The Wrong Man

Chapter Five.

Aurelia’s POV.

Liam.

I was back in my room and Liam was there. I could feel his arms around me as the sound of his laughter filled my head.

This was real. It had to be.

My eyes were closed but I could feel the tears. I was so afraid to open them and find him gone. So I didn’t. I just found his lips with mine and kissed him.

For a breathtaking second, it was perfect. He was here. Liam was back.

But then, his lips felt different. Softer than I remembered and the taste that filled my mouth was…

My eyes snappped open.

A familiar pair of icy blue eyes were staring down at me, wide eyed. Rylan’s face was so close to mine that I could see the tiny flecks of silver in his eyes.

For one second, we remained frozen in place, my hands fisted in his shirt, my lips and body still pressed against his.

The moment my brain processed what had just happened, I shoved him back so hard I lost my balance. I tumbled off the bed and hit the floor with a painful thud.

“Get away from me!” The words tore past my lips, shaky and raw as I scrambled backwards, my stomach heaving.

I frantically wiped my lips over and over again with disgust, trying to erase the feel of him, the taste of his skin. It was everywhere.

“Don’t you ever touch me again.” I yelled, desperate to ignore the tingling sensation where his lips had been.

He stood up, slowly. The stunned expression on his face was gone, replaced with a cold glare. He looked down at me with a raised brow,

“Touch you?” His voice was a low snarl yet I could hear the angry tremor that clung to the edges, “don’t flatter yourself, I’d rather peel back the skin from my own bones than want the daughter of the monster that ruined my life.”

He suddenly stepped forward and with two swift strides, he closed the distance between us. Before I could react, his hand shot out and his fingers gripped my jaw, forcing my head up.

My breath caught in my throat, my heart pounding beyond control.

He leaned in closer, his cold eyes pinning me in place,

“Everytime I look at you, I see him. And it makes me sick.”

The hatred in his voice was intense but for some reason, I couldn’t focus on that. All I could focus on was the sensation shooting down from his grip on my jaw to my core.

How could my body react to him? My stomach twisted as I glared up at him.

“You’re in this house because we allow it. The next time you mistake me for that dead mate of yours, I’ll—“

The sudden creaking sound of the door cut him off and we both turned towards it.

Standing in the doorway, wearing a silky revealing dress that left nothing to the imagination with a smug look on her face was Lyra.

Kade’s daughter. My cousin.

My brows furrowed in confusion, this was the triplets house so how was she here? What was she doing here?

“Am I… interrupting something?” She purred, her eyes sliding from Rylan’s angry face to my horrified one, “is this b**ch already getting on your nerves, baby?”

Baby?

“Get out Lyra.” Rylan growled but she simply laughed.

“Oh come on, don’t ruin the fun. I just came to see how my dear cousin… was settling in.”

The mockery in her voice was clear as day so was the hatred burning in her eyes. Lyra and I never got along well, not when our parents hated each other and she openly despised me because Liam had chosen me after rejecting her.

I couldn’t even remember the last time I saw her. Last I heard, she was engaged to the Beta of one of the seven packs so what was she doing here?

Rylan was pissed, I could see it in the way he clenched and unclenched his jaw like he was fighting back the urge to say or do something.

He released my jaw and without a word, he walked out of the room, leaving me alone with Lyra.

My legs suddenly gave out underneath me and I crumbled to the floor, breathing heavily as I struggled to calm my racing heart,

“W-What are you doing here, Lyra?” I breathed, glancing up at her.

She took a few steps into the room with a weird grin on her face,

“You really need to learn your place, Aurelia, so let me make it simple for you. The triplets,” she gestured casually towards the door,

“They are mine and I don’t share what’s mine.” She stopped directly in front of me, her gaze hardened as she looked me over,

“You’re just a trophy to them. Something to remind them of how much they enjoyed killing your pathetic parents and your precious Liam.” She laughed, a low dark sound that rumbled out of her, humorless.

“And since you have a habit of stealing what doesn’t belong to you, just like you stole Liam from me, let me make one thing perfectly clear,” she suddenly grabbed my arm and I winced when I felt her sharp nails dig into my skin.

“If you so much as look at them the wrong way, I won’t just kill you. I’ll make sure I hack your body into pieces and let you bleed to death.” She threatened but I stood my ground.

There were a lot of things in the world that could scare me, but Lyra was not one of them. Not when her father had made me watch him kill my parents.

I gritted my teeth so hard my jaw ached.

I was going to make them regret keeping me alive.

All of them! I would make them wish they had killed me along with everyone else.

“Then you’d better kill me now, Lyra because the first thing I am going to take from you is them. And the last thing I’ll do is bury a silver dagger in your father’s chest.”