A MAZE OF GREED

"I hope everything is well now between you two." Lester's voice caught Rees and Thea's attention, and Thea hurried to pull her hand out of Rees's.

Rees also straightened up. "I apologise on their behalf, milord! This will not happen again, I assure you!" His words were sincere.

"I know Rees because that wall will be repaired by the morning to happen anything like this again." Lester was back into his prior mood.

And Ruth realised that no matter how polite and friendly that man sounded, he was an elite after all.

"It's late. Beautiful ladies like you should not be outside at this time of the night." Lester commented.

"I would have liked to show you around and introduce you to the family in other circumstances. But for now, I advise you to leave using the same way you have used to come here.

You will find a coachman with a chariot outside the bushes. He will take you both home safely."

All the rest of the three gawked at Lester's calm words.

"You mean… there is no punishment for us?" Thea asked hopefully.

Smirking her way, Lester replied. "I don't think it is necessary, Miss Green."

"Yeah… Ruth! We are safe! We are not going in those dark and dirty dungeons. They are not going to put us infront of a wild elephant to crush us with his gigantic feet."

Nobody shared Thea's excitement after her comment about the elephant thing. "Excuse me?" Lester blinked, former smirk got washed out of his handsome face.

"What? Isn't that what the O'Dells do to punish?"

"Thea! Who told you that?" Rees sounded alarmed.

Shrugging her shoulders she replied, "Everybody knows that."

Ruth only watched between the three of them dumbfoundedly. She also had heard many stories about the punishments given by the O'Dell family. But Lester and Rees's reaction made her doubt the authenticity of those stories.

Lester burst out laughing, not caring how odd he looked given to his social status. He didn't care that for a minute, his free laugh scared Ruth, but then everyone joined him, except Ruth.

"Oh, God! People are seriously creative with things like these!" Lester sobered up a little, and so did others.

"Rest assure Ms Green that we are not always the world portrayed us to be." Lester said those words with all seriousness. But his olive-green eyes trained on Ruth's face.

Ruth didn't know how to react under his gaze, so she excused herself. "I think we should get going now." She sneaked a peek at Rees to find he was already staring at her.

This time she didn't divert her gaze from his. Mustering all her courage, she called his name. "R-Rees-"

"I want to talk to you, alone." He didn't let her finish her sentence.

Ruth looked at Thea to see her smiling ear to ear while Lester only watched their exchange in curiosity. By the look on Rees's face, Ruth couldn't understand if he was upset with her or not. There was only one way to find it out.

She walked towards him, and then they walked further together till they were out of earshot. Lester was a werewolf, and there was no point in talking in privacy as he could hear everything even from thousands of metres. But it was for Thea.

"Rees-"

"You were worried about me?" Ruth had asked the same question to Rees in the woods. She recalled how happy she was then because of him.

"Friends care for each other irrespective of the fights and misunderstandings."

Rees stared deep in Ruth's hazel eyes, trying to see a flicker of lie or hesitation. But for the first time, there was none.

"Yes, I was worried for you! When Thea told me that you haven't met her for six days, I thought you must be busy with your duty. But when she told me that you are not staying at your home, it made me worried. I couldn't help but come with Thea and enter 'the great manor' like a thief.

I am sorry for putting you in a difficult position with your master. But that was the only thing that seemed right to me at that time. And I think it served the purpose well." She had a hint of a smile on her face.

Rees found it hard to resist sharing her smile, but then he remembered something.

"Thea told me that someone is following you all the time." And that was not Edwin, he wanted to add but didn't.

"Yes. It's just make me paranoid and jumpy all the time." The smile vanished from her face to get replaced with a frown.

Her head snapped up when she felt Rees's warm hand on her arm. She looked up at him with surprise but didn't back away.

"Do you trust me, Ruth?" He had asked her before, but this time his question didn't only hold hope, but also a concern.

"I do! You are my friend, my well-wisher. I have realised that and hence I trust you the way I do Thea."

Gulping down the lump formed in his throat, Rees said, "Then listen to me carefully. You don't have to worry about anything. Whoever is following you will not harm you in anyway. Just be alert and avoid problems. I will see what can be done in this regard. Just… don't get feared, okay?"

The corner of her eyes moistened hearing his earnest words. She smiled brightly at him. "If I have a friend like you, then I don't need to fear. When will you use your giant body and strength that you always flex to the world?!"

Ruth teased him, and that brought a smile to Rees's face. They laughed wholeheartedly, sharing each other's emotions and trust.

"Don't you get insecured or jealous of Rees and Miss Moore's closeness?"

"I am not a werewolf to treat my mate as a possession, milord!" Thea scoffed daringly at Lester.

"But one needs to be careful with their blind trust in their mate, especially humans." Lester enjoyed teasing Thea. And his most favourite part was her snarky replies.

"Have you ever seen a werewolf cheating on their mate?"

"Isn't that humans are known for?"

Giving it a thought, Thea replied, "fair enough!"

Rees and Ruth came back and this time with smiling faces.

"Thea, if you are done with offending milord then you have to leave now. Your parents must be worried for you." Rees said.

"Rees… I was just defending you! Uh… you always portray me as a bad person." She groaned.

Ruth smiled and took her hand in hers. "No one is doing that, dear friend. Milord, we would like to take your leave now. Thank you for the leniency and we apologise again for the inconvenience that we caused. Good night!"

"It's fine! Good night!"

Thea and Ruth started walking in the direction of the broken wall when Lester called again. "Ms Moore, I would like to see you entering through the main gate next time!"

*

*

*

The two men watched Ruth and Thea exiting through the broken wall. Lester had already ordered a coachman to drop the ladies to their desired destinations through his mind link.

Rees smiled when Thea again peeked through the gap and waved at him, only to disappear after that. He was happy after many days, not only because of Thea but also Ruth.

But his smile wiped out when Lester turned around to face him. "I think the time has come when you should start speaking, Rees. And this time no more partial truths!"

Lester's words were calm yet demanding. And his darkened olive green eyes showed the seriousness of the situation.

Rees knew that this was bound to happen. He had already decided to tell everything to Lester, but the sudden turn of events had kept both of them busy and out of their element.

It had been only two days that Lester had resumed speaking with Rees. He had finally at some peace after the physician informed him about the betterment in Elsie's health.

He had not seen Edwin after that dreadful event. But Rees managed to convince him to at least meet Edwin once.

Lester's anger also couldn't stand firm against his love for his best friend. Against Augustus's order of not meeting Edwin, he had decided to do that. Little did he knew then that before he could speak with his friend, he needed to face another shock.

Rees gulped down nervously at Lester's show of his dominance. Though Lester was a cool-minded person as compared to Edwin, he also had alpha blood. He was soon to be declared as Bluemoon pack's alpha. And every supernatural being knew better than defying an alpha werewolf.

"I will, Miolrd. Please allow me." Rees bowed slightly, and Lester's eyes slowly turned back to normal.

"Not here. Come with me."

His instincts alerted Lester that whatever Rees had to reveal was something to be kept as a secret. And it was not safe to discuss such a confidential matter in the O'Dell property where more than half of the people were werewolves, and the remaining had their loyalties against Edwin.

Taking a backside path, Lester and Rees walked in the direction of the woods.