Chapter 67: tested him

For a moment, Hazel simply stared at him, wondering whether he was deliberately ignoring her or whether her little experiment had failed before it even began. She had expected at least a surprised look, a warning, or perhaps a question about why she was showing him her body, but Caius had returned to studying the portrait with the calmness of a man watching the weather.

She couldn’t help laughing quietly as she fixed her dress.

"Oh, sorry about that," she said, smoothing the fabric as she returned to her normal appearance. "But I knew you wouldn’t mind anyway."

This time, Caius raised a brow and turned to look at her properly.

Hazel smiled at him, feeling pleased with herself even though she had no idea whether she had actually discovered anything useful.

"I wouldn’t dare to do that in front of a normal man," she explained with a little sigh, as if she had just shared an important secret. "It might lead to something else, you know."

She gave him one final smile before turning toward the door. "Goodnight, Caius!"

With that, Hazel walked out of the room, leaving the door open behind her.

Caius remained where he was, staring at the empty doorway for several seconds. He had barely recovered from the shock of watching Hazel expose part of her breasts in front of him when she calmly explained that she wouldn’t behave that way around a normal man.

Was she suggesting that he wasn’t a normal man?

His eyes narrowed slightly as he tried to understand the meaning behind her words, but the more he thought about it, the more ridiculous the entire situation became.

He was the Werewolf King, a man whose presence alone could make powerful immortals lower their heads, yet Hazel had walked into his private room, exposed herself in front of him, apologized casually, and left as if she had only stopped by to borrow a cup of sugar.

Caius wondered whether the woman chosen as his mate had a few problems of her own. Perhaps more than a few.

.....

By the time Hazel reached her bedroom, she could no longer hold back her laughter. She closed the door behind her, hurried toward the bed, and immediately called Emily because she desperately needed someone to share her little adventure with.

Emily answered after a few rings, and Hazel barely allowed her to greet her before beginning her explanation. "Emily, you won’t believe what I just did!"

"What did you do this time?" Emily asked suspiciously, already sounding as if she regretted answering the call.

Hazel laughed as she told her everything, from Caius questioning her about Ryan’s scent to the moment she had deliberately exposed part of her breasts to see whether he would react. She explained how he had stared at her in disbelief before turning his attention back to his mother’s portrait, and she ended the story by repeating his confused expression when she called him an abnormal man.

There was silence on the other end of the phone.

Then Emily let out a sound so loud that Hazel had to move the phone away from her ear.

"HAZEL! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?" Emily nearly screamed. "What were you thinking? You entered his private room, allowed him to see part of your breasts, and then walked away like nothing happened? Do you understand how dangerous that man is?"

Hazel rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling, still smiling. "Why are you shouting? He didn’t do anything to me."

"That’s exactly the problem!" Emily exclaimed. "He could have done something, and you wouldn’t even have had time to regret your decision. What if he had misunderstood what you were trying to do?"

"But he didn’t," Hazel argued. "He only stared at me for a moment before looking away, and he was completely calm afterward. Honestly, I think I was right about him."

Emily sighed deeply on the other end of the phone, sounding like someone who had just discovered that her best friend was determined to make her own life difficult.

"Hazel, maybe he really doesn’t know how to deal with you, but that doesn’t mean you should keep testing him like this. Caius has spent so many years despising the idea of having a mate that he probably doesn’t even know what to do with the feelings he’s beginning to experience. He needs more than a few strange tricks to accept that having someone beside him isn’t a weakness."

Hazel turned onto her side, frowning at the phone.

"Or maybe he’s afraid people will discover that he doesn’t know how to love a woman or even sleep with one," she argued confidently. "Think about it, Emily. He’s been alive for so long, and I’ve never heard anyone mention that he had a lover. What if he doesn’t know anything about romance and doesn’t want anyone to find out?"

There was a short pause before Emily burst into laughter again.

"Fine! Maybe you’re right, and the great Werewolf King has no idea how to handle a woman. Perhaps he needs someone to teach him everything from the beginning," she teased. "But, Hazel, let me warn you about something. Testing whether a man is responsible is one thing, but testing the crazy of a man like Caius is a completely different matter."

Hazel smiled as she hugged her pillow, feeling strangely pleased with herself. "Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing."

"That’s what scares me!" Emily replied immediately.

Hazel laughed so hard that she had to cover her mouth with the pillow, while Emily continued reminding her that she was dealing with a man who had lived for centuries and could probably destroy half the immortal world before breakfast.

But Hazel wasn’t listening anymore. Her mind had returned to Caius, his silver eyes, and the way he had stared at her before calmly turning away.

She had wanted to prove that he wasn’t interested in her, yet his earlier question about Ryan’s scent kept returning to her thoughts.

If Caius truly didn’t care about her, why had he asked who hugged her?