35 Chapter 35 THAT WAS STRENGTH
“Are you kidding me? You breezed through that last drill almost as fast as I do.”
I looked at her in confusion. “Right.”
“Is there any place we could go in this city without running into a member of your family?” Lucian said. There was teasing in his tone, but I didn’t even have it in me to laugh
at the joke.
“I care about who’s around you,” he said, eyes flicking back to my neck. “She hugged you for the scent to stick like that. Who were you with?!”
I cocked my head. “Huh?”
have
She leaned over and patted my cheek affectionately. “All in good time, babe. I’ll explain in good time.”
My head dropped to the side, and the last thing I felt was Lucian’s hand-steady, careful -catching my head before the darkness swept me into sleep.
My eyes widened, too, at the fact that I’d just sent a full-grown Alpha flying when opening a jar of pickles was my Achilles heel.
My pulse thrummed, my breath caught. I was buzzing.
***
Lucian didn’t speak for a long beat. He simply placed a hand gently on my arm.
“No,” I whined, holding my head up with my hands; it felt too heavy to hold on my own. “We’re celebrating.”
“Oh, is that what this is?” I wheezed. “Cause I could have sworn I was dying.”
Lucian was charming and warm as always, but something behind his eyes had changed. Maybe it was me-replaying Maya’s words in my mind: ‘You can’t tell me you haven’t noticed how he looks at you.’
“As friends,” I emphasized. “To celebrate today. I was gonna ask if you wanted to come.
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35 Chapter 35 THAT WAS STRENGTH
“Where she goes or who she spends her time with is none of your business, Lockwood,”
Lucian said, his voice firmer.
I rolled my eyes as Maya wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. “Oh, is he now? A romantic, candlelit-”
He nodded. “Definitely.”
She leaned forward and pulled me into a hug. “I knew you could do it.”
As I walked past him, I said, “Feel free to make yourself scarce by the time I-“I let out a surprised gasp as Ethan grabbed my arm with an urgency that shocked me.
Kieran’s behavior had been a dizzying cocktail of infuriating and befuddling since we got
divorced.
I exhaled sharply and looked up, not bothering to force a smile. “Ethan.”
Alcohol flowed freely, with Lucian calling toast after toast. My cheeks flushed warm, and the adrenaline had softened into something almost giddy.
I felt my lips twitch. “So you think I’ll be able to sense her better as time goes by?”
I frowned. “I lost her almost immediately. I’m not sure there’s anything to celebrate.”
I let out a breathless laugh as I sat up. “I felt my wolf today during meditation.”
I blinked once, twice, but the edges of the world had started to blur. The background of the bar melted into something syrupy and drowsy.
But before he could touch me, I shoved him back with all the strength I could muster.
I chuckled. “Lucian is taking me out to dinner to celebrate-no, stop that.”
But my brother’s grip only tightened. There was something feral in his eyes. What scent on me was making him this way?
I turned in my chair and bit back a curse. It really was Ethan standing at the door. He was talking to the Maître D at the entrance, his hands waving animatedly like he was describing something.
“Lovely,” I muttered, turning away.
35 Chapter 35 THAT WAS STRENGTH
“We should celebrate,” he declared. “Let me take you out to dinner.”
“Let’s just turn around,” I said, still glaring at Ethan. “Maybe he won’t see-”
Lucian rose from his seat, and his voice cut in, cool and calm. “Ethan, let her go.”
“I… felt her,” I whispered, still in awe. The feeling had already faded, and the memory was getting hazy with every passing second. But there was no denying it-I had a wolf. Lost, hidden. But there.
I groaned. “Maya…”
“I felt her,” I said, turning to him. “My wolf-It was faint, but… she stirred wh
him.”
His eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What are you doing here?”
Rushed
“Maya told me about this place,” Lucian ventured. “She comes here a lot. She lives close
by.”
He rolled his eyes. “Very clever.”
‘Ignore me,’ I prayed fervently. ‘Ignore me like you’ve done in the last ten—’
Ethan’s gaze snapped to him, and he growled, sounding more agitated than usual. “It is when it involves my sister.”
“Well, look who’s getting stronger,” she mused, dropping to the mat next to me and crossing her legs.
“You are one of four people who have absolutely no right to pry into my life. You’re not my brother, and nothing-abso-fucking-lutely nothing-I do concerns you. Next time you see me in public, I’d,thank you kindly to mind your fucking business.”
He shook his head. “Are you kidding me? That was immense progress. That you were able to sense your wolf on the first try is amazing, Sera!”
He grinned. “I’ll pick you up at six.” He winked before turning and heading back down the hall.
“Where have you been?” he asked sharply, his eyes snapping to mine. “Who were you with?”
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35 Chapter 35 THAT WAS STRENGTH
“Tell. Me,” he ground out.
Because he was right. Was there a tracking chip in my neck I didn’t know about?
Lucian must have sensed the spiraling questions in my mind, the jumbled emotions running through me, because he leaned in, voice smooth and steady. “Sera? Are you
okay?”
What the fuck?
“Can’t, babe, sorry.”
We avoided Luna Noire like the plague, opting for a cute little restaurant inf
Hills.
It was beautiful, with a touch of vintage charm-the kind of place where conversations floated low, and candlelight softened the atmosphere.
I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t want to.
“What. The. Fuck. Sera?” he snapped, straightening. The entire restaurant was watching us, intrigued by the spectacle we were making.
“Let’s not overdo it, yeah?” he said, brushing hair away from my cheek. “I have a feeling that when it comes to you, we’ll have more reasons to celebrate.”
Or maybe it was him-leaning closer than usual, pouring my wine without asking, that almost imperceptible breath he caught every time I smiled.
Dinner with Lucian wasn’t anything we hadn’t done before. Yet, everything felt… different tonight.
Ethan’s mouth opened-then closed. He inhaled sharply, and I saw his wolf flare in his eyes. His jaw clenched, his eyes darkened, and he turned on his heel and left.
Ethan stared at me with shock, and I looked down at my hands in equal measure. After what she’d insinuated earlier and that brief tender moment out in the hallway, I needed her presence at dinner as a buffer. Because rumors didn’t rise out of nothing, so if people thought Lucian and I were a thing, then that had to mean he…
“Sera?”
I let the smile show. “Yeah, dinner sounds nice.”
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35 Chapter 35 THAT WAS STRENGTH
“I’m full of surprises, babe,” she said, pulling away.
The warm atmosphere shifted when Lucian looked over my shoulder and frowned. “Isn’t that your brother?”
My eyes widened as he leaned in and sniffed my neck. “What the hell?”
Ethan looked up and stiffened, his eyes meeting mine.
The look on his face flashed in my mind-dazed, baffled, flustered-and I shook my head. Whatever that was… I was done being entangled in Kieran/Celeste drama.
Lucian beamed, proud. “Now that is worth celebrating.”
The audacity stunned me, and I ripped my arm out of his grasp. “You’re unbelievable. You’ve ignored me for years, and all of a sudden, now you care?”
I looked down at my hands in awe. “That was strength.”
His eyes flared as he stumbled backward, feet lifting off the ground for a heartbeat before he crashed into the empty table behind him.
We left the restaurant and went to a bar about ten minutes away from what Lucian pointed out was Maya’s apartment building.
I eyed the candles and subtly rolled my eyes. “Of course she did.”
“I don’t get it,” I mumbled, my words slurring. “Why do you treat me so well? What do you get out of this?”
She chuckled. “It’s not even about you and Lucian.” She lowered her voice. “I kind of have to lay low for a while. Can’t be seen out in public, especially not with you two.”
I looked up at him, blinking like I was seeing him for the first time.
I rolled mine, too, pushing my seat back. “I’m going to the bathroom.”
He leaned forward again as if to grab me.
“Excuse me?”
Today was worse. It rattled me down to my core. Jarred me in a way I couldn’t
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35 Chapter 35 THAT WAS STRENGTH
understand.
I laughed, leaning into her embrace. “I didn’t take you for a hugger.”
Four hours later, I was spread-eagled on the mat in the training room, soaked in sweat and ruing the day Maya Cartridge was born.
“Okay,” Lucian chuckled, taking my glass from my hand. “I think it’s time we cut you off.”
And, through the haze, I heard the words but barely comprehended them. “I want you as my Luna.”
Lucian didn’t answer right away. He leaned back, studying me with a look that made my stomach flutter-or maybe that was the alcohol.
Hopefully, Ethan would miraculously vanish by the time I returned.
As the door to the Moon Hall shut behind us, I leaned against the wall, forcing calming breaths. In and out. In and out.
He smiled, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear. The action was oddly intimate, and my breath hitched in response.
Maya’s eyes widened. “That’s amazing, Sera!”
When he disappeared around the corner, I turned toward the door, wondering if Kieran and Celeste were still in the Moon Hall.
I waved to Lucian, to our steak dinner. “Performing open-heart surgery, obviously.”
I hadn’t drunk like this in a long time, and I felt deliriously happy.
I stood there long after Ethan disappeared through the doors. Long after our spectators returned to their meals.
The way he’d looked at me in the meditation circle, how he gripped me, his wolf rising to the surface like Ashar was trying to speak for him-only for him to pull away and walk back to her.
“I’m fine,” I whispered. But I was shaking-this time from something else.
SERAPHINA’S POV
6/7
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35 Chapter 35 THAT WAS STRENGTH
The only person who had hugged me today was Maya, and what the hell did that have to
do with Ethan?
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