14: Two Provoked Beasts

Lucien

It’s been two weeks of not riding to work together, and even though I shouldn’t care how she was commuting to work, I cared. Over the weeks, I've learnt that she wasn't just commuting to work on the public bus; she had also befriended a lewd-looking guy from the administrative department. They do everything together these days, commuting to work, eating lunches together, and becoming best friends. 

It wasn't in my business who she was befriending, but it unsettles me. How much time she was spending with him, how she spent her free hours in her office giggling at her phone. I knew she was chatting with me and watching everything from my office, which always leaves an unpleasant taste in my mouth. I resorted to keeping her up and busy, so she wouldn't have time to frolic with him. And even though I knew how stupid what I was doing was, I couldn't bring myself to put a stop to it. 

Just like I couldn't put an end to the constant and everyday hunger that had wrapped itself around my neck like a vice and wouldn't let go, no matter how hard I tried to fight it. 

Her scent that drifted to my nose every fucking minute of the day. Both at home and here in the office, her scent had overpowered everything, and it was becoming impossible to ignore. Her blood was all I wanted to drink: the ones I was getting from my suppliers stopped quenching my thirst. Every single time I saw her, my fangs would grit and the need to bury them inside her neck, but I couldn't. 

I couldn't touch her anymore, not after that night. Putting her on her knees and fucking her runny mouth was the most exhilarating moment of my life. Watching her reactions and smelling her arousal grew the more I buried my dick deep inside her mouth. 

And then, I lost my mind when I got a glimpse of what it means to stuff her pussy hole and fuck the defiance out of her. Her moans, her throaty gasps, her whimpers… Every single one of her reactions to my thrusts was perfect. I wanted to replay them in my mind for days on end. 

I wanted to hear those sounds every single day for as long as possible. And that annoyed me. She shouldn't have that much control over me. She shouldn't have any control over me at all. If I were going to put my hands on her, it should be to prove one thing: that she was a whore who got wet for her stepbrother. It shouldn't be because I actually… 

Her throaty laughter filled the air, and I observed as she threw her head and laughed at something on her phone. I knew it was a message from that Theo guy. 

I pressed the intercom without a second thought. She was in front of me in less than a minute. 

“Fetch my coffee,” I commanded with my eyes locked on the document I was supposed to be reading. She didn't say anything, but I knew she was wondering why I was requesting coffee at an hour I'd never asked for before. 

She returned a couple of minutes later with my coffee perfectly prepared the way I like it. When she set it down in front of me, I noticed her eyes linger on my left hand, and when I saw what she was looking at, the usual anger I've always felt towards her spiked. She wasn't just looking at my ring; she was observing it like a scientist would study a specimen. 

“Nice ring,” she muttered in a quiet voice when she noticed that I had caught her looking at the ring. 

There was nothing nice about the ring. Even though it was tiny, it was an ugly little thing, and I knew Hera must have kept it that way. It was a small ring, but it was also the one thing keeping me alive. 

“It's neither diamond nor gold,” I told her, even though the monthly money I sent to Hera was far more expensive than any luxury item, “I don't see why you should be interested in it.”

“I'm not vain,” was her stiff reply before she walked out of the office. She had barely taken her seat when she got busy with her phone again. I made a mental note to implement a no-phone policy during office hours. 

My ringing tone distracted me from my thoughts. It was Hera again, and I was reminded of all the unpleasant things I feel about it. I thought of not picking up, but knowing her, she'd keep calling, so I picked up. 

“Can this be postponed? I'm in the middle of a very important meeting.”

“You wouldn't have any meeting to attend, little prince, if the whole world should find out your little secret.”

My hand tightened around my phone with endless ways of taking Hera’s life playing out in my mind. When I met her ten years ago, I thought she was a blessing, a divine being that was sent to put an end to my days of misery and days of hiding in dark rooms during the day but over time, I've come to realize that she was the biggest curse in my life, bigger than my hidden identity, bigger than my the curse that makes the sun my enemy. 

“What do you want, Hera?”

“Awwww,” she cooed in a sarcastic tone, “don't sound too tired to hear from me. I'm your benefactor afterall.”

Benefactor? Don't make me laugh. If I had never met her, my life would have been better, but I couldn't just walk away now. She knows my secret, and she'd ruin me with it. 

“My girls didn't get into the jobs they applied for.”

“That's not my business. They got perfect recommendation letters from me. If they didn't get in, that means they are not qualified.”

“You're the Lucien Thorne, little prince,” her tone was still sarcastic, “You can make them overqualified with just a snap of your fingers.”

“You can't keep doing this, Hera,” my voice was a low growl with my two monsters rearing their heads, “We had an agreement. Pay you monthly, and that was it.”

“Well, having the upper hand makes it easy for you to switch up the agreement anytime you want.”

“I'm not going to do anything.”

“You're going to do everything, Lucien. You know how ugly it gets when I get angry.”

I know perfectly. I was well accustomed to her anger. Like that one time she tipped off a reporter about my identity when I didn't do what she wanted, and I had to race the clock to stop the reporter from publishing it or anything else in the future. Or when she showed up to one of our council meetings and acted super close to me to the point that the members suspected that we had something private going on. 

I was well accustomed to her anger. I knew exactly what she could do if I didn't do whatever she wanted. 

And that was when, after I dropped the call, I was so blinded with rage that I thrashed everything that was on my desk. 

Maeve came rushing in. She stopped short at the door when she saw my overturned office. 

“What the hell… What happened here?” Her eyes zeroed in on my wrist, which was bleeding from the force I had used to clear my table, and she walked in fully. 

“Oh my god! You're bleeding. I'm just going to…” She fetched a fat chunk of tissue rolls, but by the time she made it to my side, the wound had closed up. She didn't notice it, though. She kept cleaning the blood. And she didn't see that she had put herself in the harms way by moving this close to me when I was enraged and my two beasts were fully provoked. 

I looked down at her petite frame, at the veins in her neck and the sweet blood running through them. I licked my lower lip at the sumptuous early dinner. 

A low growl tore from my throat. 

She stopped. The tissue dropped from her hand, and when she looked up, the look in her eyes was one of pure terror. 

It was satisfying to watch. 

She cowered back, slowly, a staggering movement to her frail body. I knew what she must be seeing. A monster with my fangs on full display, my claws clawing their way out, and my eyes morphing from the redness of my vampire side to the blueness of my wolf’s. 

“Lucien, please don't…” was her soft, broken plea before I pulled her into my arms like she was nothing but a piece of feather and buried my fangs into the crook of her neck. 

Her instant scream was that of pain and pleasure.