195

195
Lucien pov
Moonblood's massive gates broke through the darkness beyond my windshield, and my shoulders dropped with relief. The moment I had been pushing toward for days was finally here.

Delays were something I had zero patience for, which made Kylie and Idori's agreement to receive me the next morning feel like a gift. Out of habit, I typed a short message before gesturing for the window to roll down. The guards on duty clocked me immediately and cleared the way without a word.

Bretton being Bretton, he had refused to send me off without backup. Two Frost Fang wolves  Bea and Ivar  had ridden with me the entire way. My trust in them had been tested and confirmed. That still did not make their presence enjoyable.
Small talk had filled the hours between there and here, all of it meaningless. Every exchange reminded me of what was waiting on the other side of the people who actually knew me. I found it strange that Bretton had not paired them off as mates for this assignment. Though knowing him, sitting in a car watching over me was probably their punishment for whatever they had botched before.

Darkness had swallowed the town whole by the time I reached for my phone and typed out a message to Cassius.

The plan was simple. Drop Bea and Ivar at the guest house, shake them loose, and find my people. Something in my gut already told me that seeing Selena again would not be easy. Whatever was coming, I would face it without an audience. Certainly not Frost Fang wolves watching every flicker on my face. Moonblood wolves either, for that matter.

Bea cut the engine outside the guest house, and it was only then that a thought surfaced  I genuinely needed to thank Bretton. When Bloodfang had made his move on Selena, we had abandoned our vehicles and given chase through the wildlands in wolf form. Having Bea and Ivar here now meant they could take the Frost Fang trucks back. Cassius and I would reclaim our own.

"Pull out everything and get settled," I said flatly. "I have business with the others."

The Howling Evergreen. The name sat on the tip of my tongue and I swallowed it back. Letting any Frost Fang wolf hear me speak of them as a separate pack would unravel everything. I led both packs now. Acting like it was the bare minimum expected of me.

Every Moonblood wolf who caught my eye on the walk toward the den tested what little composure I had left. I returned each greeting with a manufactured smile and kept moving. Pushing them back would have been easy. A single hard look from an alpha usually did the trick  but I was a guest here. Kylie and Idori had been generous, and I had no interest in squandering that goodwill before our meeting tomorrow.

The den door swung open and something inside me exhaled.

This place felt more like mine than anywhere I had ever stood. I pulled in a long slow breath and sorted through what I found there  Cassius, present and familiar. Selena, warmer and closer than I expected. Rowan, faint but there. And then the gap where Luca's scent should have been. My wolf felt that absence like a bruise.
Upstairs, the room they had kept for me was tidy, my belongings arranged inside. I stripped down, loaded my clothes and a gun into my sling bag, and reviewed the plan in my head. Wolf form through Moonblood would draw less attention, fewer conversations, fewer curious eyes trailing after me.

The idea of Selena running beside me after all this time sent heat crawling beneath my skin.

I pulled the front door shut, turned the lock, and let the shift take me. Above, a pale half-moon floated between patches of cloud. The day had completely surrendered to the night. The timing could not have been more fitting.

Then my paws met the earth beyond Moonblood's wall, and doubt landed on me like a stone.

What if her wolf looked at me and felt nothing?

The full moon was still far off. Nothing would be decided tonight. But the hunger for her wolf's recognition was already eating through me, sharper than I wanted to admit.
My wolf took the wheel. I felt him settle with no trembling, no hesitation, only a deep and steady pull toward the one he had been waiting for. He wanted to see her. Wanted to find his mark on her and confirm what he already knew

The scent reached me before I heard anything.

Sharp. Sweet. Completely consuming.

Someone had already told me she had slipped into heat again. Even knowing that, the force of it staggered me. My pace doubled without a conscious decision. The mate bond stretched ahead like a thread pulled taut, and her scent thickened with every stride, impossible to ignore.

My wolf ran hard. My human mind wrestled with every step.

Coming to her in wolf form  letting instinct lead instead of words  maybe that was the coward's path. But I needed to see her wolf before anything else. To look at her with my own eyes. The pack had told me to expect something unexpected.

Whatever that meant, I was about to find out.