in my ears. The headlines, the comments, the endless fucking vitriol swirling in my head like a whirlpool. I can already hear Liam’s voice in my head, cold and detached.
You’re fired.
My stomach twists, nausea crawling up my throat.
This was it. This was my chance. I fought to get here, to get into that damn company, to get closer to the truth about my parents–and now it’s gone. Everything I built. Destroyed in one night.
I don’t even realize I’m shaking until Enoch grabs my shoulders, forcing me to face him. “Taryn His voice is urgent, rough. “Nothing is going to change.”
His hands slide down to cup my face, tilting it up. I still don’t say anything. Don’t even react.
So he does what I do to him when he’s spiraling.
He presses a kiss to my forehead. Soft. Lingering.
Then my nose. A whisper of warmth.
Then my lips. Firm. Reassuring.
Like he’s willing me to come back to myself. Our usual routine.
My fingers twitch against his chest, grasping at nothing.
A sharp knock echoes through the room. Before I can move, the door swings open, and Zoe bursts in. “T-”
A growl rips through the air, low and warning.
She freezes, her eyes going comically wide as Enoch shoots her a glare that could probably send her into cardiac arrest. “Get. Out.”
Zoe visibly swallows but doesn’t move. Instead, she side–steps, holding her hands up like she’s approaching a wild animal. “Hey, big guy. I love that you have a built–in murder mode, but I need my girl right now.”
I don’t react.
Zoe looks at me, then back at Enoch, her expression softening. “I got her.”
For a second, I think he won’t budge. His body is still rigid, his nostrils flaring. But then, after another sharp exhale, he pulls away from me and turns, stalking toward the door.
The second he’s through, the door slams behind him, the walls rattling.
Silence.
Then Zoe turns to me. “Taryn-”
“I’m fired.” The words come out flat, emotionless.
She presses her lips together, hesitation flickering over her face. “Liam hasn’t called yet, right? Maybe-”
“Don’t.”
Because we both know what’s coming.
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Chapter 78
She exhales sharply, then just sits beside me on the bed, rosethening the sony whiny p everything senje.
I don’t cry. Not yet, I sit there, hands clasped in my lap, jew locked wide whe
Then the TV clicks on
Zoe is scrambling for the remote, probably trying to find something to dietra me be the mem life, my stomach caves in on itself.
The news channel
My name.
And the words sprawled across the bottom of the screen:
TARYN SINCLAIR, THE WHORE!
A blurry picture of me and Enoch at the fight night flashes beside it
I stop breathing.
Zoe lunges for the remote, practically throwing it against the wall in her rush to turn the TV of Fucking–yon. I’m so sorry-”
But I’m already standing. My ears are ringing, my vision tunneling,
Zoe calls my name, but I don’t hear her.
I grab my phone–no, wait, Enoch crushed it. I grab Zoe’s instead, swiping through contacts with shaking finger. The line rings once. Twice.
Then Kallias picks up. “Well, well. I was starting to think you forgot about me-
His voice dies when he hears mine.
“I’m coming back,” I say, cold and hollow.
Silence.
Then, quieter, more cautious. “Taryn… what’s wrong?”
I don’t answer.
Because I already know–this is going to ruin me.
“I said I’m coming back there.”
