Surrogate for the Alpha Prince in a Coma novel Chapter 242

Chapter 242

Lillian’s POV

Gloria had some interesting insight, and a lot of speculation, but no idea where Teacher could have actually gone. After leaving her apartment, I was stumped again. Rather than wander around lost, I headed back to the palace, to the library there, hoping to research the Legendary Warrior. Maybe the textbooks would hold a clue, if not the

answer.

I sat in the library, a pile of books on the table in front of me. I seemed to be the only person in here at the moment, unless others were hidden in the stacks. Until a familiar face spotted me from the hallway and sauntered in, a grin on his face.

“There you are,” Benedict said. “I’ve been wondering where you’ve been hiding.”

“I’m not hiding,” I told him.

“Well, I doubt Lone Archer has been holed up in the library.”

“He’s in here.” I gestured toward the books.

“Interesting,” Ben said. He grabbed one of the books from the pile and checked the spine. “The First Werewolf Wars? This was over a hundred years ago.”

“Teacher isn’t all that he seems,” I said.

“How curious. Can I help?”

I wouldn’t turn down genuine help, not with how many texts there were to go through. The war of a hundred years ago wasn’t even the first reference to the Legendary Warrior. Just as Gloria had suggested, he had many names over the years, some more elaborate and glorious than others. Then he would just disappear for years, decades, once even, seemingly, a century.

Ben sat across from me and opened a book, but he didn’t spend much time looking at it. Instead, his gaze was on

me,

“Gods, you are so beautiful,” he said.

I blushed, more out of embarrassment than secret joy, “Don’t talk like that.”

“I’m just stating the obvious. You are like a work of art. It’s difficult not to appreciate you.”

“We are researching. This is important.”

“I’m not suggesting it isn’t,” Ben said. “But it’s also good to be alive. All work and no play makes-” He cut off abruptly whatever flirtation he had been about to utter.

I looked up and saw his gaze on my chest.

“Hey,” I snapped, raising my hands to more cover myself. I wasn’t wearing a low cut top or anything. He shouldn’t have anything to see – oh.

He wasn’t looking at my chest, but at my mother’s necklace that was peeking out from my collar.

“That’s a beautiful pendant,” he said, but his voice was different, not as overtly flirtatious as before.

“Do you recognize the symbol?” I asked.

1/3

+15 85hus Bonus

“Why would I?” he asked, finally lifting his gaze to my face again. He was hiding something, he had to be. But he was even more difficult to read than Grayson. Benedict could be purposefully obtuse, a trickster with his expressions and emotions. I could think he was being one thing, but he could be another instead.

I wasn’t going to let him get away with a lie, though. Not without some probing. “There’s a painting here, a Queen of old. She’s wearing a pendant with the same marking.”

Benedict frowned. “Show me.”

Standing, I led him between the stacks to where I had seen the painting. Only now, there was nothing hanging there. Evidence existed that something had once been there, the faintest difference between the paint it had covered and the paint around it that had been more exposed. But that wasn’t proof.

“It was here,” I said, confused.

Ben grinned at me. “If you wanted to get me alone back here, you only needed to ask. You didn’t have to play a ruse, though I do like games. I don’t mind.”

“It’s not like that,” I said, backing up. “And please, tone down the flirting, Ben. I don’t know what’s gotten into you. I’m not looking for a romantic partner. What I want is a friend.”

He looked at me then sighed. “I’m sorry. Now that you are back and single, I saw my chance. I’ve always held a torch for you, Lily, deep down. I thought…” He exhaled sharply. “I’m sorry. I will be what you need. I’ll tone it down and be a friend. But I ask, and I hope, that in the future perhaps you will consider me as more.”

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify