Chapter 4: The Hunt Begins
1334 Words
-Lucian-
I ended up in the dining hall again. All the others were already gathered here except Angela. She was spending all her time with her mother, trying to help the way she could. Angela always had her meals brought to her. Sometimes one of us would do it, so there was someone with her. I hadn’t really seen her much. I always thought Angela was the one who got away. Now I was starting to see, I had no idea what I was even talking about. She was nothing compared to my feisty little beta, who seemed to like to run from me. She would not get far. Cecilia would be mine, there was no doubt about it.
“Lucian took you long enough,” Valerio joked.
I just smiled and sat down. I wasn’t really hungry. But I would give my mate a little head start because when I came for her, there would be nowhere to run.
“Wait, where is Cecilia?” Lara asked and looked around the table.
“I scared her away,” I said.
Lara looked at me almost annoyed, while some of the others started to laugh. They thought I had probably just tried to get her to bed, and that was not completely wrong, but it was different. I didn’t want to take her to my bed, because I wanted a quick f*ck, I wanted her there because she belonged there.
“Dammit, Lucian!” Lara said. “You know how hard it was to convince her to come here?!”
“Easy now, little luna, he probably didn’t even know it was her,” James said and smiled, finding it funny.
“I didn’t,” I said.
“So, you just like to flirt with any strange females who find their way into the castle?” Lara asked.
“Apparently so.”
That made a few of the males around the table laugh, but the rest didn’t seem so impressed. I wasn’t going to reveal yet who Cecilia was to me. I had to convince my little mate to accept me first before I gave them the happy news, so I let them believe what they wanted.
“You’re going to fix this!” Lara said and pointed to me.
“Me?!”
She nodded and I smiled. Maybe Lara would let me right into the house then. It was going to be an easy hunt.
“Calm down, Lara,” Selene said. “Anyone here could have scared her away.”
“I know, but it was hard to just get her here!” Lara said.
“Maybe it was too soon.”
“Too soon?! She has been cooped up in that house since she became part of the pack!” she said. “She needs to see other people. Don’t you want to see her again?”
“Of course, I do,” Selene said. “I want my daughter to know who she is named after, but we can’t push her.”
“Pushing her is exactly what we need to do,” Lara said. “Or she will never leave the house.”
Selene just shook her head, a smile on her lips, but it was clear she was done with the conversation. Lara turned to me again and our eyes locked.
“I will bring her back, and you will apologize.”
“Apologize?!” I chuckled.
I was not going to apologize for anything. She was the one who was going to say sorry for running from me, once I got my hands on her.
“Exactly!”
“For what?” I asked.
“For whatever you said that scared her away,” Lara said.
“She was the one sneaking around the castle. Why didn’t you keep your eyes on her or give me a warning?” I asked.
“A warning?!”
I nodded, smiling smugly. It was actually a little amusing being the only one who knew the truth about Cecilia and I.
“You’re the one who brought her here,” I said.
“Yes, and you scared her away. Now you get to fix it.”
“She is a rather careful one, isn’t she?” I asked, hoping to learn a little more.
“She is cautious, yes,” Lara said.
“Why?”
“Well, she had a mate once.”
“And?” I asked.
“One who dumped her.”
“I know that but who was he?” I asked.
Lara shrugged.
“I am not sure,” she said and turned to her sister.
Her sister held up her hands, looking lost.
“I don’t know either. She told me very little,” she said. “Just that he left her for someone else.”
“I see …”
“Yes, so don’t use any of your tricks on her,” Lara said and had picked up a butter knife now, and was using it to point it at me.
“Or you will stab me?” I joked.
“Stab you, cut you, throw it at you, I haven’t decided yet,” she said and smiled.
I looked at James rather shocked, but he just shrugged, almost looking a little proud of his mate.
“You should know by now not to mess with my mate,” he said.
“I didn’t mess with her. I messed with her beta,” I said and smiled at Lara.
Lara narrowed her eyes.
“And if you mess with my pack members, I will cut you.”
“Aha, so you are going to cut me,” I teased.
She just shook her head, but there was a smile on her lips, so she couldn’t be very mad at me if I could make her smile.
“Don’t try to distract me,” she said, still using the knife to point at me. “Your charm doesn’t work on me.”
“So, I have a lot of charm?”
A few laughed, while Lara and I continued to “argue”, teasing each other, and I had to say I was glad I decided to come down for dinner tonight, or I wouldn’t have run into a certain person.
“Fine, fine,” I finally said. “I will make it better.”
“No, don’t say it like that,” Lara said.
“What?”
“Like that! Like you will use your flirty eyes and charming smile on her. That is what scared her away in the first place!” she said.
“So, I can’t even smile?”
“No! You need to look bored.”
“Bored?”
“And uninterested,” she said.
“You have got a lot of rules.”
Lara smiled and nodded.
“Cecilia is like … a stray dog. She won’t just come running to you, trusting you. She needs time and space,” Lara said.
I was not giving her either. Time and space?! No f*cking way. She was my mate, and she had to realize very soon that I was not letting her go because I had never before met a female who could make me go that crazy by telling me to go away. It was the completely wrong thing to say because now I only wanted her more.
“I thought you said she needed to be pushed,” I said.
“Not by you!” she told me.
“It is all very confusing.”
I shook my head, and Lara groaned annoyed, but then soon a little furball who had disappeared out of the blue jumped up on my lap, shocking me a little, while she looked over the table with her hungry eyes, taking it all in. I ran my hand down her head and she looked at me again.
“Well done,” I whispered, now understanding why she had needed me to follow her.
- Writer
