Chapter 25: TWENTY-FIVE | DD

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE | DD

ASPEN

I walked out of the room without a second explanation, I had important things to do. I had nothing to do, but I wasn't going to sit for a double date with those two and pretend everything was perfectly fine.

When I walked back into the room, all the hairs on my neck stood up. I looked around, but everything was the same way we left it. Only that it felt like someone else was in the room.

I stayed still to pick up anything that could give away the person's presence, even if it was a shallow breath, but I felt nothing. I shrugged it off, hoping that it was nothing but my paranoia creeping in.

But when I sat on my bed, the reflection of the moon creeping into the room drew my attention to something on my bed. It was a piece of paper folded neatly and placed right where it would be visible enough for anyone to easily spot it.

I knew I hadn't put anything there, which means that my earlier suspicion had been correct. Someone had come in here when I was away. But who could that be? And what could they want? Had my secret been leaked and someone was threatening me? I had so many questions, and I knew the paper contained the answers I needed, but fear held me back from checking it.

“What are you doing?” A voice came from the back.

A scream rippled out of me and I grabbed the nearest thing I could and flung it at the person, thinking it was the intruder. It was only Ronan, and he was looking at me like I'd lost my mind.

“What is wrong with you?” He chuckled, walking over to the room and picking up the lamp I had tossed at him. “You look like you've seen a ghost.”

“Someone was in here,” I said, looking around to make sure the person wasn't lingering around, watching us.

“That's impossible. Someone can't sneak into this place without getting spotted. The academy is heavily guarded.”

I ran my hand through my head, feeling my heartbeat accelerate. “Well, someone got in here. And he or she left a letter.” I almost yelled at him.

I had this feeling in my gut, that things were about to get much more complicated than they already were. Something told me that when I opened that letter, I wouldn't be able to withstand the information it would contain.

“What’s in it?” He walked over to the bed, taking the letter, but I hurriedly snatched it away from him.

“I don't know, and I think it's best I… we are left in the dark. Maybe that way, we can avoid it.”

My voice was shaky, breaking, and unsure. I wasn't even sure of my own decisions.

“We both know that's impossible, dear. We actually have to check it to know the next step to take.”

He tried to snatch the letter off my hands, but I hid it behind my back. I wasn't going to let him take it, no matter what.

After a few failed attempts at collecting it from me, he got fed up, took both my hands, and pinned them together behind my back.

Somewhere, the fear and tension I had been feeling had faded away, and I felt nothing but peace and joy, even though my world was probably burning down right now.

“We have to check what the letter says.” His eyes weren't on me when he spoke; they were locked firmly on my lips.

Mesmerized, I could do nothing but gaze into his eyes. How was I so lucky to get mated to someone as good-looking as Ronan? He was literally a Greek god.

“Stop staring at me like that. I can't resist when you look at me that way.” He whispered, breathless, eyes hooded.

“How am I looking at you?” Subconsciously, I licked my lips, and his eyes focused on them in an instant.

He didn't respond; he slowly moved towards me until his lips were only a few inches away from mine. I held my breath, closing my eyes and waiting for his next move. I wanted him to kiss me—no, I needed him to kiss me. But he didn't.

When he let go of me with a sigh, I blinked in shock. I wasn't expecting him to resist kissing me. “Why did you do that?” I couldn't help but ask.

“Why did I do what?” He asked, his eyes landing everywhere but my face. It was clear that he was avoiding me.

“Why didn't you k—” I stopped myself from saying the words, realizing how stupid they sounded.

He had a girlfriend who just happened to be my new best friend, and I was shamelessly throwing myself at him and acting like he was wrong for not kissing me.

“What if the letter contains something we can't control? Maybe information that could ruin all we've worked for?” I changed the subject, my cheeks flushing in embarrassment.

Ronan moved towards me in slow, deliberate steps, backing me up until I fell on the bed and he was hovering over me. “Why did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Why did you change the subject about us? Why did you stop me from telling Rachel that we are mates? Why are you hiding the truth from her?”

His questions were like bullets straight to my chest, and I dodged them with ease, knowing that the answer would cause my chest to bleed.

How do I tell him about my fear? The pain I feel? How do I bare my heart to the man that would end up choosing someone else over me… as he should.

“Let's drop it. We have more pending issues to deal with.” I ripped the letter open to take his attention off the discussion.

It worked, but I knew that sooner or later, I would have to face the truth and tell him the real reason I acted that way. But until then, I wasn't going to think about it.

The handwriting in the letter was rough and scattered, as if the person who wrote it was in a hurry to avoid being caught. Which meant that the person wasn't meant to be writing to me in the first place.

All colour drained from my face when I read the contents of the letter. I trembled, crumbling it in my fist, a scream threatening to escape my lips.

“What’s wrong, Aspen? What's in the letter?”

Ronan forced the paper out of my hands when I didn't give him a response and read the contents of it.

“HELP! HELP ME ASPEN MORGAN.”

DD.