The Play-Toy Of Three Lycan Kings-Chapter 402: Treason

ADAM

I was still frozen when Noah’s words landed. The room seemed to still tilt, reality folding in on itself as if the truth I had just uncovered had loosened the seams of the world.

My chest was tight, my thoughts colliding, overlapping, refusing to settle. Sage was my Maya. Maya was Dora.

My wolf paced restlessly inside me, a low, savage satisfaction rolling through him like thunder. I told you.

I barely heard him.

She was here.

After all the blood, the years, the searches, the ghosts—I had my mate back.

The realization hit me all over again, sharp and blinding. Maya.

The innocent girl I had tainted with experiences she hadn’t known how to name, had become Dora—who had looked at me like I was the embodiment of everything she despised—and finally had become Sage.

Sage, who met my authority with sarcasm and fire, who had bent the laws of magic like they were suggestions.

How did someone become that? How had she alone become three women with different dispositions, different fire? What refined her?

I didn’t know whether to laugh at the memory of her sharp tongue, her reckless defiance, or fall to my knees in relief so overwhelming it made my bones ache. My mate was alive. She was here. Breathing. Sleeping in my bed.

"Adam!"

I turned fast, brows furrowing, the loud sound of my name cutting through the chaos in my head. Noah stood near the door, eyes blazing. Only then did I truly register the room.

We weren’t alone.

Daniel stood stiffly by the wall, Claire beside him, fists clenched. Naomi hovered near the window, pale but alert. Rachel lingered closer to the door, eyes darting between Sage and the rest of us.

Behind them were betas, gammas—too many people, too tense, too armed for this to be anything but dire.

This wasn’t just an interruption. This was a crisis. What again had he said minutes ago?

"What is it?" I asked, my voice rough, even as I already knew the answer would shatter whatever fragile balance I had left. I forced myself to push my discovery aside—not bury it, never that—but shelve it long enough to lead.

Noah repeated himself, jaw tight. Then he lifted his arm and pointed straight at Sage.

"She betrayed us," he snarled. "She handed us to the vampires."

The words slammed into me with brutal force.

For a moment, I simply stared at him, disbelief roaring louder than reason. My gaze flicked instinctively to Sage—peaceful, unaware, lashes dark against her cheeks. My mate. My Maya.

How could she do that?

The evil foreboding I had been carrying since she collapsed swelled, thick and suffocating. The priest’s warning echoed in my mind then. The darkness is still hovering.

But hadn’t he also said she was the light?

"What exactly are you saying?" I demanded, turning back to Noah. "Start from the beginning."

His lips pressed into a thin line. "We received a mindlink from one of the outer guards. He was panicking—screaming that vampires were inside the borders. Not just the colonies. Here. In the capital."

His eyes burned. "He was killed mid-link."

A murmur rippled through the room.

Noah continued, relentless. "The dome Sage put up? It was fake. She dismantled the real one—the one that Dora reinforced years ago. She tore it down and replaced it with an illusion."

My head shook on its own. "That’s not possible," I whispered. "She wouldn’t—"

"She did," Noah cut in harshly. "And now, more than five vampires are heading straight for the palace."

The room spun.

I staggered back a step, then another, my hand brushing the edge of the bed for balance. "Impossible," I muttered, the word tearing itself from my throat again and again. "This doesn’t make sense. Maya would never—"

When did Maya become a monster?

The thought was treacherous, cruel. My chest burned as tears, surprisingly, stung my eyes, quickly chased by rage so intense it made my vision blur.

Had she been under a spell? Manipulated?

Had the queen poisoned her mind, convinced her I had attacked her in the council hall all those years ago when she’d been Dora?

A sudden snarl snapped me back.

Claire lunged.

Pure instinct took over. I moved before I thought, stepping fully between her and the bed, arms outstretched, power flaring. "No," I growled.

Claire’s eyes were wild, fists shaking. "Get out of the way, Adam!"

"She’s unconscious," I snapped. "You will not touch her."

Daniel grabbed Claire’s arm, but she fought him, rage radiating off her in waves. The room felt like it was vibrating, everyone on the brink of violence.

I opened my mind path, one that connected me to the entire region, power surging outward like a command carved into stone. Everyone, stay in your house!

A heartbeat later, information flooded back to me through the link—confirmation of Noah’s words. Five vampires and more. Fast. Organized. Heading straight for the palace.

Judging by the grim looks on my brothers’ faces, I wasn’t the only one who received it, considering we shared mindpaths too.

Noah relayed the message aloud, and the tension in the room snapped into something sharp and deadly. Together, my brothers stepped forward, a united front, their gazes fixed on Sage.

"Move," Noah said coldly. "We need to wake her up."

"So she can explain herself," Daniel added, voice tight.

Or be executed, was what they didn’t say.

I didn’t move.

"She’s my mate," I said hoarsely. "And there has to be a misunderstanding."

Noah barked out a bitter laugh. "Is the sex really that good, Adam? That you’d ignore treason?"

Claire snarled again, fingers curling like claws.

I stood my ground, heart hammering, torn between instinct and duty, between the Alpha I was and the man who had finally found his mate after losing her a thousand times over.

"I won’t let you hurt her," I said. "Not without answers... it has to be a misunderstanding."

Silence fell.

Then—

"No, my love," a soft voice said. "There is no misunderstanding at all."

My blood ran cold.

I turned slowly. Sage’s eyes were open.

She looked directly at me, lips curving into a familiar, devastating smile—the same one she had worn before she collapsed. Calm. Smug. Unrepentant.

"I gave your kingdom to the vampires."