The Rejected True Heiress (Liora and Callum) novel Chapter 362

Callum’s POV

Liora’s door clicked shut behind her. I stood there for a long moment in the darkness, smiling like a fool.

It had been a good night. Better than good, actually. I hadn’t planned on the concert going the way it did—hadn’t planned on a lot of things going the way they had over the past week—but standing there in the quiet of the empty corridor, I found that I didn’t regret any of it.

And she wanted a third date.

Maybe, just maybe, that meant that we could start to repair what had been broken.

Still smiling, I turned to head to my room. Just then, I noticed a slip of paper on the floor by Liora’s door, right where she had bee nstanding. Curious, I bent down and picked it up, unfolding it.

It was a list. On it were names that I recognized immediately—sons of the wealthiest and most powerful Alphas across the packs. Not just anyone, either. The kind of names that got mentioned in the same breath as territory holdings and pack alliances. Old money. Real power.

I read through the whole thing slowly, then read it again, because the first time didn’t fully make sense to me.

What was Liora doing with a list like this?

My mind went straight to our dates. I thought about the first date, when she had let me kiss her. I thought about tonight and the way she’d danced with me like her hips belonged in my hands. I thought about how she’d said yes to a third date without hesitating.

I looked down at the list again. Something cold settled in my chest as the implications swept over me. I didn’t know what this list was for, exactly, but I could put two and two together, and it made me sick.

Had I just been a convenient option for her? The son of a wealthy family, access to a social class that she had previously never been a part of?

The knock came before I could decide what to do. I sat up abruptly, opening my mouth to call out, but it opened before I could speak. It wasn’t Liora who stepped into the room, but Bianca.

“Hey.” She gripped the door with one hand and furrowed her brow. “You okay? I heard your door slam.”

My jaw tightened. “I’m fine,” I said.

“I know you, Callum.” She stepped fully into the room and held something up. It was a bottle of expensive liquor. “I know you were out with Liora tonight, and no one comes back from a good date making sounds like that.”

I stared at Bianca, then at the bottle. My instincts told me to send her away. I almost did. But she shut the door behind her with her foot and smiled at me, and I just…