I raised an eyebrow, frowning as I folded my arms. “Really? You don’t think what the Oracle told us merits a conversation?”
“It does,” Liv said. “But right now, I’ve got some things I need to take care of. How about tomorrow? We can talk about it then.”
“Liv, I know this is a bit of a shock, but I think we should at least talk now. And the second we start pushing it off, the less likely that is to happen.”
“Well, apparently we’re going to have the rest of our lives to have whatever chat you want to have,” Liv said. “At the moment, though, I would rather not have this talk. So some other time. There’s no rush, right? We’re going to be mated whether we have the conversation or not.”
My frown deepened. It didn’t take a genius to know that she was hiding something.
“What’s going on, really?” I asked.
“What? What are you talking about? Nothing’s going on,” she tittered.
It was something about the look in her eye that tipped me off. I had no real evidence beyond her reluctance to talk, but I had the overwhelming certainty that there was something in her apartment she desperately didn’t want me to see.
For a wild moment, I wondered if it was another male, and a surge of jealousy I hadn’t expected slammed into me. My wolf snarled. If there were another man in her apartment, I would tear him to shreds.
“Is it a guy?” I asked.
Her jaw actually dropped at that, then her cheeks turned a brilliant pink. “What? No! Of course not.”
“Then why can’t I come in?”
She swallowed, then her features hardened. “I don’t have to justify myself to you,” she said. “We’re not mated yet. If I don’t want you in my apartment, then I don’t have to let you in.”
“Then come out here where we can talk about it,” I said. “This was a bit of a bombshell.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said.
I snarled, rubbing my face. I was trying to set things right here. I understood she might have reservations about what was going on, but she had to see I was making an effort here.
“Come on, Liv,” I growled. “I’m trying to make sure this works.”
“Of course it’s going to work,” she said. “The Oracle said it would. There’s nothing to worry about. Now, I need to take care of some things, so I’ll talk to you later.”
My eyes narrowed. I didn’t know what was going on with her, but I couldn’t take it any longer. I pushed my way into the apartment.
“Hey!” Liv’s eyes narrowed as she rounded on me. “You can’t just barge in here.”
“We need to talk about thisnow, Liv,” I snarled.
Her lips pursed. “I know we need to talk about it, Drake,” she said. “There’s a lot of planning and hashing out and details and all that stuff that we need to do, but right now—”
“I’m not talking about logistics,” I growled, cutting her off. “I’m talking about you and me. Because you can’t tell me you didn’t think about when we were kids when the Oracle came to talk to you.”
She shrugged. “It’s no big deal, really.” She waved her hand dismissively.
Folding my arms, I scowled. “I don’t believe you,” I said.
Huffing, her eyes flashed as she mirrored my pose. “Okay, in that case, if you won’t believe that, then can you at least believe that maybe I need some time to process the situation?” she said, a little bit of frustration creeping into her voice. “You’re right. It is a big deal. I’m sure we’ll be fine, but seeing you right now is too weird. I would rather talk after I’ve gotten used to the idea. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable ask, you know?”
For a moment, I almost took her word for it. Except something still felt off about it. Deep down, on some intuitive level, I knew she was hiding something. I just needed to figure out what.
It was then that I finally saw what Liv had been so desperate to hide, why she was so on edge, and why she hadn’t wanted me to come into her apartment.
A half-filled suitcase lay open on her bed, a shirt spilling over the lip while other clothes sat folded and waiting. One of the dresser drawers was wide open and completely empty. A second one looked as though it had been dug through extensively.
Turning back to Liv, I saw the briefest hint of alarm and guilt flicker across her face.
