Chapter 5 Lucien
LUCIEN
The dullness blurring the edges of my vision suddenly sharpened.
The brightness of that fruit-laden scent banished all my fatigue from the long day, all my irritation over being held up.
My alpha hindbrain reared to the forefront, the instinct to protect , care , cherish bombarding me.
I swore something about us fit . Her sunlit sweetness for my dappled shade.
A deep breath did little to ease my racing heart.
She was beautiful in a million little ways. The warmth in her playful smile and rosy apple cheeks. Dark hair piled on top of her head to keep cool, exposing the delicate curve of her neck. She hugged a scribbled drawing protectively against her.
“I was just commiserating with the poor boy, Summer.” Marisol’s voice sounded far away. “He and his brothers have their work cut out for them with the Beaufort pack house.”
“Because of the curse,” Summer said matter-of-factly.
“Exactly.”
That’s right. Marisol had been informing me that it was very important that I break the curse on the house before selling it. How I was supposed to do that was entirely my problem.
I found my voice again. “Just because it’s gone through a lot of tenants doesn’t mean it’s cursed.”
“Oh, Lucien.” Marisol laid an aggrieved hand on her blindingly purple head wrap. “You sweet summer child.”
Summer was kind enough not to patronize me. “It is concerning that all the packs who have lived there since your family moved out broke up after a year or less.”
Well, that wasn’t really going to be a problem for my brothers and me. “We’re not a pack and we don’t have an omega,” I reminded them.
“You’ve never been in a pack?”
Why did Marisol’s question feel like quicksand?
“No, why?”
“Very curious.” Her singsong tone was definitely a trap. “I’ve heard that some alphas are so territorial that they could only accept someone they had been in a pack with growing up.”
I schooled my expression to a bored neutrality and tried not to think about my courtship disaster in college when I gave one of my friends a black eye.
Marisol gestured floatily down the street. “Like Pack Allen, who live two blocks away. The alphas grew up pack brothers, too, and are very happily bonded to their omega with a lovely daughter…”
Summer’s hip popped out, her hand planted on it indignantly. “Marisol, that was unsubtle, even for you,” she chided.
“Hmm? Just making small talk.”
Summer made a very exaggerated Okay gesture. I needed to abandon this rapidly derailing conversation.
“That’s irrelevant. We’re just here to get the house ready to sell,” I reminded her firmly.
Summer turned to Marisol. “Maybe that’s how you’re meant to break the curse. Like a—”
“Full-circle thing?”
“Yeah, closing the loop.” Summer tsked disapprovingly at me but I was grateful to no longer be talking about my pack status anymore. “Took you long enough.”
“What?”
“You left it cursed for so long. My friend Lucy used to live there and was devastated when her exes cheated on her. You’re lucky she’s all loved up with her new pack now.”
“Wait, how is this my fault?”
“We just said!” Summer made a few swooping circles with her finger like that explained everything.
This town had gotten downright batty since I’d left.
There was absolutely nothing good about the knowing look Marisol was giving us both. “Well, I better get back to closing up,” she said demurely. “You grew up very nicely, Lucien. I forgive you and Mercer for putting all my gnomes in compromising positions three summers in a row.”
My ears grew alarmingly hot.
“Also, Summer lives that way.” Marisol pointed down the street. “It’s getting rather dark, don’t you think? Perhaps a strapping alpha like yourself can escort the omega home. Can never be too careful on these streets.”
“Marisol,” Summer said exasperatedly. “I’m pretty sure you are the only one who has ambushed anyone in the last ten minutes.”
That was true. I had been very thoroughly ambushed.
Marisol was already swishing her way back inside with a “Ciao” over her shoulder, leaving me with my grocery bag and a rather unsure omega.
“You don’t have to walk me.”
The blinding surge of instincts returned.
“Come on,” I grunted.
My alpha wouldn’t let me do anything else.
Summer came up only to my shoulder, but her luminous presence was like gravity. I focused hard on putting one foot in front of the other and not tripping.
“I’m Lucien, by the way.”
A shy look, thrown like a paper plane note. “Summer.”
Of course I knew who she was. The omega Jae had run out to see the other morning. The one who had her own bakery next to Mercer’s. It was a small town, after all.
“By the way, I don’t think the house is as cursed as you think it is,” I reassured her. “The last tenant, John Smith? He left because he got a programming job in Silicon Valley.”
Summer crashed to a halt. “Whatever you do, do not tell anyone that,” she hissed.
“What? Why not?”
“Do you know how long his departure fueled the gossip in this town? Weeks , Lucien. Carmen and Marisol lived on nothing but air and speculation about John Smith in the first three days after we discovered he was gone. He’s supposed to be a long-lost Scottish noble devoting his life to koala conservation while evading IRS agents. ”
“He’s rehabilitating koalas in Scotland?”
“No, in Australia. Obviously.”
“But he’s not. He’s in Californ—”
Summer clapped her hand over my mouth. “You have to stop. Someone could hear you!”
We were at an impasse. Fierce determination blazed in her eyes and I had no skin in the game.
“I’ll tell Jae and Mercer to keep quiet, too,” I said, my words muffled.
“That would be best.”
Her fingers slid off my lips. She was still so close, her tropical scent a burst of juice and sweetness flooding all my senses. Liftoff . My head bounced from one cumulus to another.
Blinding white headlights washed over us in a dangerous rush. Shit . Adrenaline surged. My reflexes took over. I caught up Summer in my arms, put my body between her and the road, and pressed us both against the nearest building.
“Lucien.”
Summer’s hand came to rest over my thundering heart. It only sped up at her gentle touch.
“That was Hank,” she whispered. “He drives with his high beams on because he’s two hundred years old.”
I released Summer immediately. The headlights continued on down the road, far below the speed limit.
“I see,” I said perfunctorily. It was a small mercy that my beers had survived.
If they had smashed, my humiliation would’ve truly been complete.
“How large a bribe will you accept to never mention this to anyone?”
She laughed but never answered, which was concerning. “We’re here, by the way.” Summer gestured at the yellow storefront behind her. “It was touch and go there, but we made it.”
I stared at the sign. Two smiling cartoon bánh mì wearing bikinis and sunglasses.
“This is your shop,” I said slowly.
“Sure is.”
“Where do you live?”
Summer pointed at the second row of windows above it. “My apartment is right there.”
She lived above her shop alone? Without anyone looking out for her? Not only that, it looked far too small. How was she supposed to have the big, beautiful omega nest she deserved? Filled with soft luxuries and that heady, syrupy omega scent of hers everywhere and—
A loud, aggravated meow interrupted my thoughts.
“Felix!” Summer squealed. “I cannot be lieve you haven’t chosen a house for the night yet!” She heaved the enormous cat into her arms. “That’s it. You’re coming home with me, you have no choice.”
Summer made more incomprehensible coo-ing sounds as she aggressively rubbed their cheeks together.
“Lucien, have you met our mayor?” she asked, extending a regal paw toward me.
Felix’s unblinking stare shrunk into slits, daring me not to fall in line.
I complied reluctantly, wondering how Starlight Grove’s electoral system had gone so downhill.
“Hello…sir.”
“Anyway, thanks for walking me home.” Summer was somehow juggling a cat, a bag of takeout containers, the drawing, and now a set of keys. The unlocked door swung open. “I better get inside—he looks hungry!”
And just like that she was gone. The dust from her whirlwind settled.
The door to the pack house creaked and I made a mental note to take a look at the hinges in the morning.
As I was stepping inside, I noticed an empty packet of rue seeds on the deck.
What on earth could that be for? I brought it inside to throw away and found Mercer in the kitchen.
He was putting together his idea of a low-effort late-night snack—dips and flatbreads made from scratch.
“Good timing. I’m almost done,” he said, not looking up from the dough puffing up on the stove.
Excellent. I would not have to explain that I took longer than expected because I was compelled to walk a pretty omega home.
I put the beer in the fridge. “I’ll go grab Jae.”
He was in his old room. Funny how we had automatically reverted to what was familiar. The tentative plucking of his guitar stopped abruptly as soon as I appeared at his door.
Jae had always kept his music private. We didn’t even know what he’d achieved until he dropped a link in the family group chat and then muted the damn thing for days. But it was one thing to hear the polished tracks everyone else did and another to see this side of him.
I almost asked him what he was working on.
“Come have a drink with us,” I said instead.
“Yeah, all right.” Jae carefully set aside his guitar, and we headed downstairs together. His shoulders slumped when he saw that Mercer had set up outside on the back porch. “Aww, I’m going to be eaten alive by mosquitos.”
“I got you bug spray. It’s in your bathroom.” I’d organized a few deliveries of home essentials yesterday and wasn’t about to forget that too many bites made Jae swell up like a balloon.
“I’ll douse myself and be right back. Thanks.”