Chapter 1: Meeting Lucien

AIMEE’S POV

My name is Aimee Garcia and for the longest time, I have been all alone, I have no family and I witnessed my parents being murdered when I was just three years old. I moved between foster homes and several families but I never felt like I belonged with any of them. Despite my unfortunate childhood, I centered my life and goals on attending college, trying to get a degree so I could get a good job and build a better life for myself. I pride myself as a smart young woman and I only believe in factual, logical happenings in the world. I believed there would always be an explanation for everything and I never believed that supernatural beings and creatures from other dimensions existed. All these and more made me an average human being and in my 21 years of existence nothing strange happened to me to change my beliefs and that continued to be the case until I met HIM; I still remember it like it happened yesterday.

It was a Monday morning and I dashed across the hallway in an attempt to make it to class on time, it was my first class of the day and I was running late as always. It wasn’t my fault though; I had been having weird dreams and seeing a creature that I couldn’t explain which had been making me wake up later than usual. Luck was on my side this time and I barely made it into the lecture theatre just as the class was about to start and found my way to my usual seat.

I was about to take my seat when I heard someone shout, “What took you so long woman!” That was my best friend Reine; a super cheerful and jovial person and the only friend I had managed to make since my first year in college. We did everything together, and we even lived in the same apartment together.

I gestured to her to keep quiet as the lecture had already started and I was calling attention to us. Then I started to take notes, and She did the same. Halfway through the lecture Reine leaned towards me and whispered in my ear “Do you remember my older brother that I told you about, he recently reached out to me that he was in town and he would like to visit. I have invited him over to the apartment later this evening; I hope that is fine with you because I want you to meet him as well”. I looked at my friend surprised that I even had to ask, and I quickly responded, “Of course I would love to meet your brother, Reine, I know he means a lot to you”.

From what I had heard about Reine’s brother and from pictures of him that I had seen, I knew that he was a very tall and insanely attractive man with jet-black hair and dark pupils. He gave off a dominant and mysterious vibe, and Reine’s other friends who had met him fawned over him all the time. They claimed he was someone every woman would want in her bed, yet he didn’t sound like the type of man I would involve myself with. I didn’t believe in falling for the bad boys, but he was Reine’s older brother, and that was a good enough reason to want to meet the man.

The class ended, and it was Reine’s only class for the day, but I still had a couple of things to do at college, so we decided that I would go home to prepare for her brother’s visit, and I would leave later when I was done for the day. We hugged, said goodbye, and then headed in opposite directions. I got busy completing my remaining tasks on campus, and after a couple of hours, I was exhausted. I took a quick restroom break to touch up my face to look presentable before heading home.

I washed my face and took a look in the restroom mirror, then I looked at my facial features for the first time in a while. I didn’t consider myself ugly, but I didn’t feel that I was overly attractive. I noticed my siren-shaped eyes with blue pupils, a trait I am told I got from my mother, and a sharp jawline I heard I got from my father, and I stared at my most noticeable feature of all. My hair is very long and has a unique colour; it is platinum blond, almost white, and the most remarkable thing was that neither of my parents had that type of hair. I stepped back and looked at my body. I never really worked out seriously, but I have always seemed to maintain a toned and athletic body. I am slim with well-toned abs and well-rounded hips. I stared at myself in the mirror almost mesmerized in a trance-like state and would have continued in that state but I got a sharp notification on my phone. It turned out to be a text from Reine telling me that her brother had arrived at the apartment and that it was to be a short visit so I should head back to the apartment already.

As I walked back to the apartment, I started to get a sense that something strange was about to happen. I tried to pass it off as being tired from the day but the feeling stayed on my mind to the point where a shiver went down my spine and I even got Goosebumps all over my body but I still decided to ignore the feeling and responded to Reine’s text that I was on my way.

Within the next hour, I arrived at my apartment building. I took the lift to our floor and as I approached the door I began to smell a very strong and distinct scent, it smelled of musk and sandalwood and I just figured it was the scent of a regular man. However, the scent filled my brain and seemed to intoxicate me and I looked around anxiously searching for the source of this scent.

I sniffed around and as I got closer to my apartment door I heard Reine talking to someone, I heard him respond and his voice was so deep and captivating. I opened the door and I was immediately filled with the strong scent again, I faced the source and direction the scent was coming from and found that the person had their back turned to me. I heard my friend call out to me; I heard her say something but my brain could not process what I was hearing. All I wanted at that moment was for this mysterious man to turn around and face me, I wanted to understand how and why a person could smell this good and also why the scent was having such an effect on me.

The mystery man rose to his feet painstakingly slowly and I could visibly see him sniffing around as well, I was a little surprised because at that point I was quite sure that he was the source of the scent. As I waited for this man to turn around my heart started to beat faster, and I found myself sweating and taking in shorter laboured breaths. I didn’t understand what was going on and I had never found myself in that state before, my body was responding in a way it shouldn’t because that weird interaction did not warrant such a reaction. I hadn’t even seen the face of the man that was making me feel that way.

I tried to calm myself down and maintain a calm composure but my legs were turning to jelly and I could barely stand upright. I saw the man walking towards me but everything was coming as a blur. At that moment, my brain felt mushy and I began to wonder if maybe I had been drugged sometime during the day. I had to hold onto the furniture because I could feel my legs buckle beneath me, I was very nervous and anxious for this man to get to me and it seemed like an eternity.

The mystery man finally got to where I was standing and stopped right in front of me. I stared at his feet first and my eyes slowly travelled along the full length of his body, I ended up having to look up to see his face, and immediately I stared at his face, and we locked eyes.