Chapter 50 Lucien
FIFTY
Lucien
My eyes cracked open, and the world was green. Or rather, the afterlife was green. Right?
I tried to sit up and couldn’t. Olivia.
She was still in my arms, our bodies sticky with blood, and horror filled me. Had I not died with her? That wasn’t possible. I’d bitten her while her heart still beat. I’d felt the bond.
Panicked, my eyes flew up, and that was when I saw it.
A bower of flowers, vines, and stems interwoven around us like a living funeral pyre. Between it all, a thick green glow, her power pulsating with life as it cocooned us.
“Olivia? Hellcat, can you hear me?” I fumbled as I felt for her pulse, and nearly wept when I felt it. It was faint, but steady.
We were alive.
I’d bitten her, and somehow, we were alive.
I wept as I held her, unashamed of my tears. I would never be anything but grateful for any moment this woman spent in my arms, ever again.
She was my personal miracle, my light, my everything.
“Lucien?” My name was slurred on her lips, and still it was the best sound I’d ever heard in my whole, long, miserable life.
“I’m here, my love. I’m here.”
“My neck hurts.”
That was not what I expected her to say, and suddenly, I was very, very aware that I’d bonded us—partially—without her consent.
“I-I bit you.”
“You what?” Her shock was genuine, and I soldiered on.
“You were dying. Your heart was barely beating, and I didn’t want to go on without you. So I bit you so we’d be bonded, and I could go with you into the afterlife. I’m sorry. I know you should have consented, but I couldn’t— I just couldn’t let you go.”
Her fingertips brushed my cheek, settled over my lips. “It’s okay. I couldn’t bear to live without you either. You love me? Truly?”
“More than I’ve ever loved anyone.” It was a terrifying truth.
I loved and missed my sister, my sweet Lilliana. Her face was a distant memory now, after all these years, but still I loved her.
But Olivia… She held the other half of my soul. And every day I spent with her, I became a better man. And I loved her dearly, even if I’d lied to myself before.
It hadn’t saved her.
Pretending she wasn’t my everything hadn’t saved her. She had saved us both. With her own beautiful, gentle power.
I closed my eyes and held her close, thanking the Goddess and every star in the sky that my mate was a quiet badass and I got another chance with her that I didn’t deserve.
“Olivia!” A panicked voice startled us sometime later. “Oh my Goddess. How long has she been in there?” Elodie, on closer inspection.
“A while.” Valens.
“Can you hear me?”
“Yes,” I called back, trying not to disturb Olivia, who was sleeping on my chest. She stirred anyway, blinking up at me sleepily.
“Holy shit, they’re both in there? Why are you all just standing here!”
Their voices got farther away, too far to hear the conversation, and then Elodie returned a few minutes later. “Are you guys okay? What happened, and can you come out? Things are… weird out here.”
I looked down at Olivia. “I don’t know if you’re healed enough to come out yet. Are you?”
She frowned, considering. “I feel tired, but I think all my external wounds are gone? She lifted herself up with shaky limbs, and to my amazement, every mark she’d had before was gone, her skin healed cleanly.
“Can you let the power go safely? Or should we wait for Brielle?” I didn’t give a fuck what was happening outside our cocoon, as long as Olivia was safe.
“I think I just need clothes. And a nap. And food. I’m starving.” Her stomach rumbled, and I chuckled.
“You need energy after all that wound repair.”
“Probably, yes.” She blushed pink, finally realizing that we were both fully naked and pressed together like sardines.
“Hello? Did you pass out again?” The sound of leaves rustling reached us, and Elodie yelped as if something had zapped her.
“Hang on,” Olivia called, and then wrinkled her nose as she concentrated. The flowery bower covering us peeled back, and the green web of light slowly faded back into the earth, the calm, cool sensation I’d felt inside it leaving, replaced with the scent of blood and strange wolves.
Although… they didn’t feel as strange anymore. Something to figure out later, after I’d taken care of my mate.
Elodie’s face appeared overhead, and her eyes went wide as she took in the mess the two of us were in. Blood, tacky and crusted, from my many attackers, covered my body, and Olivia was no better off.
“Thank fuck,” Elodie muttered, leaning down a hand and helping Olivia off me. A moment later, she extended a hand down for me, and I took it—after what I’d just been through, I wasn’t too proud.
The moment I was upright, I nearly fell back down.
More than a hundred naked shifters knelt in a perfect circle all around us. At the front of them all, Valens had his knee on Dominik’s neck.
“What happened?” I asked Elodie, who stared at them all as if they were a sideshow spectacle and not a threat.
“You tell me. Samuel and I were fighting our asses off, when they all froze and started running this direction. We knew something was up, so we followed. We found… this.” She gestured back into the woods, where the Hungarian males all waited, kneeling.
“Alpha Vasilescu, if I may?” Valens asked, though he didn’t rise or let his gaze wander above my chest.
He was a powerful alpha in his own right, most likely the new leader of the Hungarians, assuming they accepted him after I killed Dominik for what he’d done to Olivia.
“Yes, but don’t let him go. We have unfinished business.” My wolf’s growl lined the last word, his own desire to finish the one who’d dared harm our mate simmering close to the surface.
“We kneel in honor of our new Alpha.”
I blinked, waiting for more. I glanced over at first Olivia, then Elodie, and Samuel, but they all seemed as confused as I was.
“Who is your new Alpha?” I asked.
“You, sire. You defeated Petró Varga in a fair fight. By pack law, you are the new Alpha of the Hungarian pack. We kneel at your command.”
Well, fuck me sideways and call it a love story.
I’d assumed when Petró died, they’d all run. I did not consider the consequences of becoming accidental Alpha to a pack of bloodthirsty strangers.
I finally looked out over the sea of waiting shifters, mind reeling as I tried to figure out what to do now. Before I could, though, Kane, Dirge, and a fuck ton of warrior maidens with their butterfly swords in hand swarmed into the woods, surrounding us.
Kane strode through the men, and they all flinched back as his unchecked dominance steamrolled over them, pressing them farther down as he walked past.
He stepped up to my side, blanching slightly at the amount of blood covering both Olivia and me, but he covered it quickly.
“Did I just hear what I think I heard?” he murmured, the question only for me.
“Yes, High Alpha. I don’t know what to do. I have no idea how to be a pack Alpha.”
Kane snorted, giving me an incredulous look. “No one does on their first day. You just do it, and over time, you get better.”
“You’re saying I should accept?” There was no way. We had too much work to do; I couldn’t step aside from the pack—taking Olivia with me—in the middle of what was about to be a war.
“I’m saying you already are the Alpha. Do you see the way they waited for you, even when you were on the ground?
That is respect. If a hated Alpha falls low, a stronger one comes behind to replace him.
When you were laid low, they waited for you.
They need a good, honest leader. We both know Petró is not that.
Look out, look at their faces. They didn’t want this battle.
They fought for loyalty, and that doesn’t make them bad men. ”
I did as he suggested, studying face after face. I saw defeat, regret, and shame. Over and over again. Felt it in my chest, actually, echoing through… a new pack bond.
“Did I get kicked out of Pack Blackwater?” I asked, dismayed.
Kane snorted. “Only temporarily. When you became Alpha of a new pack, your own pack bond snapped into place. Once you reswear your fealty to me, our bond will reconnect seamlessly.” He patted me on the back as if we were old buddies talking about the latest rugby game, not the fate of an entire pack.
“I’m not sure I can do it. Olivia’s safety is the most important thing.” I glanced over his shoulder at my beautiful mate, not liking how pale she was, leaning against Elodie’s shoulder.
“I can’t force you to take the pack. But I will say this—I could use a strong ally at my back instead of another enemy at my gates.
Given the circumstances, I’m sure we could get a pair of maidens assigned specifically to Olivia, at least until you felt comfortable with your pack power structure and knew and trusted everyone.
And I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of our other pack mates would be happy to come along and help you rebuild. ”
I looked over again at the women, and Elodie rolled her eyes. “I volunteer. Obviously.” She grinned down at Olivia, giving her a squeeze around the shoulders. “Besties have to stick together.”
“Okay. I’ll do it. There’s a war coming, and we’d be stupid to throw away a whole pack’s worth of potential allies.”
“Good man. How do you want to deal with the cousin?” He eyed the sniveling mess under Valens’s knee.
“I don’t want to deal with him at all. I want him dead.”
Kane nodded, agreeing. “So give the order, Alpha. Take control of your pack.”
I stalked forward, stopping just a few feet away from Valens and Dominik, who’d pissed himself like a puppy.
“Valens, will you accept the position as my second?”
“Yes, Alpha Vasilescu.” He bowed low, the movement graceful despite his awkward hold on the other male.
“You let me escape when he had been torturing me under your previous Alpha’s orders. Why?”
It had taken me a moment to place him, but I remembered now. I’d seen him in the Jeep’s rearview mirror, holding back the other shifter who wanted to chase us down.
“Torture isn’t honorable, sir. It was wrong, what they did to you.” This time, he let his gaze rise to my face.
As I sensed, he was an honorable male. The kind I’d want to have my back. “Then stand him up. He nearly killed my mate, and no one who harms a hair on her head gets to live to see tomorrow.”
“You’ll regret it!” Dominik gasped as Valens’s knee was removed from his neck, and he was dragged to his feet. “We were just pawns. You’ll see! This isn’t the end, and you’re all going to die. You’ll never stop what’s coming for you now!”
I ripped Dominik’s throat out, his screams reduced to gurgles, and then, blessed silence.
It was finally over.