Chapter 150
Meredith.
My feet moved faster than my thoughts as Kira trailed behind me.
Shirtless Draven made it to my memory and refused to leave. I couldn’t even remember how I kept my sanity until 4 PM.
It had been a shock and a blow to me realizing that I couldn’t play one prank on Draven and succeed with it. I would love to think he was too smart, but Valmora made me know how foolish I was.
After Draven had left my room, I had shuffled my hair roughly in failure, wondering what I had done wrong, when Valmora spoke in my head, pointing out the last part of my text to Draven.
’A nd what do you think will happen when I finally lay my hands on your little innocent wife?’
“You should never have mentioned it to Draven. That’s how he got you,” Valmora had said.
She called me a dimwit. And I didn’t dare to wonder what she was.
She clearly knew my plans and my text, yet she hadn’t said a word to fix my flaws until it came back to bite me in the face. And only then did she set out to point it out.
But it was a good thing Draven hadn’t said anything about the stupid ’innocent wife’ part I had included. My entire face would have burnt up in shame.
As soon as I arrived at my destination, I gestured for Kira to leave.
“See you later, my lady.” She bowed and turned on her heels.
I continued on my journey, seeing the familiar car parked in its usual position.
Dennis sat in the car, sunglasses on, one hand resting casually on the wheel like he was in a car race.
The moment I opened the door and slid into the passenger seat, he looked at me, one brow raised.
“Well?” he asked. “Tell me everything about your prank. Don’t leave anything out.”
“How did you know I had unleashed my prank?” I asked, blinking my lashes. I was surprised since I hadn’t given him any timeline for it.
He wiggled his brows. “I have my sources.”
Dennis was tight-lipped. He refused to answer my question and only agreed to it if I told him how I had executed my plans.
I didn’t hold anything back. I talked about the crazy calls, then showed him the text I had sent to Draven. He chuckled. He didn’t stop even after I mentioned that Draven found out I was behind it.
Instead, he urged me to continue.
I gave him a slow, smug smile. “He stormed into my room. Shirtless.”
“You rattled him so bad he forgot a shirt?” Dennis choked on a laugh. “That explains a lot.”
I didn’t understand what that last statement meant, so I carried on with my story.
“He snatched the phone right out of my hands after I hid it behind me,” I said, trying to sound offended, but failing. “Didn’t even ask nicely. Then he went through my phone.”
Dennis leaned back, still chuckling. “So? What did he say about the contact names?”
“Of course, he questioned me, wanting to know why his contact and yours were both saved that way on my phone.” I almost rolled my eyes. “I simply told him you were behind it.”
Recalling Draven’s tyranny and how he had demanded answers while snooping through my phone made me bite my lower lips in regret.
“He got a little mad and asked about what ’BF’ meant. He thought it meant Boyfriend. I was so stunned that I had to correct him,” I finished.
Dennis nodded, his face flashing with a knowing look. “It’s no wonder he came storming into my room next.”
“He came for you?” I snapped my gaze to him.
“He did. And he was so full of jealousy,” He laughed, and then went on to tell me about his own ordeal.
My lessons today went smoothly. Dennis told me I was seriously getting the hang of this driving thing.
Throughout our ride back to the main house, I was mapping out a text for Draven. I hit the send button and finally exhaled deeply.
I was so slow with this device. But it was a good thing I didn’t have to keep it out of sight after accomplishing my goal. A failed goal at that.
“One way or the other, you succeeded in riling my brother up. So, in other sense, you still succeeded with the prank,” Dennis said to me as we got off the car.
“Thank you,” I said to him, finally smiling.
Just then, a chime from my phone had me bringing it up to my face. Draven texted me back.
I had texted him to know where he was as I needed to have a word with him.
“Home Office.”
His response was straight-to-the point kind of Draven.
Perfect.
“What has got you smiling like a child?” Dennis asked, causing me to turn my attention back to him.
“It’s your brother. I wanted to see him,” I explained. “He is in his office. See you later.”
I left Dennis and ran inside the house, quickly finding my way straight to Draven’s office.
I knocked once and was permitted to enter.
Draven was sitting behind his desk when I walked in. He had his eyes on me and let it follow me until I was standing right in front of me.
His expression was calm and composed. It revealed nothing.
“I wanted to find out if you have any diagrams or pictures of Serena, the Wolf Queen.”
His gaze stayed on me. Unmoving. Untouched. Unyielding. Until I started to move my weight from my feet to the other.
Finally, he got off his seat, walked past me and went straight for the bookshelf. He pulled out the old scroll from before without second-guessing and handed it to me.
“Thank you,” I said, receiving it from him.
He guided me to the sitting area and made me sit before I could finally open the scroll.
There were several words written in a weird handwriting I could still read if I was ready to strain my eyes and my brain.
And then, at the bottom of the scroll, I saw the image from my dream. It was Serena.
A soft gasp escaped my lips as I ran my fingers through the painting.
This was real.