Chapter 317: Comparison.
Adrein.
They all insisted on seeing what I had that belonged to Maria.
The pressure in the room instantly became suffocating, all their eyes fixed on me expectantly as though I had no choice but to reveal it immediately. But how was I supposed to do that? How could I possibly pull out Maria’s underwear and show it to them so casually?
Just the thought alone nearly made me die of embarrassment.
I would rather the ground split open beneath my feet and swallow me whole than stand there exposing something so personal to a bunch of Alphas staring at me like hungry wolves. No matter how desperate the situation was, there had to be limits.
"Hurry up, Adrien!" Damien pressed again impatiently, his voice sharper this time. "Maria needs us."
His words only made my anxiety worse.
Davian was still standing close to me, far too close for comfort, his gaze locked onto mine as though he was trying to read every thought running through my head. That alone made it even harder to stay calm. One wrong expression and they would immediately know I was hiding something.
"Think, Adrien!" I said to myself internally, panic creeping deeper into my chest.
My mind raced frantically as I searched for a way out of this situation without exposing the truth. I needed something believable. Something convincing enough to stop their suspicion before they forced me to reveal what I actually had.
And almost immediately, an idea popped into my head.
Relief hit me so suddenly that I nearly sighed out loud.
"I wonder what you all actually believe I have," I said with a smirk, forcing confidence into my tone despite the tension twisting inside me. I tried to sound amused, as though their assumptions were ridiculous from the start.
"I was about to take her pillowcase..." I continued casually, shrugging lightly. "It’s not like it can be split."
I delivered the lie with as much seriousness as I could manage, praying none of them noticed the slight nervousness hidden underneath my words.
For a second, silence settled over them.
But then Aidan narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously.
"If that was the case, then why do you keep hesitating?" he asked, his stare piercing straight through me.
Damn it.
Of course he would question it.
For a brief moment, I froze internally, trying to quickly come up with another answer that wouldn’t expose me. Then the first thing that came to mind slipped out before I could overthink it.
"Because I want to keep her scent to myself," I blurted out.
And honestly...that wasn’t entirely a lie.
Part of me genuinely didn’t want them anywhere near Maria’s scent. The thought of them inhaling it, holding onto it, surrounding themselves with something so intimately connected to her—it irritated me more than I wanted to admit.
She was Maria.
And selfishly, I wanted that piece of her for myself alone.
"Whatever, Adrien. You better be telling the truth," Davian finally said after a moment, though suspicion still lingered in his expression.
He stepped backward at last, giving me enough room to breathe again before walking toward the bed. Without hesitation, he reached for the pillow and roughly pulled the pillowcase free.
"We’ll be rotating it," he added seriously. "To keep our senses elevated."
I watched him silently, trying my best to maintain a calm expression while inwardly thanking every possible force that my lie had actually worked.
Because if they had discovered the truth about what I was hiding...I would never hear the end of it.
We moved quickly after carefully taking in Maria’s scent, each of us silently committing it to memory as though our lives depended on it. The familiar trace of her fragrance lingered in the air, pulling at something deep inside me and sharpening every one of my senses.
There was no more time to waste.
The urgency in the atmosphere was overwhelming as we headed straight toward the stable. None of us spoke much anymore. The tension alone was enough to fill the silence between us. The moment we arrived, each of us grabbed a horse immediately, moving with practiced speed and precision.
I mounted mine without wasting a single second, gripping the reins tightly before compelling the horse forward.
Within moments, we were already riding hard through the path ahead, following the direction where Maria’s scent became stronger and clearer. Every trace of her pushed us further, urging us onward with growing desperation.
But the longer we rode, the more uneasy I became.
Something about the direction we were heading toward didn’t sit right with me at all. A strange feeling twisted inside my chest as realization slowly settled in.
We were heading toward the Lycan Prince’s territory.
My grip on the reins tightened instantly.
But why?
Why would Maria be taken there of all places?
The thought alone made my mind spiral with questions I couldn’t answer. None of this made sense. Maria had nothing to do with the Lycans. So why bring her there? Why risk crossing into such dangerous territory?
And then there was Vanessa.
How could she possibly team up with him?
The more I thought about it, the more disturbed I became. Vanessa hated Maria enough to hurt her, yes, but cooperating with the Lycan Prince was an entirely different matter. That wasn’t just reckless—it was madness.
What could she possibly gain from this?
What did he promise her in return for betraying us like this?
My expression darkened immediately at the thought.
He probably didn’t promise her... us, right?
The idea alone made me scoff bitterly.
Vanessa must have been incredibly stupid to believe she could trust someone like him.
No... not "must have."
She was stupid.
Completely stupid.
I couldn’t believe there was once a time when all of us had practically been obsessed with her, blindly chasing after her attention as though she was the most important person in the world. Thinking about it now only irritated me more.
What exactly did we even see in her?
The answer no longer existed in my mind.
Because when I compared her to Maria now, the difference was painfully obvious.
Maria had always been far better than Vanessa in every possible way.
Far kinder.
Far more genuine.
Far more worthy of the love and loyalty we had foolishly wasted elsewhere.
That realization settled heavily in my chest as the wind rushed violently against my face.
And with that thought firmly planted in my mind, I tightened my hold on the reins and compelled the horse to move even faster, desperate to reach Maria before it was too late.
