Chapter 20 Lucien
TWENTY
Lucien
“Ithink it needs to be Kane. I can negotiate and Gael can fight, but they’re going to be with the centaurs’ leaders. They’ll respect his opinion far more than ours,” Reed said from his position by the window.
We’d all gathered in Kane’s room, since the women were just next door in Gael’s. We could hear their occasional laughter through the wall, and it was soothing to all of us to know they were safe and happy. Though personally, I had a hollow well in my chest that simple laughter couldn’t fill.
The only thing rattling around in there was the memory of Olivia begging me to back out. To humiliate not myself, but our pack, and leave this island empty-handed.
To leave our future daughter at risk.
She had so little faith in me. But could I blame her? What had I shown her so far to give her faith?
Not much.
I dragged a hand through my already tousled hair, then waved toward Reed. “I’m fine with that. If it’s a power play they want, we can give them one.”
He nodded, moving on to another minute detail of their planning that I wasn’t truly interested in. I had a fight to prepare for, both physically and mentally.
And I was not ready.
Not with her words haunting me like so many ghosts.
You shouldn’t do this at all. I’m not going to let you kill yourself.
My wolf was restless, but I needed his strength for whatever came later. I had no doubt I would need to shift, and we would need his pent-up frustration to handle the challenge before us.
I’d feel marginally better if I at least knew what the challenge was. But the centaurs had stayed true to their word, telling me nothing yet. Damn centaur pride.
“So there’s no documentation on centaur challenges in the past? Nothing we can go on?” I scanned the room, but each of the males shook his head. I was going in blind, and I hated that with every fiber of my being.
“I even asked Gracelyn to check the pack records,” Reed said with an annoyed flick of his fingers. “There was one vague reference to a challenge between a centaur and a lynx shifter. All that was recorded was that the lynx failed and was killed for his trouble.”
A lynx had a lot of disadvantages compared to a werewolf, depending on the challenge.
Size and speed, for one. Jaw size. But not all challenges were about brute force, and the lynx’s failing could actually have been a point against me.
The challenge could have been more suited to a feline, not less.
It was impossible to say.
A knock on the door interrupted our conversation.
Gael was closest, so he strode over to answer it.
But within a second of it opening, the scent of fresh peaches and soft cotton rolled over me like a physical caress, and I knew it was Olivia.
The second of bliss—knowing she’d come for me, which made my wolf arrogantly preen in my chest—was quickly replaced by tension.
Was this a last-ditch plea to get me to call it off? Again?
I didn’t know if I had the strength to push her away a second time, but I couldn’t focus on all the ways this night could go wrong if I wanted any chance of winning this piece for our pack.
“Luce,” Gael called, gesturing to my diminutive mate. I could immediately tell she was anxious, from the way she stood as if she was ready to bolt, from the way her eyes darted around the room we were gathered in. But to me, she was still a vision.
I never got tired of taking her in, from her wild, flyaway hair to her dirt-smudged shoes. She was my little healer. Mine to protect, mine to love.
Mine to teach.
I shoved the inappropriate thoughts of all the things I wanted to teach her away as I crossed the floor.
Pausing for a moment, I joined her outside and shut the door behind me, giving us the illusion of solitude.
Elodie was guarding her, clearly, but she’d stopped fifteen paces away, giving us the appearance of privacy, at least.
“Is everything okay?” I asked, taking in her disheveled and grass-stained clothing.
There was even a twig in her hair. Now that I was standing closer, I could see a faint smudge of dirt down the side of her face.
What had she been up to? My gaze came to rest on the little glass jar clutched in her hands, and I cocked an eyebrow in question.
“No, it’s not. I’m sorry, I’ve been going over what to say for the whole time we were walking, but nothing feels right. About what I said earlier…” Her cheeks were pale, and her sweet, fruity scent was tinged bitter with… regret?
I rocked back, physically shaken by the sudden change. What did she regret? What she’d said, or how I’d reacted?
Only one way to find out. But I couldn’t bear it, her scent heavy and bitter like that, without doing something to ease her discomfort.
I reached out slowly—giving her ample time to back up or push me away—before resting my hands on the outside of her elbows, stroking her soft skin with my thumbs in a soothing motion.
She shuddered under the simple touch, her scent changing as quickly as the breeze. Sweet and pungent, with the merest hint of spicy arousal.
Damn. She was so responsive, it pulled an echoing response from me.
“It’s okay. Take your time.” I finally spoke, trying to distract myself from that tantalizing thread of arousal I knew she also felt.
She nodded, lower lip wobbling before she bit it into stillness.
I watched her as if she held the key to every puzzle in my life, while she gathered her composure.
Shoulders rolled back, chin lifted. Finally, she released her lower lip when she was ready to keep talking.
It was fascinating the way she went from shy, reserved she-wolf to bold, brassy healer, but I’d watched the transformation happen, piece by piece.
Her healer profession gave her mettle, a strength she didn’t feel otherwise. Hence the jar.
Interesting. I stole every bit of knowledge I could get about her, and I filed that tidbit away for later like a petty thief hiding a particularly shiny bauble.
“I’m sorry for what I said earlier. After I left, I talked to the girls… They all agreed I was wrong to ask you not to take the challenge.”
You could have knocked me down with a Goddess-damned feather. She was sorry? For telling me how she felt?
“You don’t ever have to be sorry for telling me how you feel. Even if I don’t like it. I wouldn’t ask that of you.”
She swallowed hard, eyes skating away from me as if she couldn’t really hear what I was trying to tell her.
I gripped her chin with my thumb and forefinger, pulling her face toward me so that there was no way she could avoid looking me dead in the eyes when I spoke.
“You don’t ever have to hide from me. No matter what.
You’re mine, and I’m yours, and we are in this together.
Besides, my little mate has claws, and that’s exciting, not a defect.
” I released her chin, opting instead to trace my fingertips along her jaw, down to the column of her neck where I could pull her closer.
Her eyes turned molten with lust, a faint, silvery glow I hadn’t seen before telling me her wolf liked what I was saying, what I was doing. My own vision sharpened as my wolf showed up to the party, meeting hers tit for tat.
But fuck if it didn’t surprise me when she pressed up on her toes, melding her lips to mine like they were made for me.
Every inch of her softness molded to my chest as I loosely wrapped my arms around her waist, letting her take the lead.
There was no hesitation in this kiss, no holding back, and my entire body was a live wire, electrified at the taste of her, the feel of her perfection in my arms. Even her scent was strong, sweet and sad all at once.
When she pulled back, her lips were puffy, eyes wild with arousal and uncertainty. She wanted more, but she didn’t know more of what.
After this challenge was over, I would show her.
Fuck, the challenge. I’d gotten so wrapped up in Olivia, I forgot about the very real clock ticking down to when I had to go face off against a giant fucking centaur. A quick glance over at the falling sun told me everything I needed to know.
We were out of time.
She traced my gaze and, realizing the same thing I had, took a half step out of my arms that tore part of my soul with her. But it was okay. She held it carefully, just as I was learning to hold hers.
“I know you don’t have long. But I think I have something that will help you.
I was just so scared earlier, and I let the fear win.
But that’s not who I am. This thing between us is so new, the idea of anything happening to you while you’re having one of those attacks…
” She shook her head, that bitter hint of regret edging back into her scent.
She was all business now, though, not letting it stop her.
Olivia had fire in her green eyes when she spoke again.
“I believe in you. I think you’re going to win.
But you can’t help what’s happened since you got your scar.
That is what scared me. Leigh suggested maybe I could use my herbalism to help you until the connection with your wolf is fully healed.
So, I spent the afternoon with Elodie wandering this island to see if there was anything I could use to help take the pain away, at least for a while. ”
She held the bottle aloft, thick green goo resting in the bottom of it that I could smell faintly even through the cork stopper.
It smelled like somebody had emptied out a weed whacker and the dismal results were in that bottle.
“I don’t have to eat that, do I?”
She dropped her head back and laughed, the sound so light and free, it made me feel buoyant too. I wanted to make her laugh like that a thousand more times so I could soak up every single moment and hoard them like a dragon’s treasure.
“No, you goose. I’m going to rub it over your scar. It’s topical.”
It was going to look kind of funny if I showed up with green goo smeared on my face, but who had room for pride where their mate was concerned?
I didn’t, not anymore.
“All right. Do what you need to do, then,” I murmured, gesturing toward my face.
She didn’t hesitate, turning my face and tilting it down a bit so she could see the scar better. When she removed the cork from the bottle, I was hit by an overpowering wave of medicinal stench so strong, it made my eyes water and my wolf whine.
Her gentle touch as she began to smear it over the still-tender skin distracted me from the awful odor, my wolf practically humming with glee at her caring touch.
I watched her as she worked on me, the determined set of her jaw and the efficient way she moved just as fascinating as her passionate kiss from before, the way she sometimes went timid and hid from me. She was a complex woman, and it made her all the more alluring.
“Okay.” She recorked the bottle, then tucked it into her pocket before absently wiping her fingertips on her thigh to clean them off. “That’s all done. I feel like… I want to try something a little different, if you don’t mind?”
“I trust you.” It was the truth, even though I didn’t realize it until I said the words. Of any person on this planet right now, I trusted her the most. The realization made my heart pound as if I were running, even though I was standing stock-still.
I hadn’t trusted anyone that way since my baby sister, and she’d been dead a long, long time.
And all that time, I’d been alone, no matter how many people were around, no matter how many women I slept with to take the edge off the darkness.
This was different. Olivia was different.
But while I was having my foundation rocked, my pretty mate was unaware, resting her hands on either side of my wound, much as Brielle had done when she was going to use her omega powers on me.
She closed her eyes, going still as stone.
I didn’t feel any different at first. No cooling rush like when Brielle healed you.
But after a few seconds, an itch like fire ants gnawed over my scar, over the entire area where she’d spread the goo.
I squinched my eyes closed, trying to resist the urge to smack her hands away and scratch.
“Holy shit, that’s cool!”
Startled by Elodie’s voice suddenly close by, my eyes flew open again.
“What?” Olivia asked, blinking slowly as she lowered her hands from my skin.
“It just… soaked into his skin. It’s gone, look!” She pointed at my face, and Olivia squinted up at the area. Within a second, her eyes grew wide with shock.
“Holy Goddess, it worked!”
“Care to fill me in on what just happened, hellcat?”
“I— Well, it’s a long story, actually. I promise to tell you after the challenge, okay? Right now, the Alpha is waiting for you.” She gestured behind me, where Kane stood staring out the window, trying not to look like an impatient bastard.
“Right.” I pasted on a smile I didn’t feel, the nervous energy of the challenge flooding back into me, bursting our happy little bubble into a million shards sharp enough to cut. “Are you coming? I’d understand if you don’t want to.”
Her expression tightened, and she stepped forward into my personal space one more time, hand coming to rest on my arm, fingertips resting lightly on my bare skin. “Try to stop me.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”