Chapter 3

(Lucian’s POV)

It was never in the plans to tell Emi Moon that I’m her mate nor was it ever for me to act on it.

Four years ago, I stood outside the janitor’s closet, fighting back my instinct to go to her. I had seen what my good for nothing cousin and his little play thing had done to her. It wasn’t until she rushed by me, stumbling into the hallway that the truth struck me like lightning.

I followed her. This painful excruciating need to comfort her, mark her, claim her, and mate with her tore through me. I was so close to abandoning everything for her, but in the end, the weight of my responsibilities were and are just too great.

I had made promises that others relied on me keeping. There were things that need to be squared away before approaching her if I ever did. She wasn’t a part of my world. She wanted a simple life, a simple way of living.

As an Alpha King, nothing is simple about my life and I can’t offer her simplicity. The only thing I could do was make sure she lived her life comfortably and make both Spencer and Lysette suffer for humiliating her that night.

My plan to humiliate my cousin and his fiancée easily fell into my lap when she applied to be my personal assistant. For years, I videotaped Lysette using her feminine wiles on various clients. Lysette thought it would gain my trust, but it only cements what I already know about her. I thought it would be a nice gift for my cousin to watch his freshly claimed mate servicing other wolves at his own mating ceremony.

Everything was going well. It was going to plan. Until the one thing I didn’t count on was my mate bursting into my office and discovering out I’m her fated mate. The way her eyes flared with desire when her eyes first met mine before it died like a dying flame dwindled to ash.

When she ran from me, a fear laced with panic fueled me. The moment I looked straight into her eyes in the elevator and that pain reflecting in them I knew I couldn’t pretend anymore that I could stay away from her.

The secrets she tried to keep from me clawed at me. The way she backed away from me with unshed tears in her eyes as I tried to stop the elevator from closing burns into my mind, chest, and entire body. Those tears that managed to escape down her cheeks.

Now she knows the truth and it’s something that can no longer be ignored or avoided or hidden or even denied. We can no longer exist with our two worlds separated. The moment she collided into my world, there is no way I can let her return to hers now that she knows. For the first time, the wolf and predator in me finally feels alive and restless.

Emi thinks she can hide from me in my own city. I have eyes everywhere. I’m not a fool. She won’t listen to me right now. I don’t expect her to. She knows I was the one that walked away years ago. She’s not stupid. I knows she knows I have a fiancee.

I need to wait for the right time and right window of opportunity to confront her. I have ways of provoking her into coming out of hiding. She’ll come to me and I’ll let her think she’s winning this battle, but I’m an Alpha, I’m here to win the war.

My eyes slide from the elevator to my best friend, Adam Delacroix. He raises an eyebrow at me, wondering how I’m going up react to this turn of events. I glance down at the basket he’s holding in his hand, realizing it’s the basket Emi gives every time Adam does business check-ins with her.

“She developed a new mini cake line,” he tells me with a smirk as he hands me the basket. “It seems you were her muse even before she realized it. She made a tiramisu mini cake after I slipped up and told her your favorite dessert was tiramisu.”

Emi is talented. There’s no doubt about that. She is a mastermind baking up tasty treats. I may have provided the funds, but she’s the true heart and soul of her masterpieces. Those customers and profits are from her dedication and hardworking. She never stopped learning either. She would take more baking classes to learn more and develop her skills.

“I should probably find a way to thank her,” I tell him casually as if she hadn’t just escaped from me like a scared rabbit. “Shouldn’t I?”

He smirks, shrugging his shoulders. “Probably in your best interest and mine that you do. I’m not willingly to let go of my goodie basket, Lucian, so you better fix this.”

“That clause was in the business agreement, right?” I ask. Adam’s eyes light up, knowing exactly what I’m referring to. He nods his head. “I guess it’s time to come out of the shadows then.”

Adam chuckles, crossing his arms. “Her sister leaves for classes in the afternoons. She’ll be forced to be at her shop those times.” His eyes study me for a moment. “Are you ready for this? Nothing is squared away with the lovebirds yet. How exactly are you going to pursue her when you’re supposed to be courting Jasmine? The circumstances haven’t changed. You’re still stuck in the same boat as you were when you first scented her.”

It’s true. I’m still stuck in an impossible situation. I won’t deny that. It’s why I haven’t tried to approach her in the first place. My father has been hounding me for years to take Jasmine as my mate. With my public indecisiveness constantly on display, it’s given Jasmine and Southern Alpha King Cameron, their other best friend, time to figure out how to come together in spite of the bad blood between the Eastern territory and the Southern territory.

“It’s no longer an option to stay away,” I finally tell him, remembering her violet eyes filled with unshed tears. The moment she figured out the truth, I knew that there’s no other way around it. “Rejecting her isn’t an option. It never was. I watched her get destroyed twice — once by my cousin and the second by me. I don’t have it in me anymore to destroy what’s supposed to mine again and again.”