Chapter 18
1613 Words
Lilly POV
‘Maeve, what was that?’
No answer.
‘Maeve? I can feel you in there. Answer me.’
She burrows herself deeper in my mind. I’m so confused.
As soon as I saw him, I couldn’t take my eyes off him and, trust me, I tried. I physically couldn’t do it. My heart rate spiked when he stood before me. When I reached out to shake his hand, it was like it happened in slow motion.
As soon as our hands touched, I felt the most amazing tingling sensation. My tattoo warmed at the touch, but not painfully. It was soothing, comforting even. I let myself enjoy it for a fraction of a second before pulling my hand back in surprise when the tingles started to get intense.
I couldn't help but look him in the eyes, study him. My sub-conscious yelling at me because this is the Lycan King, and I am taking in every… single… inch of him. Every fiber of my being drives me to memorize the way this man looks.
His eyes, the color of honey, with gold flecks on the edges. Strong, defined jawline, deep black hair that seemed so soft, long and wavy on top with a maintained fade; I just wanted to run my fingers through it. Evenly tanned skin, he was tall, like his Beta, extremely muscular, tattoos lined both arms and his neck. I caught myself wondering just how much of his body was covered.
'I want to see how far down they go.’ Maeve hummed, agreeing.
I noticed a barely-there smirk appear on King Lucian's face when he moved on to shake Sasha’s hand. My mother stepped up to my side and I internally scolded my wolf. I shook myself out of the trance-like state I was in and noticed both my parents and brother looking at me with different shocked expressions. Behind them the Alpha and Luna had slight smirks on their faces.
“Sweetheart, why don’t you go find Macy? We’re going to join Max and Mallory on the tour with the King.” My mother said.
King Lucian follows the Alpha inside to get their rooms settled. I just nodded and headed off. I felt like I couldn’t pull myself away, but I also knew that I had to get out of there. I needed to breathe.
‘Maeve…’
‘Lilly.’
‘Is he dangerous? Is that why you’re so quiet’ I asked her.
‘He’s the Lycan King. What do you think? Of course, he’s dangerous. But WE are in no danger.’
‘Then what?’ I proded some more.
‘Patience.’ She replies and hides herself away again.
Great. My wolf won’t tell me anything. The Moon Goddess said she would answer my questions and now she’s refusing to.
‘Fine. You’ll have to tell me at some point!’
‘Can you just be patient about this one thing?’ She echoes from her hiding spot.
I pull out my phone once I’m on the street where Macy lives and dial her number. It rings once and she picks up.
“That was quick.”
“Yeah, meet me outside in five?”
“On my way.”
I walked for a few more minutes before I saw her heading my way.
“You okay?”
“I don’t know. I met the Lycan King.”
“And? How did it go?!”
We link arms and head to our trusty café.
“Something strange happened, Mace.”
Once we have our coffee and find a quiet corner, I explain to her what I experienced when I met the Lycan King. From the tingles to the overwhelming need to run away, and back to the intense need to run my fingers through his hair at the same time. I have no idea what came over me.
“What does Maeve say about it?”
“Absolutely f*****g nothing. She won’t tell me a damn thing.”
We sat in silence for a while, drinking our coffees and eating our pastries. Macy’s the first to speak.
“What if… and just think about it, but Lilly, what if he’s your mate?”
I look at her like she’s lost her mind.
“Me? No. There’s no way! There’s got to be something else. Maybe… maybe it’s a royal thing? I mean, with my birth father and all, that makes me half right?”
“Another possibility, but I like the mate option better.”
After a moment, Macy scoots her chair closer and takes a breath.
“Okay, enough about the Lycan King for now. Your birthday is Saturday. Does your mom need help decorating the house?”
“Probably, and the party will be at the pack house. She insisted on the great room and Luna Mallory agreed. I’ll ask her and let you know. I think she wants to start setting up first thing in the morning though. It might be better if you just stayed at my place tomorrow.”
“Sounds like a plan to me. We can do a junk food and bad movie night.” Macy says, eyes lighting up. “I’ll let mom know tonight at dinner.”
“How was the lunch?” Macy asked after a few moments.
“Oh Goddess.” I groan recalling the lunch.
“That bad huh?”
“Everything was fine, we were all chatting, enjoying the food and then Marcus happened.”
“You didn’t... explode him away from you again, did you?”
“Explode him away? What does that even mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean.”
“No, okay. Listen, he made this huge scene at lunch about wanting to choose me as his mate. How he just felt some connection with me. When I refused, again, he absolutely lost it. Started saying he would make me his mate. You should have seen the look in his eyes, Mace. It was… it was feral. It was there one second and gone the next. Something is wrong with him. Like really wrong. When it was over, he snapped back to reality and apologized. The look on his face, Macy,”
Macy gasped. Feral wolves were dangerous and unpredictable. Anyone can go feral, but it's more typical among rogues. The lack of a pack, lack of community, drives the wolves mad over time. Sometimes, in rare cases, it's something in the DNA. Pack or no pack, some poor wolves just turn. But Marcus is young, too young, and I hope I'm wrong.
“And no one else saw it, did they?”
“No, his focus was on me. By the time dad and the Alpha stepped in, his eyes were back to normal. I… I can’t explain it. By the time I came to grips with what I saw ”
“Okay, so how do we figure it out? It’s not like you could ask him right? Would he even listen?”
“I don’t know. This is my problem, Mace, I’ll handle it.”
“Hell no, I’m with you on this. What’s the plan?”
“Just keep an eye on him for now, I guess. If we notice anything out of the ordinary with him, we need to look into it.”
Macy and I sit and chat for a little while as we tend to do, before we decide to wrap up. I get a refill on my drink before we leave. I decided I wanted to go for a run, so I parted ways with Macy and headed home to change into my workout gear, finishing my coffee on the way.
Once I walk inside, I ask my mom quickly about Macy, and she immediately agrees to both her staying over and her help. After a quick hug, I ran upstairs to change into my running gear. I shouted that I'd be back by dinner and left the house.
My run starts along the eastern perimeter of the pack territory, and I make my way towards my favorite spot in the dark woods, the clearing. This will be my last time here before I shift.
After about half an hour, I came to the familiar path that would take me to the clearing. Slowing my run into a brisk walk, I headed down the path and started to see the light peak through the trees, signaling the clearing ahead. A strange scent stops me in my tracks. It smelled almost like the café, roasted coffee. Only that wasn’t the only smell in the air. I take a moment to take in my surroundings and smell the air deeper.
Chocolate and citrus.
I’ve smelled this combination before, the last time I spoke to the Goddess. There was a hint of this exact scent in the clearing. I took in my surroundings once more and found I was alone. I took a shaky breath and continued my way towards the clearing. The scent got stronger the closer to the tree line I got.
Before I could step out of the woods, I noticed a tall figure standing just outside the tree line, looking around at my secret hiding spot. My heart jumps into my throat and I hide myself behind a large tree, peaking my head around to see what the man is doing. He has his back facing me, but he’s tall, with deep chocolate brown hair, shaggy and mid-length. His shoulders are broad and riddled with muscles. Slowly he starts to turn and once he faces me, my jaw drops.
‘What is he doing here? How did he find it?’
‘I don’t know.’
- Writer
