The Rejected True Heiress (Liora) novel Chapter 96

Liora

We must have stood there for a full thirty seconds, all three of us, staring at each other like someone had hit pause on the world.

Callum’s hand was still on the door. His eyes flicked from me to Zane, back to me again, like he couldn’t quite figure out which one of us was the bigger problem.

I broke first.

“Why,” I said slowly turning to Zane, my voice cold and thin, “are we here?”

Zane, of course, was grinning ear to ear like this was all perfectly normal. “For a book,” he said smoothly. “And lunch. Did I forget to mention lunch?”

“Lunch?” Callum repeated, like the word was a personal insult. Then his gaze locked on me. “DATE?!”

I groaned, burying my face in my hands. “I hate everything about this. And, this isn’t a date,” I said through my fingers. “This is me being blackmailed into research.”

“Same thing,” Zane said cheerfully. “You’re in a dress, sort of, the jeans under are throwing me off, but I’m in a nice suit. Feels pretty date-adjacent to me.”

I dropped my hands and gave him a look sharp enough to cut glass. “Take me home. Or I’m walking.”

“The answers are inside,” Zane said, gesturing like he owned the place. “An old family volume. Might have the answers you’re looking for about transformation. But first—lox bagels.”

“You brought her here,” Callum said, incredulous, “for bagels?”

“Hey,” Zane said, unbothered, pushing past him inside. “Bagels and a book. I know how to woo a lady.”

“You can’t even spell woo,” Callum shot back.

“W-o-a-h,” Zane smirked.

Callum scoffed, “You’re actually the stupidest—”

“Both of you, stop,” I snapped, marching after them into the foyer. If I was going to survive this, I needed to keep moving before my brain caught up to the fact that I was now standing in Callum’s house. “I thought this was a ritual or something, Zane! Now we’re after a book?”

Zane shrugged, looking back. “I don’t know these things by heart. We better hope it’s in the book.”

“What book?!” Callum and I snapped.

Zane pursed his lips, “I know what it looks like, just not the name.”

We reached a massive set of double doors, and Zane threw them open with unnecessary flair. “Welcome,” he announced, “to THE Library. Second the the biggest library in the world, just after the Alpha King’s castle. But, we should find what we need here!”

Library was an understatement. It was a cathedral of books, floor-to-ceiling shelves, spiral staircases curling upward, sunlight pouring through tall windows.

But he was right, not as large as my Father’s/

Zane strode straight to one of the side shelves, already scanning titles. I stayed near the door, arms crossed.

Callum slowed as he came up beside me, an awkward pause stretching out between us. The faint echo of Zane’s boots clicking against the polished marble was the only sound in the library.

We both shifted our weight at the same time, and somehow that made the silence worse.

“So,” he said finally, his tone quiet but firm. “You’re been digging into wolfless records.”

I didn’t look at him. “And?”

“And why?”

“It’s none of your business,” I said, eyes still on Zane’s back as he drifted down the aisle like an annoying, blonde ghost.