Chapter 3

How do I look away now that I have seen you?

— Rachel Mennies.

LUCIEN

I was burning.

Not just warm, feverish. My skin was slick with sweat, my muscles coiled tight beneath me, but I couldn’t focus on anything except the throb between my legs. I was in the forest. Barefoot.

Naked. Hard.

Gods… her.

I caught onto her scent quickly. Lavender. My feet moved before thoughts caught up. I was hunting, but she wasn’t running. She stood there, back arched and chest bare to the night, her body bathed in moonlight like it belonged to the goddess herself.

And she wasn’t scared.

She wanted me.

“Lucien,” she breathed, the sound curling into my ear like smoke. “Claim me.”

I didn’t walk, I lunged. Grabbing her hips, I pulled her against me, grinding my cock against her bare skin as she let out the softest whimper, so fucking sweet I saw stars.

She tilted her head, baring her neck like prey. I growled, dragging my tongue from her shoulder up to her jaw, sucking hard until I knew she’d bruise. I needed to mark her. Own her. My hands roamed without restraint, gripping her tits, squeezing as my mouth descended, licking, devouring.

Her nipples were so soft in my mouth, and gods, I couldn’t stop sucking. First one, then the other, tongue swirling around the swollen buds while she squirmed in my grip, whispering my name like a prayer.

I flipped her, pinned her to the forest floor, my cock so hard it hurt. She reached between us, guiding me in like she’d done it a thousand times. She moaned when I entered her, a sound I felt in my spine.

I started thrusting, slow at first, dragging it out, watching her mouth drop open, her eyes roll back. Her walls squeezed me so tight I could barely breathe. I gripped her thighs, wrapped them around my waist, and slammed into her, growling against her mouth. She clawed at my back. I couldn’t hold back.

Her moans. Her heat. The way she sucked my neck when I leaned over her.

Fuck, I was spiraling.

Possessed.

Right at the edge—

I snapped awake with a harsh gasp. My chest was heaving. My hand was buried beneath the covers, wrapped around my wet cock. My thighs were trembling, hips jerking up like my body was still trying to fuck her.

“Shit.”

My palm was coated and my sheets, damp. I didn’t even remember touching myself in my sleep, but my cock was twitching, leaking, aching for more. I lay there, breathless and heart thundering. I could still smell her, still taste her on my tongue.

I looked down at my hand, still twitching like it didn’t want to let go. Like some part of me hadn’t come back from the dream. It felt real.

Too real.

I stumbled into the kitchen sluggishly, my palm still tingling from where it had curled traitorously between my thighs while I slept.

My betas, Rowan and Damien, were already at the table—Rowan munching on toast while Damien stood close to the door, attempting a TikTok-style dance with deadly seriousness while two confused female wolves tried to keep up. Kyle, my gamma, watched me with wary eyes.

The chatter coming from members of my pack was usually welcoming, the highlight of my morning, but not today. Not while my other half was so close yet still so far from me.

I growled, a low, guttural sound that rumbled from my chest before I could help it. It wasn’t conscious. It wasn’t performative. It was instinct.

The silence that followed was thick. Awkward, even. I stalked past them to the fridge, grabbed the first bottle of cold water I could find, and drained it like my throat was on fire.

“The rogues who stole a large portion of our food have been captured,” Rowan muttered under his breath. I didn’t answer. My head was still full of her, her scent, the weight of her on my hips, the teasing grind of her heat against me.

Fuck.

I leaned against the counter, willing my heartbeat to calm down. My hand tightened around the bottle.

The bass thumped under my boots the moment I stepped into the club, lights slashing through the haze like claws. I hated places like this. Too loud. Too crowded. Too human. I moved between work and home, always. My pack was my priority. I didn’t come out to drink or dance or whatever the hell people did here, but I still owned one or two places like this.

Something drew me to this one. A pull. Faint at first, like a whisper on the edge of my senses.

She wasn’t dancing. Not exactly. Just... existing in red. Crimson hair framed her face like a firelight, curls brushing her collarbones like they were worshipping her skin. Her makeup was sharp, unapologetic. Lips painted like sin and eyes like trouble.

It hit me like claws to the chest. My breath caught. My wolf howled. She didn’t see me, not yet.

But I saw her, every command of attention. She owned the room without even trying.

And I knew, in the ache blooming low in my gut, that I wasn’t walking out of here the same.

Her scent, sweet heat and something maddeningly soft underneath, slammed into me.

Something that made my teeth ache and my chest clench like she was already underneath me.

Our eyes locked minutes later as she danced, and it felt like the room cracked. Static raced down my spine, and I swear every instinct sharpened to her.

But there was nothing, no hum beneath her skin. No whisper of power. No pull of a bonded wolf pressing back against mine.

She was… human.

My entire body tensed, a growl caught in my throat like it was trying to claw its way out. The ache to claim her intensified. Human or not, my wolf and I didn’t care.

But I was supposed to.

“She’s mine. Why do I have to wait?” I muttered to myself, but loud enough for the betas and gamma in the room to hear. No one spoke. They all felt the shift in the air. My chest rose and fell like I’d just run for miles, and my palms were burning. My wolf was restless—clawing beneath the surface, wild-eyed and snarling.

Aside from my betas, nobody knew how their new Luna looked. Word got around fast in the Obsidian Pack about how I found a mate, but it wasn’t confirmed. By word got around fast, I mean Damien giving his mate, Alana, all the details during their nightly cuddles and her telling the other females during their spa visits.

Harmless gossip, he called it.

“Let’s go to the cellar,” I said.

The rogues were putting up a fight, but I was taking my sweet fucking time. My claws hadn’t even emerged, but the brutality in my hands was enough.

Why would she need to strip?

One slash tore open the bastard’s back, and he howled.

Why the hell is that stingy fuck her boss?

I didn’t even let him breathe before my fist cracked into his jaw, which made his teeth go flying.

Ew, man.

The room stank of blood, sweat, and fear. Normally, I was clinical with this shit. Clean. Sharp. In and out. But today, my mind wouldn’t let her go. That red wig. The glitter on her skin. The curve of her hips when she danced.

Then later, bare-faced in the park. Stubborn. Fucking breathtaking.

I let the rogues go—unchaining them all so they could lunge at me like wild dogs.

What kind of man would I be, what kind of Alpha, if I fought an enemy bound and helpless?

The first one came charging. I dodged his punch like he was moving in molasses, twisted my hips, and landed a kick so deep into his ribs he dropped, choking on blood.

“I could just keep her,” I muttered under my breath, circling the next one. “Skip all the werewolf bullshit and just keep her close till she falls for me.”

“Who sent you?” I snapped, turning on the second rogue still staggering from Rowan’s last hit.

He flinched like a coward. Pathetic. Freelance thieves or sent by someone, threats were threats, and I spared no mercy when it came to my pack.

He didn’t answer fast enough. Damien’s fist answered for him.

Her being human didn’t matter, not to the bond, not to me. But in my world? It was enough to make being with her feel like treason.

Kyle stood in the corner, keeping time and logging movement. Smart, sharp, and the only one who could hack through supernatural databases without a trace.

The rogues were now a blubbering mess. Their faces were matted with blood, skin shredded in streaks, and I couldn’t help the small grin that crept to my lips. There was something beautiful about broken enemies. Each mark, a warning to anyone else stupid enough to try.

Still, her face lingered.

Why won’t she accept my gifts?

According to Rowan, human girls loved receiving gifts and cards and large amounts of cash. But her? She didn’t want it.

Is this a human ritual I’m not aware of? Reject every offering until the man loses his mind and howls at the moon? Because I’m halfway there.

I caught a whiff of the same scent that hit me in my dreams, in the park, and at the club, causing me to freeze. I stalked over to the small, grated window at the corner of the cellar, hoping, at the back of my mind, that finding your mate didn’t come with schizophrenia.

A yellow sundress clung to her curves, her blue eyes focused with determined fire, and an envelope was clenched in her fist like a weapon.

Fuck. I guess yellow’s my favorite color now.

Rowan came up behind me, stepping to the window—no doubt to see what made me pause during my favorite activity of most days.

“Why the hell is she returning the damn money?” I growled.

“Watch out!” Kyle shouted.

A sharp crack exploded at the back of my head. My skull rang. Pain lanced through me as blood dripped into my mouth from the impact. I stumbled slightly, vision doubling, but it didn’t matter.

She was here.

She came to me.

To see me.

That meant something. That had to mean something.

Rowan and Damien didn’t hesitate. They pounced back into action, claws ripping through those who dared interrupt my moment. I barely noticed. All I saw was her.

She was at the door now, jaw tight, anger evident on her face. Four of my guards stood between her and the entrance, uncertain and on edge.

I didn’t blame them. Her energy was unlike any human I’d seen, and coupled with the fact she was my mate? It read like danger.

“Stand down. Let her in immediately,” I snarled through the mind-link, letting the command pulse through every nerve.

My claws pricked at my skin from the inside, aching to burst through.

She flinched like she hadn’t expected them to step aside so fast. Her eyes darted around like she was expecting something, scanning, before her gaze locked with mine through the window.

Well, hello, princess.

And my wolf, restless for days, finally settled.