And There Were Wolves

fifteen | don't like your tilted stage

I was halfway unpacking when I heard someone approaching.

"Wow, it's a big room, huh?"

I looked up and saw Trish standing by the door. I had left the door and window opened to air the room since it smelt like my attic here. So fuggy, almost as if not until today, this room had never been opened. This may be exactly what had happened considering Dmitry had said that Alana had never been here. I wanted to chastise myself for asking for it in the first place.

"Yeah." I stood to stretch my legs. "Did people use this room for a storage room or something? It smells odd."

To my surprise, Trish laughed, shaking her head as she did so. "You're funny. I like you." Then when she realized that I hadn't been joking, she cleared her throat. "Oh, you're being serious. Okay, well, trust me, no one would dare to use this room as a storage room."

"Why's that?" I let my eyes travel around the spacious room, taking in the plainly colored walls, the four-poster bed, the two nightstands, and the dressing table that looked like they had come from an antique store. There were two doors in the far end, one led to a dressing room while the other led to a bathroom.

"Other than the fact that this is Luna's room?"

"Who's—" I froze. My eyes immediately locked on Trish's. "Luna as in Alpha's wife?"

"Yep." She slid her hands into the back pockets of her pants. "I heard Ryker's mom was the last person to live here. His sister came here to clean it once a year but for the last five years or so she hasn't come here. She's the only person allowed to come in here."

So that was why the room had been locked for a while. Although I was still wondering why Ryker gave this room to me. A piece of information that Trish had just shared was finally registered in my brain. "Ryker has a sister?"

"Yeah. She's married to a business tycoon in the U.S." Trish scrunched her nose, seemingly giving it a thought for a moment. "I forgot his name but I remember it's the name of a season. Winters or something." She shook her head. "Anyway, yeah. I'm not sure what happened but I heard from Tati that it's been a while since she last visited."

"Seems like Tati knows a lot about what's going on around here," I commented.

Trish chuckled. "Yeah, she followed Dimka all the way here. She's a good servant."

"Dimka?"

"Dmitry. That's his nickname back home. Our nana still likes to call him that."

I nodded. "Then how about Ryker's brother?" I bent down, picked up a stack of my T-shirts, and walked toward the dressing room. "Does he have a wife? I mean when he was being the Alpha, his wife used this room, right?" I paused when I realized that Trish didn't follow me. I put the T-shirts into one of the drawers and then walked out of the dressing room. "What are you doing?"

"Ryker doesn't allow anyone to come here. Poor Tati nearly fainted when he asked her to clean it."

"Oh, come on." I rolled my eyes. "It's my room now. Feel free to come in."

"I'd rather not to. I'm okay with hanging out at the door." Trish shrugged then waved her hand in front of her face. "Anyway, as much as Alana would love to have this room, they haven't marked each other at that time."

"What did it have anything to do with Alana?" Then something clicked in the back of my mind. "Are you telling me that Alana was Ryker's brother's mate?!" I nearly shouted my last question but quickly lowered my voice, fully aware that Ryker's room was right in front of mine and Dmitry's was down the hall.

Trish winced. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything. It's none of my business." She tapped her mouth with her palm and groaned. "Damn. I thought you knew. Ryker is gonna be so pissed. He hates it when we bring up the past."