003 My Lover Boy

Lilith’s POV

“Behave,”

The Lady shot Orion a warning look, leaving the room to the two of us.

The old Orion would grin and hug his mom like a clumsy bear whenever he crossed her. The new prince bowed lightly at The Lady with curved lips, as handsome as before. But with a shade of disapproval of her words as he closes the door behind her gown.

I stared at the man I hadn’t seen in a week, desperate to find the boy I used to know.

“Weren’t you all fierce and spicy last night, shouting at me?” Orion ambled over, his big hand reaching for the top of my head, “So why did mother have to mindlink me in the middle of the night, saying that our little lily is acting up at home?”

I frown when Lycoris reached her head forward for his touch. I dodged him. The rejection was not completed, but intimacy with him tasted differently nonetheless. I looked at him, unable to fathom how he could act as if last week didn’t happen.

I couldn’t.

Orion was the same age as me, but ever since he got taller than me, he acted all big-brother-y around me. Only recently, the protectiveness of that role decomposed to more scolding and more often.

Looking at his icon smile, I realized I no longer knew how to talk to him anymore. It was not like he had never talked in such a tone before. In fact, it had been his style. It was the theme that changed. He used to joke with me, but now he joked AT my expense.

“I wasn’t acting up,” I said calmly, “I fainted. If you—”

“You fainted?! Seriously??” Orion exclaimed with amusement in his voice, then he shook his head with not guilt, but confusion and a shred of disappointment, “You really are so delicate, huh?”

By delicate, he meant weak.

He once beat a guy half to death just because that guy called me a runt, and now he despises me when HE knocked me out.

“Reject my rejection and I’ll give you a taste of what a burn on the mate bond is like!” I hissed at Orion, letting out my anger. Was this how light a betrayal was to him?

“Come on, don’t be so dramatic. It was just a sting,” Orion let out an amused sneer, “And let’s be real, Lil. How can you fuck around when you can’t even stand being naked in front of people?”

His explicit words made my ears red.

We didn’t grow up with a real pack. The Lady hid from the Alpha for years, and we had to sneak around human cities. I picked up a lot “the wolf’s way” after I got here, but shifting in front of people was one that I could never get used to.

My beef with Hannah started when she shifted back to her human form in front of Orion. Even if shifting was normal to wolves, the way she did it was all but seducing.

But what hurt the most was, Orion enjoyed her little show.

“Is that why you CAN? Because you picked up some fancy wolf lifestyle?!” I stared at the man who once loved me, disappointed at what I saw now, “One mate, one life. That’s the wolf’s way. Not impressing with nudity and having no shame!”

To my surprise, Orion grinned at my accusation.

“Jealousy is not a virtue, Lil,” Orion announced with a teasing tone, “You can try to turn this on me and lash out all you want, but at the end of the day, you are making a fuss only because you are jealous.”

“You fucked her! Why should I be okay with that? How could YOU be okay with that?!” I could no longer contain my temper. I pushed Orion, jumping out of my bed because the short distance from his smirky face was getting unbearable for me.

“I didn’t,” Orion shrugged, his smile widening.

He had been waiting to say that. I could tell. We spent too much time together for me not to see it -- he did this whenever he pulled off some smart mischief.

He leaned backward with his hands on my bed, looking at me eagerly as if waiting for some praise from me.

“I was just teasing you last night,” Orion continued, “You have been acting weird--”

Teasing? He marked another girl, burn my soul at it, and he called that teasing? When did my boy become like this?

Unable to listen on, I cut him off: “I’m not even talking about last night. How about last Saturday, mountain foot patrol--”

I couldn’t finish.

Letting out a long sigh, Orion’s smile turned into a tired look. He made it clear that he hated the topic, and his explanation was only some generous charity he was granting me: “I told you, that was an unfortunate misunderstanding. I caught Hannah in heat. She didn’t have the suppressant with her, so I gave her a temporary mark. That was all it was.”

All it was? Marking is sacred. Is that not true for pack wolves???

I was speechless, but Orion took that as a result of guilt, not shock: “How could you not trust me like this, hmm? I would have told you if you didn’t defy me in public. Rejection is not some weapon you can just wield around when you are upset. I’m the Alpha’s heir now, you need to pay me due respect.”

Respect?

His words stung my eyes sore. Tears blurred his image, but I saw more clearly than ever:

The boy I loved was no longer in this man.

He betrayed our bond. He marked her over and over again. He tormented me for a week. All because I didn’t pay him “due respect”. I guess the distance between us was not geographical, but class-based.

If I knew the day Orion left for his father’s pack three years ago would be the last time I ever saw my lover boy, I would have said our goodbye more carefully.