Chapter 68: The Letter

Olivia’s POV

​Security around the pack house has become ridiculously tight, and I haven’t been able to sneak inside without risking being caught. Tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m., bring the money and meet me at the abandoned bookshop ten minutes from the pack house. Come alone. And don’t do anything stupid.

​Owen.

​My heart began pounding as I read the message again. After all this time, Owen had finally contacted me. I had spent days wondering whether he was still somewhere in Full Moon territory or if something had happened to him.

​Apparently, nothing had. And apparently, blackmailers didn’t believe in giving up.

​I folded the letter quickly, climbed out of bed, and hid it deep inside one of my wardrobe drawers beneath a stack of clothes. Then I returned to the bed and sat down, pressing my fingers against my temples as I tried to think. I needed to find a way to get the money to Owen, meet him without anyone following me, and return to the mansion without Lucian discovering what I had done.

​The sensible thing would have been to tell Lucian, but that wasn’t exactly an option. Telling him about Owen meant explaining why a guard from Blood Moon Pack was secretly blackmailing me in the first place, and that conversation would eventually lead to the tiny problem of me not actually being Princess Annabel.

​There was nothing else I could do. I had to meet Owen.

​The thought alone made my stomach tighten. Owen already knew the one secret that could destroy everything I had managed to protect since coming here. If he exposed me, the treaty could fall apart, Lucian would discover I had been lying to him from the beginning, and I had no idea what Kenneth would do once the truth came out. Worse, I still didn’t know how Owen had discovered my identity in the first place. Meeting him was dangerous, but continuing to avoid him wasn’t going to make him disappear. If anything, it might only make him desperate enough to expose me.

​I was still sitting on the bed, trying to figure out what I was going to do, when the air inside my bedroom suddenly shifted.

​I gasped and jumped to my feet, my heart immediately racing. For one horrible second, I thought Lucian had returned. But when a figure appeared in front of me, I realized it wasn’t him.

​"Lucas?" I pressed a hand against my chest. "What are you doing here? You can’t just appear in my bedroom like that."

​His lips almost curved into a smile, but it disappeared quickly. "I can’t stay here. Lucian could come at any moment, and I don’t want him finding me in your bedroom." He glanced toward the door before looking back at me. "Come with me. I want to take you somewhere we can actually talk."

​I hesitated. The sensible thing would probably have been to stay in my room and avoid both brothers for at least a week. Unfortunately, sensible decisions and I didn’t seem to be getting along lately.

​"Okay."

​Lucas held out his hand, and when I placed mine in his, he wrapped an arm around my waist. A second later, my bedroom disappeared.

​Cold night air immediately blew my hair across my face. When my feet touched solid ground again, I looked around and realized we were standing on the rooftop of Lucas’s pack house. The dark forest stretched around the territory, while the lights from the buildings below glowed softly in the distance.

​Lucas released me and turned to face me. "I missed you, Annabel. I’m sorry I’ve been so busy. There was a lot I had to deal with today."

​"It’s okay," I said, wrapping my arms around myself against the cold. "You don’t need to apologize."

​His eyes moved over my face, and the softness in his expression slowly turned to concern. "What’s wrong?"

​"Nothing," I lied.

​Lucas gave me a look that told me he didn’t believe a word of it. "Annabel."

​Why did every man in this family say that name as though they already knew I was lying whenever I said nothing was wrong?

​"I’m just exhausted."

​Lucas studied me for another moment before asking, "Did Lucian do something to you?"

​My thoughts immediately returned to Lucian standing in my bedroom, the anger in his voice, the sudden kiss, and the expression on his face after I bit his lip. I quickly pushed the memory away and looked toward the forest.

​"No, he didn’t do anything," I said quietly. "I’m just tired."

​Lucas didn’t look convinced, but thankfully, he didn’t push me. Instead, he reached out and gently tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear.

​"You don’t have to handle everything alone," he said softly. "You have me."

​My chest tightened slightly at the words, but they also reminded me of exactly how dangerous this situation was becoming. I took a small step back and looked at him.

​"Alpha Lucas, this is risky."

​His brows pulled together. "What is?"

​"This." I gestured between us. "Meeting secretly. Being alone together. Whatever is happening between us. I’m still Lucian’s wife."

​"No, you’re not," Lucas replied immediately.

​I frowned. "Lucas."

​He took a small step toward me. "You were forced into a treaty, Annabel. Signing papers didn’t make you his wife. There was no wedding, no vows, no ceremony. You don’t belong to him."

​"It doesn’t matter what you think," I said, shaking my head. "Everyone believes I’m his wife, and Lucian believes I’m his wife."

​Lucas held my gaze for several seconds before asking quietly, "And what do you believe?"

​My lips parted, but no answer came.

​What did I believe?

​That should have been an easy question, but apparently, easy questions had stopped existing the moment I entered the Full Moon Pack.

​Before I could think of an answer, Lucas suddenly went completely still. His head turned slightly toward the other side of the rooftop, and I frowned as I watched his nostrils flare. He slowly breathed in the cold night air once, then again, and every trace of warmth disappeared from his face.

​"Lucas?" I asked, watching him carefully. "What’s wrong?"

​He didn’t answer immediately. His eyes remained fixed on the darkness as his entire body became tense.

​Then he looked at me.

​"Why the hell is Lucian here?"

​My heart seemed to stop.

​"What?" I whispered.

​Lucas turned back toward the darkness, his jaw tightening.

​"Lucian is here."