Owned By The Possessive Alpha, Bounded To My Mate novel Chapter 158

Chapter 158

Chapter 158

Lyra POV

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I said yes to an engagement and all the process that came with it. I didn’t say yes to a trip to Verona and spending the weekend in his house.

Marco had rung me up.” Come and see where you will be living when we get married.”

That was the offer and it was simply what it was. There was no family gathering or audience to put up a performance for.

I convinced myself going was the logical to do. Since I was getting married into the family, I might as well find out what I was getting myself into.

Verona was colder than I anticipated. As the car drove me into the estate, my expectations were of seeing a posh and opulent estate like I was accustomed to having grown up around wealth.

The house was a standard one that had visible signs of wear and tear that told its age. The house wasn’t trying to do anything.

Marco watched me take it in. “It’s smaller than you expected.”

“It’s not small.”

“But it smaller than what you had in mind.”

I didn’t have an answer for that and he led me into the house.

He showed me around without ceremony. It was just the two of us, no servant trailing behind us to inflate ego. We simply walked as I watched him move through the house like someone who lived in it and didn’t have the house for show.

He pointed to a room without stepping inside. “This was my grandfather’s study. Nobody uses it anymore but I keep meaning to.”

“Why don’t you?”

He shrugged. “Habit I guess. It has always been my father’s. Having it now doesn’t mean it belongs to me.”

I noticed what he said and what he didn’t. I observed the rooms he lingered and the ones he passed over. The way he spoke about the house made it clear this was no performance to impress his new wife.

This made him entirely unreadable than if he was at the negotiating table.

I stopped at the library before he could move past it.

The library was occupied with weathered shelves of old pack-law texts and documents that predated the alliance itself, I took one off the shelf without asking permission.

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Chapter 158

examined the cover. “You study this?”

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“It was the one of a few options I had growing up. There was no television till I was fourteen so I was more bored than curious.”

I read the epilogue of the book. “So this isn’t a hobby?”

“I don’t like it enough for it to be.”

I turned a page. The history meant a lot to him. Other children’s childhood had different things while growing up: toys, bicycles, he had these books.

Towards afternoon, I realized something that had slipped my mind: I stopped monitoring him.

I wasn’t tracking his expression or trying to make myself agreeable. I stopped trying to please him and wondered when it happened.

There was no family watching or judging. It was simply a man showing a woman his house.

I couldn’t say I felt safe; it was too soon to make a statement that big but I noticed that it was quite a while and I hadn’t checked where I was or searched for an exit.

Dinner was straightforward and simple. He had no staff bringing dishes on cue. It was just two of us at a large table that felt smaller than it should have.

I took a bite. “You didn’t have to bring me here.”

“I wanted you to see it before you decided anything else.”

“I’ve already decided.”

He cleaned his mouth. “No. You didn’t. You agreed. There is a difference.”

Just who the hell was this guy? I didn’t answer that because I had no idea what to say.

He set down his glass and looked at me directly. “What do you want?”

“I have told your family what I think about the alliance…”

His voice stayed even. “I’m not asking about the family. I’m asking what you want.

I opened my mouth to answer but nothing came out.

I thought about stability, protection and to insulate myself from the fall out of what I had done. They were all true and I could have said it a week ago but none of them answered his actual question.

I tried to think about something that had nothing to do with strategy. I thought about wanting things the way people wanted things without needing to justify it but I couldn’t find it.

“That’s a strange question,” I said finally.

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Chapter 158

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