Chapter 122

Mira

Lucian was waiting for me, just as we planned.

He was partially out of sight among the trees, looking nervous but excited. He was like a boy going on an adventure knowing that there might be danger, but even that would be exhilarating in this case. It was cute, in a way, and I chastised myself for thinking it.

“Are you ready?”

His voice was soft, sounding out of place in the quiet morning in the woods. Lucian reached out to take my bag, but I held it close. I didn’t need his chivalry, only his assistance in absconding from the Pack.

I threw the strap of my duffel around my chest so it rested on my back, maybe a little too dramatically to assert my independence.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

We walked in silence, Lucian following behind as I started trekking through the trees. Taking the trail for a few minutes, I chose a moment to veer off and head north. I had coordinates and a map and my innate sense of direction to guide me towards our destination.

It was hard not to think of Dominic.

I was already feeling guilty, and maybe I was a coward for leaving without a word. At least we’d had one more night together, a lasting memory of our love. Even if our love wasn’t strong enough to hold our relationship together.

My body tingled as the memory of Dominic’s hands on me came back to me. Waking in the night, not questioning what our bodies were choosing but giving into that undeniable connection between Mates. I loved him so much that I cried as my body shuddered underneath him, tears falling from the corners of my eyes.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

I nearly tripped on a rock when Lucian’s voice broke through my reverie. I glanced behind me and slowed my pace in a way that allowed him to walk beside me.

“They’re swirling,” I said, “like leaves in the wind.”

His thick eyebrows went up. “Poetic.”

“Observational.”

“Mmm,” he agreed, nodding sagely. “What other observations are we having this fine morning?”

I sighed. “That I’m a fool and an agent of chaos.”

“Wow okay, going in the deep end immediately,” he said playfully. Lucian was always trying to make my woes seem lighter than they were. “Is this about anything in particular? Or just, you know—“

He spread his arms out, gesturing everywhere.

I laughed. “All of it, sure, but especially now,” I confessed. “I feel so driven to do this, and yet so unsure if I’ll ever actually know what is the right thing to do.”

“Well, that’s different for every person,” Lucian mused. “I’m sure this doctor, or mad scientist or whatever he is, thinks he’s doing something right too.”

“Maybe, yeah,” I said, chewing on the thought.

Maybe there is no right way.

“Are you worried about…” He didn’t need to finish for me to know whom he meant.

“Yeah,” I said, my voice cracking. “Do you think he’ll hate me forever?”

My eyes were stingy as I tried not to let tears fall. I came to a stop, suddenly feeling too tired and weak to move. Lucian stopped and looked at me.

“Mira, he’ll understand—“

“But what if he doesn’t?” I was losing the battle against my emotions. “What if no one does? Do I lose my Pack by trying to save it?”

“Hey, hey,” he came toward me and put his long arms around me. He held my head to his chest, as one would comfort a hysterical child. “People will understand, and if they don’t they don’t deserve you.”

I knew he was talking about Dominic specifically, but I let it go.

“I, for one, am not going anywhere.”

He kissed the top of my head, then let me go. He held my shoulders for a moment, like he was about to give me a pep talk. But he said nothing. He just patted my arms oddly and turned us back the way we were walking.

Lucian’s feelings for me were clear, even though he knew nothing more would happen between us. After we kissed, I became so embarrassed and he was so apologetic and we promised to move on as friends. But it’s easy to say that, not always easy for each person to adapt to different feelings.

“Thank you,” I said after a minute or so.

He just looked over at me and smiled, and we went the rest of the way side-by-side. The only sounds were footsteps on the soft earth and the chirping and creaking of the forest waking up.

As planned, Lucian had parked a car at another trail head and I had planned our trailblazing to take us across the woods to get there. He didn’t even argue at the tall order to discreetly rent a car to give us an extra edge of anonymity for a while. I wondered if I was taking advantage of his affection for me, though I assured myself that it wasn’t harmful so I could move on.

“Can I drive?”

Since moving in with Dominic, I had not driven a car. A luxury to be chauffeured, but I missed that freedom that came with careening down an open road.

Lucian tossed me the keys and I caught them in one hand.

“All yours.”

I found a radio station that played jazz music, and drove off. I found myself looking in the rearview mirror every few minutes at the beginning, but gradually my paranoia wore off and I settled into the zen of driving.

“We used to camp out here, when we were little,” Lucian said after a while. “Tessa hated it, but I always looked forward to sleeping under the stars.”

“That sounds nice,” I said, imagining a young Lucian cozy in a sleeping bag. “I always wished we’d done that. Did your mom go, too?”

It felt awkward to bring her up, since Irene was still incarcerated for her plots to harm Dominic. But Lucian seemed okay, and either way she would always be his mother.

“Yeah, she also wasn’t a huge nature fan,” he said, smiling at the memory. “It was really my dad’s thing, I got it from him.”

“I haven’t heard you mention him before,” I said, looking over at him from the corner of my eye. “Has he been gone long?”

Lucian looked straight ahead, his jaw tightening. “Um, yeah, it’s been a while.”

I waited for more, but he didn’t say anything else. After a moment I focused back on the music, my mind settling back into calm.

My calm was interrupted by Lucian’s phone, buzzing sporadically. He sometimes answered quickly, but sometimes he would try to ignore it.

“Is that important?”

“What? Oh, no, I’ll just—“ he typed two words into a message, then held down the side button on the phone. “I’ll just turn it off for a while. It’s annoying.”

He put his phone in his pocket, then turned to the window.

The road disappeared underneath us.

The Pack

Celeste is busy this morning, tapping away at the keys of her laptop. The desk in her bedroom is small, but she makes do. Of course, she knows there are other suites in the Alpha mansion that would provide her with more space, but she wouldn’t complain about the charity she was shown by Dominic and the family.

Her phone lit up once more on the table next to her. She picked it up to read two words, then put it back down. She seemed content with whatever information she received, at least for now.

Looking over her shoulder, we see her continue drafting an email. She is using a company account, relaying results from the early stages of the supplement trials. She is pleased with her work, and hopes it doesn’t go unnoticed that she has been a dedicated minion within the corporate hierarchy.

A cold smile crossed her face as she typed.

“…these people are like sheep, it’s so easy to make them fall in line with my plans.”