"I just sent him to a meditation camp ".
Lyra frowns and shakes her head. "No. A scamming organization took him to a meditation camp. ".
"I might have mentioned it to him in passing." I avoid her gaze and turn sideways.
She, however, slips in front of me, refusing to let it go. "Since when do you even know him?"
"When I was monitoring you." I say flatly as I flop down on her bed, legs wide apart.
"You mean when you were stalking me?" She stands in front of me again, a haughty look on her face. I can't help but raise a brow at her.
She's such a brat.
<'Don't call her that. She's adorable'. Seth coos.
'Shut up!'
"Why did you even come here anyway?" Lyra asks, full of attitude.
"Because I wanted to see you." Her cheeks flush, and her entire demeanor changes.
And I want to see more of that.
I get up and tower over her, making her crane her neck up. She backs up as I advance towards her.
"What's the meaning of this? You're crossing your line—" She's stopped by the wall behind her, and I cage her with my arms on either side of her.
"Crossing the line? There's no line between us, Lyra". I tilt my head, my eyes never leaving hers.
"There is—"
"Shh." I place a finger on her soft, plump lips.
"You always have to have the last word, huh? One of these days, I'll shut this pretty little mouth with my own." She swallows hard, and her pupils dilate. Fuck.
"Tell me, Lyra, would you like that? You would want that, wouldn't you, pretty girl?" I remove my finger from her lips, and she lets out a shaky breath.
I hold the side of her face while one of my hands curls around her waist. I pull her closer and inch my lips closer to hers.
Her warm breath hits my lips, and I can't help licking mine. I stare into her eyes one last time, silently asking for permission. She closes her eyes, and I close the distance between our lips.
I devour her lips, alternating between the upper and lower one. I bite her lower lip, causing her to gasp, and seize the opportunity to push my tongue inside.
Lyra trembles in my hold the moment my tongue enters her mouth. I kiss her harder this time, and she moans loudly. Fuck, I want to hear that sound again.
She wraps her hands around my neck, pulling me closer, and I can't help the smirk on my lips. I groan once she runs her fingers on the back of my head. This girl.
She pulls away, breathless, but I kiss her again. She lets out a protesting moan and pushes hard on my shoulder. I don't budge, too consumed by the taste of her and torture her soft lips that are swollen now.
She bites down on my lips hard causing a metallic taste to fill my mouth, and I finally let her go. She gasps for air, acting like she had just drowned.
"You… you… almost suffocated… me." She glares at me as she breathes out her words with difficulty.
Shit. I think I kissed her too hard.
"I am not letting you kiss me again." She declares, her face serious.
Now that's a torture.
I open my mouth to protest, but Rowan's voice in my head stops me. 'Dude, what the fuck? I have been trying to mindlink you for a while now. Where the fuck are you, and why did you block me out?'
'I was busy with something. What's wrong? '. I let my gaze wander to Lyra, who is now pouring water in a glass.
'I can't tell you. You have to see it for yourself; come to the study.' He stops the mindlink after that.
I approach Lyra and snatch the glass out of her hands after she's done drinking and place a little peck on her lips, not being able to resist.
She wipes it with the back of her hand a little aggressively and glares at me.
I smirk at her. "Be there at the dining room for dinner tonight. You'll be sitting with all of us. ".
She mumbles "okay," and I leave her room.
' At least we agree on something.
I reach the study room and see Rowan pacing the floor. He stops once he sees me and closes the door. "What's with the secrecy?"
He doesn't respond and just walks to the bookshelf. I follow him without a word. It's rare to see him this serious.
He removes a book from the shelf, revealing a button that leads to the hidden room just behind the shelf. He presses it, and the shelf opens, sliding to the right.
The shelf closes once we enter the room. Rowan takes out some papers from one of the drawers in the corner and hands them to me.
"Oliver Jones leads a very normal and simple life back at Wisteria. Three years ago, he attended a business college in Wisteria, and that's where he met Lyra. They got into a relationship a year later and graduated together just a few months ago. Word is, he pursued Lyra like crazy. He kept pestering her until she agreed to give him a chance." Rowan pauses just as my jaw ticks.
What a leech!
I can't help the snark lifting my lips as I imagine him trying to get Lyra's attention, and when he finally gets—
<'Stop it, you prick. Don't torture me with those thoughts'. Seth hissed angrily.
Rowan claps his hands once, catching my attention. "Will you focus?"
I nod my head once, and he continues. "But what I said was just a human perspective. That's what the people around Oliver and Lyra saw, but the story is slightly different coming from Ravenswood."
Rowan flops on the chair as his eyes glint with a strange light. I know that look. He does that when something either makes sense to him or doesn't.
"Oliver Jones was quite shy and lacked confidence back when he was in Ravenswood. In fact, he was often bullied by the kids of Ravenswood. Alpha Robert also didn't care to stop his son from being bullied, hoping it would make him tough. To make matters worse, Beta's daughter had her eyes on him and made his life miserable till he agreed to date her. But then, something happened—" Rowan sits straighter, and I turn to him.
"Oliver Jones shifted for the first time on his 18th, and he found his mate." I narrow my eyes at that.
If he already had a mate, why did he approach Lyra?
"Guess who it was?" Rowan wiggles his eyebrows, and I just give him a flat look.
"Alright, I'll tell you who. It was Tracy Chester. Beta's daughter and Oliver's bully. But that's exactly when things took a turn. Apparently Oliver changed after that incident. He was no longer the shy, bullied boy. He was still reserved, but they say his eyes changed, and he rejected the mate bond." Rowan jumps up from his seat.
"And that's when he left Ravenswood and moved to Wisteria and basically hunted down Lyra and made her his girlfriend. And if you are thinking what I am—"
I finish his sentence for him. "Then it means he deliberately rejected the mate bond so that he could have Lyra for reasons unknown to us. And weare going to find out why ".
Because love isn't the only driving factor here. He wants something else from her.