Tasting 102

102–Challenge Accepted

Nora:

I attempted to head straight to my bedroom, but there was someone waiting for me in the hallway.

Cain stood there, leaning against the wall with a frown on his forehead. The moment he spotted me,

he stepped forward and blocked my path.

“Cain! You know there are cameras in the hallway, right?” Instead of engaging in conversation with

him, I reminded him of the

consequences of our actions and tried to walk past him, but he grabbed my arm and halted me.

“Then let’s go to my studio and talk,” he hissed, sounding angry for the first time ever. Before I could

even protest, he pulled me behind him to his studio and slammed the door shut behind us. The

sudden flashback of our steamy encounter from his room made me uncomfortably shift in my body

before facing him again.

“Why is alpha Brody dropping you home?” he asked, sliding his hands in his pockets and glaring at

me through his eyebrows.

“He’s just a friend,” I mumbled, folding my arms over my chest to meet his gaze directly and remind

him that he had told me he was understanding.

“Nora! I’m warning you once, and only this time, I don’t like you hanging around with him,” he stated

with a deep sigh, his nostrils flaring as he calmed his rapid breaths.

“Warning? You’re warning me?” I wanted to make sure I was hearing

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him correctly.

“So, you ignore me after the whole mess. Didn’t even check on me, and then you only pop out when

you have a warning to give? And you think I will obey you, is that it?” I frowned, tilting my head and

waiting for his response.

“Yes!” he replied shamelessly, even when I helped him so much with the realization of how arrogant

he sounded.

“Okay! Let’s say I don’t obey you. What do you think you’ll do? Torture me?” I grinned as I got on

my tiptoes to question his threat.

I thought his warning meant something violent, but what he said made me lower my body and stare

at his face in silence for the next few seconds.

“No! I will not ask you twice.”

The awkward silence grew between us before he added, “I didn’t check on you because I knew you

were fine. Just because I wasn’t talking to you doesn’t mean I wasn’t checking on you.”

“Huh! Breathing doesn’t always mean a person is doing better,” I grunted in response to his weird

way of telling me he cared.

“Ugh! It wasn’t easy for us brothers to watch Ryker go, Nora!” he added, and I shook my head

aggressively to dismiss him. I didn’t want him to say anything that would upset me even more, so I

wanted to be clear with him beforehand.

“He tried to get me out of the mansion, Cain. And all you did was to feel sorry for him?” I couldn’t

believe he was this cold.

“Is all you care about having an intimate relationship with me? Because

102–Challenge Accepted

apart from that, I never saw compassion in your eyes for me,” wow! I was speaking up. I don’t know

where I got this courage from, but I was going in with my complaints instead of keeping them in my

heart.

“Nora! He didn’t do anything. He took the blame on himself before everybody got to see the footage

and find out that you have been coming in and out of my studio at odd hours,” he had to hunch

down to lower his body to my level and utter those words in my face.

For a few seconds, I tried comprehending what to say next, but then I shut my mouth and zoned

out.

Could it be? Did he do it to take the blame on himself so that nobody sees me indulging in

inappropriate relations with my stepbrothers?

“That’s all, and now he’s in the woods, where he shouldn’t be,” Cajun added.

“It wasn’t easy for me to come have a talk with you when I was so worried about my brother.” I

could hear the pain in his voice, but I also noticed that he wasn’t telling me the entire issue of why

he was so worried about Ryker staying in the woods. If anything, I knew Ryker could survive

anywhere.

“I will go back to–” Before I could escape, he grabbed my arm and pulled me back aggressively.

“And if you think all I care about is intimacy, I will not touch you again,” he finished dramatically and

let go of my hand, stepping back

from me.

“You will come yourself asking for my touch this time,” the confidence and the challenge in his tone

surprised me. I stared at his face in disbelief before stomping my foot and leaving his studio.

102–Challenge Accepted

I pondered on what he had said about Ryker, but then I began to connect the dots. Cain didn’t know

that Ryker was the one who was in my room that night. Cain didn’t know that Ryker had been

looking for Natalya behind my back. These connections made me wonder what was truly going on.

“I am lost.” I shifted the ring on my finger, seeking solace in the only one I can blindly trust.

“Hmm! I have a theory, but please don’t believe it entirely. It’s just a theory, and we should keep an

open mind to debunk it,” she quickly added, realizing that if I took her words seriously, I might act on

them.

“Tell me,” I insisted, ready to hear her out.

“Remember that day Natalya and we were stuck in Silas‘ library, and she was busy looking for

something in his drawers?” As she mentioned that, the hair on the back of my neck stood up.

“What if–she stole it, and then once Cain didn’t accept her advances, she got angry and left the

mansion. Ryker somehow found out that she stole something and followed her, he grabbed it from

her and used it to kind of scare you and then come out as your hero for saving you,” everything she

said shook the world from under my feet.

I hated that theory with the deepest core of my heart.