chapter 7
1586 Words
Weak, lowly human…
Not just a human. A bullied girl.
A girl who looked half-starved, bruised, and like she had been surviving on fumes her whole life.
Lucien stood in the rain long after Trent and Kade ran. He didn’t move. He didn’t breathe. Inside him was a mess.
Three thousand years of blood and war and he had always told himself his mate would be strong. A queen. Someone who could stand in fire beside him and not burn.
The Moon Goddess gave him Gwen Brooks.
Gwen Brooks with dark circles under her eyes and a broken box clutched to her chest like it was the only thing left in her world. She was shivering. Her lips were chapped. She looked two seconds from collapsing, and that infuriated him.
Because he was everything she wasn’t. Old. Immortal. Ruthless. He had torn through kingdoms without blinking. And now he was supposed to… what? Protect this?
This was punishment. Not for her. For him.
His eyes dragged over her face. Faint scratches on her cheek. A bruise near her jaw he hadn’t seen before. She looked wrecked. But she was still standing. Still breathing. Still looking at him like he was a monster. That made it worse.
He could feel the bond burning in his chest like a brand. Hot, insistent, stupid. He had said the words in the rain.
“I reject you.”
He had meant them. He wanted them cut off. That should have killed something. But it didn’t. The chain between them was still there. Still pulling. Still mocking him every second he stayed.
Gwen shifted, hugging herself tighter against the cold. Then she lifted her head and looked at him.
“What are you doing here, Professor?”
Her voice was hoarse and tired. Not scared, just confused, like she was too exhausted to even be afraid of him anymore.
That confusion hit him harder than fear would have.
Lucien didn’t answer. What was he supposed to say?
I came because the bond dragged me here like a dog.
The thought made his jaw clench.
“You should leave,” he said finally.
The words came out sharp and controlled. A damn lie.
Gwen let out a breath that wasn’t quite a laugh. “Yeah? Where exactly?”
Silence settled he started blankly at her.
Hospital bills she couldn’t pay. An eviction notice. No apartment. No money. A mother she couldn’t burden. Lucien knew all of it and hated that he knew. She had nothing. And she was still standing there talking back to him.
It made no sense. It shouldn’t matter. But it did. It clawed at him.
“Accept the rejection,” Lucien snapped. He hadn’t meant to say it that harshly. “Say it.”
Gwen blinked. “What?”
“Say it. I reject you, Lucien Quin.”
The moment the words left his mouth he regretted them. Not because he didn’t mean them, because saying them out loud to her face felt kinda cruel.
Gwen looked at him, stunned. Then something in her face broke. Exhaustion, disbelief, anger.
“You’re serious about this s**t?” she whispered.
Lucien said nothing. If he opened his mouth he would say something worse.
Gwen shook her head tiredly. “No.”
That one word hit him like a fist.
“No?” His voice dropped low and was dangerous.
“I’m not playing this,” she said, and her voice shook but she didn’t look away. “You said some rejection crap, then you save me, then you show up acting like I’m supposed to take orders? You don’t get to do that.”
Anger flared in her eyes. Real, messy anger. The kind that came from being tired and hurt and done.
Lucien went completely still. Inside him the bond surged, violent and hot, like it was punishing him for her defiance. It shouldn’t still be there. He had cut it. He had tried to.
Gwen lifted her chin. She was shaking. She had to be freezing. But she didn’t step back. “I don’t know what your problem is. But stop acting like I’m supposed to understand you.”
Lucien stared at her. This fragile, exhausted human girl with no power and no safety and no reason to stand her ground.
The moon goddess was certainly mocking him with the damn curse.
Lucien didn’t argue with her. He didn’t explain. He just looked at her a second too long, like he was measuring something. Then he said, flatly.
“Come with me.”
Gwen flinched. “No.”
It was instant with no hesitation.
Lucien’s face didn’t change. He studied her one more second, like he had expected that answer. Then he turned and walked away.
Gwen stood there watching him go. Her chest tightened. “Seriously?”
He didn’t stop. Didn’t look back.
The night air pressed in. Gwen glanced at the empty street. The ruined box in her arms. The weight of everything she had lost sitting behind her ribs. Her fingers tightened around the box.
“Damn it,” she muttered.
Then she followed. Not because she trusted him. Not because she wanted to.
Because she had nowhere else.
*. *. *
The drive was silent. Lucien didn’t speak. Gwen didn’t either.
She watched the city disappear behind them. The roads got wider. Lights got fewer. The quiet felt wrong. Like it was owned and controlled. Like everything had been decided before she got in the car.
Gwen shifted in her seat. “You always take strangers to creepy isolated places?”
Lucien didn’t glance at her. “No.”
She scoffed are looked away.
The gates opened before the car stopped. Gwen leaned forward. “What is this place?”
Lucien didn't answer. The car rolled into an estate too big, too silent, too clean. Like no one actually lived there.
When the door opened, an older man stood waiting in a perfect posture and a neutral face.
“Master Lucien,” he said calmly. Then his eyes moved to Gwen. He paused, then cleared his throat “Um… I wasn't informed,” he added carefully.
Lucien stepped out first. “This is Alfred.”
Gwen blinked. “Of course you have a butler.”
Alfred inclined his head. “I manage the residence.”
Gwen looked around again. No other staff. No sound. Just this one man in a house that could hold a city. That unsettled her more than it should have.
Inside, the air felt heavier. Gwen slowed her steps without meaning to.
“This place is insane,” she muttered.
Lucien didn’t respond. He walked like he knew every corner. Like silence belonged to him.
Alfred stopped near the entrance, like he knew not to go further. “ I'll prepare dinner.” He said, walking away.
Gwen turned back to Lucien. “You brought me here… why?”
Lucien finally faced her. And for the first time, she saw something shift in him. Not softness. Not warmth. Something he was holding back. Something tight and dangerous.
“Because you’re not safe out there,” he said.
Gwen frowned. “I wasn’t safe with you ten minutes ago.”
His jaw tightened. “You still aren’t. But at least here I can control what happens to you.”
That word ‘control’ hit wrong.
Gwen took a step back. “I don’t need you controlling anything for me.”
“You don’t have a choice right now.” His voice was low.
That certainty scraped at her.
“You pushed me away earlier. You said some rejection s**t, and now you drag me here like I’m supposed to stay?”
Lucien didn’t deny it. He didn’t look away either. “I changed my mind.”
Gwen let out a sharp breath. “That’s not an explanation.”
“It’s the only one you’re getting.”
Silence hung in the room. The air between them went tight.
Lucien’s hand flexed at his side like he was holding himself back from something. His eyes flicked over her face, her arms, the bruises she was trying to hide. Something in his chest pulled hard, and he hated it. That stupid bond.
“I don’t know why I can’t walk away from you,” he said finally. Quiet and rough, like admitting it cost him.
That honesty hit harder than any threat.
Gwen blinked. “That’s not reassuring.”
“It’s not supposed to be.”
Something in her snapped. “I should leave.”
Lucien didn’t stop her. He didn’t stop her either. He just watched her.
Gwen turned sharp and walked fast toward the entrance. The house felt longer now. Too long and too quiet. She hit the stairs…and stopped.
Lucien was already at the top. Standing there like he had always been there.
Gwen froze. “How did you…”
She didn’t finish. Because when she looked back, he wasn’t behind her anymore. There was no sound, no movement. Just that same impossible stillness. She turned slowly back to the staircase.
Lucien’s voice came down calm, but it wasn’t calm at all. “You’re not leaving tonight.”
Gwen’s stomach knotted. “Why?”
He didn’t answer. And that silence was worse than any reason he could have given.
Gwen stared up at him, heart hammering. Slowly realizing something she didn’t have words for yet. This wasn’t normal. The man standing in front of her wasn’t human. Who the hell was he?
- Writer
