Page 71 of His Fated Luna

And when I’d kissed her on the nose? I couldn’t get out of my mind the way her cheeks flamed up. That blush—Goddess, she was so adorable when she blushed.

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I entered the security admin office.

There was a reason everyone felt okay letting Rose wander around campus on her own. Like most universities, this one had CCTVs installed all over—every building, every parking lot. The cops had already been given copies of the footage from the day she was abducted, but I wasn’t the cops. I was her alpha—and a pissed off one. One of my pack members had been kidnapped, beaten, nearly assaulted. I wasn’t walking into any meeting right now. I was heading into an appointment with campus security to view the CCTV recordings.

They’d approved my request to view the footage from the day it happened. So now, I was sitting with one of the security guards, eyes glued to the screen, watching the recording from the parking lot where her car had been. A few students milled around, smoking and joking—some even leaned against her car, but no one touched it. Not yet.

Then she appeared on-screen, walking with Jake. My jaw clenched. They were holding hands.

“Play it normally. Don’t push the fast-forward button,” I said, trying to keep my tone even.

The guard nodded and adjusted the speed. I watched Jake wrap his arm around her, his hands gliding up and down her back, pausing way too long near her ass. My fists balled. I bit back a growl.

This didn’t look like a guy who didn’t want to be with her.

He leaned in, whispering something. She laughed—tilted her head, even let him tuck her curls behind her ear. I watched her shake her head no, probably refusing a date. But why the hell was he touching her like that if she’d turned him down? If he wasn’t interested in her?

Unless he was. Unless he had been the whole time and just didn’t want anyone else to know.

I kept watching as Jake finally walked away and she got into her car. She was on the phone. I checked the timestamp—yeah, she was calling me, telling me everything was okay.

That weird feeling I’d had back then… it made sense now. It was the same type of thing I’d heard about mates feeling when someone touched what was theirs.

“It looks like they came from the humanities building,” I muttered. “Can you show me the CCTV there?”

I didn’t care if I was spying. The need in me to figure out what Jake and Rose truly were was overriding all common sense. My wolf was howling for blood. The guard nodded again, and we jumped to the next feed. I watched as Jake caught up to her near the humanities block. They argued—her hands flying everywhere, the way they always did when she was upset. She tried to brush past him, and then he grabbed her.

And kissed her.

And she didn’t push him away.

She kissed him back.

His hands were all over her, and she let him. My heart dropped. My blood turned to ice.

She’d lied to me. When I asked her why I’d felt off that day—why I’d felt that instinct flaring—she’d made up some excuse. This… this was why I’d felt off!

No wonder Jake had been just as frantic as I was when she was taken. That bastard thought he had a claim on her. I remembered the day we found her, the way Jake grabbed her like she was his—like she belonged to him. She hadn’t welcomed it. She’d screamed. She was traumatized, and I’d had to yell at him to get off her.

But now, I understood why he thought he had the right.

My whole body trembled with rage. Jake hadn’t been asking her out for a second chance—he already had a chance. They’d been something. Or maybe they still were.

And she’d just lied to my face.

She didn’t want this fake relationship ruining things with Jake. That’s what she was worried about. I looked down, startled by the warmth dripping onto my hand. I’d crushed my coffee cup. The lukewarm liquid soaked into my skin, but I barely noticed.

“Are you OK, buddy?” the security guard asked, handing me a napkin.

“Fine,” I ground out, voice tight. My wolf was snarling, pacing inside me, wanting to kill the man who’d touched our mate! But I couldn’t afford to lose control. Not now.

“I need to see the rest of the footage,” I said, gripping the armrest hard. “Go back to the parking lot. I want to double-check that no one tampered with her car.”

Inside, I was coming apart.

Every fiber of my being screamed that she was my luna. Mine. No one should be touching her—especially not him. But she’d lied. She’d made me think Jake wasn’t interested. So why? Whatwas she trying to hide? Was she really as innocent and sweet as she always seemed?

Or was she playing me this whole time?