Surrogate for the Alpha Prince in a Coma novel Chapter 45

Chapter 45

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Chapter 45

Lillian’s POV

“What?” Grayson looked at me like he didn’t believe me, like I had said something utterly outrageous and not the truth. Like I hadn’t just saved his life.

“There was poison in the soup,” I said.

“How could you possibly know that?” he said, a bit of anger coming out in his words.

“Are you serious?”

“Tell me,” he said, standing. “How. Do. You. Know?”

“I heard Calvin saying that he paid a maid to poison your food,” I said. “I ran as fast as I could to get here. If I was

a minute later…”

Grayson frowned and looked down at the spill. He knelt, and pressed his fingertips into the liquid. Then, he brought his damp fingers to his lips.

“Don’t!” I said. I had no idea how potent the poison was, but if Calvin thought it could take down an Alpha, then it must have been strong. Would even a drop of it be enough to hurt him?

Looking up at me, he didn’t sip on the poison. Instead, he sniffed it, then rubbed it between his fingers. His frown deepened.

Could he tell? Did I realize I was right?

Without word, he stood, wiped his hand off on his pants, then went toward his bed. He pulled out the drawer of his nightstand. Inside the drawer was a small red button. He pushed it now.

“What does that do?” I asked.

“It will call back Prime Beta,” he said. “I want an investigation done on this.”

“You believe me now? That it’s poison?”

He didn’t answer. The button pressed, he closed the door of the drawer, then stood there quietly for a long moment. Long enough for me to feel uncomfortable, shifting from foot to foot.

I didn’t feel like I had made the wrong choice in coming here. Whether or not Grayson would give me credit for saving his life, I still knew I had done so. Maybe he did too. Maybe that was why he looked so very unhappy.

He probably didn’t want to owe me anything.

But I didn’t do this because I wanted a favor.

“You overheard Calvin talking about this,” he said. “That’s how you knew.”

“Yes.”

He turned, facing me. “Why were you with Calvin to begin with? Why were you outside of the grounds?”

“He leveraged Ronan against me,” I said. “I felt I had to go with him.”

“Am I supposed to believe that?” Grayson scoffed. “You could be playing both sides. You might have only turned on Calvin because you found out that Ronan is under my care now.”

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“You still don’t trust me.” I gestured toward the spilled soup. The poison right there on the floor. “I saved your life.”

“And now you want something in return for it. Am I right?”

“No.”

“If I release Ronan, will you go running back to Calvin? Would you even look back?”

“I didn’t come here because of Ronan or any favors that I’d hoped to gain.”

“Then why did you?” he asked.

I lifted my chin, feeling defiant. It was wrong to talk back to the prince, I knew. He held my freedom and my life in his hands. Ronan’s too, now. But I wasn’t going to allow him to take my dignity away from me. I wasn’t a traitor

“I could have ran,” I said. “I won’t lie. I thought about it. Running far enough away that I wouldn’t be found by you, or Calvin, or my father. Maybe if you hadn’t been in danger, I might have done it. I don’t know. But you were in danger. And when faced with being free but knowing I could have done something and returning to save you, there wasn’t any question.”

“I have no reason to believe that,” he said, frustratingly stern. Emotionless.

His lack of trust, even now, after all I had done, made me want to break down. I didn’t, but tears of irritation did rise up in my eyes, despite my effort to blink them back. I absolutely refused to let them fall, however.

“You would do anything, believe anything, so long as it meant not trusting me,” I said, at the end of my rope.” Calvin did hold Ronan over me. He showed me a picture of my brother with a bloody nose. When I came to the prison where Ronan was being kept, where Calvin intended to keep me, we learned that your soldiers had freed Rónan. That’s when I tried to get away.”

“You did get away.”

“I did,” I said. “But not then. I was tackled and taken into the prison. Calvin wanted to have me locked in his room. He wanted…” My voice broke. I didn’t want to even say what he had planned aloud, but I felt that Grayson should know. He shouldn’t be spared from all that I faced. All that I risked. “He wanted to impregnate me, and for me to then claim the child was yours.” I swallowed hard. “He would have done that to me without my consent. He’s an Alpha… I don’t know that I could have stopped him.”

Grayson’s hands curled into fists. His face didn’t change, but I could feel the level of menace rising in the room. It wasn’t directed at me, but it was nearly suffocating all the same.

“How did you get away?” Grayson asked, his voice deeper now, colder.

“Calvin always underestimated me,” I said. “He only had one guard take me upstairs. The attack of your soldiers had drawn away most of the guards. I shoved mine down the stairs then ran for a window and shimmied down a tree. I hid in the brush until I saw an opening, then ran to a cave to decide what to do.”

Grayson looked me over, his eyes catching on some of the dirtier parts of my clothes. “Then you came here,” he said.

“Then I came here,” I repeated. Softer, I added, “To save you.”

The words seemed to strike him, his eyes widening marginally. His gaze on my face, he stepped closer to me. I didn’t move an inch away, holding my own as he closed the distance between us.

Slowly, he lifted a hand toward my face. He didn’t touch me, just allowed his hand to over there over my cheek. If I

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Chapter 45

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had leaned even slightly, I would have touched him. He would have touched me. Even without touch, I could feel his warmth.

His gaze was intense, staring into me like he could see all the way down to my soul.

I held my breath, the moment terribly fragile. Like one wrong move might destroy everything and we would go back to fighting again.

As it was, he looked at me like I mattered. No one had ever really looked at me like that before. My heart started racing.

Then, just as slowly, his hand lowered to my shoulder then crossed to settle at the crook of my neck, his thumb pressing lightly to the dip at the base of my throat.

Goosebumps rose along my arms, and a shiver traveled down my back.

“Know this,” he said. “I would never harm your brother, nor threaten him to keep you here.”

i swallowed hard. He must have felt it against his thumb.

“But,” he added. “I will not allow you to run away again.”

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