Tasting 70

70–Between The Two Brothers

Nora:

“What are you up to?” I asked him as I watched him grab his cellphone.

“Cain! What on earth are you doing?” I was losing my cool at whatever mischief he was up to now.

He seemed aggressively entering the code on his phone.

“Sit here,” he yelled at me, pointing at the stool.

I gulped before shaking my head. I knew I messed up when I dragged Ryker into the middle. But

after what Cain said, I really lost respect for him. I thought of Ryker, and somehow, he seemed like

the better one. Or maybe I was just surrounded by horrible people, so anyone less horrible seemed

nice.

“I’m leaving. Natalya is in my room, and if she wakes up, she’ll be worried about where I went,” I

declared and had only turned around to leave when I felt an arm wrap around my waist, pulling me

back.

“Argh!” I screamed a little, being dragged away from the door and slammed against the wall.

“Stop doing that. You brothers are going to break my back one day, and then because of my weak

framework. I wouldn’t even be able to heal.” I hissed, adding a little lie in the middle.

‘Hush!” Cain placed a finger on his own lips, gesturing for me to shut up as he hunched over me,

pinning me against the wall and placing the phone next to his ear.

20 Debenen The Two Brothers

“Come to my room, we need to talk,” he said on the call, and my heart began to pump loudly.

“N–” I thought about making a noise so that Ryker knows something is off and can get out of this

situation by making up an excuse, but Cain hushed me again.

“It’s about Nora!” Cain said, and my only hope of giving Ryker a hint that it was about me drowned.

Cain made it clear he wasn’t playing anymore. I watched him hang up and then grab my arm.

“What are you doing now?” I complained as he took me to the side. There was a door that I had

never explored. He opened it and shoved me inside. I found out it was his massive bedroom. All

dark with black curtains and paintings he had made. At least some of them. They depicted erotic

poses of she–wolves with messages under them from direct sources. The she–wolves knew these

paintings were going into his bedroom, and they were more than delighted by the idea. However,

there was an empty painting right above the bed. One side of the bedroom was basically a glass

door which led to the other side of the mansion and the side garden.

“Cain!” I attempted to get out of the room, but he had locked the door after me.

“Shit! What is he up to?” I hissed under my breath. That’s when I heard the door open and close,

and I knew it was Ryker.

“What happened? Why did you want to talk about her at this time of night?” Ryker asked.

“She told me you knew about her wolf, and–” Cain stopped, leaving the words to be finished by

Ryker himself.

11

“Huh?” Ryker seemed to have been taken aback.

“You know you cannot lie, Ryker. So tell me, look me in the eye and say you didn’t know,” I didn’t

know what was going on, but the silence made my heart jump up and down. Would that make

Ryker angry at me?

“I knew,” Ryker answered, and I buried my face in my hands, kneeling down. Soon, the door

opened, and I uncovered my face from my hands, sitting on my knees and raising my head to watch

them stand in the studio. Ryker stared at me in shock.

“What the heck is going on here?” he asked his brother, pointing at me.

“You tell me. The fact that she made you not tell her secret to anyone makes me believe what else

you two are hiding?” Cain had never been so confrontational before. He was shooting glares at his

brother and also suggesting that Ryker change his side.

“Yes, I knew about her wolf. But I didn’t think it was of much importance since it is not like it would

make any difference in our lives,” Ryker explained, for the first time revealing why he had kept my

secret for so long. Even I used to wonder why it was so easy for me to lie to him and why he

believed me so easily.

“Listen—even if we tell Dad, he will feel bad for her. Her wolf is weak and–” Ryker continued to

make his brother understand, who shook his head.

“That’s not true. Her wolf is not weak. Or else she wouldn’t be calling her wolf when rushing to the

woods to save Natalya,” Cain hissed, making Ryker steadily turn to me.

I got up from my knees and walked out of the room steadily.

70 Between The Two Brothers

17

“Her wolf is weak,” Ryker confirmed, his eyes piercing mine.

“How do you know? She told me the same story. And I think the only way we can find out her truth

is if we make her shift,” Cain demanded once again, his hand running through his hair to fix them.

I was scared Cain would not rest until he had exposed my truth entirely. Just because Ryker didn’t

question so much, I assumed it was a piece of cake to lie to these alpha king brothers. Oh boy! I

was so Wrong.

“Cain! I know her wolf is weak because I have seen her,” however, Ryker’s statement shook the

ground from under my feet. Both Cain and I looked at him as he continued.

“When I first found out she had a wolf, I demanded she change, and she did. She was in agony,

and I was scared Dad would not forgive me if he saw her in that state,” Ryker lied, making me tilt

my head at him. I was not sure why he was elaborating on my lie.

“When was that?” Cain asked.

“When—she first left the mansion. That’s when,” Ryker added to the lie, and Cain turned to me to

stare at me before he uttered,

“Is that all brother?” Cain noticed that Ryker nodded so Cain added,

“I felt a mate bond with her.”