CHAPTER 231: CHAPTER 231 - [K] ? ... ?!

***[Flashback POV: Kyrie ’Not Other People’ Voss]***

I still felt that strange disconnection from my wolf. Intentionally made in a way I didn’t know I could. But it had left me so weakened after... I shake my head slightly to clear it again, and I feel her hand tighten on my wrist.

Like I might be the one to run away. But, I managed to refuse its strongest attempts ever. To get me to mark her. So, I don’t regret that I feel like this right now.

Just like I did not always agree with its thoughts that showing might will fix everything, I do not agree that letting her come around to me later after forcing it upon her is correct. At times it only knows to take or do what it wants.

However, it needs to learn that what we want is only half the importance. What she wants is the other half. And for now?

Citra’s fingers were still wrapped around my wrist.

A restriction that I didn’t want to stress and snap.

Even if I wished she would just hold my hand instead.

...I have no idea what she wants.

"What happens now? Between us, I mean."

She didn’t slow her pace and didn’t look over at me. So terse in my attempts to talk so far, even as questions like the one I just let out burned in my chest.

I’m not sure what I expected, because her being quiet for so long feels right. The intimacy we’d shared had been... but the way she’d pulled away, even if she returned to look after me leaves me more and more uncertain what to do.

"...Now we go back to the city."

"That’s not what I’m asking."

Feeling a bit petulant when I whisper this, I can hear the same in her tone when she responds.

"I know what you’re asking."

We walked in silence until we reached the parking lot of the park. It felt like an end when I saw my white SUV waiting. Looking so absurdly like a return to ’normal’ after this night. So I tried again.

"I just... I need to understand what to do. What you want from me. From this."

"For the moment, I want you to drive me somewhere."

Her tone that made it clear the conversation was over... for now. Citra released my wrist as we approached, walking around to the passenger side as if she had no belief that I would refuse her.

...I unlocked the doors and slid behind the wheel, watching as she settled into the seat beside me. Trying not so show how happy I was at this. Especially because her posture was different now - alert, and almost businesslike.

The woman who had seduced was gone, replaced by someone I couldn’t quite read. Or so she seemed to think. As she sat straight, she also nervously brushed fingers through her loose hair hanging over her shoulder...

Looking for all the world like the fact that it was not put up was a grander mistake than any other. I can only imagine that she was in such a haste that she either forgot to bring hair ties or lost them between transformations.

"Where are we going?"

I asked as I started the engine and thinking that she might actually be searching for a way to put up her hair immediately. My fingers itch and my eyes keep slithering to my console. But I feel like it would be too much to give her what I bought right now.

"Take the main road toward downtown, then turn left at the intersection by that old church."

She closed her eyes and leaned back against the headrest. I guess she isn’t going to give me an address... but taking a left there means we aren’t going to her apartment.

After pulling out of the parking lot, I kept stealing glances at her as I drove while ignoring my own urges to take us to Lunarizon Tower. Her eyes remained closed each time I looked, but her breathing was too controlled to be sleeping.

"Left at this gas station. Then straight for about two miles."

"How do you know these streets so well?"

I don’t pull away from the stopsign for an extended moment... genuinely curious at how she could possibly know where we were without ever looking. She hasn’t been in the city that long to be able to travel blindfolded, has she?

"I pay attention."

A ghost of a smile played at her lips and the next set of directions continued - precise, confident, and never hesitating. Right at the traffic light, left after the overpass, straight along the boulevard.

She navigated us through the city like she’d lived here for years, all without a phone on her person. I’d almost think she stole my Lodestar bluetooth earpiece and it was giving her the information.

"Here. Pull around to the side entrance."

I parked where she indicated, looking at the building with growing confusion. One of the first warehouses my company used and bought out the lease for... one currently undergoing renovations.

It was easily recognizable because I’d driven here before. I even parked here on nights when my patrol route is in the area. When I turn my face, she finally has her eyes open - her light gray eyes looking at me since the first time since we left the forest.

"What are we doing here?"

"Claire arranged for me to use it because I needed somewhere private. There’s something I need to tell you... and show you."

When she opened her door, I followed. Watching as she worked the combination on a lockbox mounted beside a steel service door underneath the security lighting.

The space inside was not exactly as I remember it, emptied of its shelving. Yet it still had high ceilings, concrete floors, and stacks of the new construction materials. So nothing looked too out of place.

Other than the dark haired werewolf - without any shoes - strutting towards the large open area. She turned toward me with eyes that flickered blue with the fear of fight-or-flight. Her legs didn’t move... but her arm did.

Raising out and to the side, it hung there. Until I blinked and found that it wasn’t hanging at all. Her palm was pressed to the side of something that wasn’t there before.

A white shipping container, perfectly pristine, sitting in the middle of the floor like it had been there forever.