I was halfway unpacking when I heard someone approaching.
"Wow, it's a big room, huh?"
I looked up and saw Trish standing by the door. I had left the door and window opened to air the room since it smelt like my attic here. So fuggy, almost as if not until today, this room had never been opened. This may be exactly what had happened considering Dmitry had said that Alana had never been here. I wanted to chastise myself for asking for it in the first place.
"Yeah." I stood to stretch my legs. "Did people use this room for a storage room or something? It smells odd."
To my surprise, Trish laughed, shaking her head as she did so. "You're funny. I like you." Then when she realized that I hadn't been joking, she cleared her throat. "Oh, you're being serious. Okay, well, trust me, no one would dare to use this room as a storage room."
"Why's that?" I let my eyes travel around the spacious room, taking in the plainly colored walls, the four-poster bed, the two nightstands, and the dressing table that looked like they had come from an antique store. There were two doors in the far end, one led to a dressing room while the other led to a bathroom.
"Other than the fact that this is Luna's room?"
"Who's—" I froze. My eyes immediately locked on Trish's. "Luna as in Alpha's wife?"
"Yep." She slid her hands into the back pockets of her pants. "I heard Ryker's mom was the last person to live here. His sister came here to clean it once a year but for the last five years or so she hasn't come here. She's the only person allowed to come in here."
So that was why the room had been locked for a while. Although I was still wondering why Ryker gave this room to me. A piece of information that Trish had just shared was finally registered in my brain. "Ryker has a sister?"
"Yeah. She's married to a business tycoon in the U.S." Trish scrunched her nose, seemingly giving it a thought for a moment. "I forgot his name but I remember it's the name of a season. Winters or something." She shook her head. "Anyway, yeah. I'm not sure what happened but I heard from Tati that it's been a while since she last visited."
"Seems like Tati knows a lot about what's going on around here," I commented.
Trish chuckled. "Yeah, she followed Dimka all the way here. She's a good servant."
"Dimka?"
"Dmitry. That's his nickname back home. Our nana still likes to call him that."
I nodded. "Then how about Ryker's brother?" I bent down, picked up a stack of my T-shirts, and walked toward the dressing room. "Does he have a wife? I mean when he was being the Alpha, his wife used this room, right?" I paused when I realized that Trish didn't follow me. I put the T-shirts into one of the drawers and then walked out of the dressing room. "What are you doing?"
"Ryker doesn't allow anyone to come here. Poor Tati nearly fainted when he asked her to clean it."
"Oh, come on." I rolled my eyes. "It's my room now. Feel free to come in."
"I'd rather not to. I'm okay with hanging out at the door." Trish shrugged then waved her hand in front of her face. "Anyway, as much as Alana would love to have this room, they haven't marked each other at that time."
"What did it have anything to do with Alana?" Then something clicked in the back of my mind. "Are you telling me that Alana was Ryker's brother's mate?!" I nearly shouted my last question but quickly lowered my voice, fully aware that Ryker's room was right in front of mine and Dmitry's was down the hall.
Trish winced. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything. It's none of my business." She tapped her mouth with her palm and groaned. "Damn. I thought you knew. Ryker is gonna be so pissed. He hates it when we bring up the past."
"I didn't," I answered truthfully. "But what happened with Ryker's brother though? I mean, what happened to him and Alana? Did he leave because he found out that Alana fell for his brother?"
"Look, Xyrra, I really like it here and I don't want to have any beef with Ryker." She shook her head, taking a step back. "I can't tell you more than I already did."
"Hey, that's alright." I tried my best to hide my disappointment. "You don't have to. I will ask Ryker if I want to know something, okay?"
Hearing what I said, Trish finally calmed down a little. "So, why don't you tell me about this Halloween party? What is it like?"
"More or less like a frat party, to be honest." Trish grinned, showing her perfect white teeth. "Though I have never been to college before. But most of the young people will come, the kids usually just go door to door, asking for candies. The elderly would go to Misha's house." Then as if she knew I had no idea who Misha was, she added, "Misha is Ryker's grandmother. She still lives here."
I wanted to ask about his grandfather but figured that it might be best to let Trish do all the talking, and tell me things that she was comfortable telling. "That sounds great. I've only been to a Halloween party once." It had been Cindy's and given our current situation, it was unlikely she would invite me anytime soon.
"We need a killer costume for you." Trish wiggled her eyebrows, her lips formed a mischievous smile. "We should tell the boys who's the boss."
I laughed in return as I was not sure I wanted to attract anyone's attention to me. Not when I still had so many questions about my mom's death, my dad's missing, and what exactly had happened ten years ago.
* * *
Surprisingly enough, for the next two days, Ryker seemed to try to keep me away from Trish. There was this one time when I was in the kitchen with Trish and Tatiana. I had just thanked Tati for what she had done with the room and we were talking about one of the Russian delicacies called 'Pirozhki' — little baked or fried puff pastries are packed full of potatoes, meat, cabbage, or cheese when Ryker suddenly came in and informed Trish that Dmitry has been looking for her.
Tati and I continued to talk about food. I shared with her some of the Italian dishes that my dad usually cooked for me and in return, she informed me of Dmitry and Ryker's favorite dishes. She specifically wanted me to learn how to make 'Syrniki', which was made of quark (cottage cheese), eggs, and flour. She seemed to think that I would truly become their Luna especially since Ryker had given me Luna's bedroom. It would be a hurdle to explain to her that I only lived here temporarily, so I decided to leave it be.
"It is crispy and golden on the outside and warm and creamy on the inside," explained Tatiana in a thick Russian accent. Her eyes sparkled, showing her passion for cooking. "The Alpha really loves it. He always eats more than a dozen in one seating."
"I do," said Ryker with a grin. "And it is a very flexible dish too. It tastes good when you combine it with sour cream, jam, honey, or fresh berries." He stopped when he was next to me. His left hip brushed my waist and I tried my best to keep still, pretending that I had not noticed.
"Da, da." Tati nodded in excitement. "I remember what my mother once told me: a well-fed husband is a happy husband."
Ryker laughed and casually put his arms around my shoulders while I could only offer a small smile.
That was not the only time he had tried to keep me away from Trish. This evening, Trish had offered to drive me to my house when I told her that I needed to go back to the city to meet Eros. I decided that I would give my best friend a visit especially after I had heard from Davina that he'd had a fight with Crystal two days ago. I was a little surprised that Davina had already known this before I did especially since I was supposed to be his best friend. After persuading him through numerous text messages, Eros finally agreed and said that he would meet me at my house. I needed to grab a few things too anyway so the arrangement was made.
"I can drive you," said Ryker once he had given Trish some task at the library or something.
I did not want him to, especially since I wanted to rehash my revenge plan with Eros. Thankfully, Dmitry, who was walking by with an iPad in his hand, stopped and said, "No, you can not. We have a pack meeting in thirty minutes."
Ryker rolled his eyes. "You guys discuss it first. I'll come fashionably late."
"You can not. You are the Alpha, the meeting will not start until we have you in the room."
Ryker let out an annoyed groan and I quickly said, "It's fine. I can get there myself."
"Be careful," said Ryker, his silver eyes were filled with worries.
I gave him a small nod before I walked to my bike. I lifted my leg up and over the leather seat. I honestly could not wait to meet Eros and lay all my plans out to him. This would be a perfect way to finally get retribution!
* * *
Surprise, surprise~ Alana turned out to be Ryker's brother's mate! What do you think actually happened?
P.S. please give this story a vote if you like it thus far! That would help me so much!