Now what was he playing at?
I turned slowly to look at him, my anger burning hotter.
He shook his head, appearing conflicted with what he was about to say.
“I only wanted to rile you up, Jaris. I wanted to get back at you for what you did with Chloe. Fuck, I never thought I’d actually be doing this–trying to speak on her behalf. But unlike you, I’ve got a heart, and I just realized she’s a good girl and doesn’t deserve this. She doesn’t even know what happened that night.”
“If you’re saying something, you speak fast, Zarek.” My words dripped with impatience. I was losing it. But it was majorly because he was making me curious.
“I tried to get her the normal way, but she didn’t fall for it. She wouldn’t even talk to me. So, I lured her to the garden where her drink was poisoned. It gave her illusions. She was supposed to see the face of the man she truly craved after taking the drink. So, when I showed up, she saw your face on mine.
“I was shocked when she called your name. I mean, you two had just met. How could she be in love with you already? So, all those times she was kissing me, she thought she was kissing you.”
I was completely numb. I couldn’t utter a word and could only watch as he reached for his phone in his back pocket. Tapping the screen a few times, he turned it to me to display the video on the screen.
“This is the original clip. Unmuted,” he said as the video played on the phone.
I could hear her now. All she moaned the entire time while holding and kissing Zarek was my
name.
My brows drew together in confusion.
“Why do you think the video was muted in the first place?” He pulled the phone away, tucking it back into his pocket.
“It was because I didn’t want to hear that, Jaris. I don’t know how she happened to fall for you so quickly, but she’s loved you since then. And if it came down to choosing, she’d have never let me anywhere near her. And the worst part, she thinks it was all a dream. She doesn’t know anything of it.”
The shock I felt was like nothing I’d felt in years. Not even when Jace accused Marta of cheating.
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I lowered my gaze to the floor and the ground seemed to spin.
“And about tonight,” Zarek’s voice grew angrier. “Didn’t you stop to think about the fact that she didn’t return in her car? She was attacked on her way home, man! By some bloodsucking wolves! They turned her car over and she’d have died had I not been there to save her. She was so damn scared and only wanted to get home. From the look of things, she was eager to share them with you. But what did you do? You publicly accused her of cheating with the one man that had saved her life. You didn’t even give her the chance to explain herself.”
He stepped back and tsked, shaking his head as if in disappointment. “You’re terrible, man.”
Then, he was gone.
I barely even registered it. All I could focus on was the fact that I’d been wrong to Lyric the
whole time.
A foreign feeling settled deep in my chest. It took me a moment to realize it was regret.
What have I done? How did this happen?
Everything came crashing down–how I humiliated her at the temple because I thought she slept with Zarek. How rude and cold I was to her. And just now, I’d hurt her in the worst way possible. She cried so hard!
“Fuck!” I snapped, pulling at my roots.
Kael and the others came to me.
“What’s going on?” Kael asked like a friend concerned.
I rubbed my hand over my face, a sudden ache developing in my head.
Lyric never slept with Zarek. She only kissed him because she thought it was me. She’d never cheated on me. She loved me this whole time.
I reached for my phone and tried to call her, but this time, her line was switched off.
Damn it.
“Get the car ready, Kael,” I instructed without looking at him. “Now.”
**********
For a long time, we drove down the road, but we couldn’t tell which part Lyric had taken. There was no trace of her.
Where could she possibly go? There was no way she’d go back to the hospital. So, that narrowed the search down to hotels.
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“Check every hotel in the city, starting from the ones closest to the Pack,” I instructed. “She’s got to be around somewhere. No one is sleeping tonight until we’ve found her.”
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