Owned By The Possessive Alpha, Bounded To My Mate novel Chapter 72

Chapter 72

Chapter 72

LYRA

Dante called at eight in the morning.

I had been awake since six, which was becoming a pattern I wasn’t going to examine closely before coffee.

+20 Free Coins

I answered Dante’s call because not answering it was not actually an option, which was something understood about my brother that I had never needed to articulaté.

“Where are you?” he said.

“Hotel,” I said. “I’m fine.”

“I didn’t ask if you were fine.” His voice was even, which was more concerning than if it had beert sharp. “Come home today.”

“Dante-”

“Today, Lyra.” A pause. “I’m not asking.”

I looked at the cold coffee. “Mum and Dad want me to meet Marco Marchetti.”

“I know.”

“I’m not getting married to someone I don’t know because it’s convenient.”

“That’s a conversation for when you’re home.” His voice hadn’t changed register. “What I’m telling you now is that everything you’ve been doing from that hotel room-whatever you and Cyrus have been discussing-stops. You come home, you behave, and you give this situation time to breathe.”

I said nothing.

“The Kellerman deal is still paused,” he said. “The Harmon contract is under review. I have been managing consequences you created while also managing everything else this family requires, and I have done it without once saying to you what I could say.” A pause that had weight in it. “I need you to understand that my patience is a resource you have been spending, and it is not unlimited.”

The room was very quiet.

“I’ll come home today,” I said.

“Good.” He ended the call.

I sat with the phone in my hand for a moment and thought about the difference between my parents telling me to come home and Dante telling me to come home. My parents could be managed and worn down. Dante didn’t wear down. He simply waited with the particular patience of someone who knew they would eventually be obeyed and was giving you the opportunity to arrive there yourself rather than being brought there.

I packed my bag.

1/4

Chapter 72

+20 Free Coins

The house felt different when I came back.

My mother met me in the entrance hall.

She looked at me with the expression that had replaced her previous expressions over the past few weeks-not the warm disappointment she usually managed, or the patient frustration. Something more tired than either:

“You’re back,” she said.

“I’m back,” I said.

“Your father wants to speak to you this afternoon. The Marchetti meeting is Thursday.”

I kept my expression neutral. “Alright.”

She studied me for a moment. “Are you going to be difficult about Thursday?”

“I said alright.”

She seemed to decide that this was sufficient for now and moved toward the kitchen, and I took my bag upstairs and sat on the edge of my bed and thought about what Dante had said.

Whatever you and Cyrus have been discussing-stops.

He didn’t know what we’d been discussing. He couldn’t-Cyrus and had been careful about channels. But he knew the shape of it, the way he always knew the shape of things, and the warning was accurate regardless of the specifics.

Coming home was practical. Any move against Denise made from the position of someone who had recently been jailed, recently caused a business incident, and was currently the named source of two paused contracts would trace back too cleanly. I was the obvious suspect for anything that happened to Denise right now. The obvious suspect was the ineffective one.

Distance was not defeat. Distance was the time required for other things to develop.

I was going to be the good daughter for a while.

Elena came in the afternoon.

I heard her voice downstairs and took a moment before going down, the time required to put on the right version of myself.

She was in the sitting room with tea when I came in, and she stood and hugged me with the genuine warmth of someone who had always liked me more than I probably deserved.

“Lyra.” She held me at arm’s length and looked at me with the careful eyes that were always doing more assessment than they appeared to. “You look tired.”

“I’ve had a difficult few weeks,” I said.

“I know.” She sat back down and I sat across from her. “I wanted to come earlier but I thought you might need space.”

“You were probably right.”

2/4

Chapter 72

=

+20 Free Coins

She looked at me with the expression she used when she had something to say and was working out the most useful shape for it. Elena had always been like this-she processed before she delivered, which was one of the things that made her easy to be around and occasionally made ber difficult to manage when you needed a quick read.

“I’ve been thinking,” she said, “about Marco Marchetti.”

I waited.

“His family have been allies of ours since before our parents took over their respective positions,” she said. “I’ve met Marco twice. He’s-” She paused. “He’s a serious person. Not unkind. He has strong opinions about things but he listens.”

“You’re advocating for the match,” I said.

“I’m telling you what I know about him.” She held my gaze. “I’m not going to tell you what to decide. But I think-” Another pause. “I think sometimes what looks like being sent away is actually being given a door.”

I looked at her.

“You’ve been fighting very hard for a very long time,” she said. “Against Denise, against the situation, against-” She stopped. “Against a lot of things. Sometimes a different city and a different context is not punishment. Sometimes it’s just different.”

I was quiet for a moment..

Elena didn’t know what I knew. She didn’t know the shape of what I’d been planning in Cyrus’s hotel room, and she didn’t know about Dante and Denise, or if she suspected she had decided to hold it in the careful way she held things she wasn’t yet ready to act on.

What she was doing right now was straightforward and genuine: she had come to see me because she cared about me, and she was telling me what she thought in the honest, measured way she always told people things.

I could work with this.

“Tell me more about Marco,” I said.

She looked slightly surprised-not dramatically, but the small adjustment of someone who had expected more resistance.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify