Tasting

68–The Desperate She–Wolf 

Nora: 

“I’m sorry,” I murmured as I sank onto the bed beside Natalya, my head bowed low, unable to meet her gaze. 

“What are you apologizing for?” she inquired softly, her voice hoarse. It was the first time she had spoken since waking up in the hospital. 

“Because—the brothers used me to reach you. I didn’t know they were going to do that. They made me believe Dad had gone missing,” I confessed, not even attempting to deceive her. I had tried my best to dissuade them from contacting her long before I realized it was all a setup. 

“It’s okay, Nora. I believe you. And I’m not angry with them. I lied and got the same punishment as everyone else,” she murmured under her breath, her voice barely audible. 

“Really? You’re not angry with them?” I found it strange because I couldn’t imagine forgiving them myself. In fact, I was finding it hard to even speak to them now. 

“Nora! Claiming to be a special wolf who can fight monsters is a serious offense. They explained it to me in the meeting they had right after I claimed to have killed that monster. They told me why it was important for them to be sure I wasn’t lying,” she recounted, her breathing slow and deep. 

“Why?” I asked, curious about the meeting. I suddenly remembered that gathering and how she never told me what it was truly about. 

“They told me that in the future, if the monsters became too much to handle, they might declare war and would need the special she–wolf to fight against them. I lied and said I was that she–wolf. Just imagine if they had declared war and then found out I lied?” she shocked me with her revelation. I hadn’t known any of this. 

“I wish she had told me: I would have warned her against the idea.” 

“But I want to ask you something, Nora!” she suddenly raised her head, and our eyes locked. I had a feeling that something was wrong. 

“Why did you lie?” The moment she asked me that, I nearly choked on my saliva. 

“What do you mean? I didn’t lie about anything.” I laughed nervously, trying to avoid meeting her eyes. 

“You know you lied too, but I’m not sure why,” she insisted, and I turned to face her, asking her to explain herself. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I felt like gulping, but she was examining my face, not missing any details. 

“That you saw me kill that monster,” she recalled, and I sighed in relief. I honestly wondered what lie she had caught me in. 

I had lied a lot, and only recently, after what happened to her, did I begin to ponder what my fate would be.. 

“I guess I was too scared to see what really happened. I just saw someone attack the monster, and once you confirmed it was you, my brain clicked and agreed with you because that was the best 

explanation I could come up with for what I saw.” I played the fool and felt guilty. 

The way she was watching me and believing me made me feel like a 

bad person. I only wished I could tell her my secret, but some things need to stay secret. 

“Then who do you think that person was? Who came to my rescue?” The fact that she went from being a hero to a damsel in distress filled me with awe as I looked at her. 

“I was thinking about it too. Somebody came when they saw me in danger.” she beamed at the idea of someone coming to her rescue. 

“I don’t know,” this time, I didn’t want to entertain any theories and give her false hope. I could tell she was upset right away. 

“You don’t think it’s someone who might be—like—you know, stalking me? Maybe someone is watching me to make sure I’m fine?” The more she spoke, the worse I felt because there was no way I was entertaining that thought. 

I knew it was me, and I wasn’t stalking her. Sure, I was worried about her, but I wasn’t some secret lover. 

“I don’t know, Natalya. I think maybe someone just came to kill the monster and save whoever was in danger,” I watched her face go numb when I didn’t agree with her. 

However, I needed to change the topic and distract her from staring at me with judgmental eyes. It was making me uneasy. 

That’s when my phone started ringing. 

I watched Cain’s name pop up on the screen, and goosebumps formed across my skin. We hadn’t talked since feeling a mate bond. But he was calling me now, so I a**umed he was finally ready to talk about how I lied about my wolf and then how we felt the mate bond. 

“Alpha King Cain is calling you?” she asked with a hint of excitement 

in her voice. It shocked me even more because, ugh! 

I wanted to yell at her and remind her how he punished her in the woods. 

“Maybe he’s worried about me? I feel like he wants to check on me,” she curiously tried to snatch my phone out of my hands when Cain texted me. 

“Um, Natalya!” I grabbed my phone back and hurriedly jumped off the bed. Her weak smile faded as she watched me quickly read the text. 

Cain: Come to my studio, we need to talk. 

My heart sank in my chest, and I knew for a fact he wasn’t calling me to his studio to ask about her. 

“Is he asking about me?” she continued to pester me. 

“No, Natalya, he’s not asking about you. I got upset with him after what he did to you, so—he wants to talk to me,” I lied, but that wasn’t the lie she was asking about. 

“Oh! He’s concerned that you’re upset, why?” At this point, even though I felt bad for what she had been through, she had gotten on my nerves a little. 

“Because he’s my stepbrother, and he cares?” I secretly rolled my eyes before I shoved the phone into the back pocket of my tight shorts. 

But he began to ring me again and again. It was then that I realized the urgency from his side. 

“You’ve got five minutes to explain yourself,” he warned, striding past me to grab a stool and position himself in front of me. 

His eyes conveyed a clear message: no more lies would be tolerated. The nervous tapping of his foot only added to my distraction. 

“I lied about not having a wolf,” I confessed, meeting his gaze, which hardened at my words. 

“What else?” he pressed. 

“Nothing else,” I lied once more. 

“Nora!” He shut his eyes tightly, his neck tensing before he reopened them. “I’m not here to play games. I gave you days to come clean, but you remained silent as if that would absolve you of the lie.” 

The sternness in his tone made it clear that broaching the topic of the mate bond would be challenging. He was already infuriated at the thought of me deceiving them about my wolf. 

“I’m not lying. I didn’t want anyone to know how weak my wolf is,” I admitted, biting my tongue after the confession. 

“So you believe all omegas should deceive and conceal their wolves?” he tilted his head, though his clenched fists betrayed his true feelings. 

“No! Mine is… weaker. She can’t even transition properly. Whenever she’s forced, she becomes exhausted and experiences pain, sometimes. even enduring the agony of broken bones,” I rambled, already breathless from weaving the lie. 

In that moment, I realized how effortlessly I had deceived Ryker. But facing Cain and his penetrating gaze brought me immense stress. 

“Hmm! Then how did you conceal her? Why didn’t we discover her