Naomi’s pov :
I settled deeper into the bench, the cool night air brushing my skin like a whisper. I stayed silent without answering.
Lucy's energy was infectious, bubbly without being overwhelming, her laugh light and genuine as she rambled about her disastrous blind date last month.
"And then he pulls out a coin collection! Like, actual coins from the 1800s. I faked a migraine and bolted." She giggled, tossing her hair back, and I found myself chuckling too, the sound foreign after days of tension in this mansion.
She was easy to talk to, surprisingly. Better than dealing with Elias's brooding silence or his cousin's—wait, she was his cousin, but somehow warmer, less like the cold alphas I'd known. No judgment in her eyes, just curiosity. For a moment, I forgot the charade,
