Chapter 28 The Human Part #2
I nodded, feeling a heavy weight on my chest. “Yes. It . . . it’s awful. I’m sorry you had to go through this.”
Blaise leaned back, sipping his coffee. “When we first moved here six months ago,” he suddenly said, “Lucien, as the newly appointed Alpha, was given the choice to either keep the pack name or change it. It’s a choice every Alpha has, and it carries a lot of weight in the werewolf world.”
He gave me a sad look. “In French, Montvoilé translates loosely into ‘the veiled mountain.’ Our pack back then kept this name for many centuries, to enforce our secluded lifestyle. We refused to let Otherborne mix with our pack, through friendships or mating. Humans, obviously, were out of the question.”
I remembered Lucien had said werewolves were very homogenous. That seemed to track.
“When we came here,” Blaise continued, returning his gaze to Lucien and tightening his hold on his coffee cup, “the pack name was Suncrown Ridge. A very bright, sunny name, fitting for a California werewolf pack.” He smiled a little.
“But Lucien didn’t like it. It sounded too rigid.
Too bright. It was like everything Lucien didn’t believe in stuck in a name. ”
“But sun is supposedly a positive word,” I said, frowning.
He shook his head. “It’s more about the whole rather than every word on its own,” he said quietly. “Put together, Suncrown Ridge gave Lucien the feeling of a dry, cutthroat, isolated place. So he changed it.”
“Montrevere,” I murmured, thinking it through. “What does it mean in French?”
“‘Mountain of revelations and dreams,’” Blaise replied at once, a soft smile stretching his lips. “A name fitting for a pack led by an Alpha dead set on ushering in a new era for not just werewolves but all Otherborne as well.”
I couldn’t help but smile at that, feeling warm inside as I looked at Lucien’s sleeping face.
He wasn’t just a beautiful man on the outside; Lucien was just as beautiful on the inside too.
He was a good man who’d been through a lot, but also a man who stuck by his moral code, and who refused to let his own idealism put his people in danger again.
He harbored the same guilt I did regarding his pack in Paris, and his family. He couldn’t save his sisters either. That’s why he understood when I told him about Willow and Julianna. Why he held me close and just let me cry until I had no more tears left.
Blaise’s voice drew my gaze back to him. He was now looking at me intently, emphatically. “I’ve known Lucien my whole life,” he told me. “He’s like a brother to me. I swore to fight for him, and protect him in my own way too. That’s why I know when he’s in true danger.”
My eyes widened, but Blaise didn’t stop. “You sound like a good woman, Drew,” he said, face serious. “It’s quite obvious to me why Lucien caught feelings for you.”
I froze, jaw on the floor.
“My Alpha is a man who puts his heart on his sleeve,” Blaise continued like a bulldozer making its crude way into my very soul. “It shows even in something like changing a pack’s name to fit his vision.”
Everything in my mind screeched to a full stop as I stared at Blaise, entranced.
“He has never given his heart to a woman before.” His words hit like a hammer on my heartstrings. “But it seems he has given it to you.”
A few splashes of coffee hit my fingers, and I realized my hands were shaking.
Blaise plucked the cup from my hands and put it down along with his empty one before he returned his gaze to me. Then he said, “I’m afraid I can’t approve, because you’re going to break him.”
My head shook from side to side at once as I felt my throat constrict. But I had to force the words out. “Is it . . .” I tried to clear my throat and failed, so I croaked, “Is it because I’m human?”
Blaise’s gaze was pitying. “If you were just a human, then no,” he said grimly. “But you’re his Eteria.”
I hugged myself, unable to stop shivering. I couldn’t think. I could barely even breathe. “The magical mind control,” I gasped out, feeling so cold, yet also hot, because Blaise’s words were like sharpened knives filled with hope.
Did Lucien really have feelings for me? Could it really be possible?
Blaise suddenly took my hand, snapping my attention back to him. “There is a way for you to stop being his Eteria.”
I froze again. My shivering stopping too. Everything came to a halt. “What?”
“An Alpha has the power of Transference,” he said, his hold on my hand tightening. “It’s a special magic carried by Alphas only that can transform a human into a werewolf.”
I tried to process his words and failed.
“If you become a werewolf,” Blaise continued, eyes almost pleading with me, “you will no longer meet the criteria of being an Eteria, because you will no longer be human.”
My mouth hung open. My mind raced with so many thoughts I completely blanked out. I couldn’t believe what he was saying. I couldn’t believe such a thing was even an option.
“You seem to have feelings for Lucien too,” Blaise said now, letting my hand go and rising to his feet, eyes as dark as the night sky. “They may be the product of your Eteria status, or they may not. Wouldn’t you want to find out?”
I had no words. I could hardly even think about what he was saying.
Seeing I was at a loss, Blaise put a hand on my shoulder, squeezed, and stepped back, grabbing the cups of coffee. “I’m going to go now,” he said quietly, glancing at Lucien briefly before returning his gaze to me. “Think about it, Drew.” He paused, grimaced. “At least for Lucien’s sake. Please.”
Before I could respond, he left, closing the door behind him.
My heart was beating in my ears as I slumped against the chair, confused and shocked, and turned to look at Lucien.
And suddenly, I was filled with pain. Because if Lucien did have feelings for me like Blaise assumed, then why didn’t he offer to transform me into a werewolf to begin with?
If he cared for me even a little, why didn’t he tell me this was an option? That I could stop being his Eteria? That would’ve solved all our problems!
But maybe there was a reason he didn’t say anything. A reason Blaise wasn’t privy to. Maybe this wasn’t possible with an Eteria. Maybe I was doomed to not being able to trust my own emotions. My own attraction. My own feelings.
Hesitantly, I looked at Lucien again and let myself truly feel. All the feelings I had suppressed. Everything I told myself was nothing. All the emotions I tried not to acknowledge.
The pain I felt for him when he told me his story.
The way my body felt when he kissed me senseless.
How every touch of his made me feel safe.
How being in his arms was like finding an oasis in the middle of a big, lonely desert.
Every moment we’d spent together since I found him outside my apartment building on the verge of death was meaningful. Every moment I caressed his beautiful coat, or cupped his face, or wished I would be in his league so he would notice plain old me . . .
A pair of brilliant blue eyes suddenly entered my vision, and I stared for a long moment before I realized Lucien was awake.
And staring right at me.
I jumped to my feet, not knowing what to do, feeling vulnerable, as if everything I was feeling was written all over my face. “Lucien—” I blurted without meaning to, having no idea what I wanted to say, or if I even wanted to say anything.
But I didn’t have time to think because a moment later, everything became a blur.
One moment, I was standing near his bed, not knowing what to do with myself.
The next, Lucien had jumped out of the bed, grabbed me by my waist, and thrown me on the bed, settling between my legs, his hands caging my face.
My lips parted as heat and confusion pooled in my stomach. With my heart beating like an incessant war drum, I stared at Lucien and tried to speak, but found that I couldn’t utter a word.
He pushed deeper into me with his hips, and when I flicked my gaze down, I saw a huge tent in his pants pressing against me.
I could feel myself getting wet at the sight, at the feel of him pressing his cock against my jeans-covered entrance, until I realized, belatedly, what kind of position we were in.
“Lucien,” I gasped, finding my voice, snapping my eyes to meet his. “What are you doing?”
Lucien didn’t speak. An unnamed emotion shone brightly in his eyes as his muscles grew stiff, his jaw locked, and I could almost hear him gritting his teeth as a soft yet animalistic growl rumbled in his chest.
The contradiction between his expression and the hot, mouthwateringly stiff cock hidden underneath his pants threw me off. On one hand, my mind was scrambled as my own arousal roared to the surface, while on the other, I was so fucking confused.
Then he spoke. And his voice was as guttural as it had been the night before, when the full moon still lingered in the sky. “You smell like him.”
I stared at him, frozen.
He lowered his face so our noses almost touched. “Why did he touch you?”
For a long moment, I had no idea who he was talking about, but then I remembered Blaise had grabbed my hand. But he couldn’t possibly be talking about that, could he?
And suddenly, I was filled with frustration. “What the hell do you want from me, Lucien?” I snapped at him. “Why do you care?”
He growled louder as his lips hovered over mine. “I want to pump my scent into your skin until everyone knows you’re mine.”
I tried, and failed, to respond.
And Lucien, the sexy asshole, grinned smugly. “Is that a yes?”
“A yes?” I squeaked, feeling my chest growing heavy as my nipples hardened under my shirt. My loins clenched, my panties instantly drenched, and my breaths stuttered.
His eyes flashed, and this time, I could read his expression completely. His hooded gaze on my lips, the way he rocked his tented cock between my legs almost uncontrollably, the need etched in his face.
Lucien wanted me.
Feeling like I was in some sort of a dream, I pressed my hands against his chest, and his growl grew louder at the touch. His eyes flared, and he repeated the question in a gravelly voice. “Is that a yes?”