Chapter 29: Leave

Lucian’s POV

​The slap snapped my head to the side. For a second, I didn’t move. My cheek burned where her palm had landed, and every bit of anger inside me demanded a reaction. My wolf pushed against the surface, furious at the disrespect.

​Then I looked back at her, and everything inside me went still.

​Annabel was staring at me with wide, terrified eyes. The anger that had been on her face only seconds ago was gone. Her lips parted as if she had just realized what she had done. Then her eyes dropped to my hand, and she flinched violently.

​Before I could even move, she squeezed her eyes shut, threw both hands over her face, and curled her entire body away from me into a tight ball on the mattress. She was waiting for the hit. She was genuinely expecting me to strike her back. I could see it in the way her shoulders had pulled up, in the way she covered her face, and in the way she pressed herself into the mattress as though she were preparing for the blow.

​The anger inside me disappeared so quickly. A cold wave of shock hit me straight in the chest. Did she really think I was going to hit her? Was that what she thought of me—a woman beater?

​I had never laid a hand on a woman in my life. The thought of hitting her, of using my strength against a defenseless female, made my stomach turn with disgust. Yet there she was, cowering under me, terrified that I was going to beat her.

​Then my eyes dropped to the torn red fabric around her body, and my stomach tightened. What the fuck was I doing? I had lost control just because I saw Lucas with her. Had I really been about to force myself on her because I was jealous?

​Jealous. The word irritated me immediately, but what else could I call it?

​I looked at Annabel again. Her eyes were still tightly shut. One hand remained over her face while the other desperately held the torn dress against her chest.

​Disgusted by my own actions, I backed away from her instantly and stepped off the bed. My hands were shaking slightly, but I clenched them into tight fists at my sides.

​She flinched again, and that small movement hit me harder than the slap had.

​I said nothing. There was nothing I could say that would make what had just happened look any better. I walked toward the heavy door, unlocked it, and pulled it open. For some stupid reason, I looked back at her. She had finally lowered her hands, but she was watching me carefully, almost like she still expected me to turn around and hurt her.

​My jaw tightened. I stepped outside and shut the door behind me, leaving her alone.

​I didn’t return to the festival. I couldn’t face the crowd or the people. By the time I reached my private quarters, my head felt like it was going to split open. I pushed the door shut behind me, walked straight to the chair near my bed, and dropped into it.

​I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees before rubbing both hands over my face, massaging my forehead as a deep exhaustion settled into my bones. What the fuck was that? No answer came, of course.

​What was wrong with me? Why had I snapped like that? Why had seeing her with Lucas driven me so completely out of my mind?

​Lucas would never force himself on a woman, and he certainly wouldn’t steal his brother’s wife. I knew my brother. I trusted him. But when I saw his hands on her arms in the courtyard, something primitive and ugly inside me had snapped. I had completely lost control.

​I leaned back and stared at the ceiling. This entire thing had started because of Lucas. I had seen the way he looked at her downstairs. I had noticed it before tonight, too—at dinner, when she was injured. Every fucking time Annabel entered a room, my brother’s attention somehow found its way to her.

​Lucas would never go after my wife. At least, that was what I had always believed. But tonight? I wasn’t so sure anymore.

​I knew my brother. I knew when something interested him, even when he refused to admit it. Lucas could lie to the entire kingdom with a straight face if he wanted to, but he couldn’t lie to me. And there was something about Annabel that had caught his attention.

​The thought made my jaw tighten again. Why did I care? She wasn’t mine in any way that mattered. The marriage was an agreement. That was all. So why had seeing Lucas’s hands on her made me lose my fucking mind?

​Before I could think about it any further, a sharp pull cut through my thoughts as a mind-link entered my head.

​Alpha, the voice echoed.

​I immediately recognized it: Salaam, one of the top investigators I had assigned to a search I had refused to give up on for years.

​I sat up straight, my body going rigid. Speak.

​We have a lead.

​My entire body went still. What kind of lead?

​There was a brief pause. The woman you’ve been searching for. We still haven’t found her, and we don’t have a name yet, but the information we’ve gathered recently has led us to the Blood Moon Pack. We believe she either lived there or had some connection to someone there around the time you met her.

​My heart gave a heavy, violent thud against my ribs. She was in the Blood Moon Pack? Of all the fucking packs in the kingdom...

​How certain are you?

​Certain enough that I’ve already sent two men there. We’re checking old records and questioning people who lived in the area four years ago.

​I stood up from the chair, panicked. Then don’t stop. Ask everyone. Guards, healers, servants, traders. Anyone who might remember something.

​Yes, Alpha.

​And if they don’t want to talk, pay them. Pay off anyone you have to pay. I want names, I want locations, and I want her found alive. Do you understand me?

​Understood.

​I don’t care what it costs, Salaam. Find her.

​Yes, Alpha, Salaam replied before the connection disappeared.

​I remained standing, running a hand through my hair. Blood Moon Pack. My hands slowly curled into fists. She had been there? All these years of searching, and the trail had somehow led me straight to the pack I hated most.

​Then another thought entered my head: the war. My chest tightened. The Blood Moon Pack had just been torn apart in a brutal war. Hundreds had died—warriors, civilians, people who had simply been caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. What if she had been one of them? What if my own soldiers had killed her during the invasion?

​No. I immediately rejected the thought. But it returned anyway. What if I had spent four years searching for a woman who had died only months before I finally got close to finding her?

​"Please, no," I muttered. "Please, Moon Goddess, let her be alive."

​The words had barely left my mouth when my bedroom door suddenly opened without a knock. I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. Only one person in this entire mansion had enough nerve to walk into my room like that.

​Lucas walked in, his broad shoulders tense and his expression blank. He shut the door behind him and stopped a few feet from my bed, glaring down at me.

​"What you displayed downstairs was ridiculous," Lucas said, his voice flat and full of disapproval.

​My brows pulled together as I turned slowly to face him. "What exactly did I display?"

​Lucas stared at me. "Do you seriously need me to explain it?"

​"I took my wife upstairs. Last time I checked, I don’t need permission to speak privately with my own wife."

​Lucas scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest. That sound alone irritated me. "If you don’t want her, send her back to her pack."

​I stared at him, then laughed once without humor. "So you can go and get her?"

​Lucas said nothing. He didn’t deny it, he didn’t blink, and he didn’t take it back. My expression hardened as that silence set my blood on fire all over again.

​"Interesting," I muttered.

​"Don’t start."

​"No. I think you’ve already started something."

​Lucas’s jaw tightened.

​I stepped closer, my voice dropping into a warning. "I think it’s time you teleported back to your kingdom. Your presence here is beginning to make me uncomfortable."

​His eyebrows rose, a short, harsh laugh escaping his lips. "You’re sending me away?"

​"You heard me."

​The amusement disappeared from his face completely. "It seems you’ve forgotten two very important things, little brother."

​I stared at him coldly.

​"One: I am the Alpha King, which means I can enter any pack under my kingdom whenever I choose," his voice became harder as he stepped closer. "And two: this is my paternal pack, too. Our father’s pack. I grew up here just like you did. You don’t get to throw me out because you’re suddenly having problems controlling your jealousy."

​My wolf pushed forward. "Watch your mouth."

​Lucas stepped closer until we were chest-to-chest instead of backing away. That was the problem with having an Alpha King for an older brother; everyone else knew when to lower their head, but Lucas had apparently missed that lesson.

​"What the hell is going on with you?" I demanded.

​"With me?"

​"Yes, you. Are you interested in my wife?"

​Silence. Again, no immediate denial. My jaw locked.

​"Lucas."

​"What?"

​"Answer the fucking question."

​He remained quiet for another second, and something ugly twisted inside my chest.

​"You wouldn’t dare," I growled, my wolf clawing at the surface.

​Lucas held my gaze for three long seconds before he stepped toward me until only a small distance remained between us. "I have no interest in your wife."

​I stared at him. "Then why did it take you so long to answer?"

​"Because I’m trying to understand why you suddenly care."

​My expression darkened.

​Lucas continued before I could speak. "You know me, Lucian. You know my heart has belonged to one woman for four years. I have searched for her since the night I met her. I haven’t forgotten her, and I haven’t stopped looking."

​My anger eased slightly. I did know. Everyone close to Lucas knew. For years, women had tried to get close to him—noble daughters, Lunas, princesses—and he had rejected every single one, all because of a woman whose name he didn’t even know. He had been just as obsessed with finding his lost girl as I was with finding mine.

​Lucas stepped back. "So stop creating problems that don’t exist." He turned on his heel and walked toward the door, slamming it shut behind him.

​I stood there in the quiet room, my jaw tight. If Lucas wasn’t interested in Annabel, then why did he keep looking at her that way? Why was he constantly hovering around her?

​Maybe I was imagining it. Maybe my mind was playing tricks on me because of how stressed I was.

​Maybe the problem is you, my wolf suddenly said from the back of my head.

​I frowned. What is that supposed to mean?

​Maybe you’re beginning to like her.

​"Impossible," I said out loud, my answer coming immediately. Annabel? Absolutely fucking not. "She’s just..."

​I stopped. Just what? My punishment? My responsibility? My wife?

​Fuck. I rubbed a hand over my face.

​You haven’t touched a woman in four months, my wolf reminded me dryly. Not since the war started. You’re just sex-starved.

​Yes, that had to be it. It was just basic physical frustration. My body wanted something, nothing more. It had nothing to do with Annabel herself.

​I pulled off my boots and lay back on the mattress, staring up at the ceiling.

​Then Annabel’s face returned to my mind. Her eyes squeezed shut. Her hands covering her face. Waiting for me to hit her. My jaw tightened.

​Should I apologize to her?

​I immediately frowned and shook my head. "No. Absolutely not."

​I closed my eyes, forcing myself to settle down, but sleep wouldn’t come. Every time I tried to drift off, the vision of her trembling body flashed behind my eyelids—the torn dress, the terror in her wide eyes, the way she had curled into herself expecting a blow.

​"Damn it..." I growled under my breath, my frustration boiling over.

​I snapped my eyes open, kicked the covers aside, and stood up.