Chapter 227: No worries
By the time Yuki had changed, she had decided there was absolutely no reason to spend the rest of the day locked inside her suite.
She had slept enough, eaten enough, and her hangover had faded into a dull memory thanks to Kaden’s surprisingly effective soup. More importantly, she had an entire hotel to explore.
And judging by what she had seen so far, calling it a hotel felt like an understatement.
The place was practically a miniature resort.
There were restaurants, cafés, boutiques, entertainment lounges, an arcade, a cinema, a beauty salon and an entire shopping wing that could have passed for a luxury shopping centre on its own. Yuki had spent the better part of the afternoon wandering through it all, happily spending the money Alexander had transferred into her account.
She hadn’t even bothered informing Xavier about her plans. For once, she wanted a day that belonged entirely to her.
No Alexander.
No Aevia.
No Kaden.
And definitely no conversations about mates, marriage or pack politics.
Just Yuki.
By late afternoon, she stepped out of a dessert shop carrying a small box filled with mango desserts, a ridiculous grin stretching across her face.
Her feet were beginning to ache from walking around, but she barely cared.
She had spent the afternoon playing arcade games, browsing boutiques, buying things she absolutely did not need and eating enough sweets to put herself into another sugar coma.
It had been glorious.
Yuki lifted the dessert box slightly and peeked inside.
"Perfect," she murmured happily, already imagining herself devouring every last bite in her room.
She had barely taken a few steps when a conversation nearby caught her attention.
"...and the outdoor hot spring spa is practically empty this time of day," one of the girls said, applying lip gloss. "The mineral pools are absolute perfection."
Yuki’s ears perked up instantly. A hot spring spa. She vaguely remembered seeing an advertisement for it on the hotel’s website when she checked in. Her sore muscles practically begged for it.
Stepping forward, Yuki offered them a bright, friendly smile. "Excuse me," she interrupted softly. "I couldn’t help but overhear. Could you tell me where the hot spring spa is located?"
The girl with the lip gloss turned, giving Yuki a quick, pleasant smile. "Oh, it’s just outside the main building on the west side," she explained, gesturing towards a set of glass double doors. "Follow the path past the garden court, and you’ll see the shuttle station that will take you there."
"Thank you so much!" Yuki nodded, practically humming a cheerful tune under her breath as she pivoted on her heel and headed towards the exit.
She stepped through the double doors into the fresh air, her eyes scanning the paved walkways for the promised hotel shuttle service.
But as she walked past winding stone pathways, towering hedges and elaborate water features, the bustling sounds of the resort began to fade away into an eerie, quiet silence.
The ground beneath her sneakers turned from polished tile to cobblestone, and the manicured gardens gave way to a secluded service drive behind the main complex.
Yuki slowed her pace, a soft sigh escaping her lips as she looked around. I took a wrong turn, she realised. The hotel was absurdly large. From where she stood, several buildings branched away from the main structure.
"Great," she muttered as her brows pulled together into a frown. "Where the hell is the shuttle?"
She walked a little farther before stopping. Her brows knitted together. This definitely wasn’t where she had intended to go.
She turned, looking for a staff member or a guard to ask for directions, when a familiar figure in a car parked in the shade of a line of oak trees made her freeze dead in her tracks.
Standing a few feet away, partially hidden by the thick trunk of a weeping willow, she narrowed her eyes to make sure her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her.
It was Declan.
He was sitting in the back seat of a sleek, dark sedan, leaning casually against the door while talking to someone sitting beside him, with his back to the window. She was certain it was him, even though they had only met once. She never forgot a gorgeous face.
The rear window was rolled halfway down. Yuki’s initial thought was to simply wave or slip past quietly, but then her eyes caught the custom licence plate. She recognised the family crest embossed on the metal frame immediately.
It was the Beta’s plate number.
Yuki’s brows pulled together in a faint, confused frown. There was nothing inherently suspicious about Declan speaking with the Beta or someone from his household, yet something about the secluded, desolate nature of this side drive set her on edge.
The quiet rustle of the leaves above seemed to amplify her heightened wolf senses, and her ears twitched, picking up distinct snippets of the hushed conversation drifting through the cool air.
"...get her away from Ravencourt," a soft, poised female voice murmured from the shadows of the back seat. It wasn’t Eloise’s high-pitched, haughty tone, but rather the smooth, calculated voice of Yvonne, the Beta’s wife.
"Your offer is certainly an interesting one, my lady..." Declan replied smoothly, his tone laced with a dark, velvet charm.
Before he could finish his sentence, the heavily tinted rear car window rolled up with a quiet, motorised hum. The thick soundproofing sealed the interior completely, cutting off the rest of his words.
A cold knot of unease immediately tightened in Yuki’s stomach. The sweet craving for the hot spring vanished in an instant, replaced by a lingering, sour dread. She clutched her box of mango desserts tightly against her chest, backed away quietly into the shadow of the hedge, and turned around to retrace her steps towards the main building.
Eloise’s family always had a knack for ruining her mood, even when they weren’t in the same room. Get her away from Ravencourt... The words echoed in Yuki’s head, chilling her to the bone.
Who was Yvonne so desperate to get rid of?