FALLING FOR THE LYCAN BIKER: MY BESTFRIEND BROTHER

Chapter 76: SINCE I WAS SIXTEEN

Chapter 77

Lumi

My hands were shaking so hard against the leather of the steering wheel that I couldn’t even grip it properly.

My knuckles were stark white, my nails digging into the material just to give me something...anything...to anchor myself to.

A fool. That was what I was. A complete, desperate, pathetic fool.

I had let myself get swept up in the promises of a man who looked at me like I was the only thing holding him together.

I’d forgotten that he wasn’t mine and never will be. So stupid of me to think that, maybe I was important to him.

Victoria’s voice was still echoing inside my head.

The words felt like poison resting at the base of my throat, making it hard to swallow, hard to breathe.

I stared through the fogged-up glass of my driver’s side window, my chest rising and falling in shallow, panicked bursts as I watched the dark back of Ren’s leather jacket.

Victoria tilted her head, her red-painted lips curved into a cruel, triumphant little smirk.

She was waiting for him to crumble, I could see it in her eyes. She was waiting for him to start making excuses, to stutter, or try and cover his tracks like every other man who got caught playing two sides.

Ren didn’t make excuses. He didn’t even flinch.

Slowly, with a heavy, deliberate slowness that made my stomach drop, he took a step toward her.

The air around the lot seemed to plunge ten degrees in an instant. The man who had gently washed my hair hours ago, who had laughed softly under his breath while Theo swung from his thumb, vanished. In his place stood something cold, immovable, and terrifying.

He gave her the same look he gave to those men at the hospital.

"I told you once before, Victoria," he started slowly and deadly.

"And clearly, your ears didn’t work the first time." Victoria’s smirk faltered just a fraction, her icy eyes narrowing.

"Ren, don’t be ridiculous..."

"It is over between us," he cut her off.

"I want nothing to do with you. I want nothing to do with your family, or your father’s council. I was the one who made the mistake of choosing you to be my mate years ago. So right now, if the last time wasn’t clear enough for your head..."

He stepped directly into her space. His massive frame completely swallowed her up in shadow, his green eyes flashing with a raw, dangerous light that made my breath catch in my throat.

"I reject you, Victoria," Ren growled. The power behind the words vibrated straight through the frame of my car.

"I reject you as my mate. You are not fit to be one." A sharp, wet gasp tore out of Victoria’s mouth.

The color drained from her face so fast she looked like a corpse. Her hands flew straight to the center of her chest, clutching at the front of her expensive coat as if an invisible blade had just been driven straight between her ribs.

Her knees buckled slightly, her red-painted lips parting in a silent, agonizing shock. Tears of pure rage and humiliation immediately pooled in her eyes.

Ren didn’t reach out to catch her. He didn’t even look down as she stumbled backward into the dust. His face remained entirely blank, stone-cold, as if she were nothing more than trash blowing across the gravel.

He turned his back on her while she was still fighting for air, clutching her sternum in the dirt.

He pulled my car door open, looked at me, his eyes dark and entirely unreadable.

"Go pick up Theo," he said softly. His voice was remarkably steady, though his jaw was set like granite.

My heart was hammering against my ribs, I stared up at him, my stomach churned into knots.

A hot, bitter wave of anger was rising up my spine.

Does he think I’m stupid? Does he expect me to just brush this off, pick up my son, and pretend my life isn’t falling apart?

"Lumi," Ren murmured, noticing the dark spark in my eyes. He gripped the top frame of the door, leaning down slightly so his shadow fell over me.

"We are adults. We don’t need to cause a scene out here in a daycare lot. Go get Theo. We’ll go home, and we’ll talk about this properly. Go." I clamped my mouth shut so tight my teeth hurt.

I wanted to scream at him, to hit his chest and demand he tells me every single thing right now.

But he was right about one thing, Theo was inside those doors, completely innocent, and I would rather die than let him walk into the middle of this disaster.

Without saying a word, I clicked my seatbelt loose, pushed past his broad shoulder, and walked straight toward the daycare doors.

I didn’t turn my head to look at Victoria, who was stumbling toward her car, her expensive heels dragging in the dirt as she held her chest. I blocked her out entirely.

Five minutes later, I walked back out into the cool air holding Theo’s small, warm hand in mine.

He was happily babbling, his small feet stomping over the walkway as he tried to walk on the lines.

Victoria was gone. The lot was quiet again, save for the hum of Ren’s truck sitting in the corner.

I strapped Theo into his car seat in the back, climbed into the driver’s seat, and started the engine.

Ren got into his and drove behind me.

The silence in the apartment was heavy enough to suffocate.

I used Theo as my shield. I washed his hands, warmed up his dinner, and sat on the edge of his small bed while he ate his chicken nuggets and dipped them in ketchup.

Ren stayed out in the main room at first, but when Theo yelled out, "Uncle Ren, look at my truck!" He came in quietly.

He didn’t make a big deal of it. He just crouched down by the side of the bed, his huge frame looking ridiculous next to the tiny wooden frame, and listened to Theo go on and on about his day.

He spoke to Theo with that same calm, low-pitched patience, his large hand resting gently on the edge of the mattress.

I couldn’t look at him. Every time my eyes accidentally caught his broad shoulders or the dark stubble along his jaw, Victoria’s words hissed in my ears.

When Theo’s eyes finally grew heavy and his small breath smoothed out into the steady rhythm of sleep, I tucked his blanket around his shoulders, kissed his warm forehead, and slipped out of the room, leaving the door cracked just an inch.

The living room was dim, lit only by the low yellow light of the floor lamp near the couch.

Ren was waiting for me. He had taken off his leather jacket, standing there in his gray t-shirt with his arms folded across his chest.

He looked exhausted, the shadows under his eyes darker than usual, but his posture was straight.

"Don’t you think it’s time we talk?" he asked quietly, his voice cutting clean through the quiet of the room.

I stopped a few feet away from him, pulling my arms tightly around my waist. A dry, humorless laugh bubbled up in my throat before I could stop it.

"I don’t have anything to say to you, Ren. Not a single thing." He took a slow, heavy step forward.

"Lumi, please..."

"Please what?" I snapped, stepping backward immediately. My voice a sharp, desperate whisper, tight with the effort of keeping it low so I wouldn’t wake my son.

"What are you going to do now? Lie to me? Because from where I’m standing, that seems to be the only thing you’re actually good at."

Ren stopped dead in his tracks. A flick of genuine, sharp pain crossed his features, his dark eyebrows pulling together.

"Lie to you? What the hell have I lied to you about? I’ve never lied to you and don’t plan to start now. Tell me, what do you want me to explain and I will."

"How about you try starting with the truth!" Tears of pure anger flushed hot behind my eyes, blurring the sight of his face.

"What she said out there... are you going to look me in the eye right now and tell me she made it all up? That you didn’t use me? That I’m not just some easy distraction to throw in your ex-fiancé’s face because she cheated on you?"

Ren stared at me. His mouth opened slightly, then shut, the raw weight of my words landing like a blow to his throat.

The hard, controlled Alpha mask he wore completely cracked, leaving his eyes wide and exposed.

"Is that what you think?" he asked, his voice dropping into a rough, jagged rasp. "You listened to her for two minutes... and you decided I was using you?"

"Why shouldn’t I?" I demanded, my chest heaving beneath my cream blazer.

"You hid her from the very beginning! You hid your whole life! And now I’m supposed to just stand here, smile, and take your word for it?"

"You don’t trust me," It wasn’t a question. It was a brutal realization that seemed to hollow out his chest right in front of me.

"How can I?" I whispered, my voice breaking. "How can I trust a man who looks at me and sees a quick fix for his own revenge?"

Ren stared at me for three long, agonizing seconds. Then, he let out a low, ragged breath and closed the distance between us in two massive strides.

I flinched, stepping back until my spine hit the cold wall beside the hallway, but he didn’t grab me. He didn’t touch me at all.

He just planted one heavy hand on the wall beside my head, trapping me in his shadow, his heat washing over me like a furnace.

"I don’t give a damn about Victoria," he said, his green eyes burning with an intensity so terrifyingly raw it made my heart stop.

"I haven’t cared about her in years. I didn’t run to you to get back at her, Lumi. I didn’t touch you this morning because I was angry at someone else. I touched you because I’ve been losing my fucking mind waiting for you to look at me." I pressed myself harder against the wall, my throat tight.

"Ren..."

"No, you’re going to listen to me now," he growled, lent down until his mouth was inches from mine, his breath hot against my cheek.

"You think this is new? You think I just woke up three months ago, saw my sister’s friend, and thought you were convenient?" I blinked, stunned by the venom and grief in his voice.

"I loved you before I even knew what love meant! Right from when I was still young." I blinked not understanding what he meant.

"I have loved you since I was sixteen years old, Lumi," he whispered.

What...