The Lycan King's Fate Calling novel Chapter 959

Crystal's POV:

Rufus' eyes were unfathomable, yet they screamed as though they could see through mine very well, piercing my mind with their sharpness. To hide away from his gaze the guilt that was slowly surfacing to my eyes, I blinked more than necessary and put on an awkward smile. "The style of the coat appears to be very special, so I took the liberty to take a few more glances at it." Contrary to his perplexing eyes, my remark spawned a chuckle from Rufus. When he no longer found it amusing, the sharpness from his eyes descended on his voice as he asked, "Really? Let's get this straight. What are you doing here?" "I..." I drawled, buying myself some time to think of an excuse.

"Tell me," he urged.

"I got lost..." I curled my lips and squeezed out these few words, hoping he wouldn't notice how caught unawares I was.

But when I searched his face, it was clear how he now saw me as the kind of person who would turn my back against him anytime I found myself in a dire situation. I analyzed the situation, and even I thought that I seemed too suspicious to be here. Knowing that it was how he gauged me to be, I could clearly see how guarded he was with me. His behavior told me that just an ooze of flaw from me would earn me something I wouldn't like from him.

If I hadn't gone to Flora's place earlier, I would have suspected that he had followed me all the way here after the parade. This encounter seemed like purely coincidental.

Still, I figured he should be at the banquet at this time, but here we were.

He could go to such lengths just so he could catch the potential "traitor" of the empire, regardless of who he would deal with. This man was utterly unbelievable!

I caught sight of a sneer stretching across his face as he towered over me, becoming more oppressive than he already was. His eyes narrowed. Disbelief and speculation were apparent in his voice as he assessed how I ended up here. "I see. So, you got lost and wound up here without the palace guards catching you at the gate. You must have been really lucky."

"I didn't see any guards when I passed by, and no one walked up to me to prohibit me from entering. I presumed this was an abandoned palace." I raised my head to meet his eyes without showing any fear. Terror was what would feed his dominance over this argument.

Rufus studied me for a few seconds. Perhaps he couldn't go around my words, so he instead scanned his eyes around the place, hands propped against his waist, as if reminiscing the time he spent here. "This is just where I used to live. There's nothing special here."