Chapter 11
ELEVEN
Olivia
Itried to catch Lucien as he slumped over, getting a whole lot of bare skin and not a lot of leverage, and ended up on the floor myself, his head cushioned on my chest.
He clutched his face, his cries of pain having drawn nearly everyone—except Galyna, who was also in rough shape—to the front of the jet.
“What’s happening?” I directed the question to Brielle, who’d knelt beside us and already had her hands on Lucien’s shoulder, funneling her power into him.
“I’m not sure.”
I didn’t like the way her voice shook with uncertainty, not one bit.
But before I could respond, fur sprouted along the backs of Lucien’s arms, his fingertips turning claw tipped as they fell away from his scar.
When my eyes met his, they glowed orange with his wolf, and long, sharp canines protruded from his mouth.
“Lucien?” His name was a terrified whisper on my lips, but he was mere inches from me, so he heard it.
His only response was a growl, harsh and threatening as he bared his teeth at Brielle.
Kane shoved between them in a flash, snatching the diminutive omega behind his much-larger bulk.
“Lucien! That’s enough!” Kane’s face contorted with fury as he lashed out with his suffocating dominance.
But Lucien didn’t even flinch as his eyes began to flicker, the cool orange giving way to flecks of red.
“What’s happening?” I didn’t know who I was asking, only that I was afraid for Lucien.
I stared in horror at his eyes, possibilities running through my mind at a mile a minute. But the only time a wolf’s eyes went red was when they were feral. There was nothing in this moment that should have caused that.
But a second later, when Lucien lunged away from me, it wasn’t toward Kane. It was toward Samuel.
“Lucien, no!” I moved without thinking as Lucien leapt at the other male, throwing myself between them at the last second.
Everything happened at once. Lucien smashed into me, sandwiching me between their chests as he took a vicious swipe with his clawed fingers at Samuel’s throat.
Samuel managed to dodge, but the strike caught me on the forehead.
For a split second, I felt no pain, only shock. When the agony broke through, it was terrible. I gasped and clutched my face, blood oozing between my fingers and dripping into my eyes as nausea roiled in my stomach.
Hands were on me before I could process whose they were or where they came from—big, masculine hands—and then I was snatched out of the way, the world spinning with the speed of it. Reed’s face was in front of mine, concern etching his handsome features as he loomed over me.
“You’re going to be okay. I’m going to carry you to the back so Brielle can come fix you up.”
Thunder boomed ominously outside, and the plane shook under our feet.
“Shit,” Reed swore under his breath. “Can you stay here for a second? Fiona is upset.”
“What?” My brain was moving in short, staccato bursts, trying to catch up over the shock of my sudden injury. But he was already gone, grabbing Fiona around the waist and dragging her away from the two males, both half shifted as they tussled in the aisle of the jet.
“That motherfucker nearly took her head off! I’m gonna kill him.” Fiona’s voice dropped half an octave with the threat, her skin flashing blue faster than my blurred vision could follow.
“She doesn’t want that! He’s still her mate. And if you lose control, you’re going to do more damage than he did. She won’t survive a plane crash, Stormy, you know that!”
The growl that tore out of her throat was properly canine, and I had a moment of pride that my friend had so fully embraced pack life, which was quickly replaced by embarrassment as I violently puked into the nearest plush leather seat.
Brielle appeared at my side like an apparition, slapping her hand directly over my bleeding head wound as she murmured soothing things into my ear while I heaved up everything in my stomach.
The agony vanished almost instantly, but the nausea was a little harder to get rid of, with all the adrenaline coursing through me.
A fresh wave of alpha dominance nearly knocked me to my knees, but Brielle held me up, and then Fiona and Elodie were there, bracketing me.
The nausea finally left, winking out of existence as if through sheer force of Brielle’s will.
“You’re okay, you’re going to be okay,” Elodie murmured, rubbing my back and giving me a soft smile. “Nobody’s going to let him touch you again.”
“I don’t think he meant to. His eyes—”
“There is no excuse for putting your hands on a woman. I don’t fucking care what he’s been through, he hurt you, he’s dead to me.” Fiona’s voice was like ice, brittle and sharp as she cast a scathing look over her shoulder, where the men had formed an impenetrable wall between us and Lucien.
I couldn’t see what was happening, and that was nearly as bad as getting cut. I knew they were all mad at him, but they hadn’t seen his eyes. It was like something else had taken him over.
“I don’t think he could help it. His eyes weren’t right.
And why would he attack Samuel like that?
Samuel saved him from the Hungarians. He wasn’t aiming for me.
I don’t believe he’d hurt me on purpose.
Please,” I begged, though I wasn’t sure what I was even asking for.
Fiona’s amber-shifted eyes flickered, her usual mismatched blue returning for a second.
“Let the guys calm him down first, okay?” Elodie, ever the voice of reason, squeezed my arm supportively, and I wanted to weep.
Why was everything determined to go wrong between us? It was like unseen forces were yanking us apart, when mates were meant to be drawn together. And it made me furious, but in a way that made me want to curl up in a ball and sob for a week at the injustice of it all.
Reed was the first to turn toward us, his expression grim. “Are you okay?” he asked me.
Not even a little bit.
“I’m fine. I need to see Lucien.”
He grimaced. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
No.
“Yes.” I lifted my chin, refusing to show how shaken I truly was. But I just knew at a soul-deep level that he didn’t want to hurt me. Why he wanted to attack Samuel was a mystery, but he didn’t want to hurt me, and that had to be enough for now.
“All right, hold on.” He held up a hand and turned, talking quietly to the other men. It was a long, tense moment before he turned and reluctantly waved me forward.
I would be lying if I said my knees weren’t jelly as I walked back up the plane aisle.
But when I squeezed past Reed and Samuel, my heart broke, and I forgot all about my own fear.
Because as soon as I caught sight of Lucien, flat on the floor, canines still protruding, partially shifted and stuck under the high alpha’s dominance and Gael’s knee…
I had no doubt that he hadn’t meant me harm.
I dropped to my knees at his side, resisting the urge to stroke back his hair as his eyes found mine, the only part of him he could move.
“What’s happening? Are you hurt?”
He grunted, no words forming as frustration twisted his features.
I turned so I could see the high alpha, careful not to cause offense by making direct eye contact. “Are you keeping him from talking, or…?”
Kane shook his head. “No, just from moving, and only until he reverses his shift. We can’t have him starting a brawl while we’re in the air.”
I nodded. He was right, even if I hated to see Lucien like this. His eyes still had those flecks of red, the feral tinge making me sad as well as confused.
“Can you guys give us a little space? I’m not saying let him up, just that I’d like to talk to him. See if I can help him calm down.”
“Alpha, I don’t know about that.” Gael spoke up, rubbing his jaw anxiously. Then he looked at me guiltily. “Are you sure? I don’t like leaving a female with a volatile male. Giving you space is what got you hurt the first go-around.”
“I’m sure. He wasn’t trying to hurt me, just Samuel for some reason.”
“Clearly,” Samuel muttered.
“Sorry, Samuel.” I grimaced in his direction.
“You have nothing to apologize for. And for Goddess’s sake, don’t ever put yourself between two alpha males again.” He eyed my still-bloody forehead with true regret.
“We’ll give you space, but I will not let him up until he has control of his shift and you’re clear. Even if he stays there the entire flight.”
“I understand.” Pain lanced me at the idea of him being kept prisoner the entire flight, after the captivity and torture he’d just endured. I had to help him.
The men moved back a little—not giving us as much space as before, even though Lucien was still pinned flat on his belly by Kane’s dominance, despite Gael standing up and backing away.
But when they stopped halfway down the aisle, forming a protective barrier between us and the rest of the pack females, I knew that was as good as we’d get.
Deciding to ignore them, I lay down on my side, getting face-to-face with Lucien, my back to the pack.
“Is it okay if I touch you?” I whispered the question, giving us as much privacy as possible.
There was no response, and then I realized he couldn’t nod, and he wasn’t talking. His eyes were fixated on my bloody forehead, and I just made a decision and went for it. I let my fingers stroke over his hair, which was usually styled back from his face, but was currently in disarray.
“I’ve heard that a mate’s touch is calming, but as soon as you can talk, if you don’t like it, I’ll stop, okay?”
More silence, his eyes still fixated on my forehead where he’d cut me with his claws, so I continued to finger comb his hair, trying to think of what else to say.
I wasn’t the most talkative, even when I had someone else to hold a conversation with.
But somehow, words poured from my lips in a soothing whisper without trouble.
It was the regret in his eyes, the confusion. It wasn’t his fault.
“I’ve never seen your hair without product in it before today. You’re always so polished, I feel plain by comparison. But I like it this way too. It’s free. And that’s nice sometimes. It’s really soft too, and nice to touch.”
I kept rambling about nothing, keeping close watch on his features, in case he seemed to dislike anything I was doing, but the more I spoke, the less tense he seemed. His shoulders slowly relaxed, the fur and claws receding from his hands and arms.
The fangs disappeared next, and eventually, the last fleck of red vanished from his eyes.
“Hi, there,” I said with a smile, once I could tell that my Lucien was back fully in control.
“Hi.”
It was one hoarse word, but I felt it like a caress down my bare back.
“I’m so sorry. I will never forgive myself for hurting you.”
“It’s okay, I knew it wasn’t me you were after.” I forced a smile, though I could feel the tender moment between us slipping away already.
“There is no excuse. I—”
“Lucien.” Kane appeared above us, hovering like a dark angel.
“High Alpha, I apologize.”
“Good, and you will continue to apologize to the rest of the pack who you put in danger.”
“Yes, Alpha.” Lucien bared his neck, the small movement the first he’d made so far. And something about it shattered me just a little bit more inside.
My mate was broken, and from the shuttered look in his eyes, I knew he wasn’t going to let me in to help put him back together.