Zane - Confessions of a lycan

Chapter 10

Lucien

I never would have thought that this mission would blow up entirely in a matter of minutes. Because of a mate, non the less, bloody hell. Definitely time for some damage control. The Lycan in front of me was elegantly dressed in a gray suit and slicked back, perfectly styled hair. Albeit a little roughed up after Zane's outburst. He tried to look authoritative, but I could clearly see that the kid was barely dry behind the ears.

"You heard what his highness said. Take the money he bid as a final offer. We don't want any hard feelings between us. But I hope you understand that Zane is the kind of man who would never allow another man to walk away with his true mate."

“As you wish, my lord. I completely understand and I will speak to my boss about what happened here tonight, and of course we will take full responsibility."

"I am deeply grateful, sir? I never caught your name?”

"My apologies, my name is Mark...Mark Bancroft." The poor bastard looked like he was going to piss himself any minute.

I couldn't help but play with the little mouse. After all, we were here to gather information and we just got another name to add to the list.

"My oh my, Vicomte Bancroft’s son? Give your father my best. I haven't seen him in a while. I hope all is well? Judging by your expression, your father doesn't know about your little side activity, is that correct?”

“No My Lord. He definitely does not. I hope I can trust in your discretion.”

"But of course. Just like you, I don't want to be associated with this kind of activity. If I sold you out, I'd sell myself out as well, wouldn´t I?” That answer seemed to calm the young man. But the opportunity was too good not to try to continue fishing for information. "I would like to speak to your superior myself. Sort out this unfortunate situation that happened here tonight. Do you have a phone number so I may contact him?" Mark didn't have time to answer me before a seemingly very upset Nolan came fuming through the door.

"Where is she?!!" He hissed through clenched teeth. Before Mark got a chance to answer, Nolan had him up against the wall with his hands around his throat. He tried in vain to pull Nolan's hand from his neck, but to no avail. He didn't stand a chance against a 350-year-old vampire. I stood and nonchalantly leaned against the wall. Seemingly bored with the scene in front of me.

"If you want him to be able to answer, I suggest you put the boy down, Nolan. Before he passes out from lack of oxygen.”

Nolan's face turned to me so quickly I'd be surprised if he didn't get whiplash.

His eyes shined with coldness and anger but also something else more difficult to define. Could it be madness I saw there, deep in his gaze? I didn't let anything shine through my facial expression, but I had a feeling that we had run into trouble. Big trouble.

He took a step towards me, hissing. I refused to move so much as a finger. All I gave in response to his provocation was an arrogantly raised eyebrow. "What seems to be the problem if I may ask?" I wasn´t stupid. I understood that it was the girl Zane took that got him so upset. But something told me there was more to the story than just stalled bidding and a misstep in protocol.

I also noticed that the girl reeked of vampire.

"The problem is that the fu*king curtains fell before the bidding was over and Lily is nowere to be found. Where the hell is she?!”

Poor Mark was still on his knees coughing. Yet he still found the balls to answer a raging, crazed vampire. He was either brave or plain stupid. "She is sold to Prince Zane. She is his true mate."

"What the hell are you talking about? What the fu*k have you done!" This was turning into utter chaos.

"Nolan, calm down. You guys got the $500,000 Zane offered for her as a friendly gesture for letting him have her. He would have burned the whole club down if someone took her away from him. You have to understand that.” My comment didn't seem to make him think rationally at all. Instead he hissed and lunged at me with full force.

Bloody bastard, this was one of my favorite suits...

***

Lily

It felt like I was floating outside my body. The rollercoaster of the past few days must have overheated the last bit of my sanity because I could barely take in what was going on. That wolf, Zane, who made my heart skip a beat and sparks fly, just swooped in and saved me. What were the chances of my true mate coming in and saving me at the last second?

Not so big because, on the other hand, he was there to buy one of the women. One of all the scared, broken, humiliated women. Women kept in cages and starved. What kind of man did that?

Being forced to stay with Nolan would, no doubt, have been painful.

But having a mate who was the kind of man who hung out at those kinds of clubs was more than I could bear.

My mother died when I was only 6 months old. She took her own life. She left behind a letter and that letter, along with a gold necklace with a locket attached, containing my mother’s picture in it, was all I had left of her.

The contents of that letter broke my heart every time I read it, but I still kept it.

She wrote how she loved me more than anything else. That I was the most beautiful thing she had ever done.

But the pain of the betrayal from her true mate was more than she could bear. That she couldn't be the mother I needed.

After that, nanny Wanda raised me until I was seven. However, one day I woke up to find that Wanda was no longer there either.

I looked everywhere, asked everyone, but got no answers. I cried myself to sleep every night for weeks.

From that moment on, I was forced to work as an omega in the packhouse. Where I had to live in the basement until the day I was abducted. The heartbreak of Wanda leaving me was still there, buried deep in my heart like a thorn.

My mother's fate caused this turn of events to strike pure terror into me. I refused to meet a fate similar to hers.

Being mistreated and sidelined because I wasn´t considered good enough.

I understood why she took her own life. But I would either escape or take my own before a child came into the picture who had to suffer the rest of his or her life because of the consequences of my actions.

Before tonight, I couldn't understand how my mother could fall for a man like my father. How he managed to seduce her and then depose her as his mistress while marrying another she-wolf for alliance and power, without her putting her foot down.

But the second Zane pulled me into his arms and his wonderful scent of sandalwood and leather hit me and my whole body began to tingle with all the sparks flying. I understood. I understood that when your mate holds you in his arms, all your worry, all your pain just slips away.

My thoughts had wandered so far and become so dark that I didn't notice that the car had stopped.

Before I knew it, the car doors opened. Zane pulled me out and lifted me up into his arms again.

I looked up at him. He looked thoughtful. Maybe even worried. Worried about what?

Even when he looked brooding, he was the most gorgeous man I had ever seen. His raven black hair was shaved on the sides and long on top. He had a lock of hair in the front that seemed to keep escaping, falling down his face. It took all my self-control not to reach up and brush it aside. He had a scar that ran through his left eyebrow and a couple of days-old stubble that gave him a rugged badboy look. But what really got to me was his eyes. His dark brown eyes with gold flecks that seemed to hold a lifetime full of sorrow and loneliness. But the look in his eyes, the soul I thought I could feel behind them didn´t match the kind of man that went to a woman´s auction at all. Maybe it was the matebond talking. Trying to make me see things that didn´t exist. Time would tell…

He took me up to a penthouse apartment still carrying me in his strong arms. The apartment was very modern.

Open floor plan with a minimalist design. The floor was in a shiny stone material, and the entire far wall was a single large panoramic window where you could see over the city that never sleeps.

In front of the large window was a beige lounge group. With two smaller, futuristic designed, glass tables in between.

To the right, in the middle, was a stone wall divider with a built-in fireplace, that broke up the room into two, with passage on both sides. Behind it I could get a glimpse of a kitchen, but Zane headed to the right and took me up a glass-railed staircase.

The apartment was beautiful. Even so, I couldn't help but notice that there didn't seem to be any personal belongings in here.

I still hadn't said anything because his aura was stifling. I had only met a few Alphas in my life but none of them had radiated as much strength as this man. He took me down a short corridor and into a large masculine decorated bedroom.

On the right was the same type of beautiful panoramic window that I saw in the living room.

The bedroom consisted of black and dark green colors with a king-sized bed against the wall to the left.

Zane walked through the room and opened the door to a beautiful bathroom, that were in the same dark tones.

At the far end was a built-in bathtub that looked out over a large window that showed New York's skyscrapers.

On the left was a large glass shower that could easily fit five people. This kind of luxury was completely foreign to me.

He sat me down on the marble bench next to the sink and moved to stand in front of me.

He looked deep into my eyes, as if he could find all the secrets of the world hidden in there.

What would he think of me when he found out who I was. What my background was? Would he still want me then?

My nerves got the better of me and I turned away from his intense gaze.

"Look at me, wildflower." He stroked my cheek with his thumb, and I couldn't resist turning to face him again.

He really was a true specimen of a perfect male wolf.

"What´s going on inside this beautiful head of yours, hmm? I promise and swear, Lily, that you have nothing to fear from me. I want nothing more than to spoil you and treat you as you deserve. Do you believe me?" He looked genuine, but my past had crashed into the present and I didn't know what to believe.

"I understand that you have questions. That the circumstances of how we met must be seen as highly inappropriate. I understand how it looks. Nevertheless, I promise and swear to you that there is an explanation, Lily. Can you please just give me 1 day and then I will explain everything to you? Right now, I just want to take care of you. You must be exhausted, and you smell like that fu*king vampire. He didn´t touch you, did he?" The last came out as a growl and I couldn't help smiling a little at his possessiveness.

"No, not really. But you're right, I'm hungry and tired. We can let go of everything that happened tonight, for now anyway."

It would perhaps give me some time to straighten out my feelings and understand the man who was my mate a little better.

But my words didn´t make the scowl on his face disappear. "What the fu*k do you mean by; Not really?"

Sh*t, now he looked pi**ed. Why did that turn me on?

"Calm down, Zane. He didn't touch me, not inappropriately anyway." I looked down at the floor, embarrassed.

My words seemed to have calmed him down a bit. Except I knew I had to tell him everything. Because eventually he would see for himself anyway. "Though, he might have.. uhhm, bit me."

“HE DID FU*KING WHAT!!” He roared so loud that my head automatically flew up. He looked murderous.

What on earth, were his eyes all gold? Holycrap! He wasn´t an Alpha werewolf. He was a goddamn Lycan.