Chapter 84

84 Stop Lying To Me

CRASH

Ronan and Lucien groaned amidst the broken bed. Being the one on the top, Ronan was entirely unharmed. As soon as he got on his feet first, he pulled Lucien up and examined him.

“Lulu, are you okay? Are you hurt?”

Lucien shook his head.

“WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE???”

The door opened with a bang and a very unhappy nurse — the same one who threw Ronan and Kinnon out for fighting inside a hospital ward — came in. When she saw what remained from the hospital bed in the infirmary, she almost lost it.

“What have you two done!” She howled in distress.

The nurse pushed both men aside to look at the ruins in disbelief. The poor bed! It had served countless patients in the hospital. To be destroyed in such a horrible way!

“We didn’t do anything, it just broke,” Ronan lied without batting an eyelid.

.....

Lucien shot him a glare, but he too was unwilling to tell the nurse that they had been rocking the bed hard and exhausted its capacity.

Unfortunately, the thick pheromones that permeated the room did not help their case.

“LIAR!” The nurse snapped, calling them out on Ronan’s lie.

Not wanting to argue further, Ronan dragged Lucien out of the infirmary before they were thrown out of the hospital for real.

Once they went out to an empty corridor, though, Lucien pulled his hand free from Ronan’s grip.

Ronan turned around and saw Lucien who stood just two steps away with his head lowered in distress.

“Lulu?”

Ronan held out his hand to caress Lucien’s hair, but before his fingers even sank into the tangles of the red-blond hair, the man already moved away from him.

“I am sorry,” Lucien said. “It was a mistake. I got carried away.”

Ronan’s face turned cold.

A mistake?

He grabbed at Lucien’s upper arm and yanked him upward, forcing the latter to look up at him.

“How so?”

As Lucien’s heart hardened, so did his gaze. He looked Ronan straight in the eyes and lied.

“I do not feel the same way about you.”

Ronan chuckled, not from amusement but irritation.

“You liar,” he called him out.

Lucien smirked.

“If I love you, I would not have picked Kinnon over you,” he taunted.

“If I loved you, I would not have broken up with you in the first place.”

The vein in Ronan’s temple twitched. Really. Lucien was so determined to sever their relations that he literally pulled out all the stops. He knew how to hurt Ronan, and he used all the weapons that he had just to drive Ronan away.

Relief mixed with pain spread in Lucien’s heart when he saw the hurt in Ronan’s eyes. As always, it was easy to hurt Ronan, to drive the man away.

“Goodbye, Mr. Silverback,” Lucien said before he turned to leave.

He had barely walked away when a pair of arms wrapped themselves around his body and his back was pressed against a broad, strong, and warm chest. Ronan’s voice was steady when he spoke in a low voice.

“Stop lying to me, I beg you.”

“I did not lie,” Lucien said.

“Liar,” Ronan whispered.

“Ronan, I...”

“I don’t care what you say. You are dishonest with your words. Only your body and your wolf are honest.”

Lucien closed his eyes with a sigh.

“I am not going to listen to you again. I wish I never did.”

The Alpha was naturally referring to their breakup from seven years ago. On drunken nights when Ronan lay awake on the bed, with or without a naked body on his bed, he always wondered whether things would be different if he had not listened to Lucien.

When Lucien spoke about the rejection, what if Ronan had said no?

What if Ronan had insisted on pursuing Lucien?

Would things have been different?

Would his wretched father let go of Clearwater Finance because Ronan was so persistent?

Maybe Ronan could even help the Silent Walkers Pack using his mother’s resources. Or his own.

Anything.

Anything just to keep the beautiful boy from that time in his arms, in his bed, his limbs entangled with his own as they drank from each other’s fountain of love.

Lucien sighed in exasperation when he could not break free from Ronan’s grip.

“You don’t know the truth,” he said, cursing at his hoarse voice that was brimming with suppressed emotions.

Lucien cleared his throat.

“You don’t really know how I feel about you.”

“Oh, I do,” the Alpha answered.

Lucien started to get annoyed.

“You don’t,” he insisted.

“I do,” the man behind Lucien refused to give in.

“Ronan, you...”

Lucien roared in distress.

“Believe what you want, now let me go.”

Whether Ronan believed him or not, it did not matter. Lucien got rid of him once. He could do it all over again.

As long as he maintained his distance from the man, he would be able to persevere.

Until Ronan gave up for good.

Until he was properly married.

Until he had a family of his own.

Lucien’s eyes started to sting, so he rubbed at them. Some wetness stuck to his fingers.

Until Ronan became a respectable Alpha. Just like they all wanted him to be.

Lucien closed his eyes while tilting his head upward, striving to prevent the hot tears from falling.

A soft sigh escaped Ronan.

“If you are so sure about not liking me, then why are you crying?” The Alpha asked.

“I am not crying,” Lucien snapped. Only for his tears to fall for real.

Damn it.

Lucien wanted to curse at everyone and everything. He quickly wiped his tears away, but Ronan already saw them.

The Alpha turned Lucien around and looked at the latter’s tear-streaked face. Although Lucien’s face was full of indignation, the tears were proof of his anguish.

Ronan did not like it when Lucien cried. Unless of course, it was Ronan who made him cry.

Ronan pulled Lucien close and planted a soft kiss on the man’s lips.

“You love me,” he decided.