Chapter 10
TEN
Lucien
Olivia cleared her throat, staring at my bare chest and carefully avoiding eye contact as I waited for her to tell me what to do. That’s when her scent hit me, the normally sweet peaches and fresh cotton tinged sour with anxiety.
I was making her nervous, which was understandable, given I’d just lost my shit and thrown her over my shoulder.
And spanked her.
Fuck.
Then kissed her.
Double fuck. I was not doing so well at keeping my distance, but damn if seeing her with that blade against her throat hadn’t flipped a switch inside me. It was pure instinct.
“Can you four give us a few minutes?” I asked the other men.
“Are you going to keep your head?” Kane’s question was sharp, scolding.
It rankled, but frankly? I couldn’t blame him. He took his protection over the pack females seriously, as he should. I was all up in my head after the torture and the memories it had dragged to the surface of my father.
Olivia and I… We were off to a rocky start. She’d been perfectly kind, and it was entirely my fault.
“I’m calm,” I promised, though I couldn’t completely hide my resentment of the question. I was older than Kane by more than three hundred and fifty years, and my wolf knew it. But dominance was a different beast, and there was no denying his overwhelming power.
Kane turned to Olivia, setting his hands on her shoulders and making eye contact.
I could see her trembling under the weight of his gaze and instantly bristled.
I had to resist the urge to insert myself between them so he couldn’t make her shake like that.
“If you have any trouble with him, we are within earshot at all times.”
“Y-yes, Alpha.”
Kane nodded, and the other four men walked to the back of the plane, where they could still see us, but we had a tiny bit more privacy. My wolf immediately calmed, preferring not to have other males around our unbonded mate.
Samuel was unbonded as well, and my wolf saw him as a threat, even if I knew logically he would never try to steal Olivia from me. Assuming I didn’t literally run her off and cause her to reject our bond, at least.
My wolf snarled at the thought.
Olivia cleared her throat a second time, that nervous tinge to her scent making me question what the best next step was. She rolled back her shoulders as if gathering her courage, and I decided to wait her out, let her control the situation.
Another heartbeat, and her healer training seemed to take over, replacing the anxious she-wolf with a no-nonsense professional.
“Okay, there isn’t a handheld scanner on the plane, so I’m going to have to examine you by hand, to see if we can feel any foreign objects under the skin.” She gestured to the nearest seat. “You should probably sit.”
I obeyed without ever breaking her gaze. I even resisted the urge to say something sarcastic or suggestive, which might make her uncomfortable. But I couldn’t just let this go on between us. I’d been the one to push her away, and then I’d pulled her back in. It was all mixed signals.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have… I shouldn’t have done a lot of things, but I definitely didn’t deserve to kiss you after I acted like such an ass. And I’m sorry for speaking to you that way back in the SUV. I default to asshole, and that’s not fair to you. Or your fault.”
She blinked twice, slowly, as if she didn’t quite know what to do with the unexpected words. When she spoke, the words were hesitant. “Thank you.”
“It’s the least you deserve. I’m just all messed up, after, well, you know what.” I shook my head, not wanting to get into the gory details. She’d seen me when I first arrived at the enclave; she knew what had happened.
She nodded, kneeling down in front of my seat so we were at eye level. I couldn’t read her expression, but she shocked the fuck out of me when she reached out, palm up in offering.
Hesitantly, I placed my hand in hers. She clasped my hand, the warmth and acceptance I felt at the simple touch astounding.
Beyond anything I deserved, and it was humbling.
Shame covered me from head to toe at how badly I’d treated this woman, when literally all she’d offered me was kindness and acceptance.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
My throat was too clogged with emotion to say a word, so I simply shook my head, hoping she could see what I couldn’t say in that moment. My gratitude. My unworthiness. The desperate way I wished I could be good enough for her.
“Okay. I’m here if you change your mind. I’d better start your exam, though, because we don’t want the Hungarians following us to Greece now, do we?”
“Fuck no.”
She smiled at that, squeezing once before releasing my hand. But the memory of her touch, her unconditional acceptance, was never going to leave me. It was seared on my soul, a beautiful brand amid the mess of scars new and old that made up the rest of me.
Her touch was professional as she gently checked several of my wounds, and I managed not to wince through sheer force of will. When she paused at one on my shoulder, I looked up at her.
“I think this might be the one. The wound here was shallow and has already healed, but I believe there’s something under the skin. I’m going to see if Brielle can confirm for me, because it’s small, and I don’t want to cut into you just to find out I’m wrong. I’ll be right back.”
A minute later, both healers stood in front of me, poking at the outer edge of my shoulder. Brielle briefly closed her eyes, then nodded. “Yep. Foreign object, about the right size. I can have that out in a few minutes. Do you want a local anesthetic for the pain?”
“No. Just get it out.”
“Got it.” Brielle was all business as she unrolled the mini surgical kit and swabbed my skin with disinfectant.
A quick glance up at Olivia, and I was acting rashly again. I held out my free hand, palm up, mirroring the gesture she’d given me a few moments before. She stared at it for only a second before stepping up and placing her hand in mine.
Unfamiliar warmth and longing filled me as I let myself get lost in her eyes, and I barely noticed when Brielle took the scalpel to my shoulder.
“Okay, you’re good to go. I’m not even going to stitch it, because it’s shallow and it’s already starting to knit back up. I’ll give this to Reed in case he wants to check anything on it before destroying it.”
“Thank you,” I murmured, clinging to the contact with my mate.
My mate.
It was such a surreal admission, even in the private shroud of my own thoughts. The rest of the pack was walking back up the aisle, and I heard Brielle whisper something as she handed the tracker off to Reed.
“Olivia, I—” Stabbing pain stole my breath, and I grabbed at my right eye and the scar over it as I hissed between my teeth.
“Lucien? What’s wrong? Lucien!”
I couldn’t answer, couldn’t think, couldn’t even stay upright as the pain paralyzed me, and the whole world tilted on its side as I slid toward the floor.