Filed to story: The Rejected Werewolf Princess (Camilla & Tyson) by Didi Adeyemi >>
I searched her face and there was sincerity in them. She was either telling the truth or she is a very good liar. If she is telling the truth, I will feel bad for not allowing her help her sister. If she is lying, then there is a possibility that I would get hurt.
I looked at the distance from the staircase to Ryker’s office. It wasn’t far at all, I would get there in under a minute and I looked back at the maid who was tapping her feet anxiously and waiting for my response. I let out a sigh, what is one minute?
“You can go,” she let out a sigh of relief and thanked me profusely before disappearing down the stairs.
I rotated my shoulders and tried to mind link Ryker but his wall was up. I figured he was doing something important or he had forgotten it that way and I made my way towards his office. The first thing I noticed was that the door was ajar slightly which was weird. Ryker never leaves his doors open, they are always shut and although I’ve never asked why, I just know it is something he does.
I smelled her next- Lauren’s signature perfume and scent. My b*dy was on high alert immediately and I quietly poked my head in to see what was happening. The sight shocked me to my core and I had to slap my hand over my mouth to prevent me from making a sound that would alert them to my presence.
Ryker was leaning against the table with Lauren standing in bet**en his legs. Her hands were in his hair and he was k*ssing her. I stood there and watched for what felt like hours hoping and praying that he would push her away or something but they stayed tangled in each other’s arms. Bile crawled up my throat as I forced my feet to lead me away from the door. My heart was pounding wildly and my vision was starting to blur but I was determined not to cry. Maybe it is all a mistake or a misunderstanding. Maybe I am reading too much into it.
What if it was someone who just looked like Ryker and not actually him? That would beg the question of what he was doing in Ryker’s office with Lauren.
I went back to the memory but it seemed to hurt the more I thought about it. I tried to make myself believe that I had imagined it and against my better judgment, I found myself going back to the office to see if I had seen wrongly.
This time, when I saw them, he had her p**ssed into her desk facedown and he was lined up behind her. Her dress was bunched around her waist but he was still fully clothed and then I heard her m**n. It went through the air and struck me in my ch*st like an arrow.
A s ob caught in my throat and this time, the tears started to flow freely.
In that moment, I did what I knew how to do best. I hiked up my shirt. and I ran down the stairs and out of the pack house.
I ran into the woods and I sat on the w*t grass and allowed the tears free fall.
I guess Lauren was trying to look out for me all those times. It is too bad that I didn’t listen.
I ran as fast as I could from the office and back downstairs but I couldn’t bring myself to tell anyone what I had seen. I could barely form the words to tell myself but that didn’t matter.
I tried my best to act composed and casual the entire day but I could tell that everyone was worried. Riley kept asking me questions about the mating ceremony and I wanted to just scream at her that I didn’t want the ceremony anymore. I wanted to go home to my own bed and just sleep.
When the day was over, Ryker came as if nothing had happened and p**ssed a k*ss to my forehead. It took everything in me not to pull away or cringe and I took a discreet sniff of him but he didn’t smell like her at all. He must have found a way to wash her scent off him.
I wanted nothing more than to confront him over the entire issue but my l*ps couldn’t form the words. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. Not while we were in the carriage, not during dinner and definitely not when we were alone in bed at night.
I hoped he would tell me about it himself. Maybe it was the naïve part of me hoping that it was all a mistake and that I had somehow seen wrong. It tried my best to believe that he would tell me himself but he didn’t. Not even in the morning when I pointedly refused to train with him.
Although at that moment, he stopped and analyzed me with a sort of look that had me feeling like he was turning my skin inside out and looking at the deepest parts of me.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, “You’ve been acting weird since last night.” “Nothing,” I lied, “I just don’t want to train.”
He sighed deeply and moved until he was crouched down in bet**en my legs and he was staring up at me. I tried to avoid his gaze and when he tried to get me to look at him, I pulled away from his touch.
I could see the hurt etched on his face but he swallowed down whatever retort he had and he sighed.
“Camilla,” Ryker breathed softly. “Remember what we said about communicating, I don’t know what I’ve done wrong and if you don’t tell me what I’ve done wrong then I can’t fix it.”
I looked up at him incredulously. How can you not know what you did wrong? You were five seconds away from having S** with Lauren in your office. I tried so hard but it was like each time I opened my mouth, a chord wr*pped around my throat and the words wouldn’t come out.
I tried and I tried but no sound will come out and in the end I settled for crossing my arms on my lap in front of me and looking away. Ryker sighed and rested his forehead against my arms.
“Whatever it is that I did,” his voice was m uffled from the position. “I am so sorry, and whenever you’re ready to tell me what it is, I will be here to listen and fix things.”
He placed a soft k*ss to one of my wrists and then he was on his feet and out of the room. Unease and doubt started to rush through me and I wondered what if I had seen the wrong thing?
Breakfast was another terse affair. I went down for breakfast early because I didn’t want to spend more time than was necessary with Ryker until I had the time to think. I thought my plan was foolproof until Ryker returned from training early and somehow, Riley decided that she wanted to come down for breakfast early.
No one was speaking or even looking at each other and the tension bet**en the three of us could have been cut with a knife. It was worse when we had to go to the pack house because we were all stuck in the same small space called our carriage, our knees were basically brushing but we couldn’t- wouldn’t- speak to each other.
As soon as the carriage stopped, Ryker was out and he was helping me out but I ignored his outstretched hand and came out myself. I saw the hurt cross his features and I knew he wanted to speak about it but he clamped his mouth shut tightly and was called off by some people. “Is everything okay bet**en you guys?” Riley asked as soon as we were within the safe walls of the pack house and I nodded. “It doesn’t seem that way, this is the longest I have seen you guys go without actively touching each other. Are you sure everything is fine?”
“Everything is fine,” it was a chore to speak those lies. They threatened to choke me but I forced them out, “I just don’t feel really good.”
She gave me a look that clearly said that she didn’t believe me but she didn’t push it. Instead she nodded and took a seat right next to me on the couch.
“Well if you’re ready then we can go ahead with more of the preparations,” she gauged my reaction as she spoke and it took everything in me to keep a neutral exp**ssion. “Unless of course, you would like to do something else.”
I opened my mouth to refuse but just like before, the words were getting stuck in my throat. I wanted to know what the sudden cause of my selective muteness was because I have never experienced this before. Riley had opened her mouth to say something else when I caught a flash. of white out of the corner of my eye. I turned to the source and was shocked to see Lucy in her doctor’s coat walking through the halls.
“Is that Lucy?” I asked to be sure that she was the one I was seeing and Riley nodded.
“What is she doing here?”