Selara's POV
I could tell he wasn't being truthful; he was hiding something. And I had to find out. I dropped down the stairs, and I turned in the direction of the dining hall. A maid had just called to inform me dinner was ready.
And even before I entered the massive space, with the rows of pillars lined on both sides and the long table stretching over for like thirty feet or more, when it was only barely occupied by four, Darian; his beta, Rynel; and his ever-eccentric cousin, Mara; and then me.
I had only met Mara once, on my second day in the house, but Rynel, plenty; it was the bastard who locked me up himself in Darian's dungeon weeks ago.
I pulled up to the view, and everyone, well, the three of them, glanced up at me. Darian hid his face behind a magazine on cars, though stealing glances at me over the top of the papers. Rynel grunted, digging his fork into his vegetables, eyes as hostile as ever. But Mara, the only ray of life in the room, gifted me a smile as I approached the table.
"The wife is finally here." She teased.
"I am nobody's wife." I challenged mildly.
She chuckled, sharing her gaze between me and her food. "Trust me, it's only a matter of time before you become one officially. My cousin has been waiting for—"
"I think you should eat more than talk," Darian said, a tight, furious note to his voice. His eyes burned with shame but were well hidden behind his façade of expressionlessness.
It was either Mara didn't care or she wasn't as scared of him as everyone else. Even beasts had their soft spots. She let out a carefree laugh, and she poked a bite of her steak into her mouth. She looked from Darian to me, studying us, taking note of the fact that we weren't speaking to each other.
That must have amused her again, because she just chuckled again, shaking her head in obvious mockery, which I think was more for Darian than me.
I heard the squeal of papers as Darian's fingers folded tight on them. But he didn't look up again, nor did he say anything.
"The relationship just started, and yet both partners can't stand each other, marvelous." She chuckled more on her food, almost choking. At some point, she sighed dramatically, looking heavenward, "Hell, I love being single—"
"You might have more things to worry about soon if you don't keep your excitement to yourself," Darian finally snapped.
Tension riddled his forehead with veins. He dropped the magazine and stared hard at Mara, so hard until she lost her smile. Or perhaps she didn't; it was just stifled, but she turned to her food now, not looking up.
I just watched; I didn't know if I should join in her muffled snickering as I watched how it affected Darian or if I should just look away. I picked up my plate and reached for the salad and then a drumstick from a plate of plenty.
"If it makes you feel better, Darian and I will break the bond when our deal is over," I told her.
"We are doing no such thing," Darian challenged. It was surprising how he kept his expression calm despite the fury that seemed to be blazing in his eyes.
"You don't have a choice, Darian. I can't love you."
He scoffed, relaxing into his seat, his lips twisted to exaggerate the tinge of ludicrousness to his expression. "No one is saying anything about love."
"How then do you expect us to be together if we don't love each other?"
"Simple," he said with a throw of his hands onto the table. "We are fated; that is enough to keep us together."
"That's not how our relationship works," I challenged. Just how the hell did he expect us to be together if we don't love each other?
"Sorry, love, but that's how ours will. Every relationship has its own rules, so that's ours. We don't need love; we already got fate, and that to me is more than enough." He made me a dry grin that spiked up my irritation to the extreme.
"That's not how it—"
"I thought the dining table was a place for eating, not rambling about your relationship problems." Rynel muttered quietly under his breath, loud enough to be heard but still low enough to be considered a whisper.
That brought us back to the room, and I realized how much we had drifted. Mara glanced at us, looking from Darian to me and then back, and slowly the smile on her face sharpened again, and her chuckles grew louder. She dropped her fork and threw herself into her seat. "This shit is more serious than I thought."
"Shut up and eat," Darian snapped.
There was a moment lag, where she stopped slowly to assess Darian's rage, and once she glimpsed the tightness in his eyes, her giggles died fast to silence, and she picked up her fork again.
Then Darian looked to me, frowning hard. "And you, get that thought of breaking this bond out of your head; it isn't happening, not now, not ever." He declared there was an authority in his voice but demanded compliance.
But I didn't give a damn about that. "You don't tell—"
"No one is breaking any bond, and that's final," he declared again. And then sealed it off with a brutal slam of his fists on the table. The whole table rattled.
Rynel grunted as his food spilled from his plate to the table, while Mara just struggled to hold on to her muted giggles.
Darian shot up on his feet, unmindful of the others in the room, his gaze sealed solely on me. His heat in his gaze could skin a lion, and it was a struggle trying to hold it, but I wouldn't back down. I wasn't letting something as cheap as some mate bond tie me to a rogue. That was worse than being a omega in the lycan world. It means I was a friend of no one and an enemy of all.
He grunted with the whole of his jaw, and he snatched the magazine he had been reading earlier and left.
At his departure, Mara threw herself into her seat, and she roared out her laughter. Now, I began to think her laugh was a little bit too much; perhaps she was crazier than I had initially thought. The whole of them were. Rynel looked like he was about to murder me as he glared at me across the table.
I waited for Mara to laugh out her soul, and then I turned to her. I tried to speak at first but then stopped, and by the second time, I had worked out my plan of approach in my head.
"Since I will be staying here for a while and we will be housemates for a while, I think we need to know each other better."
"We already know what we need to know about you," Rynel growled from across the table, though I hadn't talked to him.
Mara just smiled. "Don't mind him; he is a worse case than Darian." She said, referring to Rynel just with a nudge of her head. "So what do you want to know about your boyfriend?"
I wanted to correct her that I didn't mention Darian specifically, that I meant all of them, and the pack. But she might be crazy; she was no fool.
"What do you think I need to know?" I said, cautious. I didn't want to reveal my questions yet before she set up guard against them.
She smiled. "Nothing," she said simply.
"Meaning?" I let up a questioning brow.
"Meaning there is nothing for you to know about him."
"There is nothing, or you won't tell me."
I waited for her response, which, from the tug of a smile on her lips, she was deliberately prolonging. She seemed to have perceived my eagerness. I wasn't wrong; the whole lot of them were crazy.
She shrugged her shoulders very high. "Maybe both," she said. And she smiled.
I was expecting more than that response, even if she wouldn't tell me.
She resumed eating her food and glanced down at mine, untouched. "You better begin to eat, darling, fill yourself up because you will need so much energy to deal with my cousin." She said.
And I would need much more brainpower to deal with you lots. I said in my head but gave her a smile instead. "Don't you think it is cruel knowing what I have to deal with, like you say, and still not tell me about him?"
"I don't care about girl code. And I trust you, Selara; you will figure it out. Darian might look tough, but like all men, he is a child at heart." She said. She picked up a napkin there, slapped another patronizing smile on her face, and turned away. "See you later, in-laws." She chuckled over her shoulders.
I turned to my food, but I'd already felt a presence beside me. I looked up to see a face tight with murder and a knife to my throat. "Why are you seeking information about Darian?" He demanded, yelling.