“You were in an accident,” I informed her. Just in case you’re forgetting.
“Who was it? Did he wait around?” The way she asked, she must also suspect it was intentional.
I shook my head, hating how disappointing that was. “They couldn’t catch up with him.”
She darted her eyes around the room for a second time. “Where am I?”
“In my suite.”
She looked at me like I’d just told her she’d been sold to me.
“You were in an accident, Lyric. The suite had a health care center. When they were done treating you, I had to bring you to my room. I only had to do this because people would talk if they got to know I abandoned my soon-to-be Luna.”
She gave me a quizzical look. “So, you do care what people say, after all.”
“I chose my rumours, Lyric.”
She touched her neck and paled. Knowing what she was about to ask next, I held the necklace up to her. “It’s here.”
She peeled herself from the bed, coming to get it from me. Well, she had been through a lot. So, I didn’t let her struggle for it and just handed it over.
To my surprise, she started for the door.
“What do you think you’re doing?” My brows arched.
“I’m leaving.”
Right. I thought you were going to fix the door or something.
“I have an extra room where I’ll be spending the night. Get back to bed, Lyric.”
“I don’t want to,” she snapped. “Not to sound ungrateful, but don’t you think it’s your fault I got hit in the first place? If you hadn’t taken this from me, I wouldn’t have been here in the first place.” Her eyes flashed with hurt.
Maybe she had the right to be mad, but I didn’t really care. The least she could do was thank me for letting her touch my bed.
She wrapped her hand around the door’s knob. The woman was getting on my nerves.
“Damn it, Lyric! Get back here before I do something crazy!”
That did the trick. She visibly shuddered and looked at me with a kind of fear.
Okay. Maybe that came out harsher than expected. But there was only little I could do when I had someone constantly upsetting me.
A fucking tear dropped to her cheek. But she walked away from the door, back to the bed, sitting with a huff and her arms crossed. Well, I didn’t care that she looked like a brewing hurricane right now. As long as she was there.
“If you need anything, ring the landline,” I told her before taking my leave.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure I could survive one year with this woman. She was frustratingly infuriating.
LYRIC
I kept counting the hours until morning.
As soon as it was the break of dawn, I planned on leaving immediately.
But when morning came, I was surprised by a breakfast buffet, a new dress, and a nurse checking on me.
I didn’t want to believe that Jaris had thought of these himself.
I freshened up, changed into the fresh dress-a cute black knee-length gown, by the way-and ate to my fill.
The nurse removed the bigger bandage around my head, having it replaced with a small patch. She also told me I was fine and could move about. Not like I had any intention of staying over,
When I finished and went to the other room, I found Jaris already dressed, talking with Kael and Jaris,
Right. He had the general Alphas’ meeting to attend. Even my father was attending.
I waited for him to finish with his men before I greeted him and told him I was leaving,
“We’re leaving together,” he cocked his head at the door.
Kael and Nerion must have had to do something else because they didn’t follow us out of the room.
I walked behind Jaris as we reached the elevator and waited for it to open up. When it did open, there were two occupants inside, people I recognized-Alpha Zarek and his Luna, Chloe. I had met them at the funeral last night.
I noticed their eyes dim the moment they saw Jaris. Well, I wasn’t surprised Jaris had a lot of enemies.
After a slight hesitation, he stepped into the elevator, and I did the same.
Alpha Zarek and his Luna were behind us, the air in the small space tense.
“I didn’t know you had a woman now,” Zarek said. “Congratulations.”
Jaris chuckled. “Quite funny. I didn’t know you considered it an achievement. It explains why you were quite sad when a certain woman left you.”
Okay. What the hell was going on?
Fortunately, nothing else was said until the elevator reached the ground floor.
“Lyric, right?” Zarek called as we all stepped out of the elevator.
I didn’t say anything, but he smiled at me.
“It was nice meeting you,” he uttered the words with a certain menace. Then, he smirked at Jaris and left with his Luna, whose face seemed to be covered in shame.
Jaris didn’t utter a word, but I could tell he was pissed. We left the reception and headed for his car.
JARIS
As soon as I dropped Lyric off at the suite her father had reserved, I proceeded to The Silver Citadel for the Alphas’ meeting. I’d rather be anywhere but here, but it was mandatory as important matters had to be discussed.
Half an hour later, the meeting fully commenced
Every single Alpha was present. The seating arrangement was far from normal. It was arranged in a ring-like position with the Alphas sitting according to their ranks.
The Pack Overseers-which were the Lycan Chairman and Representatives-sat in the first circle.
The second row was occupied by the Sovereign Alphas-which was my Pack and nine others.
The Alphas of the major Packs followed, and then the minor Packs were last. Those ones hardly had a say in public matters.
The Lycan Chairman gave the opening speech, talking about the late King and how good of a leader he had been. He hinted at the fact that investigations into his death were still ongoing.
After that, he brought up some pressing issues like hanging taxes and…
Then, we arrived at the main reason for the gat a king.
“As we all know, it cannot be vacant for long. Someone would have to that space. Someone worthy, of course. Since King Thaddeus’ death was untimely, he was unable to recommend anyone. So now, we’d have to do it the usual way. But as we all know, only the Sovereign Alphas can partake in the challenge for the throne.”
I drank some water while the Chairman spoke about the rules.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.