Bound to My Step-brother

Chapter Three

Lila's POV

The restaurant was loud when we walked in. Then it wasn't.

Heads turned anyway. A couple of whispers I pretended not to hear. I kept my chin up the whole walk to the corner booth. Even though every step of it felt like crossing a stage I hadn't rehearsed for.

Ryker didn't seem bothered at all. He dropped into the seat across from me like he did this every day of his life. "They're staring."

"Let them." He picked up the menu without even glancing at it. "Staring never hurt anybody."

"Easy for you to say. You've had an audience your whole life."

That got me a smirk. "Fair point."

A waiter came and took our order. After that it was just the two of us. The noise of the room, and underneath the noise, everything we still hadn't said.

"So what do we do," I said, spinning my water glass in slow circles, "about the elders? The whole declare or reject thing?"

"Nothing. We don't go."

I blinked. "Just like that?"

"Just like that." He leaned back, arms crossed behind his head. "No summons. No ceremony. No standing in a room full of old men pretending we don't feel what we feel. They can't undo a bond once it's snapped, Lila. It already happened."

"Your father seems to think otherwise."

"My father thinks a lot of things."

I watched a bead of condensation slide down my glass and land on the tablecloth. "He hates me. I felt it the second I walked into that dining room of his."

"He doesn't hate you." His voice dropped a notch. "He hates what you represent. A bond he can't control, a scandal he didn't plan for."

"Somehow that's worse."

He just shrugged, though his eyes didn't leave mine. "Doesn't change anything for me."

The food showed up not long after. We ate without much talking, which surprised me, how easy the quiet was. A couple times I caught him watching me over his glass and he didn't bother pretending otherwise when I noticed. Nobody had ever looked at me like that. Like I wasn't something that needed managing.

Ten minutes later, our plates were half empty. I cleared my throat.

"Tell me about your mother. Victor's never once mentioned her."

Something in his face changed, just barely. "She died when I was six. Car accident or that's what I was told." He turned his fork over in his fingers without really looking at it. "Victor doesn't talk about her because talking about her means admitting he actually loved someone, before he started collecting bloodlines like they were assets on a spreadsheet."

"Ryker." I frowned at him. "Are you saying he doesn't love my mum?"

"I can't say. But what I'm sure of is that Dad does nothing for nothing. The marriage is tied to something big. Pack affairs."

I wanted to ask more questions regarding that. But I recalled mum was in love with Victor. If I found out something contrary and told her, she wouldn't believe me.

He set the fork down. "Anyway. I barely remember mum's voice anymore. Just bits. She used to hum while she cooked. That's about all that's left of her, for me."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Long time ago now." He looked up and, for the first time all day, actually smiled. "Your turn. Tell me about the town you grew up in. Before all this."

I found myself smiling back, a little, despite everything. "Small. Quiet. Everyone knew everyone, which sounds nice right up until you realize it means everyone knew your business before you did." I traced the rim of my glass with one finger. "My dad died when I was young, and honestly I don't remember much about him either. My mom raised me on her own after that. Worked two jobs some years. We didn't have a lot. But we had each other."

"Sounds better than growing up somewhere that felt like a corporate office," Ryker said.

A small smile tugged at corner of my lips. "I used to watch shows about houses like this one and think they looked like heaven." I glanced around the restaurant. At the students still sneaking looks in our direction. At the whole gleaming, complicated mess I'd landed in. "Now I'm not so sure."

"Heaven's overrated. Trust me. You were brave back there. With the fighting."

Heat crawled up my neck before I could stop it. I stared at my plate instead of him. "Didn't feel brave. Felt like I was drowning, honestly."

"It didn't look like it from where I was standing." And when I glanced up, his eyes had gone softer. I forgot how to breathe for a second.

Stop looking at me like that, I thought.

Though I didn't say it out loud. Truth was I wasn't sure I wanted him to stop. That scared me more than anything Victor had said in that office.

"Can I ask you something?" Anything to get us off that particular ledge. "In the forest, the vision. You said I shouldn't have been able to see that, since I'm not a wolf. What did you mean by my being suppressed?"

His expression turned careful like he was choosing each word before he let it out. "Memories don't usually move through the bond that fast. Not for someone who's still fully human. It's supposed to take months. Sometimes years, before a bonded pair can share something that deep." He looked at me the way you'd look at a puzzle with half the pieces missing. "You did it in one kiss. The first night we met. That's not normal, Lila. Not even close. I think your wolf is in there, but it's suppressed by some magic. That's the only thing that explains it."

"So what should I do?"

"We can find a mage to unlock it. But whatever you are, the elders aren't ready for it. Honestly, I'm not sure you are either. Not yet."

"That's comforting," I said flatly.

"Never said it would be."

A charming smile spread on his face.

We stayed a while longer after that. The restaurant emptied out slowly around us while our conversation drifted somewhere lighter. Favorite foods. The classes we both hated. The ridiculous curfew rules Aldric loved enforcing on everybody.

For a little while, it felt normal.